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The Quintessential Psion
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GameWyrd
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If you’re looking for a friendly, classic, heroic fantasy supplement for the Psion then the Quintessential Psion is not for you. If you have been after Psion supplements that would let you play around with a fantasy themed Jedi or a way to add psicraft to a game with dragons and a pet Unicorn called Uni then you don’t want this book. If you’ve been in the market for such a family safe version of the Psion then you might already have bought the book’s prequel The Quintessential Psychic Warrior and in which case, if you’ve stop screaming now, you should move to a position of safety behind the sofa while the Quintessential Psion does the rounds.
The truth is that the Quintessential Psion isn’t as horrific as the Psychic Warrior is but it’s no less dark. Symbiotes of the Mind are scary, Memetic Parasites are nasty, Echoes and Fragments created by traumas or unstable minds and then used as fuel by Psions might not just fit light hearted fantasy games.
This is great! I feel that supplements are much more enticing if they can offer a new genre (sub-genre?) or add support an under valued one rather than just offer more rules. The Quintessential Psion has a real chance to be the best in the Collector’s Series. Sadly, it isn’t. It’s not the sinister or unusual game suggestions that the book contains that take the shine off the brilliance, it’s that too many of them have holes. Does a Psionic Accord have a body or not? Can you rid an area of a Memetic Parasite or not? Your guess is as good as mine. These are the down sides in another wise thought provoking book.
Quintessential books begin with character concepts and prestige classes and Psion is no exception. Character concepts are a roleplaying idea, a shtick, an inspiration bundled together with some minor game mechanic advantages and disadvantages. Character concepts often go beyond describing how you’re different to explaining why you’re different, whether they should be or not, and that’s true for nearly every concept here. Very often the concept background goes all the way back to an accident of birth. The Healthy Mind concept tells how you were always extremely vulnerable to diseases as a kid but how your mind evolved to protect you from disease now. A Left For Dead history concept means that if you have some power points left you’ll stabilise automatically even after a serious wound and Invisible Friends tells how your imaginary childhood friends became more real as you grew up. Particularly spooky is the Personality Shard concept where rather than giving births to twins, as the midwife predicted, your mother gave birth only to you and how you now not only have a second personality but sometimes two shadows as well. The Fragmount concept is one of the few exceptions since it doesn’t explicitly mention how or why personality fragments are more able to ride your aura – just that they are.
Your aura? The character’s aura. Writing in second person is common enough; especially for background bits like the Character Concepts but for some reason I noticed it more acutely in the Quintessential Psion. In particular, the second person continues into the game mechanics.
The Prestige Psion, chapter two, is on form. This is what I’ve come to expect from the Collector’s Series. Different aspects of psionic powers are specialised into classes; you’ll have the rather alien Living Power class (needing Autohypnosis at 18 ranks) where the Psion has become ectoplasm to the Ectoplasmic Constructor who’s extremely good at building and animating ectoplasmic constructs. The Hand of Thought is a rare Monk worthy PrC and the Infector one of the first signs that this book will be brave enough to get grim and gritty. Nicely this Quintessential X book has plenty of prestige classes that run through the full range, levels 1 to 10. There are a few 5 level classes for those especially hard to qualify for PrC’s too. This is very much better than only having 5 level classes. It’s worth noting that there are more Character Concepts and Prestige Classes in the book that I’ve pointed out; I’ve highlighted only a few.
Tricks of the Trade, a stalwart of the Collector Series, is a chapter that introduces Psilchemy and new rules for Psionic Combat. Psilchemy proves that there’s no limit to what the "ps" prefix can be added to. Psilchemy is the process of distilling psionic essences into a game balance friendly short-lived potion. Another solid bonus is the way that expired psionic potions become the base from which psionic poisons are brewed. You need an expired potion and some dark thoughts from your aura to make the poison. If you’re thinking of poisoning someone then you will have dark spots of malevolent thoughts in you aura. In fact, the use and abuse of a Psion’s aura is a mainstay throughout the book. GMs are left to ponder over the effects of all this. Take my example above; if you use the inky stain on your aura created by your desire to poison someone do you still want to poison them?
I think the Tricks of the Trade chapter will be more widely talked about because of the alternative psionic combat rules. This isn’t my cup of tea normally; the last thing my roleplaying needs is more rollplaying. However, I like these rules, they work off an easy to understand concept and use hit points. This makes my life easier and so the alternative rules get the thumbs up. They do represent something in the way of more power to the psion (even though non-psions can defend themselves) but not significantly so, it’s certainly not a big deal in a book filled with options for Psions.
There are Psion Feats. Duh. Many of the new feats are only interested in the new rules introduced by the book but not all of them.
Tools of the Trade makes its customary appearance for a Quintessential X too. This chapter can be weak; stats for yet another type of sword or magic shield aren’t high on my need list. However, the Psibonded Weapons are different enough to make their inclusion worthwhile. Such weapons will be a mixture (or pure) of copper, silver or mithral and will have a special crystal embedded in it. If you’re willing to spend a fortune improving your Psibonded Weapon then you an get it up to a +10 Enhancement Bonus. It’s worth not skimming that page; the Enhancement Bonus must be divided up evenly as possible between "standard enhancement bonus" and special weapon abilities. In other words you shouldn’t see more than a +5 weapon. Phew. I said this wasn’t a Jedi book? Erm. Well. Mithral weapons vanish down to a hilt and a crystal and can extend outwards at the Psion’s command to form a sabre. Or an axe, or any other weapon in fact providing that costs have been paid and there is enough mithral in the weapon to form the new shape The last couple of pages in the chapter describe how Psychic Masks can be used to disguise an aura and how special crystal lenses can be fitted into the eye sockets to act as weapons. The game balance is preserved again; these masks must be worn for hours before they work effectively but can’t be worn for days because ill effects begin to stack up. These masks are common occurrences throughout the rather good grey box story text the book but in the stories the Psions rush their masks on without worrying about the eight hour lapse before the mask is effective.
There are a few pages of Psionic powers too. As with the chapter on feats they’re predictable as they are necessary for a book like this. It must have been hard dividing both the new feats and powers up between the Psychic Warrior and the Psion supplements. Dedicated psion fanboys might feel as if they need to brave the gore of the first book to get the full range of new powers. There’s a family of alternate psionic powers here that fit the alternate psionic combat rules in the book.
With the use of special substances the Psion can enter an altered state; wheel in the Altered States chapter. There’s a little note here to clarify that these rules are in addition to the Psychoactive Substance rules found in the Psychic Warrior. It’s not the first time a Quintessential book has made references to another (some prestigious Druids infamously make use of a fighting technique from the Quintessential Fighter) but it is the first time two books are so closely linked. Psions attempt to reach different types of altered states in order to enjoy different bonuses. One possible route into an altered state is through pain but we’re not treated to instructions of how to peel away your own skin to expose chakras.
