Hola all. Massawyrm here.
Well, it’s that time again; time for the new year’s cycle to begin anew. Year 3 brings us its first installment of core rulebooks, beginning with PLAYERS HANDBOOK 3 – this time around focused upon Psionics. Psionics are something D&D has struggled with for decades, always trying to get the balance right. Unfortunately for us, they’ve never gotten it to work properly. But with the advent of 4th Edition, they were presented with a system tailor made to integrate Psionic flavor with fantasy rules without having to bend, break or modify the existing system to shoehorn it in.
So they did it anyway.
In the first major move to disappoint me in the new system, they took something that should have been very easy and decided once again that “You know, psionic characters should just be better than normal characters. And their rules need to be different; at least different enough to confuse other players.” Psionic characters don’t get Encounter Attack powers. Instead, they get three At-Will powers (that they can continually upgrade) and get Power Points - spendable resources that refresh after a short rest that can be spent on At-Will abilities to get stronger, larger or wider ranging effects. It’s not a terrible system, but it is an unnecessarily complicated one. I’m very curious to see how the power level pans out over time.
That said, The Monk class, finally added to the system, came out pretty awesome. Flurry of Blows is a once per round additional damage that might come with an additional effect, and all of the powers are Kung Fu inspired stances and attacks, including a first level Drunken Monkey attack. Awesome. Runepriests are a new divine leader class which can be either offensive or defensive. Lots of flavor there. My favorite class is probably the Seeker, a Primal Controller class that is a woodland hunter that focuses their attacks through magical arrows (or similar ranged attacks.) This is essentially the classical mystic archer , created as a class all its own. Anyone who likes the idea of being a magical Ranger will get a serious kick out of this one.
Making this book essential however are two new Character options. The first and easiest to lay out are Skill based powers: utility powers that you can take based upon skills you have. How about a lvl 2 Utility power for a character with Acrobatics that allows you to stand up from prone as a minor action? Or a jedi mind trick that allows those with Arcana to make a Bluff, Diplomacy or Intimidate check once per encounter using their Arcana skill? Or a Bluff Utility Power that allows you to shake off a Mark? The higher the Utility level, the cooler the power. Lvl 16’s Diehard is a pretty great reason to be trained in Endurance, allowing you, as a daily power, to be Dazed instead of Unconscious when below 0HP.
These are great, flavorful powers, perfect for more skill based campaigns or for those that want a little more diversity for their characters than offered by their classes.
Finally, there is a new multiclassing system called HYBRID CHARACTERS. Easily the best solution to writ for multi-class loving players, this new system essentially splits each current class in half, lets you pick half of the classes abilities and fuse it with one half of another class. I like this system quite a bit, actually. While it is still possible to create some potentially unbalanced characters at the start, the system is set up requiring that you balance all of your attack powers by splitting them down the middle as well. If you have two encounter attack powers, one must come from your first class and one must come from the second. In this way, you can’t simply layer one class’s cool starting abilities onto a core class, allowing you to abuse a loophole. You are truly a character of two classes, without mastering the benefits of either. I have a buddy who only enjoys playing weird multi-class pairings, and this system made him one happy camper.
This should also prove pretty useful for anyone playing more Anime themed adventures, allowing martial characters who also possess mystical powers. I ran a Sorcerer/Monk in 3.5 for about a year, and looking at this made me think about updating him for a campaign. I think a Stormsoul Sorcerer combined with the new Monk class could be pretty sweet. Might have to try that out.
All in all, it’s a book worth checking out. While I’m not thrilled with the Psionics, three new classes, a new power tree based on skills and an awesome multi—classing system make this more than worthy to sit on your shelf. This is available in stores now.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
Got something for the Wyrm? Mail it here.
