Phrenic Knight Magus Archetype

As the martial traditions melding sword and magic have evolved across the lands. Users of other mystic forces besides the arcane have tapped into this style of blended combat. This includes those endowed with psychic ability. These who meld mind and blade are called phrenic knights. Endowed with uncanny mental powers phrenic knights pilfer their opponent’s thoughts for weaknesses to exploit. In combat, phrenic knights rely on their telepathic abilities to anticipate their enemy’s every move, and the phrenic knight’s psychic powers can assail his opponent’s mind and body alike.

Adapted from the Mindslicer archetype from Wayfinder #16, now with spontaneous psychic class casting and 100% less Numeria.

Spellcasting: A phrenic knight casts psychic spells drawn from the psychic’s spell list, but only psychic spells of 6th level or lower are considered part of the phrenic knight’s spell list. Spell trigger or completion items of 7th level or higher require a successful Use Magic Device check, and cannot be used with his magus abilities. He can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time. To learn or cast a spell, a phrenic knight must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a phrenic knight’s spell is equal to 10 + the spell’s level + the phrenic knight’s Intelligence modifier.

A phrenic knight can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is the same as a bard’s spells per day. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Intelligence score.

The phrenic knight’s selection of spells is limited. A phrenic knight begins play knowing four 0-level spells and two 1st-level spells of the phrenic knight’s choice. At each new phrenic knight level, he learns one or more new spells, using the bard’s table of spells known. Unlike a phrenic knight’s spells per day, the number of spells a phrenic knight knows isn’t affected by her Intelligence score.

At 4th level and every even-numbered level thereafter (6th, 8th, and so on), a phrenic knight can choose to learn a single new spell in place of one he already knows. In effect, the phrenic knight loses the old spell in exchange for the new one.

A phrenic knight need not prepare his spells in advance. he can cast any psychic spell he knows at any time, assuming he has not yet used up his allotment of spells per day for the spell’s level.

Knacks: phrenic knights learn a number of knacks, or 0-level spells. These spells are cast like any other spell, but they don’t consume any slots and can be used again. Knacks cast using other spell slots (due to metamagic feats, for example) consume spell slots as normal.

This alters the Magus’ spellcasting. Any other feat, class feature or archetype, or other effect that alters the Magus’ spellcasting applies to the phrenic knight’s spellcasting.

Psychic Pool (Su): A phrenic knight gains a psychic pool. This psychic pool has a number of points equal to 1/2 his magus level (minimum 1) + his Intelligence modifier. The pool refreshes once per day when the magus prepares his spells.

At 1st level, a phrenic knight can expend 1 point from his psychic pool as a swift action to read the surface thoughts of a single creature within 30 feet, as if he had spent 3 rounds concentrating on detect thoughts. His caster level for this effect is equal to his magus level. This effect lasts for up to 1 minute, without the need to maintain concentration. A successful Will save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the magus’s level + magus’s Int modifier) negates this effect. A magus can only affect one creature at a time with this ability. If he uses this ability again while another detect thoughts is still in effect, the previous effect immediately ends. If the magus or his target move beyond range, the effect is temporarily suppressed but resumes if they are once again within range of each other.  At 5th level, and every four levels thereafter, a phrenic knight’s detect thoughts targets one additional creature, effectively allowing him to read the surface thoughts of several creatures simultaneously. This is a mind-affecting divination effect.

Against creatures whose surface thoughts he is reading, a mindslicer gains a +1 insight bonus on melee attack and damage rolls, AC, CMD and Reflex saves; this bonus to AC, CMD and Reflex applies even if the phrenic knight is flatfooted, but not if he is unconscious or otherwise immobilized. For every four levels beyond 1st, this bonus increases by +1, to a maximum of +5 at 17th level.

The phrenic knight may regain a point to his psychic pool when he confirms a critical hit against a creature subject to the effects of his psychic pool, or succeeds in a Reflex save against this creature. He may regain a maximum number of points per day in this fasion equal to his Intelligence bonus. This maximum is reset when the phrenic knight rests to regain his psychic pool.

