XPH: Psychic reformation

[harmster]

Greetings,
My psion just reached level 7 which means he can now use level 4 powers. Beside Domination I'd like to pick Psychic Reformation. It is the power I always dreamed of. But "The subject can also choose to forget powers it aqcuired when advancing to....." etcetc. Does this mean that I can ditch all my, say, first level powers and replace then with fourth level powers? That would be awesome. Not to mention very powerful.
Any thoughts?

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Greetings,
My psion just reached level 7 which means he can now use level 4 powers. Beside Domination I'd like to pick Psychic Reformation. It is the power I always dreamed of. But "The subject can also choose to forget powers it aqcuired when advancing to....." etcetc. Does this mean that I can ditch all my, say, first level powers and replace then with fourth level powers? That would be awesome. Not to mention very powerful.
Any thoughts?

No, it doesn't. It means you can exchange your 1st level powers for other 1st level powers. And stop being a munchkin.. your DM will thank you for it!

 

[Darklone]

Well, as written you can exchange powers freely... since the psion now qualifies for the new powers... Yet some expressions in the description ("undo") hint that this was not the intention.

It's clearly not allowed for feats and skills.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

I'd allow you to pick another power you could've taken at the time you took that power. So say at level 4 I decided to take a first level power instead of a 2nd level power. I'd allow the player using reformation to ditch that first level power to take a second level power.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

I'd allow you to pick another power you could've taken at the time you took that power. So say at level 4 I decided to take a first level power instead of a 2nd level power. I'd allow the player using reformation to ditch that first level power to take a second level power.

That seems fair, assuming you've tracked at which level you'd picked up your powers.

 

[Tkolhoff]

There are set limits concerning how many powers of a certain level you can attain. If you swap out powers this limit still needs to be inforced.

 

[Thanee]

The subject can undo decisions of these sorts that were made at lower levels, if both the subject and the manifester agree to pay the necessary XP before this power is manifested (see below). The subject must abide by the standard rules for selecting skills and feats, and so it cannot take feats for which it doesn’t qualify or take crossclass skills as class skills.

I suppose this means you must now qualify for them (note, that "it cannot take feats for which it doesn't qualify" is written in present tense, not past tense). Yes, this would allow you to upgrade all your powers to a higher level, but this is often not very useful, since the lower level powers are often more useful, anyways, because of the way augmentation works. In case of class skills, you can only spend them in the way your current class dictates, I suppose.

So, basically, with a cost of 50 XP per character level, you can simply rewrite your character's skills, feats and powers completely (picking new ones according to your current level).

And combined with Dominate you can also change other characters to your liking, by making them agree to it.

This power belongs to 9th level, not 4th.

Bye
Thanee

 

[harmster]

I agree on the munchkin part. And I love it. But the suggestions made all fall into the 'play fair' category, which is fine. But the _rules_ say nor suggest anything in that direction. But ofcourse I could very well be mistaken. I won't use reformation that way but it can be done. Legally.

 

[Piratecat]

I suppose this means you must now qualify for them (note, that "it cannot take feats for which it doesn't qualify" is written in present tense, not past tense). Yes, this would allow you to upgrade all your powers to a higher level...

If I understand you correctly, I don't believe you're correct here. You effectively go back and rebuild your character level by level, right? That means that if I spend the XP to go back and change my 1st lvl choices, I can't take anything other than 1st lvl powers. At least, that's my understanding of the power when I read it.

 

[Thanee]

It's certainly not clear, but yes, you got it right, what I meant.

I think the present tense hints at that you choose them according to your current abilities and level.

You undo previous decisions, but you decide on how to select them now, as if you gain a new feat, power or skill points suddenly. That's how I understand it.

But really, that part wouldn't change much, the power as is is already pretty damn powerful (as I said, I'd see it more in the realms of 9th level than 4th (even without the power level improvement part)), that's just the icing on the cake. Especially with the power augmentation system it's often not adviseable to switch to higher level powers.

Bye
Thanee