Complete Psionic [Review]

= CHAPTER ONE =

There are three new psionic classes introduced in this chapter: the ardent, the
divine mind, and the lurk. One of these things is not like the other, as we will
soon see, but thankfully not in terms of quality. All three are quite playable
and indeed interesting classes.

The ardent and the divine mind share a class feature: each has access to psionic
analogues of clerical domains called mantles. They differ, however, both in
their use of mantles and in the flavour of how they use them.

Unlike a psion or wilder, an ardent is fully proficient with heavy armour and
shields, though they are restricted to simple weapons and have a d6 hit die.

The ardent is intended as a full manifesting class: they gain access to psionic
powers at 1st level. These powers, and all the powers they gain as they level in
the ardent class, must be drawn from the lists associated with their chosen
mantles. They choose two "primary mantles" at 1st level and gain access to
secondary mantles as they gain levels. Like a clerical domain, each mantle
grants an ability related to its theme, as we can see in these examples drawn
from the March previews:

CONFLICT MANTLE

Granted Ability: You are more in tune with martial concepts and gain the Weapon
Focus feat as a bonus feat with a weapon of your choice.

1 Metaphysical Weapon: Weapon gains +1 bonus.
1 Prescience, Offensive: Gain +2 insight bonus on your damage rolls.
2 Psionic Lion's Charge: You can make a full attack in the same round you
charge.
3 Dimension Slide: Teleports you a very short distance.
4 Immovability: You are almost impossible to move and gain damage reduction
15/--.
5 Psychic Crush: Brutally crush subject's mental essence, reducing subject to -1
hit points.
5 Graft Weapon: Your hand is replaced seamlessly by your weapon.
8 Spirit of War: Confer +4 on attack rolls and damage rolls, +10 to one save,
and confirm one critical threat.

FREEDOM MANTLE

Granted Ability: While psionically focused, you gain a +10-foot bonus to your
speed. You can expend your focus to add your manifester level to a roll made to
resist being grappled or to escape from a grapple.

1 Dimension Hop: Swiftly teleport a short distance.
2 Hustle: Instantly gain a move action.
4 Fly, Psionic: You fly at a speed of 60 ft.
5 Freedom of Movement, Psionic: You cannot be held or otherwise rendered
immobile.
5 Teleport, Psionic: Instantly transports you as far as 100 miles/level.
6 Evade Burst: You take no damage from a burst on a successful Reflex save.
8 Teleport, Psionic Greater: As psionic teleport, but with no range limit and no
off-target arrival.

A difference from clerical domains, as you can see in the examples above, is
that a mantle does not provide a power at every level. This isn't really much of
an issue, given that the strength of psionic powers is tied not to their level
but to the number of power points spent to manifest it, but it's worth noting in
reference to the other rule regarding ardents' selection of powers: they must
always, if possible, know more powers from each of their primary mantles than
they have learned from their secondary mantles.

The only time it's permissible to know more powers from a secondary mantle is
when there are no more primary mantle powers available to learn at a given
level. It is also occasionally possible for an ardent to make one of their
secondary mantles primary and relegate an existing primary mantle to secondary
status, though in many cases this means they will have to

The flavour of the ardent class is interesting. They are characters who have
devoted their psionic abilities to the exploration of a philosophy; their
philosophy is reflected in their choice of mantles. A Robin Hood type, for
instance, might select Good and Freedom as primary mantles, taking Guardian as a
secondary mantle. There are at least two dozen mantles available, which provides
an incredible potential for customising the class to suit the character's
outlook on life (and the ability to switch primary mantles allows for the
possibility that a character's philosophy will evolve as they adventure).
Ardents are specifically noted for devoting themselves to their philosophy
rather than to any deities who might be associated with similar concepts.

In contrast, the divine mind is a character explicitly devoted to a deity (or,
in the case of Eberron, a religion such as the Blood of Vol or the kalashtar
Path of Light), who forms a mental, psionic connection with the power of that
deity and draws strength from it in the form of mantles and, eventually, psionic
powers. Like the ardent, a divine mind has access to heavy armour and shields;
unlike the ardent, they have access to all martial weapons. If the ardent is
similar to a cleric, the divine mind is similar to a paladin.

Interestingly, they share a feature not with D&D paladins but with characters of
that name as they appear in Diablo II and World of Warcraft: auras. All divine
minds have access to three basic auras, gaining additional aura effects from
their selection of mantles (in addition to the mantle ability and associated
psionic powers). The effects and size of these auras improve as the divine mind
advances in level, and they can activate several auras at once and switch
between them more rapidly at higher levels.

As an example, the Creation aura heals constructs at the rate of 1 hit point per
hour initially; by 17th level it heals 1 hit point per round. This synergises
fairly well with the Creation mantle itself, which grants Ectopic Form (which
adds a mini-template to creatures made with the astral construct power) as a
bonus feat and therefore tends the divine mind towards the use of constructs.

Each deity (or Eberron religion) listed in the book is drawn from either the
core deities, the two deities (Zuoken and Ilsensine) detailed in the Expanded
Psionics Handbook, Forgotten Realms, or Eberron, and has four mantles associated
with them. The divine mind gains access to all four of these mantles eventually.

Finally, we come to the lurk: no mantles here! In contrast to the high degree of
customisation made possible by the selection of mantles for the ardent and the
divine mind, all lurks have access to pretty much the same abilities: a list of
augments for their attacks. For instance, lurks gains access to sneak attack as
long as they are psionically focused; they can also spend power points to gain
extra sneak attack dice. Other augments include ignoring miss chances for
concealment, adding flat damage to an attack, or disrupting an enemy's psionic
focus with an attack.

In addition to a list of roguish skills, lurks have access to a host of sneaky
psionic powers, intended to facilitate their performance as a spy and a killer.
They have access to light armour and martial weapons.

I'll detail the prestige classes, feats, and some of the interesting new psionic
powers in future installments.

In article <zfG0g.8356$vy1.3450@news-server.bigpond.net.au>,
mhacdebhandia RemoveThis @yahoo.invalid says...

> Finally, we come to the lurk: no mantles here! In contrast to the high degree of
> customisation made possible by the selection of mantles for the ardent and the
> divine mind, all lurks have access to pretty much the same abilities: a list of
> augments for their attacks. For instance, lurks gains access to sneak attack as
> long as they are psionically focused; they can also spend power points to gain
> extra sneak attack dice. Other augments include ignoring miss chances for
> concealment, adding flat damage to an attack, or disrupting an enemy's psionic
> focus with an attack.
>
> In addition to a list of roguish skills, lurks have access to a host of sneaky
> psionic powers, intended to facilitate their performance as a spy and a killer.
> They have access to light armour and martial weapons.

Martial? That's interesting. I assume medium BAB. Right? What about HD?

Could you tell us more about the flavour of the lurk? Is he supposed to
be just a mechanical variation on the assassin (as D&D uses the term: a
sneaky, slightly supernatural killer), or is there something more?


--
Jasin Zujovic