That was my take on them as well, DoS. The thing is, the class is actually very flexible - it's one you can make almost anything of. I like the monastic angle too. I find myself wondering if the Warrior Paths could have associated class variations now .... certainly I think we can add to the list of them ....

What do you mean by "class variations?"

It can be sneak-peaked that we are adding a few "Multiclass Feats" if they can be called that - ie feats that allow you to meld class features from two different classes... and Monastic Psychic Warriors have one for the Monk combo...

Andreas, you read my mind!

DoS, what I meant are changes in class features that allow for radically different kinds of character. For example, swapping medium and heavy armour proficiency, bonus feats and martial weapon proficiency for an expanded skills list and more skill points, some sneak attack and a rogues weapon list in order to make a 'psychic rogue'.

So in essence, I take it most people are liking the Beta PsyWar? Good, because that means I won't have to go back to the drawing board.

To all of you who helped:
Do you know WHY it is as good as it is (besides my AWESOME designing skillz ) - you. YOU. You helped. You tested. You complained. You critiqued. You made it better.

So, thank YOU!

I'm a little concerned that it might be a bit overpowered, but then again, they're a supposedly combat class with a medium BAB so they're still not going to outshine a Pathfinder paladin.

My thoughts exactly. The Psychic Warrior can pull some tricks out of the hat, but only so many of them.

I just gave this baby a test run last night. I will not deny that he was a combat god, but none of it felt out of place. The only difference it had from his 3.5 incarnation was doing less damage (due to power attack changes) and versatility. The manifesting my path power for free didn´t come up because I didn´t wanna loose my bonus from the trance, which at that level put me a bit behind the fighter who had 2 more BAB than me and weapon training boosting him also.
Manifesting my path powers as part f an attack was handy but hardly game breaking, it came down to not having to own a magic weapon since my first hit of the fight would net me a nice enhancement through metaphysical weapon without having to spend an action (but my precious PP took the hit).
Right now ti seemed like it was a bit weaker than a pure fighter when itcame to direct combat, but having some other tricks up my sleeve (empty mind, up the walls, pounce, extoplasmic form, vigor, prowess) made him much more versatyle.
Just my experience thou.

And versatility was always part of what made the Psychic Warrior interesting and fun to play. Unlike the fighter, who on pure statistics is a better melee fighter (better BAB, better HD, always available bonuses), the PsyWar thrives on adaptability as well as being able to spike damage, to-hit ratio or AC when they needed it.

Nice! I just don't like the Eternal Warrior being 5 minutes once/day. Why not less time and more uses? Or maybe 5 minutes but not needing to be consecutivve?

Simply put, because more uses of Eternal Warrior would simply make it too good. It is meant to be a "capstone" yet at the same time remain balanced. The 5 minute ending time is because of how psionic focus and Stances work - potentially one could otherwise activate it and gain the benefits from it for the entire day as long as one did not expend the focus.

I think he meant, rather than a single activation that lasts up to 5 minutes, perhaps make it only last up to 1 minute, but usable up to 5 times per day (so total 5 minutes, but broken up into 5 1-minute increments). Sort of how Boots of Speed works for 10 rounds total per day, but those rounds don't have to be consecutive.

That does raise more points of clarification (wow, a shocker coming from me, I know ;b ) regarding Eternal Warrior: it is described as a Trance that you can gain as a Free Action.
A) Does that mean that 1/day PsyWar can gain Focus as a Free Action while gaining this Trance?
B) Can Eternal Warrior be used in conjunction with a regular Trance?
C) Can Eternal Warrior be used in conjunction with two other Trances via Pathweaving?
D) If the answer is 'no' to both B and C, can Eternal Warrior be used in conjunction with one regular Trance via Pathweaving?
E) Each Trance is tied to a specific Maneuver, but Eternal Warrior doesn't have a Maneuver? If B is true, then is it assumed that you get the Maneuver of that other Trance? If not, can you use EVERY Maneuver, or do you get no Maneuver, or do you get both of your 'normal' Maneuvers?
F) If the PsyWar is in Eternal Warrior Trance and 5 minutes elapses, is it assumed he keeps Focus even though he loses the Trance effect?
G) If F is true, then a PsyWar who just lost Eternal Warrior, but still has Focus, starts out with no Trance, or does he get to pick one of his usual Trances automatically?

Lot of nit-picky questions... I'm expecting the oversweeping answer is something simple along the lines of, "Eternal Warrior isn't a Trance in and of itself, it's an enhancement that augments (replaces) the benefits of the character's usual Trance(s) which can be activated as a Free Action once per day, which lasts up to 5 minutes. The character must already be in Trance to activate Eternal Warrior. If you expend Focus while using Eternal Warrior, you can use the Maneuver from any Warrior Path."

The above paragraph is basically how Pathweaving works, right? You augment your 'normal' Path with the effects of a secondary Path, and when you expend Focus you can use the Maneuver from either one?

