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The soulknife was one of the coolest ideas in the Expanded Psionics Handbook. Unfortunately, it was one of the weaker executions, spawning a truly astounding number of fixes around the internet (including some from Dreamscarred Press itself).
Largely unaddressed, however, was the need to bring the coolness of the psionic energy blade to other classes. Unaddressed no longer.
Mind Blade Feats isn't about improving your existing soulknife so much as it is about allowing other classes access to the soulknife's signature ability, creating a blade of psychic energy and wrecking havoc with it. Do you invision your paladin smiting his foes with a blade of holy fire? Or maybe you feel your rogue would benefit from a blade that can't be found or taken away by law enforcement agents? Or, perhaps, you want a monk whose ki manifests as physical sais of fury? All can be done easily with this book.
The core of the book consists of fifty feats, including feats that replicate or expand upon soulknife class features, making them available to any class, as well as feats that give other classes' mind blades their own special twists. Also included are specialty levels replacing levels of other classes to more easily integrate mind-blades into them.
"Also, I can kill you with my brain."
- River Tam, Firefly.
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A psionic class built on fear has been a concept long needed, but long in coming. The morphean fills this role nicely.
Mechanically, the morphean bears some resemblance to a psychic warrior with aspirations of being a rogue, but instead of dealing damage, it focuses on bringing your enemy's greatest fears to life, hindering their actions, giving them penalties, and causing them to flee.
One of the traditional stumbling blocks in designing a fear-based class has been the large number of enemies that become immune to fear (by ability or by spell) later in the game. Such a class risks becoming almost impotent should the campaign strongly feature the undead for a period, but giving them carte blanche ability to override "immune to fear" is anti-thematic and potentially unbalancing. The morphean avoids both traps by having a limited ability to work his fear effects on normally immune creatures, but only be expending his powers at essentially twice their normal rate, achieving a nice balance.
In summation, a highly flavorful, well thought-out, and very welcome edition to the psionics library.
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I found this to be an exceedingly well-written, well-thought-out, and flavorful class. It's also excellently balanced, does something that no other base class can do, and is clearly laid-out. This is the closest thing I have seen to a perfect product in some time. Get this while it's still free if you like psionics at all.
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A good game supplement, for players/gms that want to add a little flair to psionic use.
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Quite simply this supplement is pure bull’s-eye. What could possibly be the answer to “I’m bored with all the feats in the XPH, I have nothing left to take”? [I]High Psionics: Psionic Feats[/i], that’s what. A supplement containing over 60 new feats this book has it all. Want to run faster, hit harder, manifest faster or better? This book is for you.
Measuring 17 pages of stuff (the total is 22 including the title page, other info. and OGL stuff) [I]Psionic Feats[/I] gives us a plethora of new options for our characters. Whether you want to be the melee combatant, devastating in melee, dealing extra damage with every strike and pushing foes back or tripping them as you hit or you want to be the powerful psion, damaging opponents from afar but better, making stronger astral constructs, or becoming a savant (no, not the class) with metapsionic feats this supplement can aid you in your desires. Also included are general feats, mantra feats, and even epic feats.
Appearance is always important and here is another area where [I]Psionic Feats[/I] excels. In the full-color version (you get it and the black-and-white version with purchase) the pages appear similar to parchment with a stylized border. Attractive without being distracting. All of the feats are written in the standard format so they’re easy to read and interpret. Included is a table (like in many WotC books) of all the feats, their prerequisites, and a summary of what they do; so you don’t have to waste time reading feats that won’t help your current character (though you really should, because these are awesome feats).
Another bonus is the ease of reading through the pdf. I’ve read a number of very poorly bookmarked files and was delighted to find that this was not one of them. Each entry has a bookmark and it is simple to go from one feat to another without wasting time and effort scrolling up or down or page-by-page.