Echoes are pieces of discarded thoughts. They seem to be a lot like ghosts but without any sort of sentience. If a bugbear leaps out in front of a kobold and terrifies the little critter then there might just be an echo of a cringing kobold left in that damp dungeon passageway. It’ll be like a broken record, just cringing over and over again, like a psionic footprint in the cosmos. Echoes of people who are alive are extremely rare so it’s likely that the bugbear ate well. Psions come along and gobble up the Echo, absorbing it into their aura so they can spend the extra power points later. Fragments are similar but have more psionic meat on them; for a start the Psion can only ever have one fragment in their aura at a time and when they want to benefit from the fragment they must allow it to take control of their body. Fragments are discarded personalities or parts of personalities. The book’s story text makes it clear; the Psion can’t get past a locked door and so lets his fragment personality surface and she picks the lock for him because she has the pick lock skill and he doesn’t. In that example the Psion’s companion rewards the fragment personality with a swig of ale much to the dominant personality’s annoyance when it resurfaces seconds later. "I hate it when you let her drink". These fragments really are fragments; they can’t take control of the body against the dominant personality’s will and will flee back to the subconscious in any fight. The Quintessential Psion has rules for finding, catching and binding Echoes and Fragments.
If you really want a reoccurring villain that it’s safe to let the PCs beat again and again then the Psionic Accord is just the ticket. The Accord is a meeting of minds by seven (at first; more can be added later) psions. The According is like a Psionic network that channels through a ball of jewels, gold and psionic energy created in the seminal ritual. This ball levitates around, matures and becomes self-aware. The more expensive this core initially is in terms of the material used to construct it the better. The value of the core directly corresponds to the amount of energy it can deal with and it is more cost effective to spend money during the creation than add to it later. The assumption is that you can add to the gold and jewels later. We’re also then told that the Psionic Accord has no true physical form but sometimes chooses to materialise as an ectoplasmic ball or even more rarely as a head. I’m not sure how you’d add gold and jewels to a psionic entity without a true body. I’m even less sure on how I’d rule on how to destroy an Accord. If you’ve got your villains linked through an Accord then the PCs will want to destroy it. One of the abilities of the Accord is to allow a Psion to spend some power points at the minute of death and transfer his essence back to it. The dead Psion can then be fetched from the Accord by an ally and will have a new body grown from ectoplasm in a week or so. Sure, if you’re short of power points then you’ll not re-grow with all your character levels but it’s better than death. That’s just one of the Accord’s abilities too.
If the Psions building the Accord screw up, especially the one (known as the mabap) who was the centre of the initial ritual, then the Accord might go renegade. It has a mind and will of its own. That said; the chances of badness from an Accord seem tiny compared to the Symbiotes of the Mind. If a Psion is willing to give a creature composed entirely of thought energy a little donation of flesh and sensation then they’ll start out with a small ectoplasmic circle between their shoulders and benefit from some minor power ups. The Symbiotes grow though; they cover more of the host’s body and become more demanding. The growth of the ectoplasm over the Psion is directly related to the Psion’s abilities to deal with the so-called symbiotes demands. As the symbiote gets larger then the Psion will be able to draw more power and special abilities from it. The Psion will enjoy the benefits of this ecto-armour too. The Psisym template is applied to Psions who have been covered by their symbiote (and they can always try and kill it off before then – try). Characters who find themselves under the Psisym template have found themselves in the ranks of NPCs. Hand over the character sheet, bud.
Memetic Parasites seem to a whole let less complicated. Memetic Parasites are fairly rare. Weak memetic parasites flutter around as awful "Knock-Knock" jokes and the like which seem to infect towns and cities. Now we know, they are infections. Stronger parasites manifest as enthralments and obsessions and they’re more dangerous. In addition to the obsessions (which are contagious) the parasite can turn up and drain energy from people. The parasites are especially attracted to magic users and psions and those characters will loose out on spell slots and power points for the day if they’re drained. Drained people can also carry the infection. There seems to be a difference between the infection and the parasite itself (whereas parasites are normally the infection themselves). You can kill off the infection if you’re good but there doesn’t seem to be anything you can do about killing off the parasite. Psions can track down parasites (rather than infected people) and invest power into them. This is a weird procedure involves sneaking up on the parasite so it doesn’t detect you and attack. You then have to take some of your energy or amazingly attribute bonus (Dexterity in the example), stick in the parasite and them rip it back out for a brief power-up. Actually, if the parasite doesn’t wander off you can extract your power back slowly over an hour and then you don’t have to use the boosted ability immediately. Ripping the power-out immediately seems pointless. It’s too tricky (and stupid) to invest power in a (conveniently handy) parasite during combat or some other critical time and the power-up fades in just a few turns. If you extract your power more slyly so you can save it for a day does that mean you’re actually without that attribute bonus at all until you do so? The example I’m so fond of has the character feel clumsy as the dexterity bonus is invested in the parasite. The book makes a point of saying that this loss doesn’t affect things such as qualification to prestige classes but this snapshot comes before the procedure is complete. I like the idea. I just need more help.
The Collector Series typically ends with a castle section of some description – whether the class lends itself to such things well or not. Here with the Psion we have rules for Crystal Palaces. Hah. Football fans will laugh. Roleplayers will note just how handy it would be for a Psion to have a castle chock full of powerful crystals. GMs will wonder whether they want such an exotic building in their game.
The Quintessential Psion isn’t as great as it could be but it’s still good. The book does the hard work; it conjures up the ideas, the inspirations and most of the rules. I think it is likely that GMs will want to tinker here and there throughout most of it. Unfortunately in a d20 hobby where crisp and clean cheesy fantasy seems dominant I don’t think the Quintessential Psion will please the masses. I liked the book despite the tinkering I think it needs. If you’re up for a Psion that’s as alien as the designer’s notes intended it to be then I suspect you’ll rise from the masses and enjoy the book too.
* This review of The Quintessential Psion was first published by GameWyrd.
The truth is that the Quintessential Psion isn’t as horrific as the Psychic Warrior is but it’s no less dark. Symbiotes of the Mind are scary, Memetic Parasites are nasty, Echoes and Fragments created by traumas or unstable minds and then used as fuel by Psions might not just fit light hearted fantasy games.
