XPH balance: Pyrokineticist

[James McMurray]

Yep, and a psychic warrior 5 won't have a lot. He'll also probably not have a very good wisdom score, or if he does its because he has not focused on charisma, meaning he'll have a lower save DC for Heat Death.

 

[Kyamsil]

Make it a Wilder 6 then, with a skyrocketing charisma and Extended Knowledge to get the Hustle psychic warrior power.

EDIT: originally I suggested Wilder 5, but he won't be able to take Hustle with Extended Knowledge.

The amount of times he can do this combo is a lot, and the charisma could be boosted as much as you want: more power points, more difficulty for heat death...

 

[Hypersmurf]

Hmm. If it weren't for the "Any Chaotic" requirement, I'd be interested in trying out a Paladin/Pyro.

Maybe a Clr/Holy Liberator/Pyro instead, though it's a clunkier build.

-Hyp.

 

[Old Gumphrey]

Hey Thanee, have you actually used the XPH in your group yet, or are you still just trashing it with no real life experience to back it up?

 

[Thanee]

Hey Thanee, have you actually used the XPH in your group yet, or are you still just trashing it with no real life experience to back it up?

We don't play with psionics (tho, not all in the book is bad, mind you, some ideas (like the augmentation rules) are quite good, mostly the Psion and some other whacky stuff is out of line), but for the stuff I am saying (not the above ) there is no need for playtesting. I can easily base this on my experiences with 3.0 psionics and 3.0/3.5 in general or just common sense.

For example, how hard is it to see, that Dispel Psionics is totally ridiculous?
I think, some people actually claim it's ok as written...

Yeah, right!

Bye
Thanee

 

[Darklone]

I'm not too worried about the character we're talking about... I know heat death and so... but even the level 3 power... I mean, a 4d6 touch attack without limits per day? If you can tumble that simply means that you can trade one hit against one shot...

Ah well, the character in question has some Bloodline of Fire feats as well and I do plan to allow him to apply it to the "casterlevel"

 

[Old Gumphrey]

For example, how hard is it to see, that Dispel Psionics is totally ridiculous?

I guess it's pretty hard. Unless they get some kind of greater dispelling that I can't find and unless I missed something in the description they *need* the augmentation to keep up with casters. I know some groups totally ignore it, but you can't counterspell with this power either, and that's a significant loss.

Hate to stay off topic, but I really don't think you're qualified to pipe up how broken psionics are in every single thread about psionics. I think some of the stuff in the book seems crazy at first, but it's impossible to know how this stuff really works in-game until you try it. You've probably turned a lot of people off to the resource already without ever having used the rules in an actual game.

You claim that your experience with 3.0 psionics is "good enough". Well, I claim that it's absolutely not. It's a totally new system. So really, all you continue to do is give people a negative (and mostly unfounded) opinion on something that, in the end, you really have no experience with.

 

[Darklone]

Grrr. Highjacking my thread with antirant rants. Not good.

I think some of the stuff in the book seems crazy at first, but it's impossible to know how this stuff really works in-game until you try it.

I and most ruleslawyers/monkeys as well as most powergamer munchkins I know would disagree. You don't need to play a hulking hurler to know how much damage he could cause. Same for many XPH things.

 

[Thanee]

I guess it's pretty hard.

*LOL*

Unless they get some kind of greater dispelling that I can't find and unless I missed something in the description they *need* the augmentation to keep up with casters.

Yes, of course do they need the augmentation, but maybe you should reread the augmentation rules, seems you didn't quite get how they work!

Hate to stay off topic, but I really don't think you're qualified to pipe up how broken psionics are in every single thread about psionics.

Well, I have an opinion and I am able to write, so yes, I think I'm qualified.

Of course, I do not do this as you claim, but you obviously know that already, having read every single thread about psionics (or at least the few of them I have posted to), don't you?

I think some of the stuff in the book seems crazy at first, but it's impossible to know how this stuff really works in-game until you try it. You've probably turned a lot of people off to the resource already without ever having used the rules in an actual game.

Yeah, right!

Anyways, how hard is it to imagine this situation...

10th level Psion manifests fully augmented Dispel Psionics at another 10th level Psion who has lots of powers running. All powers end, no roll required, as even a roll of 1 will be enough to dispel them.

To me, this doesn't sound right... no, not at all!

You claim that your experience with 3.0 psionics is "good enough". Well, I claim that it's absolutely not. It's a totally new system.

It's not. It's actually very similar to the updated 3.0 rules. Yes, some stuff is new (like the focus and the scale of augmentation, which was a lot less earlier, powers have been reworked and so on), but the base of the system (the PP stuff) is exactly the same! Experience with that stuff is very easily translated to the new ruleset.

So really, all you continue to do is give people a negative (and mostly unfounded) opinion on something that, in the end, you really have no experience with.

Speaking of experience, you surely have a lot of experience with what I have written so far, claiming that it is unfounded, yes?

Do you even know what I am complaining about? I guess not!

Maybe you should read all my posts about psionics before claiming totally wrong stuff like that?

All you do here is talking about stuff you have very little knowledge of (and just for the record, I'm not speaking of psionics, I have no clue how much you know about psionics), claiming, that I should only talk about stuff I have experience with? See the irony in this?

Bye
Thanee

 

[nameless]

Anyways, how hard is it to imagine this situation...

10th level Psion manifests fully augmented Dispel Psionics at another 10th level Psion who has lots of powers running. All powers end, no roll required, as even a roll of 1 will be enough to dispel them.

To me, this doesn't sound right... no, not at all!

That's kind of a slanted situation. 10th level is the largest possible difference between Dispel Psionics and Dispel Magic. At lower levels, it can't be augmented fully, nor can it get the full +10. At higher levels, it's already capped and Greater Dispelling catches up.

Back on topic, I don't think the Pyro's bolt of fire is too strong at all. When it can first be obtained (level 8), 3d6 isn't too great. A first level spell will do more than that, let alone a level 2 or 3 or 4 spell. Yeah, a spellcaster only gets a limited number of slots per day, and a Pyro can shoot fire as much as he wants, but it's a balanced bonus for the specialization of only being able to shoot fire. At higher levels, the damage increases to more respectable levels, but a good offensive spell will still do much more. Doing 10d6 as a standard action is okay, but nowhere near what a level 15 character needs to be doing to stay in the game combatwise.

Heat death could be more problematic, but getting to close range and using a full-round action is pretty risky (for a non-tank) by level 14. Except for a few oddball builds with Hustle, it can only be done once every other round. Compared to Finger of Death or Disintegrate, it's really only problematic because it won't run out of uses per day. Like I said before, I think the narrowness of the Pyrokineticist warrants a little bonus. I'm running a Pyrokineticist now, and so far it hasn't upset the game nearly as much as a few FR feats have.