Psion Prestige Class : Grim Psion
By Scott Brocius and Mark A. Jindra
"I am eternal."
For some psions, it's all about the preservation of life: their life. For these individuals, the thought of their existence ending is completely unbearable, and they go to any lengths to avoid the bleakness of death. It is ironic then to learn of how these psions solve this dilemma. They follow the dark arts and turn to the realm of the undead to escape the end. Though they pay a heavy cost for this new existence, for them, it is worth it, for they can exist forever.
The grim psion undergoes a physical change in becoming one of the undead. Her body desiccates and her skin stretches tight, showing her skeleton clearly. Her hair hangs in tatters until it either falls out or she removes it, and her eyes wither to nothing, leaving a pair of glowing red sockets. Eventually, her entire body rots away, leaving just a skeleton.
Requirements
To qualify to become a Grim Psion, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
- Alignment: Any non-good.
- Skills: Knowledge (psionics) 5 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 5 ranks.
- Feats: Psicrystal Affinity, Psionic Meditation.
Manifesting: Must be able to manifest 4th-level or higher powers.- Special: Must have defeated an undead creature that has an Intelligence score.
Class Skills
The grim psion's class skills are Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Knowledge (any), Listen, Psicraft, Search, Sense Motive, and Spot.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the grim psion prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Grim psions gain no proficiency in any weapons or armor, but they retain any previous knowledge they may have had.
Powers Known: On gaining a level, a grim psion gains additional power points per day as though he had gained a level in whatever manifesting class he belonged to before adding the prestige class. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (bonus feats, metapsionic or item creation feats, and so on). This essentially means that he adds the level of grim psion to the level of whatever psionic manifesting class the character has, then determines power points per day, powers known, and manifester level accordingly.
0-Level Powers: Grim psion levels count toward the level of the psionic character for determining the number of free manifestations per day of 0-level powers.
Undeath (Ex): By embracing this path, the grim psion becomes an undead creature. She becomes immune to poison, sleep, paralysis, polymorphing, stunning, disease, death effects, and necromantic effects. She also ignores mind-influencing effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and moral effects), but she is still subject to psionic combat. Dread champions are also not subject to critical hits, subdual damage, ability damage, ability drain, or energy drain. She has no Constitution score and is therefore immune to any effect requiring a Fortitude save (unless it affects objects). A grim psion uses her Charisma modifier when making Concentration checks.
As an undead, a grim psion is no longer healed normally. She requires negative energy (such as an inflict wounds spell) to heal, though regeneration and fast healing effects work normally.
A grim psion is not at risk of death due to massive damage, but she is immediately destroyed if reduced to 0 hit points or less. She can no longer be raised or resurrected. She can be brought back to existence only through use of a wish or psionic reality alteration.
A grim psion gains darkvision with a range of 60 feet.
A grim psion can be turned. A grim psion can no longer use Psychometabolism powers and uses her Charisma modifier for Psychokinetic powers.
Examples of Hit Dice Promotion:
A level 10/3 psychic warrior/dread champion has 13d8 Hit Dice. Upon reaching 4th level as a dread champion, these Hit Dice change to d10, so the dread champion now has 14d10. When this dread champion reaches 8th level, his Hit Dice change to 18d12.
If the character received a set percentage of hit points per Hit Die, just adjust the total to reflect the new Hit Die type. For example, if the particular campaign gives out 50% of maximum hit points, the 10/3 psychic warrior/dread champion would have had 52 hit points at 13th level, but upon gaining 14th level, his total becomes 70 hit points.
If the character actually rolled for hit points, the DM has a couple of options. The character can either add 13 hp to reflect the difference in average hit points between d8 and d10, or the character can roll a new set of 13d10's, but the total should not be less than the current total.
Hit Dice Promotion (Ex): At 1st level, each previous Hit Die gained promotes to a d6 if it was less than a d6. At 4th level, each promotes to d8, and then they promote to d10 at 7th level and d12 at 10th level. Any levels gained after becoming a grim psion use the current grim psion Hit Dice type to determine hit points gained.
