u/SamuelZoe

Simple as that, can you move through Sand Snatcher? Does anybody have a definitive answer to this? https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=4227

• It says that it should be created in an unoccupied space, so RAW it does occupy its squares.

• It has no saves, AC or HP, so it's not a creature, meaning you can't Tumble Through it.

• Perhaps an object then? But you can't simply move through objects if they are Medium (or Large starting from 10th lvl), according to this section named Objects: https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2360

• Or is it just there existing? Maybe you can freely move without any difficult terrain because it's neither object nor creature and just a sustained magical effect?

TL;DR I need your help to evaluate my homebrew psychic changes bc my player was frustrated to play one.

I've been GMing Pathfinder 2e for almost a year, never experienced the game from the player's perspective. I've run BB, Crown of the Kobold King and currently running Bloodlords with a lovely 4-player party at 12th level. We enjoy the game very much (coming from the WOTC's basement 5e) but sometimes we have a little friction with the system.

Don't get me wrong, my players and I enjoy the crunch and more tactical approach. I'm specifically talking about some minor edge cases, like, "do undead bleed?" and "do undead need to breathe?" etc. And sometimes the issues come from the player side, like with Summoner and their Eidolon item interactions.

The reason I'm writing this post is precisely because one of my players had a miserable time as a psychic. This class has an incredible flavor and class fantasy. It has a very unique ability, core feature Unleash Psyche, that's just... very clunky to utilize. Compared to another player's Fire Oracle with majestic 4 slots and annihilating focus spells and even the third player's Spell Blending Wizard with his overarching arcane spell list, the psychic has to do 3 jumps through the burning hoops with both hands clapping and doing god knows what else to be just below their damage output and support abilities. Reading a lot on this sub to understand why is that, I've engulfed myself into a little rabbithole with conclusion that this class was just poorly remastered.

If I understand correctly, psychics 2 spell slots compensated his premaster ability to be the focus spell king. And while other classes received QoL updates and little buffs, psychic was left as is with almost nothing, that's why it feels harsh to play as. My player changed his Conscious Mind 2 times switching between Tangible Dream, Distant Grasp and finally Oscillating Wave. Only the last one made him enjoy the action loop but at that point it wasn't the character he envisioned, just something to actually feel on par with others.

So, to help my table in the future, I present you my Unleash Psyche changes and little touch-ups of the class. Please, read them down below and give your honest constructive opinion, will this make a remastered psychic enjoying to play while not making it really op.

P.S. For balancing reasons, we play with FA but restricted to only non-multiclass archetypes.

———————————————

[Addition to the Unleash Psyche action]

While your Psyche is Unleashed, the following effects occur.

<...>

• When you cast a non-damaging spell using your psychic spellcasting, you gain a +1 status bonus to your spell DC, Perception checks and skill checks made when a spell is cast.

^Adding this bonus helps support-oriented psychics and especially The Infinite Eye Conscious Mind which, as I understand, has 0 interest in casting their unique psi cantrips during UP.

Level 3 class feature.

Whenever you cast a psi cantrip, while your Psyche is Unleashed, your first amp during that Unleash doesn't spend any Focus Points.

^Simple as that, give psychics ability to utilize more focus points without breaking the 3 points max rule of casters. They should be exceptional at that, as they were during premaster.

Level 9 class feature.

Your Psyche remains Unleashed for 3 rounds instead of 2. Increase the duration for an additional round every 4 levels thereafter.

^As my player was saying, it just feels frustrating to have a limited window to do so much, especially after level 9, when we usually had combats for 5-7 rounds. He was missing the most crucial moments during the fights just because the dice decided so.

Level 15 class feature.

While your Psyche is Unleashed:

• When you cast a damaging spell using your psychic spellcasting, your status bonus to its damage increases to triple the spell's rank.

• When you cast a non-damaging spell, your bonus to your spell DC, Perception checks and skill checks made when a spell is cast increases to +2.