There is almost nothing wrong with this supplement if you like feats (and if you don’t… ?) Seriously, the only bad thing I can say about this book is that a few (and we’re talking about 3 total, so not a big percentage) of the feats seem… uninspired. It was like these feats were taken from the XPH and Improved, Greater, or a similar adjective was added to the front, then the benefit is: whatever the other feat added 10 to, now it’s 15. But this is [I]only[/I] a few, barely worth mentioning.
A second complaint I would offer would be the lack of any images within the book itself. There is no fluff to this supplement (not surprising considering it’s a sourcebook for feats) so something to break up the large chunks of text would have been nice.
Overall this is a fine addition to anyone’s library of psionic material, and one that excels at what it does. If you plan on playing any psionic class there’s really no reason [I]not[/I] to own this book.
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The answer to “how do I stop running out of power points,” High Psionics: Sequestral Feats allows a manifester to continue using powers virtually all day long. (and not be reduced to “I try to hit it with my dagger” after too many encounters in a day) I cannot think of a time I’ve played a psionic class and not run out of power points. (I do like to nova) This supplement solves that problem giving the manifesting class something to do even when her power points are low, or allowing her to be useful even when conserving power points for later.
The layout is outstanding and very professional in appearance. The pictures included enhance the text without distracting from it or confusing readers by being on a different page than what they exemplify. And one of the best things about all of Dreamscarred Press’s products is they keep with the same style and language that WotC itself does, so there is no “what book am I in and how do I read these entries?” syndrome that can be a problem in other publishers’ books. There is even the normal table on the second page of text that lists all the feats, their prerequisites and a synopsis of what they do. All in all a very aesthetic piece of work.
As for the feats themselves, excellent isn’t quite strong enough a word. About half a page is devoted to explaining how “sequestering” a power works and the benefits you receive. Not only are the mechanics of the feats pretty intuitive they are well balanced too. By giving up the use (temporarily) of a power you gain an effect usable at-will (or continuously on in some cases). The rest, of course, is up to you. Do you want to always have a construct there, watching your back? OK. Do you want to always be able to fire a stream of acid or confuse creatures with a touch? OK. What about always being able to alter your appearance, to look like an average person few would notice? OK to that too. (In fact that feat in particular is one of the best things I have to say about this book, it gives you the ability to use a power that is not in the XPH but another supplement of Dreamscarred Press. But rather than force you to purchase that supplement too, they reprint the power right there for you to use)
So enough of the praise for this book, right? What does it lack, what could make it better? Well, honestly very little. The feats are all magnificent (though I do wish there were more, but I suppose you can’t be too sad, there are 54 of them) and the product as a whole is elegant and not confusing in the least. I suppose the only problem that could be found is if you didn’t like feats. Though if that were the case I can’t fathom why you’d be reading a review on a book of feats.
All in all, outstanding product.
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This is an awesome product. It takes a concept (divine psionics) that to many is in bad taste and develops it beautifully. Reading through it, I don't feel like I'm getting a psionic cleric. The new godminds have their flavor and are not just "psionic gods." Suggestions are given throughout on how to adapt the material to your campaign and how to remove some of the divine flavor if it is undesired.
This pdf includes a detailed table of contents, index, and extensive bookmarking, making it very easy to read, navigate, and use at the gaming table. The product is well-edited, containing no noticeable typos or layout errors.
The rules are very well-balanced. The rules fit the overall theme very well and include ways to help psionics to replace divine magic. For example, psionic nodes, similar to cleric domains, are introduced as a benefit of worshiping a godmind and taking an appropriate feat. These are a great new way for a psionic character to expand his power list without having to take Expanded Knowledge several times. However, some of the feats seem out of place and simply included to fill space.
The new monsters are intriguing and present many new combat options besides the simple "attack, deal damage" or "power, saving throw, damage" templates that plague many new monsters.
All of the rules could be used without the godminds or divine flavor with very minor adjustments (usually simply removing fluff requirement of worshiping a godmind).
The one fault of the product is its artwork. Besides the cover art, all of the artwork is in black and white. Most of the artwork is very cartoony and, in my opinion, takes away from the overall quality of the product. That said, this is a small fault in an otherwise great product.
