Don't Think Too Much ...
Don't think too much, or else my psychic is gonna getcha!
You guys, my mind is so clear right now.
Like … scary clear.
I hope I don’t accidentally awaken some slumbering elder god via the unique frequency of my cultivated mental … hold on, no.
Don’t be ridiculous, mind. That could never happen!
Earlier this month, I traveled to a secluded hillside retreat center in Northern California to mediate in silence for eight days. It was the same program as the one I attended a year ago, in the wake of which I wrote a post detailing several PF2 utility spells that popped into my head during a week spent trying to empty my mind of thoughts.
This year’s session kept to the same daily rhythm, more or less. A lot of sitting meditation. Some walking meditation. A few nourishing vegetarian meals served each day. The occasional set of verbal instructions offered by a teacher, and even fewer occasions where practitioners could share field reports of their meditation experience with a teacher.
It was a helluva wholesome good time!
And don’t worry, folks: that nightly 8:45pm “chanting” session was in no way designed to summon a Great Old One by focusing the resonant power of our collective … wait a minute. No.
Just stop it already, mind.
On the topic of collective power, please earn yourself a Hero Point by smashing that heart button up top. I have no idea what it accomplishes, but let’s goooooo!
What was different this year? Well, despite the repeated teaching references to a gauntlet of loaded terms — etheric, astral, divine, cosmic, focus, nobility, and alignment (which is no longer a thing in the Remastered rule set!) — I found myself ruminating less about Pathfinder in my stray moments of thinking.
But one gaming insight that did pop up was related to fun, and I realized:
I haven’t built a new PF2 character in quite a long time!
So once back in the real world, and inspired by my retreat, I honed in on two thematic classes: monk and psychic. And I’ve played the former (my first PF2 character in Age of Ashes was a dragon stance monk named Bente Bensik), but never thought much about the latter, which was introduced in the Dark Archive rulebook:
The mind can perceive truths hidden to fine-tuned instruments, house more secrets than any tome, and move objects and hearts more deftly than any lever. By delving into both the conscious and subconscious aspects of your inner self, you have awoken to the might of psychic magic, allowing you to cast spells not through incantations or gestures but by the power of your will alone. While the thin line between your mind and reality means that a single errant thought could have unintended consequences for yourself and your companions, you know that anything is possible, if you can imagine it.
I’m building my character in Pathbuilder 2e, and I’m going to choose tengu aka crow humanoid for my ancestry, pilgrim aka holy wanderer for my background, and psychic aka mental magic-user for my class. Boom: the ABCs are locked in.
The next big choice for a psychic at Lv 1 is to select fields for my conscious mind, which determines which spells I can cast, and subconscious mind, which determines my key ability score and how my mental spells are manifest.
I’m going with The Silent Whisper for my conscious mind (which grants the amplified cantrips daze and message that I can cast as Focus Spells, along with the psychic-specific cantrip forbidden thought), and Precise Discipline for my subconscious mind (which sets Intelligence as my key ability, and gives me the Calculate Threats action to boost my AC and Reflex saves).
Having set my ability scores (maxing Int and boosting Wis, Dex, and Con), refined my ancestry/heritage (I’m a Skyborn tengu with the Tengu Lore feat), and fleshed out my spell repertoire (guidance, know the way, telekinetic projectile, and command), I’ve already got a playable Lv 1 character.
So how much further do we want to go with this? Well, my most recent retreat was the third in-person program I’ve attended with my teacher Phillip Moffitt, so let’s build my psychic up to Lv 3. I’ve earned it.
My big choices at Lv 2 are a class feat and a skill feat.
For the former, I like the looks of Warp Space, which allows me to amp my psi cantrips so as to alter their origin point, increasing their range or negating cover. Very cool.
For the latter, I’m tempted to select the uncommon Crystal Healing feat from Dark Archive, but that feels a little too woo, even for my tengu psychic. Don’t want to accidentally use the wrong crystal combination and release a shoggoth!
Seriously, mind. Cut it out.
So let’s go with Recognize Spell, since I’ve got a big brain but no other options for spending my Reaction each round of combat.
Speaking of recognizing spells: at Lv 3, I’m going to use my skill increase to boost my Occultism to expert. And for my general feat, I’ll keep things simple: I know that “he who understands clinging and non-clinging understands all the Dharma,” but I also desperately want my psychic to live forever. So I’ll choose Diehard.
A few more spells (mystic armor, mindlink, touch of idiocy, and a cool one-round party haste from Dark Archive called loose time’s arrow), plus a bit of gear shopping (including a ring of sigils and a hat of disguise), and my tengu psychic pilgrim is ready to set off on his first adventure!
Now we just need to give our hero a moniker: I typically like to borrow Japanese words for my tengu characters’ names, so let’s go with Fu Doshin, derived from the Japanese term fudōshin which translates as “equanimity” or “immovable mind.”
He’s a pretty chill dude, most of the time. Just don’t fu*% with him while he’s meditating in silence ...
THE MINI AND THE DICE
One of the meditative activities that my four-year-old enjoys most is LEGO building, and I found this figurine in amongst her collection. The facial expression reminds me of the way I feel on Day 2 of an eight-day retreat: totally bamboozled and overwhelmed by the hinderance of doubt.
The good news: it gets better the longer you sit.
As for the pale turquoise dice “set,” consider it a cry for help: I am running out of complete polyhedral sets to feature in the header image for these posts! No problem, my squishy caster can simply hide in the back and cast spells that require the target to roll the save, so surely he won’t ever need to bounce a d20 …
Oh no! Telekinetic projectile requires a spell attack roll :(
(I did do a quick scan of the Ambush Tactics archives after I shot and edited the image for this month’s edition, and I realized that there’s at least one cool set in my dice bag that hasn’t yet been unveiled in these pages. Be sure to tune in next month!)
LISTEN TO THIS
Normally I reserve this space for sharing the custom fantasy soundtracks that I’ve curated on Spotify. And typically while writing these posts, I’ll listen to one of those gaming playlist in order to set the proper mood.
However, I came across this track by New York-based songwriter Bryce Connolly aka mindchatter while discovering artists who I might want to check out at the Outside Lands festival in SF this summer. And the dude’s nom-de-plume just seemed perfect for a psychic build guide, so this post was composed while listening to his cover of LCD Soundsystem’s “I Can Change” on repeat.
Bonus points: mindchatter filmed the music video for this song while he was losing his mind during the shelter-in-place period of 2020 aka the worst global meditation retreat of all time. Enjoy!
That’s it for this month, oh you who are the sons and daughters of the awakened ones. And so, as I communicate telepathically at the end of every Pathfinder module I run: this has been Ambush Tactics. I’ve been your Game Master. I hope you had a fun time.
Adventure!