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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Simon Collins" data-source="post: 2010240" data-attributes="member: 9860">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 ConceptsThis 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 PsionThis 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 TradePsilchemy 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 Feats18 new feats for psions including area defence, attack cone, improved psionic critical, and share pain.Chapter 5: Tools Of The TradePsibonded 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 Powers20 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 StatesPsions 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 FragmentsEchoes 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 AccordThe 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 MindThis 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 ParasitesMemetic 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 PalacesThis 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.</blockquote>

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