Overall, The Mind Divine is a fantastic product that continues the great work of Dreamscarred Press. It is well worth picking up, even if you don't care for some of the flavor.
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Countermeasures offers plenty of anti-psionics for both those of the mind and non-psionic characters. It includes an interesting background that can be easily discarded if the flavor doesn’t taste right. And besides the various psionic items, poisons, and creatures are a few feats and the psychic disruptor. Overall it gave the feel of cursed psionic items, but it all tied together very well for a wide variety of uses.
The Fellowship of Freedom has one agenda, eliminate those with psionic ability. The only way a psionic being may avoid their wrath is to join the order in eliminating psionicists. However, the deep hatred of psionic creatures held by all members of the order forces its leaders to keep this most powerful weapon secret.
A host of psionic items are included to combat psionic creatures, with only a few useable against non-psionic creatures. However, these items could easily be adapted for other uses, such as a dominating villain powering his abilities through his captives. The feats range from countering powers, disrupting manifesters more effectively, to trapping psionic items for their next use. An interesting feat, Resonating Interference inhibits the ability to expend or gain psionic focus. Obviously, the poisons and creatures are mostly designed to inhibit psionic characters (considering Brain Mole oil doesn’t even affect non-psionic characters). My particular favorite is the tape worm, since it burrows into the flesh and feeds on power points; particularly nasty to get out by mundane methods. In addition, a sidebar was included explaining how to adapt these various items to spellcasters if the psionic-magic transparency rule exists.
Then there is what I consider the crowning touch of this supplement, the psychic disruptor. Essentially a psychic disruptor is a walking null psionics field, but gains a few other abilities as well. Damage and attack bonuses against psionic creatures, power resistance, and the ability to attack character’s manifesting score make for a well-rounded psion killer. The capstone ability enables a psychic disruptor to put a null psionics effect on one creature for a full hour, but it has its drawbacks.
Really, there isn’t a lot to be said about Countermeasures that isn’t self-explanatory. It delivers on its promise of anti-psionic content very well. Blending non-psionic as well as psionic measures in a sound fashion, this is a great addition for any campaign including psionics.
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As the title suggests, this supplement is the long awaited boost to Soulknife options. Boasting three variant soulknives, as well as a new class that manifests Mind Armor, a multitude of feats, and items created for and even BY soulknives.
The variants allow the Soulknife to comfortably fill entirely new niches in a group. It is now much easier to be a hulking bruiser, a nimble wielder of two blades, or a master of ranged combat, and still be a Soulknife. In addition, these variants include explanations for who the variants work with the Racial Substitution Levels from UTP.
As for the Soul Bastion, it is a defensive approach to the Soulknife’s Mind Blade that flows amazingly well. While the offensive capabilities are limited, it receives unique abilities allowing it to actually control the battlefield and serve as a party tank. My favorite ability was Trade Blows; when damaged in melee, the attacker also takes a percentage of that damage. The drawback is the lack of options outside of multi-classing.
All of the feats are Kensai feats, originally introduced in UTP, meaning they all help the multi-classing Soulknife. Besides offering attack options, a few feats also enable a Soulknife to manifest Soul Armor/Shield. Finally, all of these feats are also Fighter Bonus feats.
And the items are crystal receptacles for Mind Blades. If a Soulknife manifests his mind blade through a crystal hilt, the mind blade strengthens and can be enhanced. In addition to the single hilt are double hilts, crystal bows, and even crystal gauntlets. Also, the creation of these crystal weapons has been adapted into a series of skill checks.
Overall, I had two miniscule problems with HP-Soulknives: Editing and the Soul Bastion options. Fortunately, the process of correcting text errors is well underway. And a Soul Bastion mini-supplement, while not promised, may come along in the future. I definitely feel this product easily deserves the best rating on any scale!