This is great! I feel that supplements are much more enticing if they can offer a new genre (sub-genre?) or add support an under valued one rather than just offer more rules. The Quintessential Psion has a real chance to be the best in the Collector’s Series. Sadly, it isn’t. It’s not the sinister or unusual game suggestions that the book contains that take the shine off the brilliance, it’s that too many of them have holes. Does a Psionic Accord have a body or not? Can you rid an area of a Memetic Parasite or not? Your guess is as good as mine. These are the down sides in another wise thought provoking book.
Quintessential books begin with character concepts and prestige classes and Psion is no exception. Character concepts are a roleplaying idea, a shtick, an inspiration bundled together with some minor game mechanic advantages and disadvantages. Character concepts often go beyond describing how you’re different to explaining why you’re different, whether they should be or not, and that’s true for nearly every concept here. Very often the concept background goes all the way back to an accident of birth. The Healthy Mind concept tells how you were always extremely vulnerable to diseases as a kid but how your mind evolved to protect you from disease now. A Left For Dead history concept means that if you have some power points left you’ll stabilise automatically even after a serious wound and Invisible Friends tells how your imaginary childhood friends became more real as you grew up. Particularly spooky is the Personality Shard concept where rather than giving births to twins, as the midwife predicted, your mother gave birth only to you and how you now not only have a second personality but sometimes two shadows as well. The Fragmount concept is one of the few exceptions since it doesn’t explicitly mention how or why personality fragments are more able to ride your aura – just that they are.
Your aura? The character’s aura. Writing in second person is common enough; especially for background bits like the Character Concepts but for some reason I noticed it more acutely in the Quintessential Psion. In particular, the second person continues into the game mechanics.
The Prestige Psion, chapter two, is on form. This is what I’ve come to expect from the Collector’s Series. Different aspects of psionic powers are specialised into classes; you’ll have the rather alien Living Power class (needing Autohypnosis at 18 ranks) where the Psion has become ectoplasm to the Ectoplasmic Constructor who’s extremely good at building and animating ectoplasmic constructs. The Hand of Thought is a rare Monk worthy PrC and the Infector one of the first signs that this book will be brave enough to get grim and gritty. Nicely this Quintessential X book has plenty of prestige classes that run through the full range, levels 1 to 10. There are a few 5 level classes for those especially hard to qualify for PrC’s too. This is very much better than only having 5 level classes. It’s worth noting that there are more Character Concepts and Prestige Classes in the book that I’ve pointed out; I’ve highlighted only a few.
Tricks of the Trade, a stalwart of the Collector Series, is a chapter that introduces Psilchemy and new rules for Psionic Combat. Psilchemy proves that there’s no limit to what the "ps" prefix can be added to. Psilchemy is the process of distilling psionic essences into a game balance friendly short-lived potion. Another solid bonus is the way that expired psionic potions become the base from which psionic poisons are brewed. You need an expired potion and some dark thoughts from your aura to make the poison. If you’re thinking of poisoning someone then you will have dark spots of malevolent thoughts in you aura. In fact, the use and abuse of a Psion’s aura is a mainstay throughout the book. GMs are left to ponder over the effects of all this. Take my example above; if you use the inky stain on your aura created by your desire to poison someone do you still want to poison them?
I think the Tricks of the Trade chapter will be more widely talked about because of the alternative psionic combat rules. This isn’t my cup of tea normally; the last thing my roleplaying needs is more rollplaying. However, I like these rules, they work off an easy to understand concept and use hit points. This makes my life easier and so the alternative rules get the thumbs up. They do represent something in the way of more power to the psion (even though non-psions can defend themselves) but not significantly so, it’s certainly not a big deal in a book filled with options for Psions.
There are Psion Feats. Duh. Many of the new feats are only interested in the new rules introduced by the book but not all of them.
Tools of the Trade makes its customary appearance for a Quintessential X too. This chapter can be weak; stats for yet another type of sword or magic shield aren’t high on my need list. However, the Psibonded Weapons are different enough to make their inclusion worthwhile. Such weapons will be a mixture (or pure) of copper, silver or mithral and will have a special crystal embedded in it. If you’re willing to spend a fortune improving your Psibonded Weapon then you an get it up to a +10 Enhancement Bonus. It’s worth not skimming that page; the Enhancement Bonus must be divided up evenly as possible between "standard enhancement bonus" and special weapon abilities. In other words you shouldn’t see more than a +5 weapon. Phew. I said this wasn’t a Jedi book? Erm. Well. Mithral weapons vanish down to a hilt and a crystal and can extend outwards at the Psion’s command to form a sabre. Or an axe, or any other weapon in fact providing that costs have been paid and there is enough mithral in the weapon to form the new shape The last couple of pages in the chapter describe how Psychic Masks can be used to disguise an aura and how special crystal lenses can be fitted into the eye sockets to act as weapons. The game balance is preserved again; these masks must be worn for hours before they work effectively but can’t be worn for days because ill effects begin to stack up. These masks are common occurrences throughout the rather good grey box story text the book but in the stories the Psions rush their masks on without worrying about the eight hour lapse before the mask is effective.
There are a few pages of Psionic powers too. As with the chapter on feats they’re predictable as they are necessary for a book like this. It must have been hard dividing both the new feats and powers up between the Psychic Warrior and the Psion supplements. Dedicated psion fanboys might feel as if they need to brave the gore of the first book to get the full range of new powers. There’s a family of alternate psionic powers here that fit the alternate psionic combat rules in the book.
With the use of special substances the Psion can enter an altered state; wheel in the Altered States chapter. There’s a little note here to clarify that these rules are in addition to the Psychoactive Substance rules found in the Psychic Warrior. It’s not the first time a Quintessential book has made references to another (some prestigious Druids infamously make use of a fighting technique from the Quintessential Fighter) but it is the first time two books are so closely linked. Psions attempt to reach different types of altered states in order to enjoy different bonuses. One possible route into an altered state is through pain but we’re not treated to instructions of how to peel away your own skin to expose chakras.
Echoes are pieces of discarded thoughts. They seem to be a lot like ghosts but without any sort of sentience. If a bugbear leaps out in front of a kobold and terrifies the little critter then there might just be an echo of a cringing kobold left in that damp dungeon passageway. It’ll be like a broken record, just cringing over and over again, like a psionic footprint in the cosmos. Echoes of people who are alive are extremely rare so it’s likely that the bugbear ate well. Psions come along and gobble up the Echo, absorbing it into their aura so they can spend the extra power points later. Fragments are similar but have more psionic meat on them; for a start the Psion can only ever have one fragment in their aura at a time and when they want to benefit from the fragment they must allow it to take control of their body. Fragments are discarded personalities or parts of personalities. The book’s story text makes it clear; the Psion can’t get past a locked door and so lets his fragment personality surface and she picks the lock for him because she has the pick lock skill and he doesn’t. In that example the Psion’s companion rewards the fragment personality with a swig of ale much to the dominant personality’s annoyance when it resurfaces seconds later. "I hate it when you let her drink". These fragments really are fragments; they can’t take control of the body against the dominant personality’s will and will flee back to the subconscious in any fight. The Quintessential Psion has rules for finding, catching and binding Echoes and Fragments.
