Crothian
First Post
Psionics have always felt like an add on to D&D and to the d20 game. They exist in there own book and get little support in the many additional books for the system. Here is a new book that expands on psionics and does so in a very standard and good way. I say standard since the book gives one more of the usual material. There are new classes both base and prestige, new powers, new feats, new monsters, new items, and info on psionic races. And while this is all well done it does not branch out and present things that are not in every other book these days. This is more of the same of stuff though it is nicely done.
Untapped Potential: New Horizons in Psionics is by Dreamscarred Press. The PDF is one hundred and seventy eight pages long and has a really basic layout. There is very little art in the book and the look just is not that good. There is a lot of extra white space it is just a lot of text with nothing to really break it up. It should be noted though that the company is hoping to be able to generate some money by selling this PDF to get some good art and even get the book to print. It would be nice to see that happen as the lack of art and the layout are really the biggest complaints I have about what is otherwise a finally written gaming book.
As a book on psionics it does a very good job of building on the options that are already presented. It gives the reader the options that exist for other classes and races but have not been given nearly as much to the psionic end of things. It starts with giving some good paragon racial classes for the psionics races. There are ones for the Dromite, the Duergar, the Elan, the Half Giant, the Maenad, and the Xeph. These are about of the same power levels as the original ones presented in Unearthed Arcana. Then each of those six races gets a pair of classes that they get racial substitution levels for. Again these are very similar to the ones found in many of the Races of book Wizards of the Coast has put out. I like the options her e and they are enough like what people see in the other books that one should easily be able to tell if they like them or not.
There are three new base classes that deal with psionics here. The first is the Devoted Psion that is a variant on the psion class. It seems pretty good but I am not a fan of just variations on old classes as I am with new classes. The Marksman is a very cool class that is similar to the Psychic Warrior. They deal well with ranged combat and use their abilities mostly to that ends. Then there is the Society Mind possible the most creative item in the book. It can tap in the worldthought as they call it, the collection of thoughts of everything. They get abilities that reflect this though as neat as the concept is I would have liked to seen it taken a little farther and perhaps take a few more risks with unique abilities.
The book has plenty of new feats and this should make psionic fans happy. There are also plenty of prestige classes and new powers. They are well done but I feel the strength of the book is in the first half. For the prestige classes they have:
Amalgamist: Master of Crystalics and the Crystalic limb
Anyform Savant: Infinite Flexibility in Form
Energist: Energy powers are his forte
Enlightened Exemplar: Scholarly student of peace and reason
Enlightened Protector: Guardians of the Exemplars
Knight Meditant: Calm of Mind, Strong of Body
Maverick Voidshaper: Reality bends at her whimsy
Phenotype Impressionist: Reshape Constructs as you do your body
Psicrystal Imprinter: Psicrystal becomes more like its master
Sighted Seeker: Ultimate
Inquisitive and bounty hunter
Those descriptions are straight from the book.
Over all I like what is here. This will greatly aid people looking for good and solid psionics options. It is nice that is nothing here that is way out in left field so much of it will easily be useable. But at times I do like to see some of the more wide open creativity that writers have. It will be nice if this is successful to get some art and hopefully a better lay out as it would really benefit this book greatly.
Untapped Potential: New Horizons in Psionics is by Dreamscarred Press. The PDF is one hundred and seventy eight pages long and has a really basic layout. There is very little art in the book and the look just is not that good. There is a lot of extra white space it is just a lot of text with nothing to really break it up. It should be noted though that the company is hoping to be able to generate some money by selling this PDF to get some good art and even get the book to print. It would be nice to see that happen as the lack of art and the layout are really the biggest complaints I have about what is otherwise a finally written gaming book.
As a book on psionics it does a very good job of building on the options that are already presented. It gives the reader the options that exist for other classes and races but have not been given nearly as much to the psionic end of things. It starts with giving some good paragon racial classes for the psionics races. There are ones for the Dromite, the Duergar, the Elan, the Half Giant, the Maenad, and the Xeph. These are about of the same power levels as the original ones presented in Unearthed Arcana. Then each of those six races gets a pair of classes that they get racial substitution levels for. Again these are very similar to the ones found in many of the Races of book Wizards of the Coast has put out. I like the options her e and they are enough like what people see in the other books that one should easily be able to tell if they like them or not.
There are three new base classes that deal with psionics here. The first is the Devoted Psion that is a variant on the psion class. It seems pretty good but I am not a fan of just variations on old classes as I am with new classes. The Marksman is a very cool class that is similar to the Psychic Warrior. They deal well with ranged combat and use their abilities mostly to that ends. Then there is the Society Mind possible the most creative item in the book. It can tap in the worldthought as they call it, the collection of thoughts of everything. They get abilities that reflect this though as neat as the concept is I would have liked to seen it taken a little farther and perhaps take a few more risks with unique abilities.
The book has plenty of new feats and this should make psionic fans happy. There are also plenty of prestige classes and new powers. They are well done but I feel the strength of the book is in the first half. For the prestige classes they have:
Amalgamist: Master of Crystalics and the Crystalic limb
Anyform Savant: Infinite Flexibility in Form
Energist: Energy powers are his forte
Enlightened Exemplar: Scholarly student of peace and reason
Enlightened Protector: Guardians of the Exemplars
Knight Meditant: Calm of Mind, Strong of Body
Maverick Voidshaper: Reality bends at her whimsy
Phenotype Impressionist: Reshape Constructs as you do your body
Psicrystal Imprinter: Psicrystal becomes more like its master
Sighted Seeker: Ultimate
Inquisitive and bounty hunter
Those descriptions are straight from the book.
Over all I like what is here. This will greatly aid people looking for good and solid psionics options. It is nice that is nothing here that is way out in left field so much of it will easily be useable. But at times I do like to see some of the more wide open creativity that writers have. It will be nice if this is successful to get some art and hopefully a better lay out as it would really benefit this book greatly.
