[PF] Mental Medicine: a Vitalist Handbook

[deuxhero]

So what exactly stops you from adding a Augur, Ceru, Arbiter, Cacodaemon, Imp, Mephit, Nycar, Quasit, Shikigami, Spirit Oni, Tripurasura or Voidworm familiar to your collective, whack it with a sap and healing up everyone before letting it fully recover? Augur explicitly likes carnage and even practices self mutilation (!) so its an out if the GM adds consequences to "abusing" a familiar (though you need to be evil...).

This can actually be combined with another dirty familiar trick: Take one with regeneration (Augur and Arbiter) and give it a wand of Shield Other. Not only does any target of the spell (and you can use multiple charge) take half damage, the rest go to a bottomless pool of the undying familiar (you can stop it from getting hit by putting it in something, it doesn't need to breath and if its your gear it can still target you) which then lets its fast healing part kick in and you can redirect that to whoever took the damage. Since you have to have Psionics in play to be a vitalist you can take it further and potentially even get a psychic reformation on an Augur to change its 2 feats into Endurance (or extra traits+adopted+boar resilience+whatever, however little sense that makes)+Diehard and have it keep using wands on you when its at negative infinity HP

Neither of these require it be your familiar (though it's certainly possible to afford a trait that gives a scaling SLA, skill focus, Eldritch Heritage and Improved Familiar as a vitalist), but its clearly worth noting

[JusticeZero]

That was actually brought up awhile back. The ways to prevent that are a bit arcane, and furthermore, it's hazy exactly why out of combat healing being available free is even a major issue; it's a relatively minor GP sink to replace, after all.

[deuxhero]

Alright. I think Paizo agrees, as I forgot there were the Boots of the Earth now too.

Question:

Soulthief's Soulthief's Expertise says

In addition, any time a soulthief manifests a power or psi-like ability that deals hit point damage

Does this mean that the recovery is once per manifesting, or is Energy Current able to heal a buttload?

[Psyren]

It would probably continue to heal as long as you're doing damage, but only based on the target that took the most.

It sounds like a lot (and it's certainly efficient from a PP standpoint) but there are ways to burst heal much higher.

[deuxhero]

How about on the damage (particularly when paired with Solicit Psycrystal)? Are there better blasting options?

[Psyren]

How about on the damage (particularly when paired with Solicit Psycrystal)? Are there better blasting options?

It does d6/level each round, much like any other blast you could be doing. The DPM is great since you don't have to keep spending power points, but like I said, you can burst higher if taking something down fast is more important.

With Solicit it works great, but with the range so short and your psicrystal unable to move, you will have to stay pretty close to the enemies to keep it going, which could be dangerous for both of you (though VSP tricks minimize that risk.) This is indeed a good power for solicit though.

Another trick is for you to manifest it on yourself, have your psicrystal take over control of it, and use Energy Conversion (shared with your psicrystal to protect it from the radius) to zap enemies with lasers. This way you can shoot enemies every round without the associated saving throws.

[Flesh_Engine]

Your mention of the Astral Construct being able to partake in the Collective got me thinking;
Vitalist Sadist + Expanded Knowledge(Astral Construct), put the AC in your collective then when it dies you'll regain a portion of its cost as temp PP (TPP), breaking even at ML 13 and making a 'profit' from there (2 Tpp at most).

Apart from that, they can be used as fuel for Empowered in Pain, and provide some additional healing since they can take Fast Healing 2 as a Menu option at ML 7 (which could take the edge off using Overchannel to crank up your ML and save a feat).

If you use Echoing Power you could gain some TPP to (re)fill your Cognizance Crystals. (Starting lvl 13 you can Echo Astract Construct for 13 PP, creating a lvl 5 AC with 7 HD, gaining you 14 tPP in total, which you pump into the Crystals, netting a +1 each time)
This effectively means that you can replenish your Cognizance Crystals for free each day by standing around while healing the party through the AC's Fast Healing. Keep in mind that the Crystal's capacity also dictates what power you could manifest by paying from it's pool. (due to the partial paying rule) If the tPP would fade too fast due to reduced wisdom or whatever, just dismiss the AC the round after you summoned it, "killing" it and reaping the succulent tPP :)
If you use Overchannel and/or Akashic Augmentation then you could do it earlier...