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Psicrystals Expanded
It is usually the little things that can really help define character. The small class options are nice but even allowing some of them to be done in different ways can aid in this. In this PDF that is what they do with psi crystals. It is just a few more options to make them different so ever psion does not seem to have the exact same thing.
High Psionics: Psi Crystals Expanded is one of the great PDF s on psionics Dreamscarred Press has come out with. These guys really know their psionics and their PDfs are quickly becoming the best support for psionic based characters and rules anywhere. This fourteen page PDF comes in an on screen and print version. It has a very nice lay out and it is well book marked. The book has very little art just the cover and a sigil like piece at the very end.
There are a few new and interesting version of the psi crystal. The first one is called the Awakened Psicrystal. It is a bit smarter then the normal ones and has the ability to use a few minor psionic powers itself. There is a list of options on which powers the psi crystal has access to. It is a more powerful option but it also requires the psionic character to take two feats to grant the ability to his psi crystal.. Even then it might be a little too good as there are some good psionic powers a psi crystal would have access to. It is though a very interesting ability and could really make for some fun NPCs with this type of psi crystal.
The implanted Psi crystal is pretty self explanatory. It also requires a feat to do and a bit of experience from the psion. Once implanted it is very much out of harm?s way. It gives the psion and nice initiative bonus and the alertness feat but it of course stuck in the psions body. This option can be combined with others presented in the book.
The Cognizance Psi Crystal also requires a feat and a bit of experience points. But it has the cool abilities of being able to store some of the psions power points and can even be used to refill the psions power points at a later date.
My favorite of the options is the Psicrysmal. It is a psi crystal infused with a bit of earth elemental to become a crystal spider or scorpion. It gets some nice abilities as the psion levels and while it may not have been intended it can make for some cool visuals for NPCs especially ones that are Drow who love the spiders (and scorpions for those using the Eberron setting).
The last psi crystal option might turn out to be the most popular. It is the psi crystal weapon and allows a psion to use their own psionic abilities in conjunction with the weapon. It also requires a feat to use but looks to be well worth it.
The book has new feats in it that are mostly the ones one needs to use these new and cool psi crystal forms. There is also a pair of new psionic monsters both related to psi crystals. This is a very well done book with great rules a great creativity.
LIKED: Very well done with good rules and creativity.
QUALITY: Excellent
VALUE: Very Satisfied
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Solid crunch. A lot of it is several feats compiled from other sources, but many new ones as well. With five general feats to choose, the vast majority (57 to be precise) are naturally, psionic feats. A few Mantra feats (originally introduced in Untapped Potential: New Horizons in Psionics) with full rules for Mantras, also made the cut. And finally for those oft ignored fans of Epic games, five feats have been included.
With a well-organized table layout, there are clear superscripts to help browsing through the feats. The psionic and epic psionic feats tables both explain if psionic focus must be expended or retained in order to use a particular feat. Another nice touch is the inclusion of the Diehard feat, clarifying one of the Mantra feats. A few of the psionic feats grant three bonuses based on three prerequisite powers. All of these types of feats grant a wide variety of new actions for a small cost, and seemed like they would be a lot of fun.
However, the overall layout could be improved. First of all, the first few lines of several feats begun on one page, but the majority of the text was located on the following page. Another annoyance was the prerequisite feats did not have superscripts listing the original sourcebook. And some of the psionic feats were similar in design to tactical feats; separating them from the rest of the psionic feats would have been another boon. Still, the only real complaint is the lack of artwork. Since this sort of product is naturally devoid of a lot of fluff, some well-placed artwork would have been a welcome distraction.
Nonetheless, these feats add many options for enhancing a character. Two that really stuck out were Psionic Gift and Rapid Constructor. Psionic Gift allows one character to aid a manifester in increasing effective ML by taking damage, but this increase in ML also stacks with Overchannel! Finally, Rapid Constructor enables faster manifestation of Astral Construct. Definitely worth the price.
