[Dreamscarred Press] Psionics Augmented: Occult

[Forrestfire]

Welcome to the playtest for Psionics Augmented: Occult, the latest in Dreamscarred Press’ line of psionics expansions. With this project, we’re working to integrate Pathfinder’s recent book Occult Adventures with our psionics system, bringing psionic versions of occult classes, ties to the occult for psionic classes, new feats and powers, and more.

Unlike some of Dreamscarred Press’ previous playtests, we’re trying a new model with this one. Rather than releasing an entire book worth of material for testing at once, we’ll be putting out smaller packets of rules over time. We hope that this “rolling playtest” will allow us to focus on, well, focused testing of new class options, abilities, and the like, and allow us to release them sooner rather than later. The end result will be that we can get the new stuff from the playtest to your table as efficiently as possible, without compromising on the quality you’ve come to expect from DSP. We will be periodically updating the playtest with new material, as well as keeping a close eye on the feedback we receive here.

So, without further ado, let’s take a look at what we’ve got to offer:

Wave A (December 18th, 2015)

• The Gambler, a kineticist archetype focused on balancing high amounts of risk for a great reward, while delivering variable elemental damage with their kinetic blasts.

• The Goetic, a spiritualist archetype who, rather than calling a phantom to do their bidding, binds seven otherworldly horrors into their body to make their power their own. This defense-focused archetype allows the spiritualist to transform themselves into horrific new forms to warp the battlefield and protect what is theirs. In addition, we have two more, less intensive archetypes for the spiritualist: the Athanatic Channeler, a spiritualist who uses psionic powers rather than psychic spells, and the Crystalline Binder, who stores their phantom in a psicrystal and can cause it to transform into a heavily-armored creature of crystal and ectoplasm. Finally, we have the Unpattern, an archetype that can be applied to a spiritualist’s phantom, allowing it to tear reality asunder with its tattered form.

• The Living Legend, a soulknife archetype that invokes stories of heroes and villains to gain their strength, weaving words into weaponry and creating the tools out of mental power to make their mark on the world.

• The Ringleader, a mesmerist who’s always the life of the party, and can draw both allies and enemies into his festivities with a special collective called a carnevale.

Wave B (January 8th, 2016)

• The Govi, an occultist who inverts their normal training in the arts of magic circles and mystical traps to go on the attack against extraplanar interlopers and possessing creatures. We've also added a few new feats for occultists in their document, with more to come.

• The Host of Heroes, an aegis archetype with medium-theming similar to the Living Legend. They can modify their astral suit to fit legendary figures they seek to emulate and piggyback on the fame of, and gain benefits based on the myths they weave into their power.

• The Mindrender, a mesmerist with dread terrors who is more terrifying that fear itself, who can lock people down with his stare.

• The Shattered Mind, a psionic occultist who shards off his mind and soul into his implements, turning them into psicrystals and storing his psionic powers in them.

Wave C (January 29th, 2016)

• The Avant Guard, a kineticist archetype that partially shields their body from the ill effects of burn using psionic power, and manifests the remainder of their power in the form of an ectoplasmic guardian. We've also written up some new feats for kineticists.

• The Shadow Aspect, a wilder fueled by emptiness and neglect. Rather than getting standard wild surges, they gain a special type of phantom.

• Psionic discipline occultist implements; one each for athanatism, clairsentience, metacreativity, psychokinesis, psychometabolism, psychoportation, and telepathy. Any occultist with the psionic subtype may learn to use these implements, allowing a spellcasting occultist to cross over into uncharted territory, or a Shattered Mind occultist to focus entirely on psionics.

• A set of Psionic Skill Unlocks and several related feats, as well as rules for using occult skill unlocks as a psionic character.

Wave D (February 21st, 2016)

• The Cryptographer psion archetype, who has cracked the code of psychic magic in order to gain access to an occultist implement matching their discipline specialization.

• The Empath, a psionic medium archetype that eschews spirits and instead allows a character to connect themselves to all people and all histories, and share in the most powerful communal thoughts through the ages. These Zeitgeists determine the psionic powers and class abilities of an Empath.

• Psionically-themed kineticist wild talents for use by both normal kineticists and Avant Guards.

• A section on the differences between psionics and psychic magic, as well as two new feats (Charlatan and Psicrystal Ball) towards the end of that document.

• Some feats for spiritualists, psionic or otherwise.

We look forward to your feedback, and hope you enjoy the ride.