Talk:Exposcient (3.5e Class)

Ratings

	Spanambula is neutral on this article and rated it 2 of 4.
	I know this time of year is busy for a lot of people, but it's been a week with no changes, so I'm adding my rating. Opposing this for the ease of 1-level dipping abuse for any other manifesting class. Will change rating if this issue is addressed and corrected. Corrections made, abuse loophole plugged to my satisfaction.

Breaking (Psionics) Bad

As written, any psionic class can use this as a 1 level dip and never run out of power points. Kind of an extreme solution to the 5-minute workday, and makes your DM ban Psionics. You should probably fix that. - Spanambula (talk) 21:52, 15 November 2016 (UTC)

Fast Healing 1 for your PP pool is hardly very extreme when most full-manifester Psionic classes end up with 300-something PP at 20th. It'll be useful at low levels, sure, but getting anything higher than FH 1 for your PP pool requires committing at least 5 levels you the class.

Originally I wanted the class to only have a very small number of PP and once per minute, that small number was refreshed and reset to that number, no matter how many PP your pool would hold at full capacity, but I decided this was much more workable.

The only solution I see here is to limit the FH so that it cannot regenerate points beyond the class's maximum; It counts toward bonus PP from high Cha score, races and feats, etc., but not for PP pool increases gained by way of levels in other classes. However, the goal here was to make, effectively, a Psionic Warlock that drew features from Wilder, the Psionic Sorcerer. I dunno. If you have a better suggestion than what I just mentioned, lay it on me, but I really don't want to rework the entire main class features. Zhenra-Khal (talk) 03:21, 16 November 2016 (UTC)

You could have the acquisition of temporary power points which occasionally refresh (I would greatly nerf it to start, putting the real deal at level 3 to prevent dips). This effectively acts as a separate pool of PP, which doesn't normally exist. You can then also specify that you can only use the temporary PP granted by this ability only on Exposcient abilities. That prevents Expo 1/Psion 19, and all the PP regeneration ever, because it will be regen only for the Expo 1 part. -- Eiji-kun (talk) 04:54, 16 November 2016 (UTC)

That was something along the lines of what I was thinking when Spanambula brought it up. It's not as game-breaking if you have FH 1 for your power point pool that has all of 3 points in it. Basing the PP pool off of Con would make things like Psion and Wilder and etc MAD since they generally go really high on their main stats and maybe a couple secondary stats. Not going to see many Psions with a 22 in Con.

Which reminds me, the Con x ML PP pool thing should not include Enhancement bonuses, only your base score and any Inherent bonuses you may have.

Alright, I'll do some contemplating on it; Let me know if you come up with something better. Zhenra-Khal (talk) 05:06, 16 November 2016 (UTC)

Alright so currently these are the entries:

Power Points/Day: An Exposcient’s ability to manifest powers is limited by the power points he has available. His base daily allotment of power points is equal to his Manifester Level multiplied by his Constitution modifier. In addition, he receives bonus power points per day if he has a high Charisma score (see Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Power Points). His race may also provide bonus power points per day, as may certain feats and items.

Psychic Rejuvenation (Su): While the Exposcient has a low base number of Power Points, their reserve slowly recharges. As long as the Exposcient is psionically focused, his PP pool regains 1 PP per round, as if it had Fast Healing 1. Beginning at 5th level, the Exposcient's PP pool regains a number of PP each round equal to the Exposcient's Constitution modifier (Min 1).

And here are my ideas for fixing them.

Power Points/Day: An Exposcient’s ability to manifest powers is limited by the power points he has available. Exposcients have a bit of a different method of using their powers; thus their base daily allotment of power points remains separate from all other sources of power points (Except PP gained from race or feats; But these are shared with any main PP pool the character may possess). This point pool can only be used for Exposcient powers and class features, and likewise, Exposcient powers and class features can only use points from this point pool. The value of this pool is equal to his Manifester Level multiplied by his Constitution modifier; Only including the Exposcient's base Con score and any Inherent bonuses they may possess. In addition, he receives bonus power points per day if he has a high Charisma score (see Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Power Points). His race may also provide bonus power points per day, as may certain feats and items.

Psychic Rejuvenation (Su): While the Exposcient has a low base number of Power Points, their reserve slowly recharges. Beginning at 3rd level, as long as the Exposcient is psionically focused, his PP pool regains 1 PP per round, as if it had Fast Healing 1; However, this rejuvenation may never fill his Exposcient Power Point pool beyond a number of points equal to his Exposcient manifester level multiplied by his Constitution modifier. Beginning at 5th level, the Exposcient's PP pool regains an additional number of PP each round equal to 1 point of the Exposcient's Constitution modifier per level above 4th (Min 1). Any effect that changes the Exposcient's emotions (Fear, rage, or any other emotion-affecting effect, even if beneficial) or that affects the Exposcient's mental state (Confusion, penalties or damage to any of his mental ability scores, or penalties to Will saves) also prevent the Exposcient from regaining power points.

