Pathfinder: Psionic Skinwalker

We are posting previews to Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Skinwalkers. So far, you’ve seen the art and the race’s abilities. Today we are showing off one of the archetypes.

We at JBE really enjoy Dreamscarred Press’s Ultimate Psionics, so much so that we included the elan race in our Book of Heroic Races Advanced Series. We decided a while ago that we wanted to include more psionics archetypes and powers in our races and skinwalkers is the first we have made that happen, but it will not be our last.

Today we would like to show you the Kinetic Assailant archetype. This archetype was designed from the ground up to make the soulknife into a Marvel comic book character. True, there already is one in Ultimate Psionics with a similar inspiration, but this archetype was designed for the skinwalker and is totally awesome. Check it out below.

Kinetic Assailant

Many would ask what’s more dangerous than a man who can slay a horde of soldiers with nothing but a dagger, and the kinetic assailant would answer; “One who can do it with nothing at all.” Masters of augmenting the kinetic force of their unarmed or natural weapons with their psionic powers so that even casual swipes can become devastating blows, kinetic assailants scoff at those who would use any weapons where their bodies and minds are the only edge they require.

Associated Class: soulknife
Associated Race: skinwalker
Replaced Abilities: Form mind blade, enhanded mind blade, shape mind blade, throw mind blade,
Modified Abilities: Bonus feat, blade skills
Bonus Feat: The kinetic assailant may choose Power Attack, Improved Unarmed Strike, or Weapon Focus (potential energy) as a bonus feat at 1st level.
Potential Energy: As a move action, a kinetic assailant with psionic focus can store a disproportional amount of potential energy within a single unarmed attack (either a natural attack or unarmed strike). The attack is considered lethal, deals damage as one size larger (minimum 1d6), deals double damage against objects, and threatens a critical on a roll of 19–20.
Beginning at 3rd level, when the kinetic assailant takes a move action to imbue his unarmed attacks with potential energy, all of his unarmed strikes gain the benefits, rather than just a single strike, so long as he maintains psionic focus. Alternatively, as a full-round action the assailant can store even more energy, increasing the damage of his unarmed attacks by an additional size category and allowing them to deal triple damage on a confirmed critical. While in an area where psionics normally do not function (such as a null psionics field), the kinetic assailant’s potential energy does not grant its normal benefits, instead adding only 1d4 additional damage to his unarmed attacks.
While potential energy can be used with a weapon, the weapon deals double the amount of damage it deals to itself as well, possibly destroying it.
Shape Kinetics: When unarmored and unencumbered, the kinetic assailant’s awareness and control of kinetic force is such that they can alter its route in their immediate area. She adds her Wisdom modifier (if any) to her AC and CMD. In addition, she adds her mind blade maximum enhancement bonus to her AC and CMD.
Unstoppable Force: By expending psionic focus, a kinetic assailant can manifest the thrust version of the kinetic force power (with a manifester level equal to their kinetic assailant level) with one exception: the area of the power is either a 20 foot line, a 15 foot cone, or a radius of 10 feet centred on her.
Enhanced Kinetic Force: This ability functions as the enhanced mind blade ability, except that it applies to the kinetic assailant’s unarmed strikes and natural attacks when they are imbued with potential energy.
Blade Skills: The kinetic assailaint cannot choose the following blade skills: Absorbing blade, alter blade, bladewind, deceptive blade, dual imbue, emulate melee weapon, emulate ranged weapon, enhanced range, fluid form, ice blade, mind blade finesse, mind daggers, mind shield, multiple throw, reaching blade, rending blades, thunder blade, two-handed throw, and weapon special (and all dependent blade skills). Instead, the kinetic assailant gains the following as options:
Internal Bleeding: Upon confirming a critical hit, the kinetic assailant can expend his psychic strike and deal 1 point of Constitution damage for every 2d8 damage his psychic strike would normally deal. The kinetic assailant must be at least 8th level to choose this blade skill.
Rupture Internals: Upon confirming a critical hit, the kinetic assailant can expend his psychic strike and instead of dealing hit point damage deal 1 point of Constitution damage for every 1d8 damage his psychic strike would normally deal. The kinetic assailant must have the Internal Bleeding blade skill and be at least 12th level to choose this blade skill.
Reactive Expulsion: When a kinetic assailant with psionic focus is struck, she may expend her focus to manifest the psionic blast power as a psi-like ability on her attacker. The kinetic assailant must be at least 6th level to choose this blade skill.
Reactive Explosion: When the kinetic assailant uses reactive expulsion, the target is knocked prone if it is stunned. Additionally, enemies affected by the kinetic assailant’s unstoppable force ability are stunned for one round . The kinetic assailant must have the reactive expulsion blade skill and be at least 12th level to choose this blade skill.
Resounding Sunder: The kinetic assailant can expend her psionic focus to perform the sunder combat maneuver without provoking an attack of opportunity. If the sunder attempt is successful, the creature wearing or wielding the targeted object becomes stunned for one round.
Perpetual Energy: The kinetic assailant can expend her psionic focus when making a full-attack action to move up to her speed (in total) between attacks while taking a –4 penalty on all attack rolls. When the assailant expends her focus in this way, her attacks still gain the benefits of her potential energy ability until the end of her turn The kinetic assailant must be at least 8th level to choose this blade skill.
Boundless Energy: When the kinetic assailant uses the perpetual energy blade skill, the penalty on attack rolls decreases to –2, and she no longer needs to expend her psionic focus to use it. The kinetic assailant must have the perpetual energy blade skill and be at least 18th level to choose this blade skill.

Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Skinwalkers for Pathfinder at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.

Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Skinwalkers is part of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium. Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium now at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.

November 11, 2015 0

Pathfinder: Elans in Art

Today being Friday, we wanted to just show off the art inside Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Elans. This week, you’ve seen elan racial traits, the Ratha priest slayer archetype, three rogue talents, and a few psionic powers. We wanted to end the week with a bit of fun.

You’ve already seen Lindiwe, our signature psychic warrior that graces our cover. She is a master of puzzles and lore, and more than adept at splitting skulls with your strong axe. She is not the only elan presented in this book. Here are four more images of elans you will find in this book.

Elan Artwork

Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Elans is part of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium. Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium now at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.

July 10, 2015 0

Pathfinder: You Don’t Know the Power of the Elan Side

Next week sees the release of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Elans and all week long we are showing off some of what is inside. We already shared the elan racial traits, an archetype for the psychic warrior, and some rogue talents. Today, we are sharing with some new powers that can be used by elans, or any other psionic-capable character.

Bad reference jokes in the this post’s title aside, psionic classes need powers and some of them are more used by elans than other races. The Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Elans includes five new psionic powers. Three of these new power are below for your enjoyment and for you to incorporate into your game right away. We hope you enjoy them.

Racial Powers

Many elans use these powers, as do others that learn them.

Fleeting Memory

Discipline telepathy (mind affecting); Level cryptic 1, psion/wilder 1
Display none
Manifesting Time 1 swift action
Range personal
Target you
Duration one Knowledge or Profession check
Power Points 1
You shuffle through memories normally inaccessible to you, memories of the forgotten life you lived before becoming an elan. You gain a +2 insight bonus to one Knowledge or Profession check. This power automatically fails if the caster is not an elan.
Augment For every 2 additional power points you spend, increase the insight bonus by +1, to a maximum of +4.

Defensive Drain

Discipline psychometabolism; Level psion/wilder 4, psychic warrior 3
Display olfactory
Manifesting Time 1 immediate action
Range personal
Target you
Duration 1 round
Saving Throw special, see below; Power Resistance yes (harmless)
Power Points 5
Your skin absorbs psionic power from attackers. Anyone who succeeds on a melee attack against you loses 1d6 power points. This power’s effect does not negate the attack that is currently being used against you. Creatures that do not have power points must make a Fortitude save or be nauseated for 1 round.
Augment For every additional power point you spend, this power’s duration increases by 1 round.

Wave of Terror

Discipline telepath [fear, mind-affecting]; Level dread 2
Display olfactory
Manifesting Time 1 standard action
Range 10 ft.
Area 10-ft.-radius burst
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw Will negates; Power Resistance yes
Power Points 3
You generate a mental wave of fear that instantly sweeps out from your location. All creatures in the affected area must make a Will save or become frightened for 1 round.
Augment You can augment this power in one or more of the following ways.
For every additional power point you spend, you can exclude 1 creature from the affected area.
For every 2 additional power points you spend, this power’s save DC increases by 1.
For every 2 additional power points you spend, this power’s range and the radius of its area both increase by 5 feet.
For every 4 additional power points you spend, any creature who fails their save is frightened for an additional round.