After your unleashed psyche subsides, you're stupefied 2. At the end of each of your turns, the value of this stupified condition decreases by 1.

^This one is actually just an idea without any ground reason underneath. I just feel like psychics should do more damage with their limited resources and upgrading the bonuses just follow this logic but I'm hesitant about this. I made their disability harsher on the first round of "recharging" to compensate for the power spike.

TL;DR I need your help to evaluate my homebrew psychic changes bc my player was frustrated to play one.

I've been GMing Pathfinder 2e for almost a year, never experienced the game from the player's perspective. I've run BB, Crown of the Kobold King and currently running Bloodlords with a lovely 4-player party at 12th level. We enjoy the game very much (coming from the WOTC's basement 5e) but sometimes we have a little friction with the system.

Don't get me wrong, my players and I enjoy the crunch and more tactical approach. I'm specifically talking about some minor edge cases, like, "do undead bleed?" and "do undead need to breathe?" etc. And sometimes the issues come from the player side, like with Summoner and their Eidolon item interactions.

The reason I'm writing this post is precisely because one of my players had a miserable time as a psychic. This class has an incredible flavor and class fantasy. It has a very unique ability, core feature Unleash Psyche, that's just... very clunky to utilize. Compared to another player's Fire Oracle with majestic 4 slots and annihilating focus spells and even the third player's Spell Blending Wizard with his overarching arcane spell list, the psychic has to do 3 jumps through the burning hoops with both hands clapping and doing god knows what else to be just below their damage output and support abilities. Reading a lot on r/Pathfinder2e to understand why is that, I've engulfed myself into a little rabbithole with conclusion that this class was just poorly remastered.

If I understand correctly, psychics 2 spell slots compensated his premaster ability to be the focus spell king. And while other classes received QoL updates and little buffs, psychic was left as is with almost nothing, that's why it feels harsh to play as. My player changed his Conscious Mind 2 times switching between Tangible Dream, Distant Grasp and finally Oscillating Wave. Only the last one made him enjoy the action loop but at that point it wasn't the character he envisioned, just something to actually feel on par with others.

So, to help my table in the future, I present you my Unleash Psyche changes and little touch-ups of the class. Please, read them down below and give your honest constructive opinion, will this make a remastered psychic enjoying to play while not making it really op.

P.S. For balancing reasons, we play with FA but restricted to only non-multiclass archetypes.

———————————————

[Addition to the Unleash Psyche action]

While your Psyche is Unleashed, the following effects occur.

<...>

• When you cast a non-damaging spell using your psychic spellcasting, you gain a +1 status bonus to your spell DC, Perception checks and skill checks made when a spell is cast.

^Adding this bonus helps support-oriented psychics and especially The Infinite Eye Conscious Mind which, as I understand, has 0 interest in casting their unique psi cantrips during UP.

Level 3 class feature.

Whenever you cast a psi cantrip, while your Psyche is Unleashed, your first amp during that Unleash doesn't spend any Focus Points.

^Simple as that, give psychics ability to utilize more focus points without breaking the 3 points max rule of casters. They should be exceptional at that, as they were during premaster.

Level 9 class feature.

Your Psyche remains Unleashed for 3 rounds instead of 2. Increase the duration for an additional round every 4 levels thereafter.

^As my player was saying, it just feels frustrating to have a limited window to do so much, especially after level 9, when we usually had combats for 5-7 rounds. He was missing the most crucial moments during the fights just because the dice decided so.

Level 15 class feature.

While your Psyche is Unleashed:

• When you cast a damaging spell using your psychic spellcasting, your status bonus to its damage increases to triple the spell's rank.

• When you cast a non-damaging spell, your bonus to your spell DC, Perception checks and skill checks made when a spell is cast increases to +2.

After your unleashed psyche subsides, you're stupefied 2. At the end of each of your turns, the value of this stupified condition decreases by 1.

