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Psicrystals: Varient

Hi,
Out of the psionics handbook the thing I like least is probably the Psicrystals, I think it's the fact that it can't move until level 5 and even then a psion has to spend a power point to let it do that, and their personality's give the psion a bonus of 1 or 2 to a skill or a save, while wizards and sorcerers get a moving living creatures that can be used to spy, deliver touch attacks and many other things and some also give a bonus to a skill. There is an exception to this though and that is the toad, becasue this cant move or do anything really useful it grants a +2 to constitution which is really useful when you are stuck with a d4 for hit points. Familiars also grant the feat Alertness to their master whenever they are in 5 ft. So I propose the following changes:

Psicrystals: What a psion puts into a psicrystal isnt just a fragment of their personality, it is part of what gives them their powers. When this is encoded into a suitable gem though, this power is magnifyed by the crystals internal matrix and focused into something greater than the sum of its parts. This encoding also awakens the psions dominant personality, the crystal becomes a sentinent being, forever linked with its creator.

Psicrystals have the following effects in game:
Creation: Same as in Psionics Handbook however when the creator of the psicrystal dies the psicrytal dies as well, the two lifeforces are linked. If a psicrystal is destroyed then the psin follows the same rules in the PsiHB but if the psion creats another one then is is the same a the one that was destroyed, in its final moments the psicrystal encodes itself onto the psions brain.

Personality: Choose one from the list or make one up. This has no effect on the game except for RP value.

Special: As a psicrystal is the source of the psions powers focused the psion gets a +2 bonus to his prime stat (eg Wisdom for a Seer)
A psicrystal also grants the alertness feat as long as the psicrystal is within 5ft of the psion.

The Rest: Same as in the PsiHB

So any comments? good/bad, too powerful/too weak. This is just an idea that came to me one day so I am open to any suggestion to improve it. There are several things I can think of at the moment, one of them is to increase the price to the crystal that is to be encoded. One more thing, should the bonus be an enhancement bonus or something else, I dont think it should be an enhancement bonus because any psion woth his salt is going to buy items that increases his prime stat and soon the poor psicrystal will become redundant.
Anyway, I'm looking forwards to your comments.
Cya:D
 

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UD

First Post
I think it will probably need playtesting, me thinking to start with its probably a touch to powerful...
 




UD

First Post
I would say leave them how they were, or say that the psion no longer has to spend a pp/must have at least1 to get them to sprout legs and walk and/or say that this ability is available at first level.
 

Ravellion

serves Gnome Master
UD said:
I would say leave them how they were, or say that the psion no longer has to spend a pp/must have at least1 to get them to sprout legs and walk and/or say that this ability is available at first level.

This seems okay, you could also give psicrystals two personalities instead of one, or double the bonus, if you really want them to be more useful.

Rav
 

Infinite Monkey

First Post
I don't have any manuals with me and I haven't memorised any of the tables, so take this with a large bag of salt.

How about significantly reworking the psicrystals....

At first level, a psion can insert a piece of their psionic power into a specially prepared crystal. The crystal must be a particular shape and carved, and is worth at least 100 gp.

The crystal becomes an independent entity, capable of doing a variety of useful tasks for the psion. As soon as the crystal is empowered, it grows a ectoplasmic 'skin', so that it looks like the crystal is covered with transparent goo. The power fragment in the crystal is capable of affecting the psion in some way (choose a personality for the crystal, or some other effect similar to one gained from an arcane familiar). The crystal grows in power as the psion does, becoming more intelligent etc (use the psicrystal table, or possibly the arcane familiar tabel for this).

Also, every N levels, including level 1 (I reckon about every 4 levels) the ectoplasmic 'skin' grows and changes, allowing the crystal to gain further physical abilities.

Some possible abilities:
Grows legs. Can move at 20ft.
Grows claws (must already have legs) attack 1d4, BAB of the psion. Can climb.
Grows wings, can fly at 30ft, clumsy.
Improves wings (flys faster or more manouverable)
Etc, Etc, Etc.

These changes are permanent.

Thoughts?
 

Terraism

Explorer
Oooh - little Monkey, I like those! ;) The idea is very very cool. One thing though - do they still grant an actual bonus? Sounds like yes, but I'm just confirming. Those are nice though - I'd do a bit more work on that... :D
 

Infinite Monkey

First Post
LITTLE Monkey!!! Why, I oughta...

ahem, sorry about that.

The general idea is to make psicrystals more like familiars. So they still give some type of bonus to the psion, possibly including alertness when they are close and other similar bonuses that arcane casters get from their familiars.

My main problem with psicrystals is that they are so static and boring. You can't use them to scout or anything for ages and even then they cost. You can't use the to deliver touch attacks and so on and on and on.

So, the obvious answer is to give them movement powers right from the start. The obvious way to allow a crystal to move (As well as looking cool) is the ectoplasmic skin idea. And obviously the skin is more flexible than ordinary creatures, so it can possibly be altered, thus the gaining of other physical characterstics.

Other characteristic ideas:
the ecto-skin gets harder, giving a bonus to AC.
the ecto-skin gets thicker, giving a bonus to hitpoints.
These two simulate things that happen to familiars anyway, if I remember correctly, so I would probably allow the crystal to gain another characteristic every two levels. If there were enough charcteristics to choose from, it would be possible to get a highly customised 'familiar'

Some examples:
1) a psicrystal with lots of different senses and good flight abilities, used as a scout.
2) a psicrystal with lots of AC and hitpoints and claws, possibly even an increase in the size of its 'skin' up to whichever size comes before 'small', used to defend the psion.
3) a psicrystal with very fast flight and good AC and hitpoints, primarily used to deliver touch attacks.
 

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