Talk:Esper (3.5e Race)

Comments

I don't really know what to say about the overall balance, other than that it's impossible to justify a +10 in any one ability score at LA +1 regardless of how immense the penalties are. Personally, I would reduce the ability score bonuses and penalties to a level that is more in line with LA +1.

'No BAB' will severely hurt spellcasters and manifesters that rely on touch attack spells or powers, especially at higher levels. Messing with BAB in general is not a good idea.

Natural Psychokinetic Power and the object throwing feature are both pretty weaksauce for being such a thematic part of the article. Statwise it's like an ability striking dagger that you can throw, and I assume it too will suffer from the BAB reduction.

This whole article seems like it would benefit from being better integrated in the psionics system in the first place. I don't do a lot with psionics and manifesting so my knowledge on the system is limited, but since that is the angle you are going for, I would suggest finding ways to make this synergize better with abilities that psionic classes get naturally.

Finally, why is this a race? I feel that it would be much more usable as a template. The very first line of the article describes these guys as 'humans who have unlocked powerful psionics'. Why can't elves or dwarves be espers? --Sulacu (talk) 07:31, 18 January 2017 (MST)

I'll reduce the scores but the idea was to completely atrophy the body in line with mind, no BAB only applies to spellcasters because I believe I put in a clause that any manifesting class is unaffected. If I didn't I meant to. Natural Psychokinetic Power was left with a low base damage because it adds between, assuming you put your manifester stat as the highest, 6 and 9 extra damage to the attack at level one that only requires an object nearby to throw and I didn't want it to be especially powerful. Also I meant to add a clause that the Throw Object adds your mental stat to the roll. Also while I want the user to be powerfully psionic manifesters, like spellcasters, the classes themselves don't get much in the way of abilities. The bonus 2 levels of PP and Powers were the only things I could think of for boosting psionics. Also the telekinetic power of throwing stuff around was the shtick I was really going for instead of the telepathic angle. Lastly, the reason it's not a template is I was going for something like the Deep Imaskari or Illumians where they are technically a subset of humans for the purposes of Favored Enemy but they split off long long long ago and are very different. Plus I feel it would be even more unbalanced if you could add it onto a race. I'll boost the LA to 3 but I want to keep the penalties, but I'm also boosting the damage of the throw because 3 LA, no armor, and abysmal strength make it pretty weak for no class levels til ECL 4. Aeturo (talk) 11:55, 18 January 2017 (MST)

I changed the LA to 3 which is a bit steep but I hope it balances the -20 stat total but as a result I changed the damage of Throw Object and am considering changing the manifesting class boost clause to give +2 levels worth of powers and PP to a manifesting class that the player chooses at creation so they aren't gimped completely but now they've gone from +1 total Manifester Level's worth of powers and PP to -2. Aeturo (talk) 12:03, 18 January 2017 (MST)

LA Buyoff is a thing (silly-stupid, but it's there), so better to have it be 3 racial hit dice, rather than LA if you want to give +2 effective manifesting levels. --Ghostwheel (talk) 12:41, 18 January 2017 (MST)

I initially put 1 LA because buyoff works with 1 and, if you're more patient than I, 2 LA but no higher. I agree RHD are better but didn't see a slot for them and am still new. It still doesn't solve the manifester level being lower than a straight human psion though, which irks me a little bit but if it's a necessary evil for balance I'll suffer through it. Unless there's a psionic type I don't know about that grants psionic RHD. Aeturo (talk) 12:44, 18 January 2017 (MST)

Would it unbalance the race too much more than it already is if I upped the Effective Manifester Class up to one over their ECL? I'm open to having it equal to ECL if it is unbalancing to be over but for a race intended to be super psions I think that having their Effective Manifester Level below their ECL conflicts with their fluff more than I am comfortable with. - Aeturo (talk) 15:28, 25 January 2017 (MST)