July 9, 2015 0

Pathfinder: Elans in Core Classes

The Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Elans comes out soon. We already shared the elan racial traits and the Ratha priest slayer archetype for the psychic warrior class. Today we are taking a look at three rogue talents that an elan can take.

Not all elans take a hard core psionic class. Some choose a class from the core book or one of the other books. So we made some psionic options to add an elan flare to the class. Read three of of the rogue talents in the book below. Advanced Elans also has a new cleric domain, a fighter archetype and more.

Force of Personality (Su): A rogue with this talent may influence interactions through sheer force of personality. When he expends his psionic focus he gains a +1d6 bonus to a single Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate check.

Internal Discipline (Ex): Once per day, the rogue can roll two dice while making an Autohypnosis check, and take the better result. She must choose to use this talent before making the Autohypnosis check. A rogue can use this ability one additional time per day for every five rogue levels she possesses.

Psionic Weapon Training (Su): A rogue with this talent gains Psionic Weapon (UP) as a bonus feat.

July 8, 2015 0

Pathfinder: Elans Make Excellent Priest Slayers

The Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Elans comes out soon. We already shared the elan racial traits. Today we are sharing with you one of the archetypes central to this race, the Ratha priest slayer.

The Ratha are a group of elans that believe that the worship of a deity is dangerous and should be ended. Their priest slayers, as their name would imply, are prepared to use violence to accomplish their ends. Most startling to other elans, they are willing to kill their own kind if they should worship a deity. Since elans are a race created by non-deities, worshipping a deity is an anathema to the Ratha and should be stopped.

This organization can be used as protagonists, antagonists, and as uneasy allies. Having a ratha priest slayer in your group will be most handy against infernal and demonic deities that want to enslave or zombify the living. They also work great as antagonists if the players are assisting a good-aligned deity in their quest to stop evil, especially if that evil lacks a strong connection to a deity. At the same time, if both good and evil are strongly connected to a deity, a Ratha might be a force for chaos, helping both sides take out each other and having the priest slayers clean up whomever is still standing when the fighting is done.

Ratha Priest Slayer

Associated Class: psychic warrior
Associated Race: elan
Replaced Abilities: bonus feat (1st, 2nd, and 5th levels), expanded path (3rd level only), path skill (4th level only)
Psionic Feats: The Ratha priest slayer gains the Wild Talent (UP) feat and his choice of Psionic Shot (UP), or Psionic Weapon (UP) as bonus feats at first level. He must meet any prerequisites for the feat selected.
Hampered Divine Conduit (Su): At 2nd level, the Ratha priest slayer adds half his psychic warrior level to the DC of all concentration checks made by divine spellcasters that the he threatens.
Mind Armor (Ps): At 3rd level, the Ratha priest slayer gains mind armor as a psi-like ability. When maintaining psionic focus, the priest slayer gains a +2 enhancement bonus to armor class and a +2 resistance bonus to all saving throws against divine spells and effects. These bonuses increase by +1 every four ratha priest slayer levels thereafter. This ability does not stack with inertial armor or any source that grants an enhancement bonus to AC.
Infectious Doubt (Su): At 4th level, the Ratha priest slayer can disrupt a divine spellcaster’s tie to his deity. After the priest slayer confirms a critical hit against a divine spellcaster, that target must make a Will save (DC 10 + damage dealt). On a failed save, the target must succeed on a concentration check (DC 10 + damage dealt) when attempting to cast divine spells for a number of rounds equal to one-third the priest slayer’s level. A failed Concentration check means the divine spellcaster loses the spell. At 10th level, the DCs for both the Will save and the concentration check increase to 15 + damage dealt.
Shaken Faith (Su): At 5th level, the priest slayer’s touch can shake the faith of the devout. As a melee touch attack, he can inflict Wisdom damage equal to 1d4 + 1 per every four levels he possesses. A successful Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 the priest slayer’s level + his Wisdom modifier) reduces this damage by half. The priest slayer can use this ability once per day. At 10th level and every five levels thereafter, he gains an additional daily use of this ability. A creature targeted by this ability is immune to shaken faith for 24 hours.

