Psionics Augmented: Soulknives III

The third expansion-pdf for the soulknife class clocks in at 14 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 1/2 page blank, 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 9.5 pages, though these pages are chock-full with text – and this time around, we look at a ton of PrCs…so what do we get?

After the obligatory introduction page, including the high-power-advice sidebar we know from the predecessors, we are introduced to the first of the PrCs, the Marvel. All PrCs herein cover the full 10 standard levels of PrCs.

The marvel, chassis-wise, receives d12 HD and receives 4 + Int skills per level as well as 9/10th manifester level progression, full BAB and 1/2 Fort-save progression. To qualify, you need to have the enhanced mind blade class feature as well as telekinetic athleticism, 2 psionic feats, one of which must be Psionic Body, the other an offense enhancer and the PrC also needs 5 ranks in two skills, 4 in a third, so qualification-wise, it is not too easy, nor too default to get into this one. The marvel, from level 1 out, continues to improve blade skills et al. as well as psychic warrior path abilities and trances. The PrC also adds Wisdom Modifier to Strength for the purpose of determining carrying capacity etc. and may throw rocks and objects that exceed the size limitations of the character. At 2nd level, while focused, the marvel receives a scaling bonus to natural AC and 3rd and 9th level provide psychic strike progression. 4th level nets fly speed 60 ft. with good maneuverability while psionically focused, up to class level + Wis-mod minutes per day. This limit is eliminated at 8th level, just fyi. 5th level nets DR 5/adamantine and 6th level a new blade skill. 7th level lets the character automatically overcome ANY DR while psionically focused (not a fan here). Tenth level increases DR to 10/-. and outsider apotheosis…and the marvel doesn’t need to maintain psionic focus any more.

I like the marvel – it is a cool rendition of the psionic/telekinetic superhero-type of character and while the DR-ignoring is something I’ll tweak, I have no complaints pertaining the balance of this one. Kudos!

The second PrC herein would be the primarch, who needs to be able to generate a +3 mind blade enhancement, must be capable of throwing the mind blade and has a few skill, skill skill and feat prereqs – like the marvel, not to easy and not too hard to qualify for. The PrC gets d10 HD, 4 + Int skills per level, full BAB-progression, 1/2 Fort-save progression and psychic strike progression at both 3rd and 8th level. The PrC treats its level as soulknife levels for the purpose of blade skills etc. and the PrC and gifted blade support is included, if you’re going for the high-psionics route. Interesting: The defining first level psychic epiphany class feature is defined by the blade skill used to qualify for the PrC: When qualifying via e.g. Ice Blade, your soulknife receives the frost weapon enhancement. The PrC may also, once per encounter as an immediate action, trade a blade skill for another one, a total of 3 + Wis-mod times. 4th level lets him trade out 2, 7th 3 and at 10th level, he gets a wildcard slot to be filled at the start of any given encounter. The trade lasts for 1 minute. One question: 4th and 7th level’s additional trades: Are they included in the immediate action activation or not? As written, the ability sports no caveat that precludes you from using the ability multiple times in consecutive rounds, which makes the whole sequence a bit ambiguous.

2nd and 6th level provide new blade skills and 4th level further upgrades the power of the soulknife, following up on the 1st level ability; if you e.g. got the aforementioned frost improvement, you now increase damage and also get a related psi-like ability. Starting at 5th level, the primarch receives energy resistance or DR, depending on the element chosen, while retaining psionic focus and 10th level, further upgrades the sequence of blade-abilities with a cool capstone: For expenditure of both psychic strike and psionic focus, you can unleash some devastating psi-like abilities…or cause nasty Whirlwind bleeds. Neat!

The third PrC herein would be the Strategos, whose qualifying criteria require manifester level 5th as well as telepathy; it similarly is pretty easy to qualify for. The PrC gets d8 HD, 4 + Int skills per level, 3/4 BAB-progression, 1/2 Will-save progression, 9/10 manifester level progression. The PrC receives uncanny dodge at 4th level, improved uncanny dodge at 8th level and begin at 1st level with a collective. When using the metapsionic knife feat (which was one of the feats from PA: Soulknives II imho, power-level-wise, would be closer to a class feature than a feat…), the PrC may expend psychic strike in lieu psionic focus to deliver power effects through the mindblade. The PrC retains mind blade and blade skill efficiency progression of the soul knife and manifesting progression draws power from the tactician power list when choosing powers. 2nd level nets an insight bonus equal to the primary manifesting attribute modifier, capping at class level, versus foes in range of telepathy, but only versus foes whose surface thoughts he can read. Unique: The PrC may lend mind blades to allies (reducing the enhancement bonus of the blade) and he may also treat an ally’s position as his own, using blade skills to attack through allies, which makes for a very interesting playing experience.

Starting at 3rd level, the PrC gains a collective skill, with every odd level thereafter granting an additional collective skill. These allow for the lending of mind armors or shields, swapping places with allies and charge the collective with his psychic strike, allowing allies to use the psychic strike charge as part of a free action. Interesting: Allies with psychic strike may also recharge a collective they’re part of…which may be a bit strong if your players are wont to feature cohorts and the like. The maximum of 1 charge per collective, however, does retain balance for the ability. Beyond offensive and defensive buffs, the ability to add your own AoO to that of an ally can be pretty nasty, but also tactical. While it lets you combo hard, it can be considered to be still in line. The improved blade collective ability has some sort of ccp hiccup: “He is may now grant his mind blade to an ally without reducing his mind blade’s enhancement bonus. Mind blades gifted to allies have reduce their enhancement bonus reduced by 1, but do not reduce the bonuses of any other mind blades.” I am pretty sure that something went wrong here. Sharing balde skills with allies is cool and 6th level increases telepathy save DCs by +2 as well as saves against the discipline by +2. The capstone is amazing: You vanish and make one attack per ally contained in the collective!

The strategos is strong, but the relatively fragile framework makes for a nice balance for the concepts…and rules- and playing-experience-wise, these guys are frickin’ glorious!

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are good, but not as good as usual for Dreamscarred Press – there are a few hiccups. Layout adheres to the 2-column full-color standard and the book has the neat full-color artwork of the cover. The pdf comes with a second, more printer-friendly version and is fully bookmarked for your convenience.

Chris Bennett’s third expansion for the soulknife class provides 3 concise, fun PrCs. The Marvel and in particular, the strategos, are absolutely amazing. The primarch, while nice, didn’t capture my imagination to the same extent, but that is a personal issue and not something I’d fault the pdf for. Where the second installment sported some options that I considered to be problematic, the ones herein work in the context of both relatively gritty and high-powered gameplay. While the PrCs are pretty strong, it is only in conjunction with previous installments that issues can show up for grittier games, so as long as you take care regarding the combo potential, you’re fine with these. The strategos’ playing experience as a center at the storm unleashed by his collective is intriguing and fun. How to rate this, then? Well, this may not be perfect, but it is a fun supplement that sports some design-wise intriguing options – hence, my final verdict will clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded up fo the purpose of this platform.

You can get these cool PrCs here on OBS!

You can directly support Dreamscarred Press here on patreon!
Endzeitgeist out.

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