This replaces arcane pool, and counts as arcane pool for the purpose of feats, abilities, class features and other affects that modify arcane pool.

Centered Combat: At 4th level, the phrenic knight can spend a swift action to center himself and reduce the concentration of his psychic spells to that of a normal arcane spell for one round. At 8th level, he can spend 1 point from his psychic pool to center as a free action.

This replaces Improved Spell Combat.

Expanded Repertoire: At 4th level, and every 3 levels thereafter, the phrenic knight may select two spells from the spell list of an arcane spellcaster — so long as the spells are not on his own spell list. He adds these as additional spells known, and they are treated as being on his spell list. The spells chosen must from either the Divination or Enchantment schools, and must be at least 1 level lower than the highest level spell he can cast.

This replaces Spell Knowlege and Greater Spell Access.

Phrenic Arcana: In addition to the standard magus arcana, the phrenic knight gains access to the following exclusive arcana.

• Dragon’s Breath Focus (Su): The phrenic knight can spend 2 points from his psychic pool to change a spell that has a line or burst area of effect into a 30-foot cone that emanates from the phrenic knight’s mouth as a breath weapon. The magus must be at least 6th level before selecting this arcana.
• Elusive Mind (Sp): As long as he has at least 1 point in his psychic pool, the phrenic knight is under a constant nondetection effect. At 15th level, he gains a constant mind blank effect instead. He can end or restore this protection as a move action. If dispelled, the magus cannot resume this protection for 1d4 rounds. The magus must be at least 6th level before selecting this arcana.
• Focused Force (Su): When casting a force spell, the phrenic knight can increase the spell’s damage by spending 1 point from his psychic pool. Increase the die size for the spell’s damage by one step (from 1d4 to 1d6, 1d6 to 1d8, 1d8 to 1d10, or 1d10 to 1d12). This increases the size of each die rolled, so a spell that dealt 4d6+3 points of force damage would deal 4d8+3 points of force damage instead. This amplification can be linked only to spells that deal force damage, and only if that damage includes a die value. A spell that already uses d12s for damage can’t be amplified in this way.
• Mindprobe (Su): Whenever the phrenic knight reads a creature’s surface thoughts, he can also access the subject’s deeper thoughts, memories, and knowledge. As a standard action, the magus can expend 1 point from his psychic pool to learn the answer to one question to the best of the subject’s knowledge. A successful Will save (DC = 10+ 1/2 the magus’s level + the magus’s Int modifier) negates this ability. The magus must be at least 9th level before selecting this arcana.
• Mind’s Eye (Su): When delivering a spell using the spellstrike ability, the phrenic knight can spend 1 psychic point to ignore penalties from cover or concealment (but not total cover or concealment). If the attack that delivers the spell strike is a critical hit, he may spend 2 psychic points to get a +4 insight bonus to the confirmation roll. This arcana counts as having the critical focus feat. The magus must be at least 9th level to select this arcana.
• Thoughtsense (Su): A phrenic knight can expend 1 point from his psychic pool as a swift action to notice and locate any living, conscious creature within 60 feet, as if he possessed the blindsight ability. Nondetection, mind blank, and similar effects block this sense. This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to the magus’s Intelligence modifier. The magus must be at least 12th level before selecting this arcana.
• Thoughtslayer (Ex): A phrenic knight adds +1 to the save DC of mind-affecting spells targeting opponents whose surface thoughts he is reading. This bonus increases to +2 at 10th level and +3 at 17th level.

The following magus arcana complement the phrenic knight archetype: concentrate, prescient attack, prescient defense.

Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 7th level, a phrenic knight gains uncanny dodge as the rogue ability of the same name. This ability replaces medium armor.

Telepathy (Su): At 10th level, a phrenic knight gains telepathy 100 feet. This ability replaces fighter training.

Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 13th level, a phrenic knight gains improved uncanny dodge as the barbarian ability of the same name. This ability replaces heavy armor.