Psychologue

Base Requirements

  • Races: Any
  • Sub-Classes: Any
  • Ability Requirements: Knowledge 15, Intuition 12, Leadership 14
  • Alignments: Any Neutral (LN, NG, TN, NE, CN)
  • Starting Cash: By class

Weapon Proficiencies

  • Weapon Slots: By class
  • Bonus Weapon Proficiencies: none
  • Required Weapon Proficiencies: none
  • Allowed Weapons: Any Small weapons allowed by class
  • Allowed Armors: By class

Non-Weapon Proficiencies:

  • Non-weapon Slots: By class
  • Available Categories: By class, plus Academic
  • Bonus Non-weapon Proficiencies: Body Language, Hypnosis, Psychology
  • Required Proficiencies: Literacy
  • Recommended Proficiencies: Animal Training, Animal Handling, Artistic Ability, Body Language, Bribery, Occult Lore, Debate, Diplomacy, Etiquette, Fast-Talking, Harness Subconcious, Healer, Herbalism, Information Gathering, Intimidation, Meditative Focus, Modern Languages, Pharmacy, Philosophy, Psionic Detection, Reading Lips, Research
  • Forbidden Proficiencies: none

Overview: The psychologue is a person trained and experienced in the functions and possible maladies of the mind. He may be a professional doctor treating mental illnesses, an independent scholar or sage who has taken an interest in the workings of the mind, a psionicist who has decided to investigate the true source of their powers, or an adventurer who has had one-to-many brushes with mind-rending supernatural terrors. Rarely, a particularly insightful person might naturally develop the skills needed to be a psychologue, such as a particularly attentive bartender.

Professional psychologues often spend their lives in asylums, clinics, or temples studying and treating those poor unfortunates who have been driven mad by the horrors of the world. Others seek to learn by studying “normal” personalities under conditions of extreme stress. These psychologues often join bands of adventurers, both to aid them, and to study how they react to the stresses that adventuring brings. Less scrupulous ones may even actively experiment on their companions.

Description: The psychologue has little or no concern for physical appearances or personal possessions. They are typically poorly equipped, wearing unfashionable clothing, and appear tired and unkempt from long nights dealing with the mentally deranged. The psychologue always has at least one notebook on him, to record his observations on his companions mental states, and often will be carrying a number of unusual tools-such as calipers for measure subject’s heads, small hammers for testing their reflexes, or drills for performing trepanations.

Role-Playing: A psychologue can be of great help to any group of explorers or hunters of supernatural creatures. Their power to resist corruption and madness can help keep a party from straying too far into the darkness, and their skill at unlocking the hidden powers of the mind can add to the talents of any group. The psychologue may also gain access to places other adventurers aren’t welcome, such as asylums or sanitariums (both surprisingly good sources of information on arcane secrets, ancient treasures, and supernatural threats).

Special Abilities:

  • The psychologue’s keen perceptions and understanding of subtle psychological clues allows them to identify falsehoods and dementia more accurately than most. A psychologue can make a Psychology check to identify someone with a mental disorder just by speaking with him. This check gains a +2 bonus if the psychologue has the opportunity to converse with the subject for several hours uninterrupted. He has an equal chance to identify if someone is consciously lying.
  • A psychologue is protected from many forms of insanity by his long study of such ailments. This provides a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells and effects which cause or simulate insanity (such as the spells confusion, compulsive order, feeblemind, or mindshatter).
  • A character who has fallen victim to madness who spends at least a week talking to a Psychologue every day is allowed a save vs. spells to regain his sanity for 2d6 days. If he remains in close contact with the psychologue for an extended period of time, he may extend this effect, or actually regain his sanity permanently (at least partially).
  • Wizards (including spellcasting rogues) who are psychologues gain a +15% to their chance to learn any spell that affects the subject’s mind, such as hypnotism, suggestion, or brainkill (subject to DM interpretation).
  • Because of their research into the hidden powers of the human mind, all psychologues possess some level of psionic talent. Each psychologue starts with one or more psionic wild talents (one free roll). He also gains a +2 bonus when rolling for the normal chance for a psionic wild talent that all characters possess. If the character is also a psionicist, these wild talents are in addition to any powers he would learn normally.
  • A psychologue with the empathy, identity penetration, life detection, or psychic surgery psionic powers (either as a wild talent or as a psionicist), gains a +3 bonus to his power scores with those powers. In addition, when he uses psychic surgery in an attempt to grant another character a wild talent, the roll is made with an additional +2 bonus.
  • A psychologue may choose to use any of his weapon proficiency slots to purchase non-weapon proficiencies instead.

Special Disadvantages:

  • Psychologues spend most of their time and effort studying abstract mental effects and conditions, and tend to ignore training in combat and physical pursuits. Psychologues suffer a -1 penalty on all attack rolls and never gain bonus hit points due to a high Fitness score.
  • Because of their extensive and focused research on the workings of the mind, spellcasting psychologues have difficulty learning spells that affect the body. They suffer a -30% penalty to their chance to learn spells rolls for any spell that would alter the subjects physical form in some way. This includes, but is not limited to, all spells that produce healing effects, cause disease, polymorph the subject, or enhance the subjects physical attributes (such as the strength spell).
  • A psionicist psychologue must have Telepathy as his first discipline and Metapsionics as his second. He must learn the powers contact, empathy, probe, psychic surgery, and telempathic projection at the earliest point possible.
  • While he is protected from madness, the psychologue’s efforts to open his own mind leave him vulnerable to psionic intrusion. He suffers a -2 penalty on saving throws against psionic attacks from the Telepathic discipline, as well as attacks that simulate such effects (like an illithid’s mind blast), and a -2 penalty to his power score with any psionic defense mode. In addition, he suffers 1d3 points of damage per round when within the area of effect of the synaptic static psionic power.

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Psychologue

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