Wednesday, August 25, 2010

New Class: Psychic Knight


Centuries ago, when the Mindlords of Dyskatyr threatened to overrun the free lands, an order of knights was founded, both to combat the minions of the Mindlords on their own terms, and to protect those psychically-sensitive youths so often targeted for kidnapping and subversion. After decades of conflict, the Mindlords were defeated, and only a few Psychic Knights survived. The fickle populace of the free lands, ever fearful of powers they did not understand, eventually turned on the order, and the knights were driven out of civilized lands, into the steaming Western Wastes or the frost-rimed Mountains of Phoone.

Lately, men have appeared again on the borderlands bearing the Black Starburst sigil of the lost order. Have the knights truly returned? If so, why? Do they seek to redress past wrongs, or have they emerged from their exile to fight some new dark power that threatens civilization?


Psychic Knight

Psychic Knights are psychically-sensitive men and women who have been trained both as warriors and to harness the prodigious powers of their minds. They often live a wandering life, seldom returning to the secluded enclaves out in the wastes where they were trained, and their motives are often inscrutable. They tend to be suspicious of "normal" people, as the past has taught them some extreme lessons of the difficulties of being "different".

Prime Attribute: Charisma 13+ (5% xp)
Hit Dice: 1d6+1 (max 9d6+9)
Armor/Shield Permitted: Leather, Studded Leather, Chain Mail, no shields.
Weapons Permitted: Any
XP progression chart: as Magic User
Combat chart: As Fighting Man

Class Abilities

Psychic Enhancement - the Knight may focus his psychic abilities to affect his attacks, damage, or armor class (only one at a time, stated before initiative). This is a bonus applied to the attack, damage, or armor class of +1, which increases to +2 at 4th level, +3 at 7th level, and +5 at 12th level (Psychic Master). At the referee's discretion, the player may also use this bonus to temporarily affect the Knight's speed, height of jumping, strength rating to bend bars, etc.

Psychic Aura - The Psychic Knight constantly projects an aura of psychic power visible to other psychically-sensitive, sentient beings. The intensity of the aura is often directly proportionate to the level of power of the knight. This aura can conflict unpredictably with magic items, and Psychic Knight will avoid such trinkets (never, ever possessing more than 3, and less is best), usually favoring interesting devices and artifacts of lost technologies.

1st level: Mind Blast - The Psychic Knight can stun one sentient target within 90' - the target must successfully save vs. the attack or fall into a drooling torpor until awakened (as per the sleep spell). The knight can Mind Blast once per day at first level, twice at second, and a maximum of three times per day at third level and above.

2nd level: Detect Psychic Ability - The Knight can detect Psychic ability within 90'. This is most often used to find new recruits.

3rd level: Psychic Soporia - The Knight can Mind Blast a group of weak sentient beings, as per the sleep spell, once per day.

4th level: Clairaudience/Clairvoyance - The Knight can use these abilities (as per the magic user spells) once per day at 4th level, twice a day at 7th, and thrice a day at 10th level.

5th level: Suggestion - as per the magic user spell, once per day at 5th, twice a day at 8th, and thrice a day at 12th.

6th level: Fly - as per the magic user spell. Once a day at 6th, twice at 9th, and thrice at 13th.

7th level: Phantasmal Force - as per the magic user spell, once per day.

8th level: Confusion - as per the magic user spell, once per day.

9th level: Feeblemind - as per the magic user spell, once per day.

12th level: Psychic Master - the Knight may use one of the following once per week: Legend Lore, Project Image, or Teleport.

10 comments:

  1. Hey, not bad! It's going to take me more time to fully digest this guy, but on first glance, I like the way he looks.

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  2. That's a damned good all-purpose psychic. Consider this swiped for a potential S&W Dark Sun hack.

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  3. Very nice class. Looks balanced and fun.

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  4. Very cool. love the little concept-drenched story intro. Reminds me of how intriguing the Dragon articles by Ed Greenwood were before Forgotten Realms was published.

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  5. This comes to mind:

    You see me now a veteran of a thousand psychic wars
    I've been living on the edge so long
    Where the winds of limbo roar
    And I'm young enough to look at
    And far too old to see
    All the scars are on the inside
    I'm not sure if there's anything left of me

    Lyrics to Veteran of the Psychic Wars by Blue Oyster Cult, written by Michael Moorcock

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  6. Good catch, Red! Moorcock's lyrics are why the class is called "Psychic" Knight, as opposed to "Psionic" Knight :)

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  7. Yeah, this is great. I'm adding this to my campaign.

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  8. Great class! Sounds utterly awesome, but why did you choose to put Charisma as their prime attribute?

    2e psionics used Wisdom as their primary attribute, and even Intelligence sounds more appropiate.

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  9. @Path - Great Question! Charisma in this case at least is considered to be force of personality, willpower, influence on the world, strength of aura etc. Compared to the ability to accurately reason (Int), or learn life's lessons (Wis), Charisma seemed an appropriate stat. Plus Cha seems to become a "dump stat" unless the character is heavily into hirelings, so a little Cha love is not unwarranted! :)

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