The Psion: Part 1

Intro

 

The Psion is the awoken mind of the Eidolon, a powerful psychic conduit capable of bending reality to the will of their mind. This mystical class can occupy most spheres of play very efficiently and depending upon their ability path and progression can be tailored to fit any role within the party. Because of the class's powerful psionic capabilities, their class abilities allow them to interact with the Real in ways no other class can and/or will ever be able to.

Design Philosophy

In House of Eidolons, every system can be utilized by every class, classes do not have explicitly unique systems. Rather, every class has ability trees that emphasize, change, and/or enhance specific systems in the game. 

For example: The Sprawl Doc’s Chem Chef tree greatly enhances the Pharmaceutical system in House of Eidolons, The Agent’s Shadow tree maximizes stealth and Coup De Grace, and the Netdiver’s Submersion Engineer tree really ramps up their capabilities in Submersion space.   

All of the above-mentioned classes and class-specific trees do not create new systems but rather enhance a system that any character can access with the right gear and focus. So, if the Sprawl Doc is a play on Cybernetics and Pharmacy systems, a Netdiver on Overlay, Drones, and Submersion systems, then what system is the Psion a play on?

The Psion is a play on the class system itself. It is, perhaps, the most classy of class systems and is the only truly self-contained system in the game. Only the Psion can do what the Psion can do and only an Eidolon with the [Latent Psionic] tag can choose the Psion class. So to begin the game as a Psion you must first select the Latent Psionic origin and then select the Psion class. There are a few expensive/difficult ways to gain the [Latent Psionic] tag in the future but they are a sub-optimal way to dip into the Psion class. 

Because the Psion class is built around the class system in the game it has many unique rules that other classes do not. For starters, it has 5 ability trees and each ability tree has 4 abilities, with no focused ability. 

Second, the Psion may only ever select to learn 2 of the 5 ability trees (there is an EMS upgrade that allows for a 3rd). This limits the Psion to relative parity with the other classes in the game as far as ability selection goes. 

Next, nearly every ability that the Psion has is an activatable ability that requires the character to spend their edge dice to activate the ability. In this way, the Psion is the only class in the game that has to manage their resources and lose a great deal of capability when they run out. 

Lastly, The Psion has a Focused Tree that contains 10 focused abilities, one ability for each combination pairing of the 2 selected ability trees. The focused ability combines the powers of both abilities trees into a powerful and unique ability. 

For Example: The Telekentic Manipulation and Auric Manifestation trees have a combined focused ability called Auric Supercharge that allows the Psion to supercharge any mundane object and throw it with their mind where it detonates in a psychic explosion, (think Gambit on steroids!) 

In addition, when a Psion chooses to Focus class they also gain 50% more edge dice at the start of each mission, allowing them to sustain their ability use much longer. 

Each of the Psion’s trees are vastly different from one another and allows the Psion to play in very different spaces. So though the Psion can play many different roles or spheres of play they are limited based on the ability trees they choose. More than any other character the ability trees set up strong directionality for the character. 

Ability Tree Deep-Dive!

Before we wrap up part-1 of the Psion class deep-dive we will review the ability trees, their focus, and finally end with the passive ability. 

In House of Eidolons, we handle classes a little differently than many other TTRPGs. Opting for a multi-class tree approach that allows the player agency in ability choice and progression. the Psion has 5 ability trees to choose from and progress down but may only select 2 to learn for the career of the character (with an expensive way to gain a 3rd). All classes also have a universal Passive Ability that the character receives when choosing their primary class. For the Psion, these trees are the: Telepathic Resonance tree, Telekenetic Manipulation tree, Auric Manifestation tree, Mind Shadow tree, and Precognition tree.

The Telepathic Resonance tree focuses on reading and influencing the minds of others, allowing the Psion to know what others are thinking, influence their behaviors, and ultimately mind control their mark. The Telekinetic Manipulation tree is all about lifting throwing, pulling, and crushing objects with your mind, turning every object into a potential weapon, and creating options where there were none before. The Auric Manifestation tree is about the actualizing of psychic energy and imbuing objects with psychic power, allowing them to deal increased damage, take increased damage, and even mend organic and non-organic materials. The Mind Shadow tree is focused on erasing the Psion from the cognitive reality of observers and hijacking others’ senses. It is a tree focused on stealth and fully erasing oneself from all others' perceived reality. The Precognition tree is focused on seeing seconds into the future as a near-constant state, allowing the Psion unparalleled reaction, reflexes, and the ability to predict what will happen next. 

Passive Ability:

The Psions passive ability is called Psionic Focus and it emphasizes the use of Psionic abilities and provides a means to regenerate some edge dice. Psionic Focus:

Each ability tree of the Psion class comes with a psionic ability when the tree is selected, in addition to the 3 tree abilities that are normally available. A Psion may only select 2 ability trees, once 2 are selected, all others become locked.

In addition, when you critically succeed with a Psionic ability the edge dice cost of the ability is refunded.

If Focused, you gain +50% more edge dice at the start of each mission (rounded up)

Psionic Focus outlines the general rules of the Psion and also allows the Psion to gain back edge dice when they critically succeed with one of their Psion abilities. Lastly, it outlines the extra edge dice gained when they choose to focus class into the Psion. 

Next Time:

This is where we wrap up part-1. Next week Tuesday, we will jump into all 5 of the ability trees and explore each one and the design philosophy behind them. That will be part-2 of the Psion class deep dive. Part-3 next Thursday, will be the exploration of the 10 focused abilities and how they tie into each of their corresponding ability tree pairings. We will also talk about the focus classing strategy as the Psion and how it can differ from other classes. 

Thank you for joining me and stay tuned for next week's blogs!

Cheers, and happy netdiving Eidolons!