The Gaming Den

I give myself bad ideas by responding to other people's posts and this is no exception:

I guess this character fills the role of party support (removing bad stuff on allies, and bringing them through crises alive), with the side benefit of demoralizing enemies.

The Psychoanalyst

Please, go on about your childhood...

Some people fight with swords, others with spells, while others do bizarre shenanigans with lobbing dozens of fire-bottles a minute or leading armies of living trees.

Others fight their enemies by investigating how their enemies and allies think. Giving them keen insight in how to exploit their enemies mental weaknesses and shore up the same problems among their allies.

Hit Die: d4
Class Skills: The Psychoanalysts's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are: Bluff (Cha), Concentration(Con), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (all skills individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak Language (-), Spot (Wis) and Use Magic Device (Cha).

Skills/Level: 6 + Intelligence Bonus
BAB: Poor (1/2),
Saves: Fort: Poor; Reflex: Poor; Will: Good


Level, Benefit

1 Analyze, Catharsis (25%), Distortion,
2 Realize Inner Struggle +2d6
3 Mind over Matter, Classic Conditioning,
4 Realize Inner Struggle +4d6
5 Analyze [Range: Med], Group Therapy
6 Realize Inner Struggle +8d6,
7 Catharsis (50%); Faster Realization,
8 Realize Inner Struggle +10d6
9 Distanced Analysis [Long Range or Sight], Catharsis (75%)
10 Realize Inner Struggle +12d6, Secondary Conditioning
11 Rapid Realization, Travel of the Outer Mind
12 Realize Inner Struggle +14d6
13 Immediate Realization, Behavioural An
14 Realize Inner Struggle +16d6
15 Catharsis (100%), True Conditioning
16 Realize Inner Struggle +18d6
17 Condition the Immortal
18 Realize Inner Struggle +20d6
19 Travel of the Inner Mind
20 Realize Inner Struggle +22d6


Spell Casting: Every level, a Psychoanalyst gains specific spells, these may be used at-will and are listed at the level at which they can first be used by the Psychoanalyst.

Analyze: As a move action, the Psychoanalyst may attempt to analyze any creature with an intelligence score within close range (25 feet + 5 feet per 2 character levels). Doing so requires the Psychoanalyst to make a check of: (1d20 + Character level + Intelligence modifier check) versus the target's (10+ Challenge Rating [Minimum 1] of the creature). A creature remains Analyzed by the character until their challenge rating increases. A Psychoanalyst may have Analyzed any number of creatures.

Willing creatures lower the DC of the check by their Intelligence modifier, instead of increasing it, but only if their modifier is positive.

At level 5, the Psychoanalyst may Analyze a target at medium range (100 feet + 10 feet per caster level)

At level 9, the Psychoanalyst may Analyze a target at long range (400 feet + 40 feet per caster level) as well, the Psychoanalyst may Analyze any targets that they can observe or listen to, even if they are further than Long Range.

Catharsis: A Psychoanalyst may lead an Analyzed creature through a mental breakthrough, shedding previous mental baggage that was hampering their ability to act.

As a standard action, the Psychoanalyst selects a previously Analyzed creature and proceeds to coach them through their current crisis. This effect removes any Compulsion and Fear effects currently targeting the creature. In addition, if the creature is at less than one quarter of their total hit points, their hit points now are set at one quarter of their normal total.

After this Catharsis, the affected creature is no longer counted as being Analyzed and the process of Analysis must occur again.

At level 7, the maximum restored hit points raises to 50%. At level 9 to 70% and at level 15 to 90%.

At level 5 Catharsis may be used at Medium Range.

Distortion; As a standard action the Psychoanalyst may distort an Analyzed creatures sense of self.

They suffer a penalty to all dice rolls equal to 1/2 the Psychoanalysts character levels (minimum 1). This effect lasts a number of rounds equal to 2 rounds + 1 round per 2 character levels the Psychoanalyst has.

After this Distortion, the affected creature is no longer counted as being Analyzed and the process of Analysis must occur again.

Realize Inner Struggle:(Ex) Being in tune with the mental condition of others allows the Psychoanalyst to influence their enemies for her own and her allies good. Usually this means incapacitating said enemies.

As an attack action a Psychoanalyst may inflict a number of dice of subdual damage upon any single creature that the Psychoanalyst has a line of effect to and that they can be understood by (body language, sign language and telepathy are acceptable means so long as the target has any type of means to create thought).

This subdual damage may affect any target, even those that are normally immune to subdual damage, such as Constructs or Undead.

If this effect is used on a target that the Psychoanalyst has perviously affected with their Analyze ability, they may choose to deal normal/lethal damage instead of subdual damage. This damage cannot be ignored with damage reduction or energy resistance of any kind.

