The Quintessential Psychic Warrior

[Messageboard Golem]

The Psychic Warrior finally becomes accepted as a true core character class in the d20 System with the advent of this title. The Quintessential Psychic Warrior, a 128 page sourcebook, will take this class to new heights, giving new options for any player wishing to try a Psychic Warrior character, whether good or evilly aligned. This supplement, written by Sam Witt (Chaos Magic, The Quintessential Dwarf) grants Psychic Warrior characters the ability to utilise psionics in warfare and combine the power of the mind with the fastest of blades. New Psychic Warrior feats, prestige classes and character options will allow a player to streamline his character to reflect almost any genre - from the archetypal brain-burster to the avenging psychic that will permit nothing to stand in his path.

 

[GameWyrd]

I’m going to peel the warning label off from my copy of the Book of Vile Darkness and stick it onto the Quintessential Psychic Warrior.

No, not really. The suggestion makes the point though. I shouldn’t go around cannibalising bits from one book to another. Some Psychic Warriors aren’t so concerned about books or even rival psions for that matter. There’s detailed rules for psionic cannibalism in this latest addition to Mongoose’s Collector Series. The word "cannibalism" is appropriate for the organ harvesting procedure. Hannibal Lecter would make a good psychic warrior, able to quickly carve out the chakras from the body of his latest victim. Not all psychic warriors engage in the practice. Some psychic warriors simply slice into the skin above their own chakras, to let the nexus of flesh and psionic energy breath more easily. If they can stand the pain then they can dig their fingers into the wound and pull away more flesh and tissue for another surge of power. This form of self-mutation is the wimpiest of three possible options. Why waste time with carving bleeding troughs into your skin when you can carefully flay away skin and flesh with a scalpel and dig even closer to the mystical chakras in your body. Flensing is more extreme than flaying. A psychic warrior who has undergone flensing will have gaping and bleeding holes cut through his body to expose bone and twitching organs. Oh yes, I can see it now, vast streams of psychic power flowing into the exposed and prepared chakra and total control over it all – for, well, about twenty seconds before you pass out and die for the blood loss. Again, not all psychic warriors undergo these self-mutations just to get a scrap more power. No, some of these uniquely scary people maintain their power through their addictions to drugs and chemical compounds. The Sybarite must experiment with new forms of pleasure – drugs, sex, marshmallow pizza – or start to loose her powers.

Then there’s the artwork. Mongoose keeps most of us happy, some of us ambivalent and a few of us righteously annoyed by keeping their products peppered with T&A art. That’s true here and then there’s another form of more mature art too. Some of the illustrations are rather gory. A noteworthy example lives on page 97 (and you’re all going to turn there first now) that shows a female psychic warrior with an unnaturally veined head using her teeth to pull the skin away from around the eyes of a severed and bleeding head she’s holding. The temptation to show some of the body beautiful psychic warriors flying around like super heroes, in skin tight skimpy costumes and in dramatic poses was one that the artists gave in to. The bloodier of the illustrations remind me rather less of super heroes and more of Clive Barker style Xenobites (or the Nightbreed for that matter) instead.

This isn’t a book you’ll want to let your grandmother read.

Good. I don’t want to be treated like someone’s grandmother. The Quintessential Psychic Warrior takes a popular but rarely expanded character class and adds much needed weight to it. The Quintessential Psychic Warrior certainly does extend the character class and it extends it very much in a particular direction. Many Mongoose books run the risk of being labelled as classic cheese fantasy – but this isn’t one of them. Sam Witt has written for the British company before and so this change of emphases is due to the subject matter and not a new author. The designer’s notes at the back explain that Witt wrote this book in tandem with the Quintessential Psion and so topics and ideas were shuffled around for "thematic reasons". I think it’s this shuffling around that’s resulted on the darker-than-normal focus for the book.