If you really want a reoccurring villain that it’s safe to let the PCs beat again and again then the Psionic Accord is just the ticket. The Accord is a meeting of minds by seven (at first; more can be added later) psions. The According is like a Psionic network that channels through a ball of jewels, gold and psionic energy created in the seminal ritual. This ball levitates around, matures and becomes self-aware. The more expensive this core initially is in terms of the material used to construct it the better. The value of the core directly corresponds to the amount of energy it can deal with and it is more cost effective to spend money during the creation than add to it later. The assumption is that you can add to the gold and jewels later. We’re also then told that the Psionic Accord has no true physical form but sometimes chooses to materialise as an ectoplasmic ball or even more rarely as a head. I’m not sure how you’d add gold and jewels to a psionic entity without a true body. I’m even less sure on how I’d rule on how to destroy an Accord. If you’ve got your villains linked through an Accord then the PCs will want to destroy it. One of the abilities of the Accord is to allow a Psion to spend some power points at the minute of death and transfer his essence back to it. The dead Psion can then be fetched from the Accord by an ally and will have a new body grown from ectoplasm in a week or so. Sure, if you’re short of power points then you’ll not re-grow with all your character levels but it’s better than death. That’s just one of the Accord’s abilities too.
If the Psions building the Accord screw up, especially the one (known as the mabap) who was the centre of the initial ritual, then the Accord might go renegade. It has a mind and will of its own. That said; the chances of badness from an Accord seem tiny compared to the Symbiotes of the Mind. If a Psion is willing to give a creature composed entirely of thought energy a little donation of flesh and sensation then they’ll start out with a small ectoplasmic circle between their shoulders and benefit from some minor power ups. The Symbiotes grow though; they cover more of the host’s body and become more demanding. The growth of the ectoplasm over the Psion is directly related to the Psion’s abilities to deal with the so-called symbiotes demands. As the symbiote gets larger then the Psion will be able to draw more power and special abilities from it. The Psion will enjoy the benefits of this ecto-armour too. The Psisym template is applied to Psions who have been covered by their symbiote (and they can always try and kill it off before then – try). Characters who find themselves under the Psisym template have found themselves in the ranks of NPCs. Hand over the character sheet, bud.
Memetic Parasites seem to a whole let less complicated. Memetic Parasites are fairly rare. Weak memetic parasites flutter around as awful "Knock-Knock" jokes and the like which seem to infect towns and cities. Now we know, they are infections. Stronger parasites manifest as enthralments and obsessions and they’re more dangerous. In addition to the obsessions (which are contagious) the parasite can turn up and drain energy from people. The parasites are especially attracted to magic users and psions and those characters will loose out on spell slots and power points for the day if they’re drained. Drained people can also carry the infection. There seems to be a difference between the infection and the parasite itself (whereas parasites are normally the infection themselves). You can kill off the infection if you’re good but there doesn’t seem to be anything you can do about killing off the parasite. Psions can track down parasites (rather than infected people) and invest power into them. This is a weird procedure involves sneaking up on the parasite so it doesn’t detect you and attack. You then have to take some of your energy or amazingly attribute bonus (Dexterity in the example), stick in the parasite and them rip it back out for a brief power-up. Actually, if the parasite doesn’t wander off you can extract your power back slowly over an hour and then you don’t have to use the boosted ability immediately. Ripping the power-out immediately seems pointless. It’s too tricky (and stupid) to invest power in a (conveniently handy) parasite during combat or some other critical time and the power-up fades in just a few turns. If you extract your power more slyly so you can save it for a day does that mean you’re actually without that attribute bonus at all until you do so? The example I’m so fond of has the character feel clumsy as the dexterity bonus is invested in the parasite. The book makes a point of saying that this loss doesn’t affect things such as qualification to prestige classes but this snapshot comes before the procedure is complete. I like the idea. I just need more help.
The Collector Series typically ends with a castle section of some description – whether the class lends itself to such things well or not. Here with the Psion we have rules for Crystal Palaces. Hah. Football fans will laugh. Roleplayers will note just how handy it would be for a Psion to have a castle chock full of powerful crystals. GMs will wonder whether they want such an exotic building in their game.
The Quintessential Psion isn’t as great as it could be but it’s still good. The book does the hard work; it conjures up the ideas, the inspirations and most of the rules. I think it is likely that GMs will want to tinker here and there throughout most of it. Unfortunately in a d20 hobby where crisp and clean cheesy fantasy seems dominant I don’t think the Quintessential Psion will please the masses. I liked the book despite the tinkering I think it needs. If you’re up for a Psion that’s as alien as the designer’s notes intended it to be then I suspect you’ll rise from the masses and enjoy the book too.
* This review of The Quintessential Psion was first published by GameWyrd.
Messageboard Golem
First Post
By Glenn Dean, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack
Sizing Up the Target
The Quintessential Psion is a 128 page black-and-white sourcebook written by Sam Witt and published by Mongoose Publishing. It is available at a retail price of $19.95.
First Blood
The Quintessential Psion is the 13th book in Mongoose Publishing’s Collector Series. This latest in the Quintessential line takes a look at all things psionic with a focus on the Psion, providing the Psion player and the GM with a range of character concepts, tools, powers, and game mechanics to enhance both the Psion and the use of psionics in the campaign.
Much like the other books in the Collector’s Series, Quintessential Psion begins by providing a set of character concepts for the Psion character. These are a set of roles with a related history and set of attitudes that can be used to roleplay a truly deep and fascinating character. All of them provide some explanation for the character’s manifestation of psionic powers, like the Left For Dead, whose horribly traumatic past is forgotten but lingers in the form of tremendous psychic strength.
Nine new prestige classes follow character concepts -- six full ten-level classes and three five-level classes. They classes provide a truly dizzying range of approaches from the Necropath who gains power from the psychic remnants of the dead, to the Ectoplasmic Constructor, who is a combatant specializing in the creation of weapons, armor, and other objects out of psychic ectoplasm. In contrast to many prestige class collections that I feel have potential game issues, this collection provides a nicely balanced set, with each specialty having made a clear sacrifice for its power. At the end of this chapter I felt a strong urge to roll up a Psychic Investigator and run a Ghostbusters! Campaign.