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A master of casting projectiles, a Talon of the Thrush specializes in throwing a single powerful attack in order to dazzle opponents or have that single attack suddenly become many. Add to this a small repertoire of versatile psionic powers, and a truly devastating combatant is born. Third in a series of marksman prestige classes, the Talon of the Thrush focuses on the Thrown Weapon Style of the Marksman at the cost of manifesting ability.
In addition to a faster Signature Style progression, a Talon gains a flash ability allowing the character to intimidate groups of enemies in a surprising fashion. And besides a couple of bonus feats, a Talon also discovers unique ways of furthering the abilities of the Thrown Weapon Style. A particularly interesting one is the split throw. When attacking with a thrown weapon, a Talon may psionically create an identical weapon. Both of these weapons may also be affected by the ricochet ability at the same time, meaning you would have two weapons bouncing across at the battlefield in tandem.
However, these masters are not necessarily self-taught or solitary. An organization with roots growing from the martial teachings of the original Thrush taught to his “talons” is briefly detailed along with a full write-up of its current long-lived leader. If The Talons of the Thrush appeal, there is enough information that fully fleshing out the group should be no problem. Still, this organization can easily be separated from the prestige class for those who find its favor lacking.
Overall, Talon of the Thrush is a solid prestige class. The only major drawback is the built in limitation of its appeal. Without access to the Marksman base class, this prestige class is nigh useless without major conversions. Had either suggestions for altering this prestige class to a more widely accessible pool of characters or had Talon of the Thrush been bundled with the Marksman for sale, this product would have earned the highest rating.
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I am not a fan of sequels. They are usually half-hearted attempts to milk the adoring fans of the first material for any leftover money they have not used to purchase the original?s merchandise. So, when I heard that there was a new supplement from DreamScarred that was a follow-up to one of my favorite psionic classes of this decade, the society mind, I cringed a bit.
Untapped Classes: Soulbinder turned out not to be the horrific sequel I was dreading. For a little over a buck, it is a potent prestige class that adds some depth to the Social Mind.
For a refresher, the social mind was a psionic character from Untapped Psionics. Members of the class can link up mentally to other classes and perform more powerful psionic abilities. Also, they can communicate with each other and use this knowledge against their opponent. They make really good npc villains at midlevel. The Soulbinder is the computer worm of the Society Mind. It allows an individual whom is networked to other Society Minds to do anything from dominating at lower levels to stealing abilities and psionic powers at higher levels.
The PDF contains 9 pages and is pretty typical of a prestige class write-up. There is a bit more detail to the ?Playing the Prestige Class? section than I have seen elsewhere, as it details how to play the character in and out of combat. It also provides a knowledge table and other information about how a Soulbinder may fit into your campaign world. The last few pages have a high level soul binder statted out. Another version of the character at a lower level would have been cool to include for mook use.
For the Player
Soulbinders utilize a lot of subtle psionic powers. Think of him as a psionic spy and have fun dominating your DM?s favorite PC?s thoughts.
For the DM
The class is rightfully powered for its level progression and has some useful skills for an NPC.
The Iron Word
My fears were for naught as Untapped Classes: Soulbinder proved to be a nice additional prestige class for those who want to turn the tables on the network instead of spreading it.
LIKED: -good detail
- abilities compliment the original class
- The idea of the psionic spy is an innovative idea.
DISLIKED: - must own untapped classes and can only be used by one class in the book
QUALITY: Acceptable
VALUE: Satisfied
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Publisher Reply: |
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Nathan - I just wanted to point out that the Society Mind base class (and all of its class-specific feats, powers, and items) are all available for free in Untapped Classes: Society Mind, avaiable here at RPGNow, for those customers worried about not having Untapped Potential: New Horizons in Psionics.
Otherwise, thank you for the review! |
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Excellent Supplement!
If you are wanting to make your Psionics have that custom touch with some high power items and ideals, this is the download for you. I've been playing these tools for 3 weeks now, the party absolutely loves them.
