Psionic Classes

WILDER

The psion draws his psionic ability from strict mental discipline and intellectual development. Not so the wilder - for her, raw emotion is the source of psionic power. Emotion-triggered psionic ability is not a science, but a passion. The zeal with which the wilder pursues the use of her psionic ability is so extreme that she can occasionally trigger a surge of power far beyond her normal capabilities. But with this ability comes a price: By exceeding her limits, the wilder may injure herself with psychic feedback. Wilders see dangerous quests as further opportunities to use their emotion-triggered psionic abilities. Eager to show what they can do, wilders use their psionic abilities against whatever obstacles confront them. Wilders are concerned first of all with the manifestation of their powers, but do not shy away from wealth or items that can further upgrade their abilities. Wilders are passionate about their powers, often pushing themselves to their utter limits with their wild surges. However, they are not blind to the risks of the wild surge and the limited number of powers they can call upon. Thus, they develop their skills and fighting ability as best they can, honing themselves to be useful in all situations. Wilders are capable of adopting any of the alignment viewpoints, none of which are at odds with personal psionic development. A wilder is too self-centered to desire or seek after the philosophy of deities. A wilder is typically self-taught. Most wilders were left too long on their own as children, sometimes forced by cruel circumstance to live alone in the wild. Life in the wild doesn't usually forge many bonds, so when most wilders are eventually found, they return to civilization. By that point, however, their mental development is set. When they take up residence in larger cities, wilders try to make up for their years of solitude by impressing others with their abilities. Wilders recognize each other as fellow voyagers on the journey of personal discovery. They may feel kinship with others of their kind, but they are just as likely to throw down a challenge. Wilders are more likely to spring up among maenads than in any other race. Humans are a close second. Dromites, elves, halflings, gnomes, and xephs are usually incapable of putting themselves in the emotional moment required to trigger psionic ability - they prefer the more disciplined approaches of other classes. The wilder tradition is more akin to half-giant culture, and some few wilders are thus half-giants. Surprisingly enough, a small number of dwarves, rebelling against their society, find the abilities of the wilder quite appealing and fall into the class by accident. Other creatures with psionic ability are somewhat more likely to become wilders than tgo take up any other psionic class. While wilders are, on the one hand, turbulent individuals, on the other hand they enjoy dealing with others because they are happy to showcase their own prowess - through action or just through talk. A wilder is sometimes a front-line combatant, using her powers to boost her raw fighting ability. Other wilders prefer second-line positions, relying wholly on powers to contribute to a group's offensive capabilities.

Alignment: Any.

Hit Die: d6.

Class Skills

The wilder's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Autohypnosis (Wis), Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Psicraft (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).

Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) × 4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Class Features

All the following are class features of the wilder.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Wilders are proficient with all simple weapons, with light armor, and with shields (except tower shields).

Power Points/Day: A wilder's ability to manifest powers is limited by the power points she has available. Her base daily allotment of power points is given on Table: The Wilder. In addition, she receives bonus power points per day if she has a high Charisma score. Her race may also provide bonus power points per day, as may certain feats and items.

Powers Known: A wilder begins play knowing one wilder power of your choice. At every even-numbered class level after 1st, she unlocks the knowledge of new powers.

Choose the powers known from the wilder power list. (Exception: The feats Expanded Knowledge and Epic Expanded Knowledge do allow a wilder to learn powers from the lists of other classes.) A wilder can manifest any power that has a power point cost equal to or lower than her manifester level.

The total number of powers a wilder can manifest in a day is limited only by her daily power points.

A wilder simply knows her powers; they are ingrained in her mind. She does not need to prepare them (in the way that some spellcasters prepare their spells), though she must get a good night's sleep each day to regain all her spent power points.

The Difficulty Class for saving throws against wilder powers is 10 + the power's level + the wilder's Charisma modifier.

Maximum Power Level Known: A wilder begins play with the ability to learn 1st-level powers. As she attains higher levels, she may gain the ability to master more complex powers.

To learn or manifest a power, a wilder must have a Charisma score of at least 10 + the power's level.

Wild Surge (Su): A wilder can let her passion and emotion rise to the surface in a wild surge when she manifests a power. During a wild surge, a wilder gains phenomenal psionic strength, but may harm herself by the reckless use of her power (see Psychic Enervation, below).

A wilder can choose to invoke a wild surge whenever she manifests a power. When she does so, she gains +1 to her manifester level with that manifestation of the power. The manifester level boost gives her the ability to augment her powers to a higher degree than she otherwise could; however, she pays no extra power point for this wild surge. Instead, the additional 1 power point that would normally be required to augment the power is effectively supplied by the wild surge.

Level-dependent power effects are also improved, depending on the power a wilder manifests with her wild surge.