The next four chapters, Trick of the Trade, Psionic Feats, Tools of the Trade, and Psionic Powers expand the powers and applications of psionics in the campaign. Tricks include psionic alchemy (“Psichemy”), psionic poisons, and the manipulation of psychic forces through essences, transfer solutions, and “the flux” – the psychic force that links sentient minds. Of greatest interest to Psion players, however, will be the alternate psionic combat system, which finally provides a simpler psionic attack and defense system that works for both psionic and non-psionic characters and is more in line with the normal d20 combat mechanics. Of the 18 new Psionic Feats and 20 new Powers, a number of them are devoted to this alternate combat system – feats like Psionic Cleave, Psi Focus, and Improved Psionic Critical work mechanically much like their traditional combat counterparts.
New Psionic Tools include psibonded weapons that the Psion can create specifically bonded to his or her mental essence. This is a great mechanic to allow a player to truly personalize the character’s equipment. The same goes for psionic masks, the defensive counterparts to psibonded weapons.
Players will also find the concepts of psionic power collapse and altered statess to be of interest. Psionic power collapse allows psionic powers to be “upgraded”, eliminating those that have been superceded by more powerful powers. Altered states describes the various effects that a range of mind-altering substances can have on the psion’s mental states.
The GM also has the ability to influence the psion’s powers through the use of echoes, fragments, mind symbiotes, and memetic parasites. Echoes and fragments are the psychic remains of minds that may linger in an area, enabling the psion to tap them for extra power, or perhaps for the skills remnant in some long decayed personality. The mind symbiote is akin to a familiar with a twist, a being that both feeds and feeds off of the psion, with its own dark needs. The symbiote provides a much more interesting variation on the more traditional psicrystal familiar. Memetic parasites can cover a range of dark psychic forces preying on unsuspecting minds, that a psion might wish to both tap into for psionic power and avoid for potential loss.
Quintessential Psion provides two other uniquely psionic creations. The Psionic Accord is a collection of Psions who pool their abilities to grant each additional powers, somewhat akin to a spell pooling mechanic. Crystal Palaces are the psion’s stronghold, a place where psionic power is cultured and harvested, to which the psion can retreat to for further preparation and mental development.
The Quintessential Psion includes a complete set of quick reference tables at the rear of the book that provide all the basic mechanical tables. There is also a great character sheet with plenty of room to detail your own Quintessential Psion.
Critical Hits
What is a critical hit to some is probably a critical miss to others: if you dislike the dark, quirky nature of the tattooed, crystal-toting psion, you’ll dislike Quintessential Psion. If anything, this book dramatically enhances and deepens that dark mysterious flavor of the psionic character with some truly different concepts. There isn’t a healthy mind in the bunch, here, folks – the extreme introvert, the obsessive-compulsive, the split personality, and the character with imaginary friends -- all make their appearances in these pages. The chapter on altered states could almost be subtitled “The Complete Guide to Psionic Drug Use.” Quintessential Psion quite excellently captures the truly different fell of the mind-mage – if you’d thought that the Psionics Handbook didn’t go far enough, you should be quite satisfied with Quintessential Psion.
Mechanically, the alternate psionic combat rules were sorely needed by the core rules system. While some may decry equating psionic attacks and defenses to weapons and armor, I felt that the alternate system effectively preserves the feel of “Ego Whip versus Mind Blank” mind-to-mind combat while making it mechanically simple to resolve, particularly with a mix of psionic and non-psionic characters.
Critical Misses
Well, not everyone is going to care for Quintessential Psion’s flavor, so consider yourself warned. Mongoose succeeds in presenting a very alien feel, an approach that I feel better fits the “Psionics are different” mode of play than the “Psionics and magic are the same” style. The GM who uses psionics only casually in the campaign will find some of these mechanics a little difficult to implement – it simply takes a fair amount of work to begin considering and keep track of all the possible psionic echoes and fragments that psionic players might find useful in play, for example. A psionics-heavy campaign, on the other hand, can be quite enriched by the same mechanics if the GM is willing to put in the extra work.
Coup de Grace
The Quintessential Psion provides a deep look into playing the Psion character, with a large number of new ideas to enhance an already quirky character class. The essential mechanics and statistics are Open Content, along with a quite usable psionic combat system. Players and GMs who consider psionics an essential part of their campaign should consider putting this on their must-buy list; casual psionics users might rather consider a more traditional entry in the Quintessential line.
To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.
Sizing Up the Target
The Quintessential Psion is a 128 page black-and-white sourcebook written by Sam Witt and published by Mongoose Publishing. It is available at a retail price of $19.95.
First Blood
The Quintessential Psion is the 13th book in Mongoose Publishing’s Collector Series. This latest in the Quintessential line takes a look at all things psionic with a focus on the Psion, providing the Psion player and the GM with a range of character concepts, tools, powers, and game mechanics to enhance both the Psion and the use of psionics in the campaign.
Much like the other books in the Collector’s Series, Quintessential Psion begins by providing a set of character concepts for the Psion character. These are a set of roles with a related history and set of attitudes that can be used to roleplay a truly deep and fascinating character. All of them provide some explanation for the character’s manifestation of psionic powers, like the Left For Dead, whose horribly traumatic past is forgotten but lingers in the form of tremendous psychic strength.
Nine new prestige classes follow character concepts -- six full ten-level classes and three five-level classes. They classes provide a truly dizzying range of approaches from the Necropath who gains power from the psychic remnants of the dead, to the Ectoplasmic Constructor, who is a combatant specializing in the creation of weapons, armor, and other objects out of psychic ectoplasm. In contrast to many prestige class collections that I feel have potential game issues, this collection provides a nicely balanced set, with each specialty having made a clear sacrifice for its power. At the end of this chapter I felt a strong urge to roll up a Psychic Investigator and run a Ghostbusters! Campaign.
The next four chapters, Trick of the Trade, Psionic Feats, Tools of the Trade, and Psionic Powers expand the powers and applications of psionics in the campaign. Tricks include psionic alchemy (“Psichemy”), psionic poisons, and the manipulation of psychic forces through essences, transfer solutions, and “the flux” – the psychic force that links sentient minds. Of greatest interest to Psion players, however, will be the alternate psionic combat system, which finally provides a simpler psionic attack and defense system that works for both psionic and non-psionic characters and is more in line with the normal d20 combat mechanics. Of the 18 new Psionic Feats and 20 new Powers, a number of them are devoted to this alternate combat system – feats like Psionic Cleave, Psi Focus, and Improved Psionic Critical work mechanically much like their traditional combat counterparts.
New Psionic Tools include psibonded weapons that the Psion can create specifically bonded to his or her mental essence. This is a great mechanic to allow a player to truly personalize the character’s equipment. The same goes for psionic masks, the defensive counterparts to psibonded weapons.
