Lordmonkeysama wrote:

i dont think allowing one to cherry pick abilities is such a hot idea. the whole point of the change to the Polymorph sub-school was to do as much as possible to limit the broken combinations one could create when changing shape.

from what it sounds like, you don't get to cherry pick abilities from the monsters though. you get to cherry pick abilities from a pre-defined list, which is a whole different kettle of fish.

I'm going to wait and see what they do before I judge anything.

A preview would look like this (simplified):

Shapechange

Choose one boost from Menu A and one ability from Menu A

Boost A
+2 to Strength
+2 to Dexterity
+2 to Constitution
Increase Size to Large (+2 Str, -2 Dex)
Decrease Size to Small (+2 Dex, -2 Str)

Ability A
Swim 30'
Slam Attack, 1d8 damage
Improved Trip
Improved Grapple
Natural AC +1
Speed +10'
+5 temporary hit points

Augment, you can augment this power in either one of the following ways:
For every 2 additional power points you spend, you can take another choice from Ability Menu A.
For every 6 additional power points you spend, you can take one choice from Ability Menu B
For every 9 additional power points you spend, you can take one choice from Ability Menu C

For every 2 power points spent on the above augments, you get one additional choice from Boost A.
For every 4 power points spent on the above augments, you can replace one Boost A with the same option from Boost B.
For every 6 power points spent on the above augments, you can replace one Boost B with the same option from Boost C.

Now - naturally this needs cleanup in wording to make things clearer. But right now I am sharing my CONCEPT. The ability list will be bigger, and there are three tiers of Boosts (+2, +4, +6) and Abilities.

That is ... interesting.

I assume that the abilities you choose have to be appropriate to the form you take?

Also, the slam attack (or other attacks) would those not be better if they were appropriate to the size of the creature, rather than being a flat amount?

Otherwise ... I can see this concept working.

The only - and I mean the only - reservation I have concerning this power is that the arcane magic spells were broken down into sixteen spells in order to consume more resources. Perhaps it may be an idea to have the different boost and ability classifications available through higher-level powers, or at least consume more powers known? Then the complete ability suite would take up three or more powers. I agree psionics powers should have more scope than spells, but being able to replace all sixteen spells with just one power is a bit much all the same.

Well, in general, this power is an Egoist power, which means all other manifesters have to expend a feat to even gain access to it, which in itself is a way to "consume resources" - also, it's only the Sorcerer that suffers from the number of powers known being limited, versus the Wizard who is limitless in the NUMBER of spells known. I think it was piled up into different spells so as to streamline what a certain spell can and cannot do.

Make it into three powers, them being lesser, standard, and greater that way there is more balance and less chance of others screaming about Psionics being overpowered, Not to mention there is way to many diffrent ways to augment one single power. Otherwise it would work very well when all is said and done.

I agree completely. Looking at the power mechanics, it's not as strong as the strongest polymorph spells, but it is in effect replacing over a dozen spells, and Pathfinder made polymorph into those multiple spells to increase the cost of having the ability (particularly to the sorcerer, but wizards don't get spells for free either).

Make three powers out of this one, and I'd say the power is nicely balanced!

I'm on the last 9th level power - then I send them over to Andreas for review / feedback.

Once I get these done, I'll be compiling the Psychic Warrior powers. Given how many are already converted, this should be pretty quick.

All that are left after psychic warrior powers are psionic monsters - I'll be checking in with Phil on a status report there.

Holy mackerel - 35 pages of powers for the psychic warrior!

Good thing most were already converted, but dang!

Note to Jeremy: Next time check number of powers before predicting how long it will take

Eh, it really shouldn't be that bad, considering the quantity of "claw / weapon" dual powers.

This should be finished right on time, hopefully be September, or at least the end of September.

9 powers to go, then off for review.

I'm still eagerly awaiting this. I have friends who keep asking when it'll be out, since I'll finally have art in print. So very stoked.

My hope is that for the Beta, we'll go a little bit farther in getting a "ready" product. The alpha has been all content, no design. I'm planning for Beta to:
a) roll some of the releases together - for example, 1st and 2nd level powers
b) put some layout / tables together
c) put some graphics in

When there is an alpha of everything, you might consider uploading a complete Alpha Psionics Unleashed as a pdf book, the insert proper tables, artwork and rework layout for a complete Beta Psionics Unleashed PDF book.

Then everyone can do some more nit-picking to refine it for the final release.

I may do just that, Lunever.

As an update, Phil sent me the Psionic Creatures document - so once I finish off the remaining Psychic Warrior powers, I'll be working on that!

And Psychic Warrior powers have been sent for review!

what would be the point of a Beta that's just the Alpha with extras??

The PF Beta(i had all 3 so i know what i'm talkin about) was filled with new improved classes, feats, etc.

I think we made a mistake going full out for the Alpha. We should have taken Paizo's approach, going with just the 4 classes, and some feats, powers and the uses of skills. and then with the Beta, go full out with pretty much everything.

As it stands, unless the beta is just the Alpha with extras, the Beta will take a lot of time to not only compile, but than the work on it to bring it more or less to the final stage will take A LOT of time. However, if the Beta is Alpha+ than it will take A LOT of time to implement everything for the final.

I think you're expecting a lot of extra feedback during the Beta stage than I am.

If you look at a lot of the feedback on the psion powers, it tends to cover problem points, and ignore the powers that aren't an issue - meaning by and large, those powers, even in Beta, will be fine. Additionally, in the Alpha, we've worked out the issues like what was originally released for Energy powers and the change we'll likely go with in Beta that's already been discussed on the forums.

I would go out on a limb and say about 75% of the Alpha material will be unchanged in the Beta, and likely will have very little feedback to be changed during Beta because there isn't anything wrong with it or a good chunk of mechanical changes have already been discussed in detail during the Alpha.

From my perspective, we front-loaded a large portion of the mechanical changes during the Alpha. And that was my goal for the project. I expect Beta to be significantly faster.