Psychic Warrior/Barb Specialty Feats

[Shirt Guy John]

I was working on a Psychic Warrior/Barbarian character when it dawned on methat this may be an untapped resource for feats, so here it goes.

Raging Psionic Attack [Psionic]
Requirements: Ability to Rage, 2 Psionic Attack Modes

Benefits: You may manifest Psionic Attacks modes while raging, even though the Rage ability would normally not allow you to do so. Any attack mode manifested while Raging costs an additional 2 power points.

More as I think of 'em...

 

[Jeph]

Ummm . . . don't meen to be rude, by why would you want that feat? A/D modes suck majorly anyway, and would be even wors if they costed an extra 2 PP.

My suggestions:

Psionic Rage [Psionic]
You can enhance your rage with psychic energy.
Prerequisites: Rage ability, ability to manifest 2nd level psionic powers
Benefit: Whenever you enter a rage, you may immediately spend 3 PP to do one of the following: Eliminate the AC penalty, increase the Str bonus by +2, increase the Con bonus by +2, Increase the Will bonus by +2. For each additional 2 PP that you spend, you may increase another statistic. You may not increase the same statistic twice. You may not spend more PP enhancing your Rage than the PP cost of the highest level Power you know.


Improved Psionic Rage [Psionic]
You can greatly enhance your rage with psychic energy.
Prerequisites: Str 15+, Rage ability, ability to manifest 2nd level Psionic powers, Psionic Rage
Benefit: There is no limit to the number of PP you may spend enhancing your rage, and you may choose to enhance Str, Con, or Will more than once.


Manifester's Rage [Psionic]
You may manifest a limited number of powers while raging.
Prerequisites: Str 15+, Rage ability, ability to manifest 2nd level Psionic powers, Psionic Rage, know at least 1 Psychometabolism power.
Benefit: Choose a number of powers whose total levels add up to your Str modifier. When raging, you may manifest these powers if you make a successful Consentration check (DC 15 + power level).

Just my (USD) $0.02 (exact change only please)

-Jeph

 

[Jeph]

Whoops! Forgot to discuss rage-like abilities! I am assuming that, for the purposes of this feat, Ki Frenzy and similar abilities are the same as Rage? If so, then Psionic Rage and Improved Psionic Rage need to be altered to accomodate this, but I think that GMs are smart enough to figure it out.

 

[Shirt Guy John]

Wow, sweet feats there.

The reason for the above feat (are attack/defence modes really that bad? I think they lack flair, but they can (inextremely rare curcumstances) do something) was for the next one, though it's probably unbalanced as is (I'm just putting these down as they come to me):

Emotional Outburst[Psionic]
Requirements: Raging Psionic Attack

Benefits: During a Rage, if you manifest a Psionic Attack Mode, the sheer force of your Rage magnifies and expands the effect into a burst centered on you. All opponents within 20ft. of you must save against the attack mode.

and maybe

Improved Emotional Outburst[Psionic]
Requirements: Emotional Outburst

Benefits: As Emotional Outburst, but you can choose to either a.)Increase the radius of the burst to 40ft. or b.)Add +2 to any ability score damage dealt.

Then again, I don't know if I (or anyone I know) would use anything like this. Your's are cool though, and I'm gonna propose them to my DM at some point.

 

[threefallentrees]

I really don't think it's a good idea to make these feats, depending as they do on the class abilties of two very different classes. Perhaps you could fold them into a prestige class that gets increasignly interesting psionic rage abilities.

 

[Crothian]

I really don't think it's a good idea to make these feats, depending as they do on the class abilties of two very different classes. Perhaps you could fold them into a prestige class that gets increasignly interesting psionic rage abilities.

Actually, I like these. I think feats can be used to unite some very different classes. Sure, prestige class would do the job, but feats are a way of doing it.

 

[Jeph]

The reason Psi A/D modes suck so much is this: Your ability modifier goes up very, very VERY slowly, while save progressions go up pretty quickly AND benefit from their own ability modifier. Plus, the ratio of ability damage vs. PP makes it much more cost effective to blow up your opponent with Concussions while they launch PsiA modes at you. Basically, Psionic Combat is less effective than physical combat in almost all situations.