This is still a Quintessential X, a Collector Series, book though and it begins with Character Concepts. Character Concepts are designed a role-playing aids, background ideas for your character that provide the player with guidelines and the character with slightly different game mechanics. It’s here you’ll find the Cribb Addict, Devil Child, Escaped Thrall, Mindshard, Natural Born Killer and the pleasure seeking Sybarite among others. The prestige classes come next. The introduction to the book makes a point of saying that the psychic warrior who uses a double-bladed sword is quite different to one who wields a dagger. We can guess what the prestige class pattern is going to be. The Double-Weapon Fighter is detailed through 10 levels, the Finesse Fighter through 10 levels, Mind Sniper and Power Fighter too. The Psychic Predator suggests something different – and that’s only a 5 level prestige class, the same for the Spell Killer and Trophy Hunter.

The Tricks of the Trade is a much more meaty chapter than normal. It’s here you’ll read about hybrid psychic combat which allows you to combine melee prowess with psychic prowess. You’ll also find all the different and bloody ways to "open the chakras". I don’t suppose many roleplayers will need explaining what a chakra is, or is supposed to be, but the book does put it into black and white print just to make it clear what this fantasy take of a chakra is going to be. My cheeky remark about carving away the flesh above your chakra, hugely boosting your powers but passing out from blood loss made earlier on in the review isn’t entirely without basis. The rules for opening the chakra go hand in hand with the rules for just how much hit point damage you’ll take. Personally I’d be tempted to whip out a copy of Cthulhu and flick to the insanity tables too.

There are a couple of pages of feats. We all have enough feats now but psionic feats and metapsionic feats are still rather rare and so these few pages are worth more than most newly published collection of feats is.

The Tools of the Trade chapter is meatier than normal too. Hmm. Actually, the rules for psionic prosthetics would suggest that the characters are carrying around rather less meat than normal actually. There are rules and samples of interesting psionic materials like glyss (which makes for especially sharp swords in the psion’s hands or especially broken swords in the hands of anyone else) and weaves of crystals. There is also a fairly hefty list of psychoactive substances and the tools you need for psionic cannibals.

The book would not be complete without pages of new psychic warrior powers. Indeed the crunch-happy legion would be crying for blood if the list were missing. I think they’ll be happy. There are more than enough new powers to please.

Weapon Meditations are the means by which the psychic warrior focuses their devotion onto one particular weapon. Picking one of these meditations allows the psychic warrior to progress through ranks of understanding and ability. New abilities tend to improve skills or give special ability like bonuses. The Battle Trance is a meditation like ability which gets a chapter all to itself. It’s true that the Collector Series doesn’t just simply power up the classes it looks at – but some classes do certainly walk away with an extra level of power.

Psionic Cannibalism has a chapter all to itself.

A Fortress of the Mind is the name given to a community of psychic warriors – or even an especially powerful one living alone. The table of expected income level and the table of building costs for various parts of the Fortress (let’s include a 20ft by 20ft Crèche of the Mind – I kid you not) seem to be slightly out of place. Only slightly though. Building a powerful community of like-minded adventures is rather more the typical high fantasy found in Mongoose books. There are some nice asides in this chapter though, almost casual observations that so many psychics living together might cause the land nearby to warp, animals to act differently and unpleasant predators to be attracted is another nice speck of grit in this gritty book.

There are some rounding off features too note. There’s a detailed index – huzzah! There’s a long collection of tables and charts in the rules summary and that’s always helpful. I don’t like the too-white character sheet but at least one’s provided.

It’s a good book. If you wanted something light and friendly then you’re screwed. As my tolerance for yet more typical fantasy declines it’s a welcome relief to see a book with unexpected teeth in it.

* This GameWyrd review was first published here.

 

[Dark Psion]

After a two month delay, I finally have the Quintessential Psychic Warrior in my hands and truthfully, I wish they had spent that extra two months polishing the edges a little. The book does greatly expand the PsyWar by providing several unique and new abilities for them, but unfortunately the book fails to follow thru on many of the concepts. If you don't mind expanding and adapting content for your game, this book will give you something to do over the winter months. But if you are expecting to play these rules right after you open the book, you maybe disapointed.

The cover and design are standard for the Quintessential line of books, Brown cover with gold lettering, the lettering being the reason for the delay.