Ability Gains (Ex): As the grim psion gains levels in this prestige class, her ability scores increases as noted in the class table. These increases stack and are gained as if through level advancement.
Damage Reduction (Su): At 2nd level, rhe grim psion's body toughens, giving her damage reduction of 2/-, this power improves to 3/- at 4th level, 4/- at 6th level, and to 5/- at 8th level.
Natural Armor Class (Ex): Due to the increasing toughening of her body, the grim psion gains the listed natural Armor Class bonus.
Fear Cone (Su): As a standard action, the grim psion can create a cone of fear 30 feet long. Creatures in the cone must make a Will save of DC 10 + the grim psion's class level + grim psion's Charisma modifier. Those who fail are panicked for 2d6 rounds.
Tainted Construction (Ex): The grim psion gains the tainted construction feat even if she does not meet the prerequisites for it. Any construct she manifests will now be of tainted ectoplasm. (see "Expanding Your Mind: Subpsionics").
Turn Immunity (Ex): At 6th level, the grim psion becomes immune to turning effects. She cannot be turned, rebuked, or commanded, but she is still subject to spells and powers that affect undead, such as sever the tie.
Cold Immunity (Ex): At 7th level, the grim psion becomes immune to cold damage.
Paralytic Touch (Su): At 9th level, the grim psion completes her connection to the Negative Energy Plane. She gains a touch attack that deals 1d8 points of negative energy damage; a Will save with a DC 10 + grim psion's class level + grim psion's Charisma modifier reduces the damage by half. If the target fails this save, it is also paralyzed for 1d3 rounds. She cannot heal herself through use of this.
Astral Phylactery (Ps): At 10th level, you gain the ability to use a form of astral seed power at will as a psi-like ability, although with its normal manifesting time of 10 minutes. This astral phylactery functions identically to the astral seed power, except as follows:
Unlike with an astral seed, you cannot use ectoplasm to grow a new body for yourself. Instead, you must find a corpse of your original size and type (as appropriate to your type from before you entered this class and became undead) that was slain within the past 9 days. Upon making contact with the corpse, you may will the transfer, causing the storage crystal to shatter into dust. You become helpless for 24 hours, as the body decays to match your skeletal state.
An astral phylactery counts as an astral seed to determine the total number of astral seeds that you can have in existence at any given time. It also counts as a lich's phylactery for the purposes of powers and other effects.
Additionally, unlike with the astral seed power, you do not suffer any negative levels, level loss, or diminished psionic abilities for using this effect. Your powers known and maximum power points are as they were when you died, instead of when you manifested the power. In addition, you do not suffer an incurable negative level in your crystalline form, and you do not lose a level when you acquire a new body.
| Grim Psion | Hit Die: d6 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL | BAB | Fort | Reflex | Will | Special | Powers |
| 1st | +0 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Hit Dice promotion (d6), undeath | -- |
| 2nd | +1 | +3 | +0 | +3 | Cha +2, damage reduction 2/- | +1 manifester level |
| 3rd | +1 | +3 | +1 | +3 | Natural AC +2, fear cone | -- |
| 4th | +2 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Hit Dice promotion (d8), damage reduction 3/- | +1 manifester level |
| 5th | +2 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Int +2, Tainted Construction | - |
| 6th | +3 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Wis +2, damage reduction 4/-, turn immunity | +1 manifester level |
| 7th | +3 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Hit Dice promotion (d10), cold immunity | +1 manifester level |
| 8th | +4 | +6 | +2 | +6 | Natural AC +4, damage reduction 2/- | +1 manifester level |
| 9th | +4 | +6 | +3 | +6 | Paralytic touch | +1 manifester level |
| 10th | +5 | +7 | +3 | +7 | Hit Dice promotion (d12), mind construct | +1 manifester level |
Adapted from the Grim Psion adaptation by Garryl at Brilliantgameologists
Source: Web
Older Prestige class adapted to 3.5