Expanding the Psionic Monster Mythos

In developing the monster section of the Basic Psionics Handbook, Welbo and I spent a lot of time thinking through which creatures would and would not be including in the monster section. There were a few factors that drove us in this regard:

1. All of the classic "iconic" psionic creatures must be included (and those that aren't OGL'ed must have the serial numbers filed off).

2. The opportunity should be seized to expand the influences of the area spanning the Middle to Far East.

3. Anything new that was added should feel consistent with Moldvay/Cook/Marsh.

ICONIC PSIONIC CREATURES
Though we have settled on the names "astral gith" and "limbo gith" for... well, the gith-you-know-whats, Welbo and I are still reworking a couple of the other names (e.g., last night it occurred to me it would be cool to nickname the tentacle-mouth thing we all know and love as the "thid", but no group editorial decision has approved this yet). Many others are already OGL (aboleth, brain mole, intellect devourer, neothelid, et al.), so it was just a matter of converting it while making sure it fell in line with the new system and the overall vibe of BX.

EXPANDING THE EASTERN INFLUENCE
We've done this both with iconic creatures and the addition of new ones. For example, the baku was re-imagined less as the elephantine creature with mixed psionic abilities, and made more like a wooly tapir that devours dreams (owing to its Chinese roots). There's also the addition of the aqlghoul, a Persian inspired ghul, that not only possesses the undead immunities, but is psionically immune as well (even though it can use psionic abilities).

MOLVAY/COOK/MARSH CONSISTENCY
If you've been following the development of this project for a while, then you're likely familiar with the story of the psionic rhino. This is likely the most BX of the creatures in the book (and why shouldn't it be, I worked directly with Steve Marsh develop the final entry). The section also sees the addition of a few more low level psionic creatures as well (including the albino toadstool and the hive-mite, as well as a conversion of the dromite—a humanoid race that feels very BX to me, even though it wasn't introduced until 3.5e). I've also created a psionic human-headed spider, the nightspinner. How has there been no iconic psionic spider before now? (BTW, this creature is going to be one of several bridges to the material I am developing for a tentative Basic Atlas of the Planes, which likely won't be finished until late next year).

Okay, to wrap this up, the illustrations are progressing, and I have only 5 spot illustrations left for the monster section, then about a dozen or so more to finish out the book. We could see the release of this by mid-October (fingers crossed).

More art you've probably already seen for the Basic Psionics Handbook...

This is stuff I've been posting to Google+, but I know some folks don't get around those parts much. Also, it's nice to see this as a collection like this; it starts to help you get a vibe for how the interior of the book will feel, and what it will contain.

CX1 Extra Gnomes - Now Available!

See the picture. Click this link. Get it free!

Art you've already seen for the Basic Psionics Handbook

I've been too busy the past week to deal with a proper new blog post, and I'm tired of looking at the illustration from the last post, so I'm just posting a collection of the art I've been working on for the Basic Psionics Handbook. It's stuff that's all been posted previously (mostly to Google+), but I thought looking at it as a group would be nice (considering that I think front-to-back, the BSH will be one of my favorite NBD books to have illustrated so far).

CX1: Character Class Codex Update

Because I know people will ask, there will still be an animal classes book. It will be CX2: Animal Class Codex. I do not have a date on it, but will likely be the early part of 2016. Today, I will be discussing the Character Class Codex (CX1) only.

On a side note, the Basic Psionics Handbook is moving into final editing stages, and I will be starting the illustrations for it soon. Don't want to share target release dates yet for fear of getting ahead of myself (there is, after all, that yet-to-be-announced 5e project that's getting juggled in there too). I would like for the Basic Psionics Handbook and the Character Class Codex to release at the same time so people don't have to wait on the other in order to order. That will likely be the determining factor for release date.

Okay, 'nuff housekeeping, now on to the nitty gritty...



Right now, the Character Class Codex is clocking in at 92 pages, and the content list looks something like this.

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Alchemist: more of an NPC; includes descriptions for 60 potions, and information about hiring them to create potions

Archer-Rogue: follows the Robin Hood archetype (prev. shared on blog)

Bard (Version I): mixes Norse skald, Celtic bard and French jongleur; BX-only, w/ thieve's abilities and MU spells in addition to charm and lore skills

Bard (Version II): out of Welsh tradition; has druidic spellcasting (uses AEC) in addition to charm and lore abilities

Beastmaster: pretty self-explanatory (prev. shared on blog)

Bogatyr: Russian-inspired knight-errant with ability to grow to giant size (prev. shared on blog)

Challenger: a fighter class that gets better in melee the longer he fights a single opponent; also gains a sworn with each level

Dragi: class adaptation of dragon-headed spellcasters from the Creature Compendium; includes 2 new dragi spells

Elves: includes drow, gray, shadow, wild, wood and half-elf; the shadow elf includes 20 new shadow-elf-specific spells

Florentine: a two-fisted fighter class

Gnomes: includes 3 types, the grey gnome (miner/fighter/illusionists), the brown gnome (miner/thief/illusionists), and the green gnome (live in trees and use druidic magic); the first two have limited magical abilities (dancing lights, ghost sound, prestidigitation) but no learned spells; the latter includes information for all of its 42 druid-like spells, about a dozen of which are new