The first chapter is Character Concepts and it is very good. Since the PsyWar is effectively a new class for D&D, there aren't any concepts outside of movies and books to work with and most of those are from high-tech sources. This book gives us several new concepts to try out.
Ascetic: A monk-like warrior
Crib Addict: Someone whose powers came from drugs or herbs
Devil Child: The "lost boy" with psion powers
Escaped Thrall: A slave of the Mind Flayers or other psionic race
Experiment: Manipulated before birth to have psionic powers
Failed Psion: Could not make it as a Psion
Mindshard: Something psionic embedded it's self in you
Natural Born Killer: Psionics as a form of survival and revenge
Seeker: In search of a cure for your people
Sybarite: A Tantric psi, drawing power from pleasure

Next are the Prestige Classes and while the designs are good, the rules are flawed and behind the times psionically. All of these classes still use the return to 1st level power advancement that the Psi Handbook uses, but few others still do. Bruce Cordell has updated the PsiHbk PrCs with +1 level and these PrCs here need the same treatment. They don't even get new zero level talents till 4th level, including the PrCs with only 5 levels.

Unfortunately that is not the only flaw, while several of the PrCs grant bonus feats, they do not have Psionic feats on their list. Psionic feats are what separate the PsyWar from the Fighter for many. Another problem is that several of these PrCs enhance powers and feats that are not required in the first place. What if you don't have those powers? Then your Finesse Fighter gains nothing from 2nd to 5th level. And that 5th level Improved Wound Sliver, good luck trying to get that power as it is a fifth level power and a PsyWar has to be 13th level to have access to 5th level powers and the Finesse Warrior never gains 4th or 5th level powers. Changing the powers to "+1 PsyWar level" and adding "If you do not know this power, you discover it now" will go a long way to allowing you to enjoy playing these PrCs.
Double-Weapon Fighter, Finesse Fighter (note: I would switch the Fort. and Ref. save here), Mind Sniper, Power Fighter, Psychic Predator (5 levels), Spell Killer (5 levels), Trophy Hunter (5 levels).

Tricks of the Trade is next and first up is Hybrid Psychic Combat. This is very good! Psychic Combat can be very dangerous for PsyWars since they have few power points and no way of healing ability damage. Basically, hybrid psychic attacks are launched simultaneously with a melee attack, so they only work up close and personal. And the same is applied to defense modes, you can erect a persistent defense mode, that is maintained as long as you are in combat with the attacker.

Next we have Opening the Chakras, and if you were disappointed with Psionics being left out of the Book of Vile Darkness, then this chapter is for you. This chapter allows a PsyWar to "Open" the chakras, key points on the body that are the center of power for psionics. My biggest problem with this chapter is that while it mentions Tattoos and Piercings, it never comes back to them and gets lost in the blood letting. Ways of using the chakras start with scarification and lead up to flaying and flensing of the flesh. Personally, none of my PsyWars are going to be pealing their skin off just to gain a 25% boost in power points and then die from the blood loss. I know what you are thinking (I am Dark Psion ), I'll just heal it afterwards, not if you want the bonuses. It must heal naturally.

Next we have feats, the Bread and Butter of the PsyWar, unfortunately this bread is a little stale. Some of the feats are good Psychic Critical: increasing your critical threat range is one all PsyWars will want. But many of the others are too dependant on powers in this book or limited to working on them. Equal but Opposite grants a +2 to trip attempts and a +1 bonus to attacks against any opponent who moves more than 5 ft in the current round, but requires you to know 2 out of 6 of the new powers in this book. That really limits it's use where Balance: 5 ranks & Tumble: 5 ranks would be useful to many PsyWars. The worst is Arrow Attack, you must know 2 powers from this book and it only works on them. It allows you to manifest them simultaneously, unlike Quicken power, which would allow you to use any two of your powers in a single round. I would rather see Improved versions of the powers than feats to improve existing powers.

Next is Tools of the Trade and we are back to being great! First we have Glyss, a psionic type of glass. In the hands of non-psionic characters just a fragile form of glass, but in the hands of Psions & PsyWars, a powerful weapon and strong form of armor. Crystalweaves are a way to tap into the Chakras without having to bleed and Psionic Prosthetics are , umm, Handy when you flay a little too much. They do require a feat to use without penalty for having a lost arm or leg. Psychoactive Substances are psychic drugs, which like those in the BoVD have the danger of addiction. Crystals and Quicksilver are presented as a way to store psionic power, but then yanked away as only for the Psionic Cannibals later in the book. I think these would be fine for any Psion or PsyWar with a proper feat.