Players will also find the concepts of psionic power collapse and altered statess to be of interest. Psionic power collapse allows psionic powers to be “upgraded”, eliminating those that have been superceded by more powerful powers. Altered states describes the various effects that a range of mind-altering substances can have on the psion’s mental states.
The GM also has the ability to influence the psion’s powers through the use of echoes, fragments, mind symbiotes, and memetic parasites. Echoes and fragments are the psychic remains of minds that may linger in an area, enabling the psion to tap them for extra power, or perhaps for the skills remnant in some long decayed personality. The mind symbiote is akin to a familiar with a twist, a being that both feeds and feeds off of the psion, with its own dark needs. The symbiote provides a much more interesting variation on the more traditional psicrystal familiar. Memetic parasites can cover a range of dark psychic forces preying on unsuspecting minds, that a psion might wish to both tap into for psionic power and avoid for potential loss.
Quintessential Psion provides two other uniquely psionic creations. The Psionic Accord is a collection of Psions who pool their abilities to grant each additional powers, somewhat akin to a spell pooling mechanic. Crystal Palaces are the psion’s stronghold, a place where psionic power is cultured and harvested, to which the psion can retreat to for further preparation and mental development.
The Quintessential Psion includes a complete set of quick reference tables at the rear of the book that provide all the basic mechanical tables. There is also a great character sheet with plenty of room to detail your own Quintessential Psion.
Critical Hits
What is a critical hit to some is probably a critical miss to others: if you dislike the dark, quirky nature of the tattooed, crystal-toting psion, you’ll dislike Quintessential Psion. If anything, this book dramatically enhances and deepens that dark mysterious flavor of the psionic character with some truly different concepts. There isn’t a healthy mind in the bunch, here, folks – the extreme introvert, the obsessive-compulsive, the split personality, and the character with imaginary friends -- all make their appearances in these pages. The chapter on altered states could almost be subtitled “The Complete Guide to Psionic Drug Use.” Quintessential Psion quite excellently captures the truly different fell of the mind-mage – if you’d thought that the Psionics Handbook didn’t go far enough, you should be quite satisfied with Quintessential Psion.
Mechanically, the alternate psionic combat rules were sorely needed by the core rules system. While some may decry equating psionic attacks and defenses to weapons and armor, I felt that the alternate system effectively preserves the feel of “Ego Whip versus Mind Blank” mind-to-mind combat while making it mechanically simple to resolve, particularly with a mix of psionic and non-psionic characters.
Critical Misses
Well, not everyone is going to care for Quintessential Psion’s flavor, so consider yourself warned. Mongoose succeeds in presenting a very alien feel, an approach that I feel better fits the “Psionics are different” mode of play than the “Psionics and magic are the same” style. The GM who uses psionics only casually in the campaign will find some of these mechanics a little difficult to implement – it simply takes a fair amount of work to begin considering and keep track of all the possible psionic echoes and fragments that psionic players might find useful in play, for example. A psionics-heavy campaign, on the other hand, can be quite enriched by the same mechanics if the GM is willing to put in the extra work.
Coup de Grace
The Quintessential Psion provides a deep look into playing the Psion character, with a large number of new ideas to enhance an already quirky character class. The essential mechanics and statistics are Open Content, along with a quite usable psionic combat system. Players and GMs who consider psionics an essential part of their campaign should consider putting this on their must-buy list; casual psionics users might rather consider a more traditional entry in the Quintessential line.
To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.
Simon Collins
Explorer
This is not a playtest review.
The Quintessential Psion is the thirteenth book in Mongoose Publishing's 'Quintessential' series of race and class books. This one deals with the Psion.
The Quintessential Psion resembles previous books in the series as far as presentation goes - it is a 128-page mono softcover product costing $19.95. Margins and font are fairly average, there are a few areas of white space. Art runs from poor to good with most being average. Writing style is fairly good whilst editing contains infrequent mistakes.
Chapter 1: Psion Character Concepts
This chapter offers choices of roleplaying background with some minor advantages and disadvantages associated with each:
* Fragmount - uses and is abused by personality fragments from spirits.
* Healthy Mind - psionic defences against disease.
* Imbalanced - brain damage led to psionic power discovery but mental problems.
* Introvert - better defences, worse attack.
* Invisible Friends - childhood invisible friends remain and advice is taken, incorrect or not.
* Left For Dead - survived near-death experience with greater will and ability to survive.
* Personality Shard - alternate personality of ghost twin sometimes takes over for better or worse.
* Specialised Mind - focused psionic power specialisation.
* Touched - strange person who is caught up in psionics at the cost of mundane skills.
* Traumatised - victim of attack by psionic creature with improved defence and worse attacks.
Chapter 2: The Prestige Psion
This chapter offers a number of prestige classes best suited for psions:
* Ectoplasmic Constructor - specialised in formation and control of ectoplasmic constructs.
* Hand Of Thought - psionic monks with martial arts powered by psionic power.
* Infector - infect others with psychic diseases.
* Living Power - psion becomes increasingly ectoplasmic in nature.
* Necropath - combines fragments of dead spirits to boost power.
* Psychic Investigator - tracks down psychic criminals and negates their powers. 5 levels.
* Psychic Mummy - preserves life with psionic ritual.
* Pspy - uses psionics to gather information on enemy and for espionage. 5 levels.
* Puppet Master - controls minds of enemies with psionic domination. 5 levels.
Chapter 3: Tricks Of The Trade
Psilchemy is a mixture of psionics and alchemy, and includes distilled psionic essences (which can be used to boost lost power points if used within ten days), psionic poisons ('injected' via a psionic attack and remaining dormant until the victim uses a certain power), and transfer solutions (elixirs which can pass limited psionic power to another person with psychic powers of a sufficient level). The Flux is a stream of consciousness thought to have been left behind by dead gods, and can be used by a psion to boost his powers with the danger of taking temporary ability damage.
This chapter also offers an alternative psionic combat system, which attempts to mirror the standard combat system, with psionic attacks doing hit point damage and psionic defence acting like AC. Creatures get a Psionic Combat Bonus for psionic attack purposes, which increases with level. Those without psionic power have defences that attempt to avoid the 'all or nothing' damage dealt out by the normal system.
The chapter also provides an alternative power acquisition system, where similar powers can be 'collapsed' into the same slot, providing a choice of powers to use from a specific slot. For example, one power slot may include glide and fly. Either of these may be manifested if power points equal to the highest level power are expended. When the psion gains the improved fly power, glide and fly can be added into the power slot for this power and can be used in its stead at the cost of improved fly.