The downsides are that manifesting AC takes a round and then you'd still need to add them in the collective( and you'll need large expensive Cognizance Crystals to make the most of it) and you'll need some way apart from healing to unload the 400+ PP you'll be moving around each day...

The feat "Akashic Augmentation" from Akashic Mysteries (DSP) can shave off 1 PP from each augmented power, which could end up saving a lot of PP for the Vitalist over the course of one day, regardless his focus.

[talonos]

Question:

Whenever a willing member of the vitalist's collective could regain lost hit points or ability damage, the vitalist may choose to redirect any or all of that healing to one or more other willing members of the collective as a free action.

Nothing that I have read suggests that you can take any free actions besides speaking when it is not your turn.

Does this mean a vitalist cannot use collective healing to transfer other people's healing effects? Like, if I drink a potion, I can transfer the healing to my friends because it's my turn and I can therefore use free actions, but if my friend drinks a potion I cannot assign it to me without having either him or I delay an action to do so?

I just noticed this yesterday. It kinda breaks the vitalist for me if it's true. :(

[Psyren]

Question:



Nothing that I have read suggests that you can take any free actions besides speaking when it is not your turn.

Does this mean a vitalist cannot use collective healing to transfer other people's healing effects? Like, if I drink a potion, I can transfer the healing to my friends because it's my turn and I can therefore use free actions, but if my friend drinks a potion I cannot assign it to me without having either him or I delay an action to do so?

I just noticed this yesterday. It kinda breaks the vitalist for me if it's true. :(

There's a Dreamscarred FAQ thread where the designers are clarifying their intent on things like this, I'd try asking for a FAQ there.

I will point out that Ultimate Psionics made their intent pretty clear in the example text. Ultimate Psionics 71:

Example: Darius the soulknife is a willing member of Jorus the vitalist’s collective. He drinks a potion of cure light wounds that would normally heal him for 6 hit points, but Jorus decides to redirect 4 of those points to himself. Darius agrees and, as a result, Darius is healed for 2 hit points, and Jorus is healed for 4. If there were more members in Jorus’s collective, Jorus could spread the healing from that potion out even more as long as the sum of hit points healed was no greater than 6.

The example happens during Darius' turn (the soulknife), yet Jorus (the vitalist) is still able to use the redirect ability. So while the wording is wonky, they pretty clearly intended you (the vitalist) to be able to use this when it's not your turn. Show your GM that text and they'll hopefully agree.

[talonos]

The example happens during Darius' turn (the soulknife), yet Jorus (the vitalist) is still able to use the redirect ability. So while the wording is wonky, they pretty clearly intended you (the vitalist) to be able to use this when it's not your turn.

Doip. Clear intent is clear.

Thanks a ton!

[Valerem]

Sorry for the bump, but might I know if there's any plans to update this? Not only is there Ultimate Psionics which has been out for a while, but you have powers missing that are up on the SRD. Not to mention the rather glaring hole of no feats or equipment. Which is pretty important to have in all honestly. Stuff like Boots of Earth, for infinite out of combat healing for everyone in your collective for exactly. As well as what feats can pick up your healing or utility.

Plus, adding in a colour code would make the guide a lot easier to read, at least imo... there's a reason why most guides have one.

[MilleniaAntares]

Here is a Google sheet I have begun that shows how much healing a vitalist can do. This is not comprehensive at all, but it should be able to show just the optimal combination to use each power, depending on the amount of power points and targets in the collective.

The cells marked green at the most optimal for that particular power at that amount of PP. Of note is that Natural Healing is better than Body Adjustment and Mend Body in most circumstances, though Body Adjust is superior at particular points when using Maximize Power.

Feedback is appreciated, be it here, in private message, or on the sheet itself!

[Vrath]

Feats and Equipment

WIP

First of all I love your guide, +9000 awesomesauce ... I'm making my first Vitalist now joining a very large in progress game at level 15 and the Shared Power feat just blew my mind with possibilities.