Next we have Powers and we are back to bad. This section is a mess! The powers are not listed alphabetically as we have come to expect spells to be, but are listed by discipline, with Psychoportative listed twice, By level and now alphabetically. Also, the powers are for PsyWars only, but in my opinion many would work fine for Psions, especially Nomads. Many of the powers are not in the disciplines I would put them into. Dread Coverage allows a PsyWar to "lock in" on a 20ft by 20ft area and gain a +5 bonus to Attacks and Damage from missile attacks within. Clairsentience for sensory awareness? Psychoportative for being an area effect? Psychokinetic for being a kinetic attack? No, Psychometabolic.
As to the powers, many are very good powers and some are not. Too many have built-in disadvantages that don't make sense. Void Targeting requires a full-attack option, limited movement and you must fire at anything moving, even allies.

Next we have Weapon Meditations and this is a great addition for the PsyWar! (anyone getting seasick with this up & down movement?) The basic concept is you take a feat, choose a weapon and as long as you meet the requirements, both reserve power points and skill ranks, you gain bonuses to using the weapon and skills. There are a few problems, first if you even touch a different weapon, you suffer subdual damage. The only reason drawing a sword should hurt you is if you are holding the wrong end. I will change this to a Base Attack Penalty of -2 per rank in the meditation when using any other weapon for my game. Also, we need rules for switching out some of the special abilities. The Medium Bladed Weapon meditation is based on Mounted combat. What if my PsyWar is a Corsair sailing the high seas? Also a Meditation for Unarmed Combat is missing.

Next is the Battle Trance, another feat and an Autohypnosis check and you enter a Battle Trance. Each round you are in the trance you may choose a special benefit. Also, for each additional round you maintain the trance and have the right amount of reserve points, you gain access to additional, stronger benefits. The only problem here I have is it would be nice to have rules for learning new benefits. Something like the Katas in d20 Rokugan, secret techniques taught by old hermits and special schools.

Now that you have had time to get hungry, we get to Psionic Cannibalism! Remember those Chakras your PsyWar has and how he can flay them to get more power? Well others have chakras too and there are ways to get at their power. Of course Psionic creatures have more power for cannibals, like Mind Flayers (calamari anyone?), but all living creatures have some psionic potential and a psionic cannibal can harvest the points. There are a variety of limitations and checks to get at it, if they are willing, like Thralls, or unwilling, like everyone else. The victim does not dies immediately and can be healed, but their chakra is forever gone.

Lastly, there is the Fortresses of the Mind. All warriors like to build keeps and PsyWars are no different in that desire, but in the application they get a little exotic. There are a variety of special rooms that can be built in a Psychic Fortress and here we have rules for that and the basic costs of building and maintaining such a keep.

I would like to have given this book a 5 star rating for the inspirational value alone, but being two months late and requiring too much in house work to make it functional to my campaign cost it two stars. If you are willing to do the work, it is a great book.

Mike Briggs (Dark Psion)

 

[Messageboard Golem]

I concur with most of the wording in this review, but I was hoping for a more even-handed text, as per Quint. Monk. That text provided depth and interesting variations to broaden the typical monk character.

This text (Quint. PW) seems geared toward gore and evil PW's more than broad or balanced class enhancements. Why is most of this text geared toward flaying skin, disemboweling creatures, and cannibalism? Aren't some PW's Good? Where are they represented - few and far between. If you are lloking to make evil PW's, or make all PW's villains, then I can see a number of reasons this book is for you. Not me.

I, for one, am disappointed by the content of this book and am seriously considering requesting my money back.

 

[Psion]

"Bruce Cordell has updated the PsiHbk PrCs with +1 level and these PrCs here need the same treatment."

The classes Bruce Cordell updated also are appropriate for psions; this is a different case. "+1 manifester level" is not the cure all that most people think it would be.

'Changing the powers to "+1 PsyWar level" and adding "If you do not know this power, you discover it now" will go a long way to allowing you to enjoy playing these PrCs. '

The latter would work (and precisely what I suggested on the Mongoose and WotC psionics board.) The former would be overkill.

