Post/Author/DateTime	Post
JulesCARV 09-11-07, 12:50 PM	I've been kicking around a character concept for a halfling healer with a personality vaguely based on House (not too much... just vaguely). He's from House Jorasco, but not dragonmarked, and resents dragonmarked members of the House for getting a free ride and not having to work for their powers. (Also has contempt for most non-nobles (people who aren't Dragonmarked House nobles or others) and doesn't think of them as real people, for the most part, but that's another issue.) He's obsessed with being the best healer possible, and wants to show those dragonmarked punks a thing or two, but the most conventional paths to healing (divine spellcasting) are foreclosed by him not being faithful or idealistic (whether in a conventional religion or in some more personal form of idealism or faith). Archivist could work, but they have to actually prepare their spells: for a healer, this means either a rather inflexible spell selection or a lot of item creation (scrolls, wands, etc). Also, archivists often have to be friends with conventional divine spellcasters, which is unappealing for this character concept. Bards' healing abilities fall short of the needs of a dedicated healer, with no way to remove disease, raise dead, etc. So I thought an egoist, possibly going into sangehirn, would be a good way to go. What gets me, though, is how he learned to wield psionic powers. I don't want it to be a wild talent he simply discovered; I want him to have worked for it, or else his resentment of dragonmarked people would be a touch asinine. (You got a free ride with your fancy dragonmarks, whereas I... umm... got a free ride through a random wild talent.) Who would teach him, though, or how would he learn it independently? The sleazier his way of stealing info about psionics or tricking people into teaching him, the better, as far as I'm concerned. It's perfectly characteristic for him to lie, cheat, and steal his way to wielding healing psionic powers. Although if there's an honest way for a halfling to learn psionics, he could do that too.
Alex_ 09-11-07, 01:07 PM	If you can come up with a good enough philosophy, you don't have to be very religious or faithful to be a cleric. You can be the cleric of a philosophy or idea. Perhaps your character wants so hard to be the best Healer, and studies so hard to do so, that it's like they can heal with a touch. Don't play up the religious aspects. I tried a similar thing with a Halfling Rogue/Cleric. Rather than being the best healer, he was merely devoted to healing and helping whoever he could, whenever he could. He wielded a shortsword and wore light armor, only cast cure spells (also Dragonmarked), and never spoke of any particular faith. Didn't even have ranks in Knowledge (religion). If you hadn't looked at his character sheet, you wouldn't have known he levels in Cleric.
JulesCARV 09-11-07, 01:14 PM	For some characters, that might work. For this concept, though, I don't think it makes sense. It's not just that this character isn't conventionally religious -- it's that he's skeptical and cynical about almost everything.
Alex_ 09-11-07, 04:05 PM	For some characters, that might work. For this concept, though, I don't think it makes sense. It's not just that this character isn't conventionally religious -- it's that he's skeptical and cynical about almost everything. He doesn't seem to skeptical or cynical of his own abilities. He seems pretty confident that with enough work and his own ability, he can rival those who were blessed from birth with special powers. He's obsessed with it. Again, Clerics don't have to be religious. You don't have to play up to any religious stereotypes, no more than every Rogue has to be a thief or every Barbarian has to be a tribesman. Don't wear a holy symbol, don't take ranks in Knowledge skills related to religion. Don't cast spells that aren't related to healing or improving the health of others. Remain skeptical of religion and worship and belief in higher powers. Your character may not believe that praying to a higher power or performing a ritual will make their life better or give them a better afterlife. However, they do seem to live with a very strong belief that they can do something very difficult if not impossible (being a better Healer than someone with the Dragonmark of Healing) through sheer effort, tenacity, and their own 2 hands. I won't try to press the issue though. Just trying to give you a better of idea of what I was saying.