(Feel free to replace the underlined text with something like "for up to ten rounds per day, which do not have to be consecutive" or "up to five times per day, for up to 1 minute per activation" etc.)

As a minor suggestion for any DMs allowing custom Paths, you might want to swap out one of the benefits of Eternal Warrior and add in the benefits of the character's custom Path instead, as Eternal Warrior apparently is essentially a super-Trance that combines the effects of all the standard Trances (except Brawling, poor brawlers... ).

Wow, I think you nailed the wording EXACTLY on how Eternal Warrior works. Word - by - word.

I have to say that I really like the changes to the Psychic Warrior - they add a lot of versatility without being too much powerful. Good job !

There is only a small text correction that I would apply:

Beta Psychic Warrior, Bonus Feats:
"These bonus feats must be drawn from the feats noted as fighter bonus feats or psionic feats. The psychic warrior must still meet all prerequisites for the bonus feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums as well as class requirements. A psychic warrior cannot choose feats that specifically require levels in the fighter class unless he is a multiclass character with the requisite levels in the fighter class."

The bolded text becomes actually a bit redundant, since Pathfinder has slightly changed the definition of 'fighter bonus feats'.

From PRD, Fighter -> Bonus Feats:
"At 1st level, and at every even level thereafter, a fighter gains a bonus feat in addition to those gained from normal advancement (meaning that the fighter gains a feat at every level). These bonus feats must be selected from those listed as combat feats, sometimes also called “fighter bonus feats.” "

PRD -> Feats -> Combat Feats:
"Any feat designated as a combat feat can be selected as a fighter's bonus feat. This designation does not restrict characters of other classes from selecting these feats, assuming that they meet the prerequisites."

So, I think that the text for the PsyWar bonus feats could simply become:
""These bonus feats must be drawn from the feats noted as combat feats or psionic feats. The psychic warrior must still meet all prerequisites for the bonus feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums as well as class requirements (like levels in another specific class)."

(this would reduce the amount of text, since class requirements is already mentioned)

Just my 2c.

Sounds like a good and consistent change that will help make things feel more streamlined. Good point!

Been looking over the PW for the past couple of days and I have a few initial reactions, most of which have already been voiced by others and are "nit-picky", so I won't repeat them.

Over all, great job! Talk about flavor!! I always found the PW a little boring, but not anymore!! I'm DYING to play one now!!

Every single class feature I see gets a big thumbs up! Well balanced, useful and, above all, interesting.

One concern, though: Path Skill.

Since this bonus may be applied more than once to the same skill (and in fact will have to be, since only three associated skills exist per path and the bonus is received 6 times by lvl 19) there is nothing stopping a player from adding it to the same skill 6 times... that's a plus 12 bonus!! On top of the class skill bonus, skill ranks and ability modifier (and the possible Skill Focus feat) this gets a little unbalanced (at least, IMHO).

A couple of ways to fix it (if you in any way agree with the idea of it being a problem) include:
1) Nerf the bonus down to a +1.
2) Limit the number of times you receive this class feature to three, mabye even only once per skill.

Regardless, again, overall fantastic!! I applaud DSP!!

Something else I thought of, although it's not very important, is the order of presentation in warrior paths. It might help quick understanding for new players to present the benefits of each path in the order in which they are received.

For example, instead of:
Trance
Maneuver
Powers
Skills
Bonus class skill

You could make it:
Bonus class skill
Powers
Path skills
Trance
Maneuver

Just a humble suggestion... feel free to tell me to stick it where the sun don't shine.

I absolutely love this new version of the class--and the psychic warrior was always one of the least interesting classes to me.

One question, about the Ascetic path maneuver: When can you activate this ability, and how long does it remain active? It's an immediate action, but can you activate it after your opponent makes his attack roll? And does it apply to just that one attack, or does it last until the beginning of your next turn, or what?

Personally, I would prefer it works like the Martial Maneuver "Zephyr Dance" from Tome of Battle, but that may not be what you had in mind.

I can't really add anything useful to the discussion other than "fighter bonus feats" are now categorized as "combat feats"

I looked at this, and while I'm glad to see what I'm seeing, where's the 0th level powers that were part of the original 3.0 concept? That's the one thing I hated about the 3.5 update. They got rid of that. Yeah you only got 3 powers (or cantrips) over all, but they were still nice to have. The same went for the psion, wilder, and the rest. If the spell casters are allowed to have cantrips, I don't see why the psionics aren't allowed to as well.

Other than that, I'm liking this. The power points are decent, and are only 1 shy from the original 3.0 version, and like the fighter you don't have any more dead levels. The fact that they have 4+INT is amazing. It's what a fighter SHOULD have, but still don't for some abnormal reason.

If you could fit in the at-will 0th level powers again (for all classes), that would make this class epic once more.