 

[Sagan Darkside]

I think it is unfair to bring down its mark due to it being late. No matter how annoying that is- it is most likely not going to impact the decisions of future buyers.

 

[Simon Collins]

This is not a playtest review.

The Quintessential Psychic Warrior is the ninth in Mongoose's Collector Series.

The Quintessential Psychic Warrior is a 128-page mono softcover book costing $19.95. Font, margins and white space are all fairly average though the space between paragraphs and plenty of art gives the book a somewhat airy feel. The art ranges from poor to good, with most being fairly average (some of it is also fairly gross). Writing style is good, and editing is average (the powers section in particular is messy).

Character Concepts:
Mongoose's Collector Series begin with character hooks that focus on roleplaying aspects but have a minor bonus and penalty attached to them. The Quintessential Psychic Warrior is no different:
* Ascetic - monk-like training gives increase to Concentration checks but requirement for fresh food.
* Crib Addict - child of a mother addicted to drugs, inherited an addiction and streetwise bonuses.
* Devil Child - outcast from psionic-fearing community, has gained independence skills but restricted psychic powers.
* Escaped Thrall - victim of psychic torture, now has bonuses to psionically attack race of torturer but reduced psionic defence against same race.
* Experiment - bred to be a psychic warrior with greater psionic attack ability but reduced defences.
* Failed Psion - gains a 1st level power from Psion list in exchange for a Psychic Warrior power but can't multiclass in Psion.
* Mindshard - has a shard imbedded in the brain, and is influenced by the knowledge and whims of this intelligent being.
* Natural Born Killer - raised to be a tool of vengeance against particular enemy, with fighting prowess but prone to unrestrained violence.
* Seeker - trained to seek information to aid the psychic warrior's dying race with all Knowledge skill as class skills, but reduced Concentration when not pursuing quest.
* Sybarite - hedonist who derives power from pleasure and loses power when denied it.

The Prestige Psychic Warrior:
Seven new prestige classes are offered:
* Double-Weapon Fighter - 10-level specialist in double-weapon fighting
* Finesse Fighter - 10-levelPrC who excels in avoiding and taking attacks of opportunity and finding an opponents weak spot
* Mind Sniper - 10-level PrC who uses psionics to boost ranged combat abilities
* Power Fighter - 10-level PrC that uses psionics to enhance damage potential and combat feats
* Psychic Predator - 5-level PrC that feeds off others' psionic energy
* Spell Killer - 5-level PrC focused on dealing with wayward magic-users via psionics
* Trophy Hunter - 5-level PrC who feeds on the flesh of intelligent creatures to boost psionic power

Tricks Of The Trade:
This section begins with a discussion of hybrid psychic combat - more or less a psionic touch attack. It then goes on to discuss the exceedingly disgusting methods of opening the chakras (chakras are psychic energy points in the psychic warrior's body). These methods involve removing the flesh to varying degrees to allow the chakra energy to flow more freely and thus allow greater psionic power. The methods are described in what I consider excess and unnecessary detail (8 pages), making this product unsuitable for minors or anyone else with a weak stomach - it includes subtitles such as 'shredding the flesh' and 'carving the meat'. Gross.

Psychic Warrior Feats:
15 new feats including the feat to allow hybrid psychic combat, battle trance, and various other combat-enhancing psionic abilities.

Tools Of The Trade:
Covers the following areas:
* Glyss - a glass-like substance that can channel psionic energy. Used as armour by Psychic Warriors.
* Psionic Prosthetics - limbs made from glyss that replace the chakras and the physicality of a lost limb
* Psychoactive Substances - addictive mind-enhancing drugs, with rules for addiction, and base stats for five substances, including information on availability, preparation, ingestion, hangover, side-effects, and duration.
* The Cannibal's Tools - crystals, gems, and quicksilver storage batteries that psionic cannibals use to store the stolen power from victims.

Psychic Warrior Powers:
Over 50 new psionic powers for the Psychic warrior with an emphasis on psychoportation, psychometabolism, and psychokinesis. Unfortunately these are listed by level, not alphabetically, the psychoportation powers are in two different sections, and there are further editing mistakes in the layout that make the section rather confusing in terms of finding your way around.