Mind over Matter:(Ex) At level 3 a Psychoanalyst may, as a standard action, negate any single effect of any kind upon an Analyzed creature for a number of rounds equal to 1 round plus 1/2 of character levels the Psychoanalyst has.

After this effect of Mind over Matter, the affected creature is no longer counted as being Analyzed and the process of Analysis must occur again for that creature to count as being Analyzed.

Group Therapy: At level 4, any number of creatures within close range are willing to be subject to a Psychoanalysts Analyze power may be affected all as a standard action.

Classical Conditioning: At level 5 the the Psychoanalyst has learned about Classical Conditioning, able to train an animal or unintelligent creature into following the Psychoanalyst's commands.

You gain a single low (Int 1-3), or unintelligent (Int -) creature, which can be no more than your CR - 3, as a Cohort. It is under your complete control every round. Controlling it is a non-action on your character's part.

Faster Realization: At level 7 a Psychoanalyst may use their Realize Inner Struggle ability as a move action.

The check to do this is: 10 + CR of the willing creature with the most CR.

As a consequence of this shared analysis the process of Analysis is easier and for every willing member that can communicate with the Psychoanalyst the gains a +1 bonus for every member in this Group Therapy.

Additionally, the Psychoanalyst may now use his abilities that target individuals on every member of this Group instead of affecting an individual.

Secondary Conditioning: At level 10, the Psychoanalyst has been able to convince a humanoid into following it. A single humanoid creature equal to the Psychoanalyst's CR - 3 is now able to follow and assist the Psychoanalyst.

Rapid Realization: At level 11 a Psychoanalyst may use their Realize Inner Struggle ability as a swift action once per round.

Travel of the Outer Mind: At level 11, the Psychoanalyst is able to cast Plane Shift, and Greater Teleport; allowing them to travel to within 200 miles of any location on any Plane, and then able to cast Greater Teleport if the location they are in allows for such (i.e. not in an Anti-Magic Fields, not affected by Dimensional Anchour, or trying to cast with expansive amounts of solid substances (40'+ rock/dirt/snow/ice/clouded water etc. between the caster and their destination, and other such restrictions on )

Immediate Realization: At level 13 a Psychoanalyst may use their Realize Inner Struggle ability as an Immediate action once per round. This however, subsumes the swift action for that round the way an Immediate action always does.

True Conditioning: At level 15, the Psychoanalyst has been able to convince any one intelligent creature to work for them via knowledge on conditioning other intelligent creatures. The Psychoanalyst counts has having a Cohort that can be any intelligent creature that is their CR - 3. This creature may be changed at the start of every adventure, but the equipment that previous ones have is not usable by player characters or lootable by players; instead the 'unused' Cohorts work on other tasks or take a break while the actively used Cohort is with the Psychoanalsyt.

Condition the Immortal: At level 17, The Psychoanalyst may cast True Ressurection once every 15 minutes. Doing this takes 15 minutes of uninterrupted meditation, and having the body cuts the cooldown time, and casting time down to 5 minutes.

Travel of the Inner Mind: At level 19, the Psychoanalyst is able to cast Astral Projection[/url at will, as a spell-like ability (and ... Cause Fear
[*]
[*] Scare
[*] Aversion
[*] Fear
[*] Death Urge
[*] Crushing Despair
[*] Confusion
[*] Calm Emotion
[*] Revivify, Psionic
[*] Feeblemind
[*] Suggestion, Mass
[*] Heroism, greater
[*] Discern Lies
[*] Mind Seed
[*] Holy Word/Blasphemy/Word of Chaos/Dictum
[*] Metafaculty
[*] Psychic Chirurgery
[*]
[*]
[/list]




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....I'll add more stuff as it's suggested or I add it myself.

I'm thinking that giving Fear effects, Confusion, Insanity as well as stuff to deal with ability damage/drain are in order.

Having an ability to bring the dead back to life will also help.

Also, the ability to affect mindless creatures with the Analyze ability and call it Behavioral Analysis.
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Edit Sept 11/09, I've edited this, and filled it out, only playtest, and critique is left for this to be done.

OH JESUS NO YOU MADE IT FOR REAL AHHHHHH

I actually like the idea of this class.

Me too. That's why I did it.

I'm gonna have Lich-Freud as an assistant NPC on the Pirate Ship. Since I don't know who will be there in a healing capacity.


I think that 50%, 75% and 100% of max HP should be options for Catharsis. I'll give them out at... level 7, 10 and 15 respectively.

This is kinda' cool. I always wanted to have a Mind Flayer Therapist who spent most of his time talking about morality and values with adventurers and convincing them that adventuring isn't really for them. This class could make it a reality.

Koumei at [unixtime wrote:1190811272[/unixtime]]This is kinda' cool. I always wanted to have a Mind Flayer Therapist who spent most of his time talking about morality and values with adventurers and convincing them that adventuring isn't really for them. This class could make it a reality.

I can actually see Freud as an Illithid now.