Just an example: At 20th level, a Psion has a base Will save of +12, probably has a magic item to enhance it at least 2 points, and probably has a +2 or so ability modifier, for a total of around +16. Now, the other psion, the one using the attack modes, is a Nomad with Dex 36. Even with an ability score of 36, the DC modifier is 3 less than the Will save modifier.

At lower levels, the first Psions might have had a +2 bonus to Will from class, and +2 from abilities, for a total of +4. The attacking Psion would have had (on average) a +3 or so ability modifier, maybe even up to +5, with an Elfe Nomad rolled natural 18 for Dex, for example. So he can launch an attack mode that has a 50% chance of doing like 2 or 3 points of temporary Dex damage. Or he can Lesser Concussion for 70% 1d6 normal damage, 30% 1d6/2. Whch would you do, against a character with like 1d4+1 or 2 HP?

So, as you can see, A/D modes are weaker than normal Psionics levels 1-20. Many GMS have replaced them with Bonus Feats at levels 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20 for the Psion, and varrying stuff for the Psy War.

 

[Corlon]

The reason Psi A/D modes suck so much is this: Your ability modifier goes up very, very VERY slowly, while save progressions go up pretty quickly AND benefit from their own ability modifier. Plus, the ratio of ability damage vs. PP makes it much more cost effective to blow up your opponent with Concussions while they launch PsiA modes at you. Basically, Psionic Combat is less effective than physical combat in almost all situations.

Just an example: At 20th level, a Psion has a base Will save of +12, probably has a magic item to enhance it at least 2 points, and probably has a +2 or so ability modifier, for a total of around +16. Now, the other psion, the one using the attack modes, is a Nomad with Dex 36. Even with an ability score of 36, the DC modifier is 3 less than the Will save modifier.

At lower levels, the first Psions might have had a +2 bonus to Will from class, and +2 from abilities, for a total of +4. The attacking Psion would have had (on average) a +3 or so ability modifier, maybe even up to +5, with an Elfe Nomad rolled natural 18 for Dex, for example. So he can launch an attack mode that has a 50% chance of doing like 2 or 3 points of temporary Dex damage. Or he can Lesser Concussion for 70% 1d6 normal damage, 30% 1d6/2. Whch would you do, against a character with like 1d4+1 or 2 HP?

So, as you can see, A/D modes are weaker than normal Psionics levels 1-20. Many GMS have replaced them with Bonus Feats at levels 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20 for the Psion, and varrying stuff for the Psy War.

I think they were put there for "flair," I think they should do more ability damage, or make it kind of like cutting off people from the one power in WOT, so that they can't use psionics.

Originally posted by threefallentrees:
I really don't think it's a good idea to make these feats, depending as they do on the class abilties of two very different classes. Perhaps you could fold them into a prestige class that gets increasignly interesting psionic rage abilities.

originally posted by Crothian:
Actually, I like these. I think feats can be used to unite some very different classes. Sure, prestige class would do the job, but feats are a way of doing it.

I don't think its a good idea. Barbarians are the unintelligent (wait lemme refrase this, my bro's always getting on my case about "stereotypical barbarians")
When barbarians rage, they can't do anything that requires concentration, which I think is EXACLTY what psionics requires, so raging with psionics would just kinda put two things together that really weren't supposed to be together. And using power points to upgrade rage would make psionics even MORE flexible, which to me, is a bad idea.

 

[Jeph]

I don't think it's that bad. Compaired to a Sorc, they have even FEWER known abilities, and about 30% fewer spells/powers per day. And besides, this is just going along with the psionic feat scheme . . . Intertial Armor, Speed of Thought, etc.

 

[Anabstercorian]

I like the idea of using PP to upgrade rage. It's almost DBZ-ish. The barbarian goes GRAAAAGHH!!!! and there's a whole bunch of visual and audible displays as psionic energy crackles along his body. BUT I think improved psionic rage is too powerful. I would recommend that you simply increase the maximum you can boost any given statistic by two each time.