Half-Orc: I'm using this to fill in the BX need for an assassin (but using a race class to do it); the half-orc also has an intimidation melee ability

Kineticist: a telekinetic psionicist with ability to use some attack/defense modes (uses Basic Psionics rules)

Martial Acrobat: an acrobat that is not a thief, but instead using tumbling and agility to deflect, evade, and attack

Metathurge: my take on the incantatrix (a spellcaster that focuses on affecting magic itself); still working on this, but will include about a dozen new spells

Ranger: the BX-only ranger I shared on the blog the other day

Runecasters: human and dwarven; introduces a new magic approach built around the runecasting; includes (spell) descriptions for 43 runes

Sauteur: a mystical combatant w/ psychoportative powers (uses Basic Psionics rules)

Savant (Version I): a clairsentient combatant (uses Basic Psionics rules)

Savant (Version II): a traditional intellectual savant; at lower levels has detection and comprehension skills; starts gaining both cleric and MU spells as mid-level

Scribe: more of an NPC type; includes costs for hiring the scribe for specific duties

Shapeshifters: 2 types... the polymorpher (able to polymorph into any type of creature) and the manimal (able to polymorph into only normal or giant animals, but not fantastic creatures)

Skald: a bardic fighter; includes a new approach to magic through the use of songs; includes (spell) descriptions for 42 songs

Spy: has most of a thief's abilities, plus escape, bluff and disguise

Steppe Shamans: 2 types (white and black); adapted from Valley of the Five Fires, but tweaked to be more BX-specific (e.g., spell durations); includes the 38 spell descriptions from the module (tweaked to BX)

Telepath: a telepathic psionicist with ability to use some attack/defense modes (uses Basic Psionics rules)

Tinkers: 2 types (human and dwarven); still working on this, but planning on giving them "contraptions" instead of spells (with requirements for materials and construction time); also function for lock-picking, trap-finding, etc.

Varlet: a deceiver based on the mentalist (TV show) archetype (prev. shared on blog)

Völva: adapted from Dragon Horde Zine #2 to be more BX-specific; includes the 20 new spells that were appeared in the zine

Warslinger: the halfling sling-master combatant (already shared on the blog)

Wenwet: an Egyptian inspired spellcaster; part priest, part MU; spells come from both lists but focus on transformation

Woodland Races: centaurs (fighters), fauns (charm and illusory magic), and satyrs (charm magic, no illusions)

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There will likely be a couple of additional appendix items: one with new psionic disciplines (not included in Basic Psionics Handbook), and one with some new spells. There are a couple of other appendices I'm considering, but want to reserve sharing those yet.

New BX/LL Character Class: (Halfling) Warslinger

Okay, so the second week of "New BX/LL Classes Week" is in full swing. Today continues with the warslinger. This is an old-school adaptation of one of the few later edition prestige classes that I find "fun enough" to be old school--the Warsling Sniper (simplified by me to "warslinger").

Again, I've gone ahead and made this a downloadable PDF. Unlike some of the other classes I've done that are sprawling, multi-page affairs, all of the new classes this week have been contained on a single page. That's one of the reasons you're seeing them as PDFs rather than text content with JPG snapshots of the class tables. And--oooh... today you get an illustration on the page!

Anyway, here you go...

Click here to download a free PDF of the
Warslinger BX/LL Character Class page from MediaFire.

New BX/LL Character Class: The "Purely BX" Ranger

So we had some quickie storms pass through yesterday afternoon, which caused a bit of a power outage in my neighborhood. That meant I couldn't do any client work (which is all on my desktop computer), so I grabbed my laptop and my sketchbook/notebook/journal thing, and decided to knock out a ranger class. The ranger has been on my mind lately not because I had intended a ranger for the Character Class Codex (I didn't), but because I happened to recently stumble across my copy of Dragon #106 (which has new skills for rangers). That got me to thinking about doing a ranger.

I've never really liked the 2 HD at first level thing from the Strategic Review, or how they tried to adjust for it in the AD&D PHB by reducing the HD for the ranger from d10 to d8, but I figured I'd see if I could come with another answer. Which is what I've done here... giving the ranger 1d6+1 at each level rather than 1d8 as a standard BX fighter. If you think about it from a mathematical POV, all it really does it average the randomness of the ranger's hp acquisition, but I feel like it still keeps the spirit of the original somehow. (BTW, don't get me wrong. I love any character that starts at first level with 2 HD. In fact, I'm currently playing a ranger in Steve Balog's group and that extra HD has come in handy at least once!)

The other thing I wanted to do was streamline the spells into a single list, and have them come solely from BX D&D (without having to rely on the LL AEC druid spells). So I culled the list to fit my conception of what a ranger's magic should do, and shifted them around a bit knowing that the original ranger got the druid spells at 1 level sooner than the MU spells, and created a list specifically for the ranger. That makes this a "purely BX" (i.e., "non-AEC") ranger! (No druid spells, no skill checks.)

Also, don't go and get all spoiled with another PDF download today. I'm just proud of the fact that I did the ranger in one page, and I wanted to show that off! Anyway, here you go...

Click here to download a free PDF of the Ranger BX/LL Character Class page from MediaFire.