"You're thinking of my tentacles as being penises, aren't you? And I'll tell you why..."

"Vhen did you start lustink after your elder brain?"

You guys have any ideas for what sort of abilities this should have or names for abilities?

Edit: added a bunch of abilities, Realize Inner Struggle and it`s `faster`use abilities as well as the Conditioning line of abilities

Ooh, nice. Can Mind Over Matter be used for effects the target is not yet suffering? For instance, could I negate someone's Stun condition for a few rounds *before* they get Stunned, likewise Deafness (or for that matter, death itself)?

Psychoanalyst: "Your oversized sword is merely a manifestation of your urge to touch another man's penis."
Warrior: "...Oh my god HE'S RIGHT!!! Arrghrbbl"
Psychoanalyst: *kills party*

Inner Child: The psychoanalyst can temporarily reduce the age of a subject they have analyzed. This inflicts a number of negative levels equal to (I have no idea), with a Will Save DC (bugger that) to negate. These negative levels last for 1 round per level of the psychoanalyst.

suggested Will DC: 10 + half of Psychoanalyst or character level + INT

Koumei at [unixtime wrote:1190844980[/unixtime]]Ooh, nice. Can Mind Over Matter be used for effects the target is not yet suffering? For instance, could I negate someone's Stun condition for a few rounds *before* they get Stunned, likewise Deafness (or for that matter, death itself)?

I dunno....

I should also make this an Immediate effect instead and say that it suppresses an effect.

I actually had the idea that you can negate a Death Effect with this ability, but not actually being killed.

Man, this could be a very dicey class to play in combat.

You might want to save your Immediate Realize Inner Struggles in case you need to use your Mind Over Matter on your allies.

Leading to character play that intentionally conserves actions in case they might need them to assist an ally.



Of course, all Psychoanalysts will spend any time not in combat Analyzing their companions in case they need the Analysts help when they get into combat.



Technomancer: I like the general debuff ability that negative levels gives, but I don't like negative levels b/c they bone people in an unbalanced fashion (Frank's discussion on how negative levels can lead to weird permanent Skill point loss or even skill point creation is partly why).

What if the result is that the creature is confused? Or Shaken, Frightened, Panicked or Cowering?

I'm also thinking of an ability called:

Horrible Revelation: At 17th level, The Psychoanalyst comes to a conclusion based on their analysis of a creature that affects the very fibre of the Analyzed creature's being.

As a standard action, the Psychoanalyst communicates with an Analyzed creature. The creature is then Helpless for a number of rounds equal to half the Psychoanalysts character levels.

The targeted creature gets a will save to change the effect to being Dazed instead.

But I'm not sure if it's a good fit, level appropriate or even gameplay appropriate.

I also want to include some dazed, stunned, confused and nauseated effects. I'm not sure if I should though. The class is getting pretty full of abilities.

However, it's not going to use Combat feats or cast spells, so more abilities are probably an idea.

These negative levels cannot possibly last long enough to become level loss, so I don't see how they can lose/create skill points, could you point me to the article? And it is true that negative levels bone people unfairly (a wizard is definatly harder hit than a barbarian), but it's a whole hell of alot easier than creating virtual level loss, and there arn't actually any modifiers for playing children like we have for playing old people, and even if we did, the debuff would be so minor as to not matter.

Wait.. negative levels for the most part lower your results on rolls, right?

I think that the Distortion ability at lvl 1 already does that.

I'm also thinking about placing a Slip of the Tongue ability.

Slip of the Tongue (Ex): Sometimes we say what we mean more than what we should. At level 8, The Psychoanalyst is able to spontaneously create this effect in people around themselves.

Using a standard action, the Psychoanalyst creates an effect that induces all verbal component spells to have a 50% failure rate. In addition any magical items that require activation do not activate 50% of the time and any Charisma-based skill checks suffer a circumstance penalty equal to one-half the the Psychoanalysts character levels. This effect affects all creatures within medium range of the Psychoanalyst, including allies.

How about Confusion and Feeblemind effects?

Does Horrible Realization Daze you for that long? Because Dazed=helpless as far as anyone cares.

Being able to coup de grace people doesn't matter when the person can take no actions for 8 rounds.

Have you had a D&D combat that lasted longer than 8 rounds when the other guy fought back? 8 rounds of dazed is a HUGE effect of HUGENESS.

8 rounds of daze means they lose automatically.

Still, be careful with those status effects. A little bit goes a long way.

Yeah, I know.

It`s a huge effect of hugeness (I recall the 4 Archivists + 1 cracked-out damage Fighter = Dead Fiendish Lords (like... dead Demogorgon in 4 rounds or some shit; with 4 lvl 15-17 PCs discussions on how broken Archivist`s auto-daze ability was).

How about making the Daze effect only last 1 round? That means that at the very least, you cost them a whole round of actions.