Weapon Meditations:
Offers a discussion and rules on the bond a psychic warrior can forge with a weapon of choice. The bond gives the advantage of improving combat skills with that particular weapon type, but has the disadvantage that the psychic warrior takes psychic damage when using a weapon of another type.

The Battle Trance:
Discusses in greater depth the Battle Trance feat and its accompanying rules. The Battle Trance allows an impressive array of combat abilities to be used by channeling power points at the risk of psychic shock if the trance is disrupted causing possible death.

Psionic Cannibalism:
Details the evil habit of stealing psionic power from the flesh, organs, bones, and waste products of intelligent creatures. 11 pages are spent detailing the process of ripping out chakras from the bodies of victims and binding the power for use by the aggressor. There is also a brief discussion of cannibalistic cults that grow out of this process.

Fortresses Of The Mind:
Looks at the lands, economy and strongholds and their occupants of psychic warrior rulers. Various lists include commissions from the authorities granted to build fortresses, income per weekby psychic warrior level, construction costs, and how often new recruits arrive after the fortress is finished.

The book finishes with designer's notes, an index, rules summary tables, and a character sheet.

Conclusion:
In the Designer's Notes, the author uses a phrase which sums up the book for me - "the psychic warrior has grown far beyond his original incarnation into something new and something frightening". How much you like this book will probably depend on whether you like Sam Witt's horrific take on the psychic warrior. Having said that, there are ideas here that do not require a new view of the psychic warrior - the weapon meditations look interesting, but would require playtesting to ensure they are balanced, and most of the character concepts and prestige classes are horror-free. There are plenty of the psionic powers that will also expand your psychic warrior's powers without the need for eating brains.

Unless you're a player playing an evil PW or a GM wanting to introduce 18-rated PW villains and cults, over half of the book is not suitable. I would have liked to see (and this goes for several other of the 'Quintessential' Collector series) more information for players running standard PW's and less NPC-orientated information. I was also disappointed by the editing of the Powers section (definitely not up to Mongoose's normally fairly high standard). The special powers introduced in the book seemed focused on offering powerful abilities at an equally high cost - I found this concept a little concerning in that it promises to be unbalancing when it works and fatal when it doesn't. I prefer abilities that are a little more toned down with less disastrous side-effects - reliable abilities that don't unbalance the game.

The book does raise some fine ideas for morally ambiguous roleplaying such as addictive drugs, psychic cannibalism, and the risk of power versus corruption. If your group is mature enough to handle these concepts, the book is inspirational in this regard. It certainly addresses the missing psionic aspects of the BoVD, and will appeal to fans of the same genre. I am not a particular fan of the genre myself, and I should point out that my score reflects my opinion as much as the quality of the product, though there are faults with the product itself.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

I wish that I had read your review PRIOR to purchasing this product. I agree wholeheartedly with the comments in your review, but I would rate the Quint. PW lower myself due to the lack of breadth and general usefulness of the content. I purchased Quint. Monk and was very happy with the breadth and diversity of the content for both Good and Evil characters.

This text is geared toward Evil and demented PW's and seems to have been timed for release after Book of Vile Darkness to follow in its footsteps. I would not recommend this product to anyone unless they are playing a "Mature" content-game. It's nasty, just nasty.

 

[Dark Psion]

If this was the first Quintessintial book, I would agree, but as the 9th with the 13th warming up the bull pen, having problems with what is basically the same cover for all of them is a little unusual.

The rating isn't just for being late, it's for being late and still having editing mistakes. For mentioning things a Player would use, but them taking those ideas into "Vile" NPC area and leaving the player out in the cold.

One other thing I noticed, those new Prestige Classes? None of them have the New Weapon Meditation feat or Battle Trance feat listed as available with their Bonus feats. A book should suport it's own ideas.

As to the "+1 level" I would limit it to +1 Psychic Warior level and probably only on Odd or Even levels, not all 10.

 

[Havoc]

True... exactly what I think of this book. I liked the BoVD, but evil and vile things were not what I expected from this book; an horrific take on the psychic warrior is fine, but this takes a good half of the book.