This improvement in manifester level does not grant her any other benefits (psicrystal abilities do not advance, she does not gain higher-level class abilities, and so on).

She cannot use the Overchannel psionic feat and invoke her wild surge at the same time.

At 3rd level, a wilder can choose to boost her manifester level by two instead of one. At 7th level, she can boost her manifester level by up to three; at 11th level, by up to four; at 15th level, by up to five; and at 19th level, by up to six.

In all cases, the wild surge effectively pays the extra power point cost that is normally required to augment the power; only the unaugmented power point cost is subtracted from the wilder's power point reserve.

Psychic Enervation (Ex): Pushing oneself by invoking a wild surge is dangerous. Immediately following each wild surge, a wilder may be overcome by the strain of her effort. The chance of suffering psychic enervation is equal to 5% per manifester level added with the wild surge.

A wilder who is overcome by psychic enervation is dazed until the end of her next turn and loses a number of power points equal to her wilder level.

Elude Touch (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, a wilder's intuition supersedes her intellect, alerting her to danger from touch attacks (including rays). She gains a bonus to Armor Class against all touch attacks equal to her Charisma bonus; however, her touch AC can never exceed her Armor Class against normal attacks.

Surging Euphoria (Ex): Starting at 4th level, when a wilder uses her wild surge ability, she gains a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls, damage rolls, and saving throws for a number of rounds equal to the intensity of her wild surge.

If a wilder is overcome by psychic enervation following her wild surge, she does not gain the morale bonus for this use of her wild surge ability.

At 12th level, the morale bonus on a wilder's attack rolls, damage rolls, and saving throws increases to +2. At 20th level, the bonus increases to +3.

Volatile Mind (Ex): A wilder's temperamental mind is hard to encompass with the discipline of telepathy. When any telepathy power is manifested on a wilder of 5th level or higher, the manifester of the power must pay 1 power point more than he otherwise would have spent.

The extra cost is not a natural part of that power's cost. It does not augment the power; it is simply a wasted power point. The wilder's volatile mind can force the manifester of the telepathy power to exceed the normal power point limit of 1 point per manifester level. If the extra cost raises the telepathy power's cost to more points than the manifester has remaining in his reserve, the power simply fails, and the manifester exhausts the rest of his power points.

At 9th level, the penalty assessed against telepathy powers manifested on a wilder is increased to 2 power points. At 13th level, the penalty increases to 3 power points, and at 17th level it increases to 4 power points.

As a standard action, a wilder can choose to lower this effect for 1 round.

WILDER VARIANTS

Educated Wilder

You have had formal psionic training.

Level: 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th.

Replaces: You lose the volatile mind class ability at all levels listed above.

Benefit: You have received some formal psionic training and as such, you have unlocked psionic powers most wilders never dream of. You gain the Expanded Knowledge feat at all of the above levels. But due to the training involved, your mind is not as untamed as most wilders and you lose the defensive ability volatile mind.

Mantled Wilder

Your focus allows you access to a psionic mantle.

Level: 2nd.

Replaces: You lose your elude touch class ability; also see below.

Benefit: You gain access to a single psionic mantle from Complete Psionic. You replace the elude touch class ability at 2nd level with the mantle's granted ability and gain access to the powers on the mantle list. In fact you must take those powers at your first opportunity. If you chose the Creation mantle, you would have to learn astral construct and minor creation at 1st and 2nd level, for example. You are free to choose all other powers from the psion/wilder list.

Shifter Wilder

Despite his typically low Charisma, a shifter's animalistic nature often manifests itself as passion or zeal - tendencies right in line with the wilder psionic class. A shifter who pursues this unorthodox approach can meld his shifting and psionic talents in powerful ways.

Hit Die: d6.

Requirements

To take a shifter wilder substitution level, a character must be a shifter about to take his 1st, 2nd, or 6th level of wilder.

Class Skills

Shifter wilder substitution levels have the class skills of the standard wilder class, plus Survival.

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier (or four times this number as a beginning character).

Table: Shifter Wilder Racial Substitution Levels

Class Features

All the following are features of the shifter wilder's racial substitution levels.

Wild Psychometabolism (Ex): A shifter wilder can learn powers from the egoist list as if they were on the wilder list.

Savage Renewal (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, when a shifter wilder's shifting ends, he regains a number of power points equal to the maximum power level he can know. For example, a 2nd-level shifter wilder regains 1 power point when his shifting ends, while a 20th-level shifter wilder regains 9 power points.

This substitution feature replaces the standard wilder's elude touch ability.

Euphoric Shifting (Ex): Beginning at 6th level, any round a shifter wilder spends under the effect of surging euphoria while shifting does not count against the duration of that shifting. If a shifter wilder is not shifting, this ability has no effect.