Arauthator
QUALITY: Very Good
VALUE: Very Satisfied
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Races of the Mind: Elan is, as the name would imply, all about elans—their background, their culture, and their unique abilities. It is published by Dreamscarred Press and is up to their usual quality standards.
Appearance
The full-color cover depicts a stylized starburst design on a background of what appear to be scales of some sort, probably to represent the elans’ aberrant nature. Races of the Mind: Elan contains seven black-and-white illustrations; five of these are nicely sketched and quite good, but the two psionic monsters (which I will cover later) aren’t quite up to par, looking more like something out of the 1st edition Monster Manual. The 19 pages have a faux-medieval border and the tables are in the usual bicolor format typical of the 3.5 edition layout. I like the fact that Dreamscarred Press follows the Wizards of the Coast format—I’ve seen some third-party material with vastly different formats which only serve to distract from the material presented.
Flavor
Races of the Mind: Elan starts out with a short summary of what an elan is, presenting a few paragraphs of scenes from different elans’ points of view. The rest of the flavor portion of the work is laid out as follows:
• Elan Psychology, describing elan behavior and outlook on immortality;
• Elan Life, describing the transformation from human to elan;
• Society and Culture, describing elan cities, art, and philosophy;
• Language and Religion—self explanatory;
• History and Folklore, describing the First Elan; and
• Elan and Other Races, describing elan relations with both psionic and non-psionic races.
The analysis of life from an elan’s point of view is fascinating, as is the explanation of the elan transformation. The information presented is interesting and useful, and does not fall into the trap of stating the obvious. The descriptions of elan law and view of immortality are particularly intriguing.
Mechanics
The mechanics portion presents three new feats that expand on the elan racial abilities, as well as two sets of “racial specialty levels,†two prestige classes, one monster, and one template.
I felt the abilities gained by the specialty levels were somewhat bland, though well-balanced, except for the elan rogue’s ability to halve an opponent’s manifester/caster level instead of taking a sneak attack and the elan wilder’s ability to determine power points and save DCs as if he or she had no racial Charisma penalty. I’m not sure the other levels are worth taking, but these two might be. The prestige classes, on the other hand, were very appealing—the estranged psyche gains some immunities and abilities focusing on his or her insanity and new ability to drive others insane, and the psion adroit resembles the archmage, choosing from a menu of abilities—such as overcoming immunities and changing a power’s range—gained at the cost of permanently sacrificing power points. I would have to say that it is almost worth the cost to buy Races of the Mind: Elan for the prestige classes alone.
The Tormented One is a monster resulting from the human-to-elan transformational process being used on a nonhuman; it has a few psi-like abilities, but is otherwise a feral monster focused on melee combat. I’m not sure we needed yet another tank-type monster, but at least this has a few special abilities to distinguish it. “Unavailed†is a template, applicable to any human, which represents a failure in the transformation process. The main theme of the template seems to be draining power points, but although the templated creature is said to “gain†the power points rather than simply remove them from its target, it is never explained what use it might have for them, as it cannot innately manifest powers. Otherwise, the Unavailed is slightly above-average, with a good mix of abilities and flavor.
Overall Reactions
As I already stated, I predominantly liked the descriptions of elan life and the prestige classes. The specialty levels and monsters were well-balanced, though they felt like filler and I just don’t think they were different enough to merit inclusion in a campaign. Everything was well organized, with appropriate bookmarks. There were a few editing errors, such as including the wrong ability name in a table and a sentence or two where allthespaceswereleftoutanditwashardtoread, although hopefully these errors can be fixed.
If you are a fan of the elan and like tweaking the mechanics to give things more flavor and more customization, this product is for you. If you liked the Wizards of the Coast’s Races series and its insights into the various races, this product is for you. If you are a diehard psionics fan (and who isn’t?), this product is for you. If you are looking for the new and the different, you might be slightly—very slightly—disappointed.
Overall, I would give Races of the Mind: Elan four out of five stars for amazing flavor and prestige classes but slightly lackluster monster and class levels.
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