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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Simon Collins" data-source="post: 2009815" data-attributes="member: 9860">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 powerTricks 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.</blockquote>

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