Chapter 4: Psion Feats
18 new feats for psions including area defence, attack cone, improved psionic critical, and share pain.
Chapter 5: Tools Of The Trade
Psibonded Weapons are weapons designed for psions to use, made of a mixture of metal and crystal. These weapons can be increased in power by the psion over time and can only be used effectively by the individual psion. Weapons with a base metal of mithril can manifest different weapon forms if the cost is paid. There is a ruleset given for costing the materials and work required to create a psibonded weapon, as well as upgrading the weapon, and activating different weapon forms for those made of mithral.
Psychic Masks are used to disguise and enhance the powers of the wearer, and rules are given for crafting and attuning the mask, as well as possible damage to the mask from critical hits.
Chapter 6: Psionic Powers
20 new powers including a slew of standard power variants such as alternate ego whip and alternate intellect fortress to match in with the alternate psionic combat system in Chapter 3 and a variety of powers linked to remnants and echoes, explained in Chapter 8.
Chapter 7: Altered States
Psions can increase their powers by entering into altered states of consciousness, activated by ingesting mind-expanding substances or various types of meditation including sensory deprivation and the effects of pain. Several different states of consciousness are also described:
* The Waking Dream - an idealised view of the world but slightly divorced from reality, with enhanced perception and various advanatges and disadvantages to certain powers.
* The Oneness - a feeling of connectedness with the world allows improved extra-dimensional movement in space and time.
* Exteroceptive Trance - kind of an out of the body experience that allows greater manipulation of objects around the psion, whilst creating a dissonance between the psion's body and mind.
* Demiurgonic Mentation - enhanced creativity with reduced destructive power.
* Overmind Communion - link with archetypal consciousness that allows for enhanced extrasensory perception.
* Universal Consciousness - similar to overmind communion, except state allows better control over others minds.
Chapter 8: Echoes And Fragments
Echoes and fragments are lost or cast-off aspects of people's psychic auras that still hang around a location like ghosts (in the non-D&D sense of the word). Usually created at a time of stress or trauma, these personality shards can be collected by psions to boost power or skills. The locations and strength of echoes and fragments, their dangers and uses are discussed in this chapter.
Chapter 9: The Psionic Accord
The Psionic Accord is the creation of a melding of psionic minds to create an independent entity composed of psionic energy. The psionic accord becomes part-creature, part-tool as it can be used by the psions who created it to communicate. However, some psionic accords turn rogue, refusing to be used in this manner and even attacking their creators. There are also rules for adding echoes to the accord and various powers that can be added to the creation.
Chapter 10: Symbiotes Of The Mind
This deals with thought patterns, found by psions and provided with an ectoplasmic body, these thought patterns give additional power to a psion when attached to a psion's body, at the risk of the symbiote maybe overwhelming the psion's psyche at some point, as they can be quite demanding. The symbiote that takes control of its psion host creates a new creature, the Psisym, and a template is offered to account for this possibility.
Chapter 11: Memetic Parasites
Memetic parasites are a little like psionic diseases, ranging from mild distractions and fascinations (a catchy tune, a joke) to more serious enthralments and obsessions that can cause a town or city to become akin to a madhouse as people become infected with all sorts of weird compulsions. Rules for infection, curing, and for psions actually using the power of a memetic parasite, are given, including battling another psion for control of the benefits gained from controlling the power from an infection.
Chapter 12: Crystal Palaces
This chapter details the construction of grand crystal palaces that focus psionic power and become the rich homes of powerful psions. The section looks at likely crystal deposits by terrain type, the best types of sites and how to clear the area ready for construction. Various aspects of the construction itself are detailed (various rooms to enhance psionic attack, defence, and power points), and possible staff discussed, along with a table for their likely wages.
The book ends with the designer's notes, index, rules summary tables, and a four-page Psion character sheet.
Conclusion:
It is clear from the designer's notes that whilst the author is a great fan of psionics, he felt that the psion should have been more powerful, and much of the book sets out to improve matters in this regard. Whether you will like this book will likely depend to what extent you agree with the author's opinion. Certainly, to use all the aspects in this book would make the psion over-powered and a wise GM should pick and choose which aspects covered in the book will be introduced into her campaign. That said, as a grab-bag, The Quintessential Psion provides a wealth of ideas and inspiration on which to draw. The ghostly hauntings of echoes and fragments, psychic investigators tracking down psychic criminals, battles for control over a psychic parasite driving a city mad, and investigating the ruined crystal palace of a long-forgotten psion could all provide great adventures or even the seed of a decent campaign. If you like the sound of psionic combat mirroring the standard combat system more, or providing the psion with a greater choice of powers, the systems provided within will be of great interest. Inevitably, some of the character concepts, prestige classes, feats, and powers were a litle jaded, though others offered originality and interest. Some concepts needed a little more detail whilst other didn't quite gel for me. On the whole, worth picking up if you intend for psionics to play an important part in a campaign or adventure and you're interested in playing around with the concepts and systems behind the Psion class, or you're playing a Psion character. Its not as horrific as The Quintessential Psychic Warrior, but it still breaks the boundaries and can be fairly unsettling in its concepts at times.
The Quintessential Psion is the thirteenth book in Mongoose Publishing's 'Quintessential' series of race and class books. This one deals with the Psion.
The Quintessential Psion resembles previous books in the series as far as presentation goes - it is a 128-page mono softcover product costing $19.95. Margins and font are fairly average, there are a few areas of white space. Art runs from poor to good with most being average. Writing style is fairly good whilst editing contains infrequent mistakes.
Chapter 1: Psion Character Concepts
This chapter offers choices of roleplaying background with some minor advantages and disadvantages associated with each:
* Fragmount - uses and is abused by personality fragments from spirits.
* Healthy Mind - psionic defences against disease.
* Imbalanced - brain damage led to psionic power discovery but mental problems.
* Introvert - better defences, worse attack.
* Invisible Friends - childhood invisible friends remain and advice is taken, incorrect or not.
* Left For Dead - survived near-death experience with greater will and ability to survive.
* Personality Shard - alternate personality of ghost twin sometimes takes over for better or worse.
* Specialised Mind - focused psionic power specialisation.
* Touched - strange person who is caught up in psionics at the cost of mundane skills.
* Traumatised - victim of attack by psionic creature with improved defence and worse attacks.
Chapter 2: The Prestige Psion
This chapter offers a number of prestige classes best suited for psions:
* Ectoplasmic Constructor - specialised in formation and control of ectoplasmic constructs.
* Hand Of Thought - psionic monks with martial arts powered by psionic power.
* Infector - infect others with psychic diseases.
* Living Power - psion becomes increasingly ectoplasmic in nature.