If anyone has a better idea, I'd like to hear it. Zhenra-Khal (talk) 05:28, 16 November 2016 (UTC)

Meh. Extra maths bad. Moving to 3rd is better but unsatisfying. Basing PP off a stat that's needful for pretty much every class in D&D also not great. My option would be something like:

Psychic Wellspring (Su): An Exposcient gains an inner reserve of psychic power which fuels all their abilites. In all ways related to manifesting, this acts as a pool of power points. However, the subtle differences between the power of a Psychic Wellspring and actual power points are enough so that the wellspring can only ever be used for Exposcient powers and abilities, and cannot be used for powers gained from other psionic classes. Also unlike other manifesters, the psychic wellspring constantly refreshes itself when not full, gaining [X] points per round. The replenishment rate increases as the Exposcient gains in levels, as shown on the Exposcient class table.

Just make it a separate-but-same mechanic and you avoid pretty much all the trouble. It becomes less multiclass-friendly, but otoh you don't have a Expo/Psion who can keep all their buffs going all day and go nova an unlimited number of times per day. - Spanambula (talk) 17:02, 16 November 2016 (UTC)

And honestly, if the goal is to make a psionic warlock, why not just make the Exposcient powers Psi-like abilities, and not have to mess with power points at all? That would seem to be much less of a headache. The PP loss from psychic enervation is already pointless since you constantly regenerate them. Hmm, if you want to make psychic enervation hurt, you could just say the Expo is unable to manifest for 1 round after suffering psychic enervation. That way it will still hurt if your Exposcient wriggles their way into being immune to dazed. - Spanambula (talk) 17:17, 16 November 2016 (UTC)

I really didn't wanna make them psi-likes, honestly; Nor did I want to have to make a set of psionic invocations out of each and every Power out there. I also wanted the class to be able to benefit from power points gained by race and/or feat, since otherwise that would make playing an Exposcient of a psionic race pointless. However, I did address some of the issues, if you care to look. Not the fix I wanted, but hopefully it'll at least keep it from ending up dismissed as bad homebrew. Zhenra-Khal (talk) 21:39, 22 November 2016 (UTC)

Power Point Cost, etc.

I just realized you never actually specified that using enlightenments costs power points. Also, does using an invocation cost power points as well, and if so how much?

Lastly, and this is just personal design preference, but have you thought about making a capstone ability? A reward for sticking out all 20 levels of the class is something I like to see, but it's by no means compulsory. --Spanambula (talk) 22:31, 22 November 2016 (UTC)

Yes, enlightenments cost power points if you choose a power as your enlightenment, since an enlightenment can be either a power or an invocation. I actually debated making the invocations cost power points; But if I did that then everyone would just choose powers since their effective PP are infinite and powers, unlike invocations, can be augmented; Thus choosing a 9th-level power would be much more powerful than choosing a Dark invocation, which is the case anyway without having to make Invocations cost power points as well. The invocations were sorta meant to be a backup power for when their PP run low; Since they effectively lose access to their version of Eldritch Blast when their PP run out. Thus, while the Invocations are less powerful, making them cost PP would more or less defeat the purpose of adding them.

If I add a capstone, I believe it would be something along the lines of Metamind's Font Of Power; And I actually considered making Metamind's Cognizance Psicrystal a class feature of the Exposcient as well, giving it Psicrystal Affinity at 1st level, but I dunno. I also considered letting the Exposcient apply metapsionics to his Invocations as if they were powers, but with most invocation + metapsionic combinations, it would be rather unimpressive, with the excepting of Twinning some of them.

If you have an idea for a capstone, hit me. I'm always open to suggestions. Zhenra-Khal (talk) 23:26, 22 November 2016 (UTC)

If that's the case I don't see anyone selecting invocations, period. Because you get so few enlightenments over the course of your 20 levels, having access to every manifester's power list gives you way better options at every level than any invocation. You have to choose the best bang for your buck out of necessity, and invocations aren't going to provide that for you except for maybe 1 or 2 like Fell Flight. --Spanambula (talk) 02:03, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

That's entirely true, and there are other issues I just noticed, such as the fact that people will just choose Energy Ray instead of using their Psychic Blast since it deals more damage than their Psychic Blast. I apparently have a lot more work to do on this class than I thought... Zhenra-Khal (talk) 02:43, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

Updated - Requesting Review

A year and five days later, I have begun to rework this class with the knowledge I've gained since then, but I need eyes on it to make sure it's balanced and works properly, so if any of you who've taken a look at this before have time, I'd definitely appreciate it if you'd give it a second look. --Zhenra-Khal (talk) 04:35, 19 November 2018 (MST)