July 7, 2015 0

Pathfinder: An Elan Explosion

We’re putting the finishing touches on Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Elans right now and just thought we would share with you just what exactly is an elan.
First off, the elan race was not published by Paizo for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, but by Dreamscarred Press in Ultimate Psionics. They come from the 3.5 psionics rules and have been updated by Dreamscarred along with the rest of that rules subset. If you have not checked them out yet, I highly recommend you give them a look as they are faithful update and are well balanced.

As far as the race itself, elans are a secret cabal of people that have been infused with psionic energy and can live forever, barring disease or a violent death. They appear slightly off from a normal human, practically bursting with magical energy.

At their core, these are psionic being that chose a life of psionic, so this supplement is filled with psionic options for your game play, particularly flavored for the elan race. If you are a fan of psionics, this is a supplement that you will want to check out.
Today we are sharing the elan racial traits. Stay tuned to JonBrazer.com all week for more details of what is inside fantastic racial supplement.

Elan Racial Traits

+2 to One Ability Score: Elans gain a +2 bonus to one ability score chosen at creation to represent their varied nature.
Aberrant Blood: Elans are humanoids with the aberrant subtype.
Medium: Elan are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Normal Speed: Elans have a base speed of 30 feet.
Aberrant Nature: Although human in appearance, elans are seen as slightly “off” by non-elans. They suffer a –1 penalty to Charisma-based skill checks when dealing with non-elans.
Naturally Psionic: Elans gain the Wild Talent (UP) feat as a bonus feat at 1st level. If an elan takes levels in a psionic class, she instead gains the Psionic Talent (UP) feat.
Resistance (Su): Elans can use psionic energy to increase their resistance to various forms of attack. As an immediate action, an elan can spend 1 power point to gain a +4 racial bonus on saving throws until the beginning of her next action.
Resilience (Su): When an elan takes damage, she can spend power points to reduce its severity. As an immediate action, she can reduce the damage he is about to take by 2 hit points for every 1 power point he spends.
Repletion (Su): An elan can sustain her body without need of food or water. If she spends 1 power point, an elan does not need to eat or drink for 24 hours.
Psionic Aptitude: When an elan takes a level in a favored class, she can choose to gain an additional power point instead of a hit point or skill point.
Languages: Elans begin play speaking Common. Elans with high Intelligence scores can choose any languages they want (except secret languages, such as Druidic).

July 6, 2015 0

Pathfinder: 5 Reasons Why I Love Ultimate Psionics

Up until now, I have actively not talked about my fellow Pathfinder Compatible companies because I always felt that it was not proper. If I said anything less than positive, I felt that that was a snide way of saying my products are better, and if I said something glowing I was always afraid that someone would say that I am “shilling for my buddies.” So I stayed away from it. But honestly, I was not being true to myself. I typically love the work that my fellow Pathfinder Compatible publishers do and I want to take a few moments to share with you every so often some of my favorite Pathfinder Compatible books. Allow me to start with what I feel is the best Pathfinder Compatible book, and quite frankly better than some Pathfinder RPG books, available: Ultimate Psionics by Dreamscarred Press.

Let me start off by saying that I was not a fan of WotC 3.5 Psionics. I saw them gamebreakingly abused and outright banned them in my game. When Dreamscarred first brought them into Pathfinder, I rolled my eyes and continued the ban. But finally, I gave Dreamscarred’s version a fair chance and I was slowly won over. The mechanics are balanced, the classes are well thought out and are downright imaginative. How much do I love them? In the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Series, two of my signature characters (the elan, pictured above, and the skinwalker) use classes from this book. So without further ado, here are 5 reasons why I love Ultimate Psionics.

5. The Aegis is the Summoner Done Right. The concept of the summoner is a good idea but it is a broken class in far too many respects: you have a ‘pet’ that is just as good as you in combat, effectively doubling your number of attacks and your ability to flank, it has the spell list of a 9 level spellcaster compressed into 6 levels, and it gets many key spells earlier than their other spellcasting counterparts. So you have the option of allowing the eidolon to hit things while you cast spells a 6-level caster should not have or the two to team up for a flanking duo. Under the right circumstances, any one of these would be fine, but all together, the class is just too good.