^This one is actually just an idea without any ground reason underneath. I just feel like psychics should do more damage with their limited resources and upgrading the bonuses just follow this logic but I'm hesitant about this. I made their disability harsher on the first round of "recharging" to compensate for the power spike.

TL;DR I need your help to evaluate my homebrew psychic changes bc my player was frustrated to play one.

I've been GMing Pathfinder 2e for almost a year, never experienced the game from the player's perspective. I've run BB, Crown of the Kobold King and currently running Bloodlords with a lovely 4-player party at 12th level. We enjoy the game very much (coming from the WOTC's basement 5e) but sometimes we have a little friction with the system.

Don't get me wrong, my players and I enjoy the crunch and more tactical approach. I'm specifically talking about some minor edge cases, like, "do undead bleed?" and "do undead need to breathe?" etc. And sometimes the issues come from the player side, like with Summoner and their Eidolon item interactions.

The reason I'm writing this post is precisely because one of my players had a miserable time as a psychic. This class has an incredible flavor and class fantasy. It has a very unique ability, core feature Unleash Psyche, that's just... very clunky to utilize. Compared to another player's Fire Oracle with majestic 4 slots and annihilating focus spells and even the third player's Spell Blending Wizard with his overarching arcane spell list, the psychic has to do 3 jumps through the burning hoops with both hands clapping and doing god knows what else to be just below their damage output and support abilities. Reading a lot on r/Pathfinder2e to understand why is that, I've engulfed myself into a little rabbithole with conclusion that this class was just poorly remastered.

If I understand correctly, psychics 2 spell slots compensated his premaster ability to be the focus spell king. And while other classes received QoL updates and little buffs, psychic was left as is with almost nothing, that's why it feels harsh to play as. My player changed his Conscious Mind 2 times switching between Tangible Dream, Distant Grasp and finally Oscillating Wave. Only the last one made him enjoy the action loop but at that point it wasn't the character he envisioned, just something to actually feel on par with others.

So, to help my table in the future, I present you my Unleash Psyche changes and little touch-ups of the class. Please, read them down below and give your honest constructive opinion, will this make a remastered psychic enjoying to play while not making it really op.

P.S. For balancing reasons, we play with FA but restricted to only non-multiclass archetypes.

———————————————

[Addition to the Unleash Psyche action]

While your Psyche is Unleashed, the following effects occur.

<...>

• When you cast a non-damaging spell using your psychic spellcasting, you gain a +1 status bonus to your spell DC, Perception checks and skill checks made when a spell is cast.

^Adding this bonus helps support-oriented psychics and especially The Infinite Eye Conscious Mind which, as I understand, has 0 interest in casting their unique psi cantrips during UP.

Level 3 class feature.

Whenever you cast a psi cantrip, while your Psyche is Unleashed, your first amp during that Unleash doesn't spend any Focus Points.

^Simple as that, give psychics ability to utilize more focus points without breaking the 3 points max rule of casters. They should be exceptional at that, as they were during premaster.

Level 9 class feature.

Your Psyche remains Unleashed for 3 rounds instead of 2. Increase the duration for an additional round every 4 levels thereafter.

^As my player was saying, it just feels frustrating to have a limited window to do so much, especially after level 9, when we usually had combats for 5-7 rounds. He was missing the most crucial moments during the fights just because the dice decided so.

Level 15 class feature.

While your Psyche is Unleashed:

• When you cast a damaging spell using your psychic spellcasting, your status bonus to its damage increases to triple the spell's rank.

• When you cast a non-damaging spell, your bonus to your spell DC, Perception checks and skill checks made when a spell is cast increases to +2.

After your unleashed psyche subsides, you're stupefied 2. At the end of each of your turns, the value of this stupified condition decreases by 1.

^This one is actually just an idea without any ground reason underneath. I just feel like psychics should do more damage with their limited resources and upgrading the bonuses just follow this logic but I'm hesitant about this. I made their disability harsher on the first round of "recharging" to compensate for the power spike.