* Necropath - combines fragments of dead spirits to boost power.
* Psychic Investigator - tracks down psychic criminals and negates their powers. 5 levels.
* Psychic Mummy - preserves life with psionic ritual.
* Pspy - uses psionics to gather information on enemy and for espionage. 5 levels.
* Puppet Master - controls minds of enemies with psionic domination. 5 levels.
Chapter 3: Tricks Of The Trade
Psilchemy is a mixture of psionics and alchemy, and includes distilled psionic essences (which can be used to boost lost power points if used within ten days), psionic poisons ('injected' via a psionic attack and remaining dormant until the victim uses a certain power), and transfer solutions (elixirs which can pass limited psionic power to another person with psychic powers of a sufficient level). The Flux is a stream of consciousness thought to have been left behind by dead gods, and can be used by a psion to boost his powers with the danger of taking temporary ability damage.
This chapter also offers an alternative psionic combat system, which attempts to mirror the standard combat system, with psionic attacks doing hit point damage and psionic defence acting like AC. Creatures get a Psionic Combat Bonus for psionic attack purposes, which increases with level. Those without psionic power have defences that attempt to avoid the 'all or nothing' damage dealt out by the normal system.
The chapter also provides an alternative power acquisition system, where similar powers can be 'collapsed' into the same slot, providing a choice of powers to use from a specific slot. For example, one power slot may include glide and fly. Either of these may be manifested if power points equal to the highest level power are expended. When the psion gains the improved fly power, glide and fly can be added into the power slot for this power and can be used in its stead at the cost of improved fly.
Chapter 4: Psion Feats
18 new feats for psions including area defence, attack cone, improved psionic critical, and share pain.
Chapter 5: Tools Of The Trade
Psibonded Weapons are weapons designed for psions to use, made of a mixture of metal and crystal. These weapons can be increased in power by the psion over time and can only be used effectively by the individual psion. Weapons with a base metal of mithril can manifest different weapon forms if the cost is paid. There is a ruleset given for costing the materials and work required to create a psibonded weapon, as well as upgrading the weapon, and activating different weapon forms for those made of mithral.
Psychic Masks are used to disguise and enhance the powers of the wearer, and rules are given for crafting and attuning the mask, as well as possible damage to the mask from critical hits.
Chapter 6: Psionic Powers
20 new powers including a slew of standard power variants such as alternate ego whip and alternate intellect fortress to match in with the alternate psionic combat system in Chapter 3 and a variety of powers linked to remnants and echoes, explained in Chapter 8.
Chapter 7: Altered States
Psions can increase their powers by entering into altered states of consciousness, activated by ingesting mind-expanding substances or various types of meditation including sensory deprivation and the effects of pain. Several different states of consciousness are also described:
* The Waking Dream - an idealised view of the world but slightly divorced from reality, with enhanced perception and various advanatges and disadvantages to certain powers.
* The Oneness - a feeling of connectedness with the world allows improved extra-dimensional movement in space and time.
* Exteroceptive Trance - kind of an out of the body experience that allows greater manipulation of objects around the psion, whilst creating a dissonance between the psion's body and mind.
* Demiurgonic Mentation - enhanced creativity with reduced destructive power.
* Overmind Communion - link with archetypal consciousness that allows for enhanced extrasensory perception.
* Universal Consciousness - similar to overmind communion, except state allows better control over others minds.
Chapter 8: Echoes And Fragments
Echoes and fragments are lost or cast-off aspects of people's psychic auras that still hang around a location like ghosts (in the non-D&D sense of the word). Usually created at a time of stress or trauma, these personality shards can be collected by psions to boost power or skills. The locations and strength of echoes and fragments, their dangers and uses are discussed in this chapter.
Chapter 9: The Psionic Accord
The Psionic Accord is the creation of a melding of psionic minds to create an independent entity composed of psionic energy. The psionic accord becomes part-creature, part-tool as it can be used by the psions who created it to communicate. However, some psionic accords turn rogue, refusing to be used in this manner and even attacking their creators. There are also rules for adding echoes to the accord and various powers that can be added to the creation.
Chapter 10: Symbiotes Of The Mind
This deals with thought patterns, found by psions and provided with an ectoplasmic body, these thought patterns give additional power to a psion when attached to a psion's body, at the risk of the symbiote maybe overwhelming the psion's psyche at some point, as they can be quite demanding. The symbiote that takes control of its psion host creates a new creature, the Psisym, and a template is offered to account for this possibility.
Chapter 11: Memetic Parasites
Memetic parasites are a little like psionic diseases, ranging from mild distractions and fascinations (a catchy tune, a joke) to more serious enthralments and obsessions that can cause a town or city to become akin to a madhouse as people become infected with all sorts of weird compulsions. Rules for infection, curing, and for psions actually using the power of a memetic parasite, are given, including battling another psion for control of the benefits gained from controlling the power from an infection.
Chapter 12: Crystal Palaces
This chapter details the construction of grand crystal palaces that focus psionic power and become the rich homes of powerful psions. The section looks at likely crystal deposits by terrain type, the best types of sites and how to clear the area ready for construction. Various aspects of the construction itself are detailed (various rooms to enhance psionic attack, defence, and power points), and possible staff discussed, along with a table for their likely wages.
The book ends with the designer's notes, index, rules summary tables, and a four-page Psion character sheet.
Conclusion:
It is clear from the designer's notes that whilst the author is a great fan of psionics, he felt that the psion should have been more powerful, and much of the book sets out to improve matters in this regard. Whether you will like this book will likely depend to what extent you agree with the author's opinion. Certainly, to use all the aspects in this book would make the psion over-powered and a wise GM should pick and choose which aspects covered in the book will be introduced into her campaign. That said, as a grab-bag, The Quintessential Psion provides a wealth of ideas and inspiration on which to draw. The ghostly hauntings of echoes and fragments, psychic investigators tracking down psychic criminals, battles for control over a psychic parasite driving a city mad, and investigating the ruined crystal palace of a long-forgotten psion could all provide great adventures or even the seed of a decent campaign. If you like the sound of psionic combat mirroring the standard combat system more, or providing the psion with a greater choice of powers, the systems provided within will be of great interest. Inevitably, some of the character concepts, prestige classes, feats, and powers were a litle jaded, though others offered originality and interest. Some concepts needed a little more detail whilst other didn't quite gel for me. On the whole, worth picking up if you intend for psionics to play an important part in a campaign or adventure and you're interested in playing around with the concepts and systems behind the Psion class, or you're playing a Psion character. Its not as horrific as The Quintessential Psychic Warrior, but it still breaks the boundaries and can be fairly unsettling in its concepts at times.
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