Enter the Aegis. Its a full BAB class that focuses on one thing: hitting things. There is no second creature you can flank with, no spellcasting. The main focus is a magical suit of armor that lets you either hit hard, hit fast or be in the middle. All your customization options are for you and not your other creature. I call it close to a ranger in the way it plays (at least, by the way that I played one), but there is no denying its summoner inspiration and definitely no denying that it got it right.

4. The Cryptic and the Dread are Just Damn Cool. Whether you can see the code behind the world, Matrix style, or you inspire terror in everyone you meet, these two classes are just freaking fun. I haven’t actually played either of these classes yet, but oh man do I want to. Sharing with my character’s enemies my fear of spiders should be entertaining to watch. Or simply erasing the target right in front of me. Yea, I want to play these classes.

3. They Mixed Classes Together Before it was Cool. Ultimate Psionics includes archetypes and options to mix psionic options for the core rulebook classes, way before the Advanced Class Guide did it. Augment your druidic spells with psionic power points, take the psionic cleric domain or psychic sorcerer bloodline, Add some psionic powers to your rogue, monk or fighter. Its all good.

2. Expanded Psionic Races. As a lover of ‘less than usual’ races, Ultimate Psionics has all mysterious races you remember of 3.5 psionics but they add in several of their own. The one I want to try the most is the forge born. This half-construct race is straight up magical cyborg. If you are not a fan of mixing your sci-fi with your fantasy, this race gets it right. Check it out. Also, if you see me at PaizoCon, be sure to ask me about my half-giant fighter sometime. 😉

1. Nothing Stands Out as Being Too Good. The hallmark of good game design is that everything feels reasonable in play and I have yet to find anything that is the “must have” option for the power gamer. Not worrying about that and allowing me to focus on telling a good story is what I love.

Download Ultimate Psionics today for Pathfinder at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.

Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Favored Class Options has favored class options for all 10 psionic classes in Ultimate Psionics for each of the 12 races covered in the Book of Heroic Races Advanced Series. Download it today at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.

April 14, 2015 2

Pathfinder: Wild Ride of Races

Earlier this week, we shared with you all of the classes covered in Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Favored Class Options. We said that all of the races contained within will be getting a favored class option for all 43 of those classes. So the real question becomes, what races is this going to cover? Today, we’re bringing you that answer.

The Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Favored Class Options covers these races:

Android
Catfolk
Changeling
Elan
Gillman
Lizardfolk
Merfolk
Samsaran
Skinwalker
Tengu
Wyrwood
Wyvaran

A dozen races each getting 43 different favored class options means there are a total of over 500 different favored class options for your game. Also these are the races that we will be releasing more details on in 2015. I hope you are excited as we are for this wild ride of races.

Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Favored Class Options for Pathfinder at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.

Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Favored Class Options is part of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium. Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium now at the JBE Shop, DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.

October 30, 2014 0

Pathfinder: All the Advanced Options

Not long ago, I had a discussion with a number of gamers that collectively said they want more options beyond the core book races. Since then, myself and a team of some excellent authors I have had the pleasure working with have been working hard on making that happen. We all still have alot to go to make this book as fabulous as we all want it to be. There is one part that is almost finished up: the favored class options. So here is the exhaustive list of all the classes that have favored class option:

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook: barbarian, bard, cleric, druid, fighter, monk, paladin, ranger, rogue, sorcerer, wizard
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Players Guide: alchemist, antipaladin, cavalier, inquisitor, oracle, summoner, witch
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic: magus
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Combat: gunslinger, ninja, samurai
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Class Guide: arcanist, bloodrager, brawler, hunter, investigator, shaman, skald, slayer, swashbuckler, warpriest
Dreamscarred Press’s Ultimate Psionics: aegis, cryptic, dread, marksman, psion, psychic warrior, soulknife, tactician, vitalist, wilder
Rogue Genius Games’s Genius Guide to the Time Thief: time thief.

So which of those races have these favored class options?

ALL OF THEM.

That’s right. Every race in this book has 43 favored class options. It does not matter what class you take with any race, you are not limited to the standard hit point or skill point. Now you have options. How many options? We will reveal the final list of races soon. In the meantime, the cover shows 3 of the races in this book.

We hope you are as excited by this as we are. Happy Gaming.

Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Favored Class Options for Pathfinder at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.

Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Favored Class Options is part of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium. Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium now at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.

October 28, 2014 0