InkBlot 09-11-07, 04:54 PM	Do you have access to Complete Psionics? How about ardent? The ardent is the perfect class for psionic characters who are ardent about one thing or another. He's obssessed with being the best healer ever. That's enough to spark psionic talent within him and let him become an ardent. There's no such thing as an ardent power list. Ardents pick their powers off of mantles, short lists of powers arranged by ideas that an ardent might be ardent about. Anyway, it's not neccessary to be taught psionics by another person. Psionics isn't magic, even with transparency. Psionic characters are classically self-taught. All he needs is an initial impetus. The initial impetus for developing his psionic potential can be almost anything. Every living creature has psionic potential, it just needs to be unlocked somehow; a strong knock on the head; exposure to psychic vibrations; a simple natural prediliction towards the power of the mind; mind altering drugs; a singular encounter with a powerful psychic who unlocked that potential for him ("I'm trying to free your mind. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it."). If you really buy into the whole "all psionics must come from the Quori" idea, then perhaps an agent of the Dreaming Dark discovered a piece of your character's destiny in the Draconic Prophecy, visited your character in a dream, and unlocked his psychic potential to set him down a different path. Could be a good hook for your DM.
Gurv 09-11-07, 05:22 PM	You're overlooking the obvious. Have him seek an egoist to train him. He might have heard of some kalashtar healer and demanded to know how he did what he did. The kalashtar might be reluctant to teach outsiders, but when faced with someone who only wants to use his mind to heal? That could soften them up.
Arz 09-11-07, 05:23 PM	If you are sticking to the learning aspect of a psion, up in the End World Mountains is an abandonded city inhabited by the Shulaskar. They are psionicly capable descendents of the Couatl. Look up KB's articles on their goals. Also if you want to spin it the other way, many of the Dragon Below cultists possess psionic knowledge.
JulesCARV 09-11-07, 07:22 PM	Okay, here's what I'm thinking: I'm going with the self-taught idea -- discovering psionics independently, I suppose. He was trained in the arts of healing (i.e., heal skill ranks) by House Jorasco, but decided that going any further would require independent study. He began studying anatomy by cutting up stray cats and dogs and such and studying their brains, muscles, etc, hoping to learn more about them. He noticed things like the differences between the brain of a rabid dog and a normal dog, and became increasingly intrigued by the connection between the brain and the mind. He began to vivisect the animals he took, investigating the effects of sensory inputs like pain on their brains. Although it was clear that the mind could effect the physical world through the conduit of the nervous system, a mental act of will altering the physical position of an object such as a limb or muscle, from his notes, he began to speculate about how a more generalized means of interaction between the mind and the physical world might be possible -- whether the mind's effects on matter and vice versa could go beyond nervous system's limitations of effecting muscles and receiving input from eyes, ears, tongues, and fingers. Learning the nature of the nervous system more closely from his vivisections, he managed to achieve his first breakthrough to an understanding of psionics, and managed to obtain a previously unknown control over his mind. (I don't think ardent really works for this character, for the same reason that philosophy-cleric doesn't: he's not a devout believer or idealist in anything. Sure, you can make up stuff like "he believes in his own power as a healer," but really, that just means everyone "really" has the faith needed to be a cleric or ardent, even if it's not "conventional" faith, while in my view, few people have the depth of religious faith needed to be a conventional cleric of the Silver Flame/Dark Six/whatever, and even fewer have the faith in their own personal ideals needed to be an unconventional cleric outside of established religious paradigms. Frankly, I'd rather have a well-defined system for clerics who don't get their power from believing in anything at all, philosophical, religious, or otherwise, than say that anyone can be a cleric with a custom-tailored personal philosophy (for one proposal for such a system, see my post on Planar Mediumship (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=816375) -- a system of clerics whose powers are not based on faith.))
Edymnion 09-11-07, 08:59 PM	Yeah, I'd go for self taught as well. The character is obsessed with being the best healer he can be, has likely done a lot of soul searching, etc. Remember, in any other setting, that level of intense devotion to the inner self is all thats really required to become psionic, and if it works there, it works here. Also, you don't have to use the flavor for something if you don't want to. Just use the mechanics. Have him take levels in psion, get the healing powers, and just don't call it psionics. Call it magic, and don't worry about it.
JulesCARV 10-07-07, 11:48 PM	Yeah, I'd go for self taught as well. The character is obsessed with being the best healer he can be, has likely done a lot of soul searching, etc. Remember, in any other setting, that level of intense devotion to the inner self is all thats really required to become psionic, and if it works there, it works here. Perhaps, but vivisecting stray cats is a cooler way of achieving psionic powers than some new agey journey of self-realization.