Erudite Compendium

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of a guildhouse. Other Lodge Luminous members are likelyto respond positively to your questions. The initial attitudeof a fellow luminary is always one step closer to helpfulfrom his normal starting attitude (see Influencing NPCAttitudes, PH72).

Luminaries help their own. If you make a Diplomacy orGather Information check while talking to a fellow lodgemember, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus on the check.

If you fall on desperate times, you can petition the lodgefor aid. Doing so requires a Diplomacy check, modified by acumulative 2 penalty for each previous call for aid you havemade. Typically, members who request aid want a monetaryloan. If you don't pay back the loan within the agreed-upontime (usually one month), you are expelled from the guildand the loan is absolved.

Finally, all members of the Lodge Luminous gain a usefulcontact within the lodge (see below).

Associated Skills:Autohypnosis, Concentration, Knowl-edge (psionics), Psicraft, Use Psionic Device.

Favored in Guild Feat Benefit: The Lodge Luminoussubsidizes your monetary expenses when you create psionic

items, reducing your raw material costs by 5%.Sample Contact:Ialdabode, 5th-level psion (telepath). Asa contact within the guild, Iaklabode is friendly to you. Onceper month, he'll use read thoughts on any person or creaturebrought to the lodge as a favor to you at no charge.

VARIANT PSION:THE ERUDITE

An alternative to the standard psion class, the erudite is apsionic character who follows a scholarly and sell-reflectiveroad to power, instead of a merely self-conscious path likethe psion follows. An erudite's psionic powers stem from aschedule of austere study and continual practice. Those who

can master the teachings of erudite lore eventually call uponan internal reservoir of psionic power.

An erudites strength lies in his array of powers. His mentalabilities are the result of hard work and prolonged study. Aswith the psion, an erudite's aggressive powers do not freelyscale like the spells of arcane and divine casters (thoughthey can be augmented), but he enjoys supreme flexibilityin accessing those powers with power points.

Unlike a psion, an erudite does not choose a disciplinein which to focus; his ability to learn select disciplinepowers is somewhat restricted. In addition to the powershe learns for free when gaining a new level, an erudite canlearn powers as he comes upon them, which means his

potential variety of powers is far broader than a psion's.Additionally, an erudite can seed a crystal or gem with afragment of his personality, creating a psicrystal as a classfeature. A psicrystal has special abilities that are helpful toan erudite.

MAKING AN ERUDITEAn erudite's role is slightly larger than that of a psion, inthat an erudite has access to a wider base of powers and thusis even more flexible. However, this flexibility comes at theprice of limits in other areas.

Abilities: Intelligence determines the strength of anerudite's manifested powers, how hard those powers areto resist, and the size of his power point reserve. See Class

Features, below.Races: Those who choose the way of an erudite must

adhere to a rigorous path of study and practice. Amongthe humanoid races, humans seem most apt to follow sucha course. Among the savage and monstrous humanoids,erudites are rare due to the required physical study ofpsionic lore.

Alignment:Studious erudites tend more toward law thanchaos, but they are not required to follow any particularphilosophical path to use their abilities. Erudites are bothgood and evil in equal measure.

Hit Die:d4.

CLASS FEATURESAll the following are class features of the erudite.Weapon and Armor Proficiency:Erudites are proficient

with the club, dagger, heavy crossbow, light crossbow,quarterstaff, and shortspear. They are not proficient with anytype of armor or shield. Armor does not interfere with themanifestation of powers. Armor check penalties for armorheavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, EscapeArtist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Sleight of Hand, Swim,and Tumble.

Power Points/Day:An erudite's ability to manifestpowers is limited by the power points he has available.His base daily allotment of power points is given on Table66. In addition, he receives bonus power points per day

if he has a high Intelligence score (see Table 21: AbilityModifiers and Bonus Power Points, EPH18). His race mightalso provide bonus power points per day, as might certainfeats and items.

Unique Powers per Day: An erudite manifestspsionic powers, paying for each manifestation with anexpenditure of power points. Unlike a psion, an eruditeis limited to manifesting a certain number of uniquepsionic powers of each level per day from, the repertoireof powers he knows, according to his class level. Thus, a1st-level erudite can manifest one unique power per day;however, the total number of powers he can manifest perday is limited only by his daily power points (that is, the

erudite could manifest the unique power as many timesper day as he has power points to pay for it). An eruditesimply knows his powers; they are part of his repertoire.He does not need to prepare them, though he must geta good night's sleep to regain all spent power points thenext day.

BEHIND THE CURTAIN: USING THE ERUDITEA hallmark of most psionic classes is the ability to manifesta limited number of powers. The erudite breaks from this toprovide an option for characters who want to have a variety ofpowers at their disposal. Limits are still in placean erudite

must choose whether a utility power is worth manifesting,when each new daily power restricts his later choices. In thisway, an erudite is much more versatile at the beginning of anencounter than at the end.


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An erudite does not choose a primary discipline.Powers Discovered (Repertoire): An erudite selects

powers from the same power list that psions and wilders use.An erudite begins play knowing two 1st-level powers of yourchoice. For each point of Intelligence bonus your characterpossesses, he knows one additional 1st-level power when youbegin play. Each time he achieves a new level, heunlocks the knowledge of two new powers of

any level or levels that he can manifest (accord-ing to his new level) from the psion/wilderpower list.

An erudite cannot automaticallylearn powers from any of the disci-pline power lists. However, hecan learn such powers later, asdescribed below under Learn-ing Discipline Powers.

To le ar n or ma nife st a po w-er, an erudite must have anIntelligence score of at least10 + the power's level. The Dif-

f ic u l t y C la s s f or s a v ing t hr ow sagainst erudite powers is 10 + thepowers level + the erudite 's Intmodifier. An erudite can later learnnew powers from power stones, fromthe minds of other willing psioniccharacters, and from the minds ofunwilling unconscious psionic charac-ters (see Adding Powers to an Erudite'sRepertoire, below).

Psicrystal: At 1st level, an eruditegains Psicrystal Affinity (EPH 49) asa bonus feat.

Bonus Feats: An erudite gains a bo-

nus feat at 1st level, 5th level, 10th level,15th level, and 20th level. This feat mustbe a psionic feat, a metapsionic feat, ora psionic item creation feat.

Thes e bonu s fe at s ar e in addi -tion to the feats that a characterof any class gains every threelevels (as shown on Table 32: Ex-perience and Level-DependentBenefits, PH 22). An eruditeis not limited to psionic feats,metapsionic feats, and psion-ic item creation feats when

choosing these other feats.

ADDING POWERS TO ANERUDITE'S REPERTOIRE

In addition to learning new powers for gaining a level likeother psionic classes, erudites can add new powers to theirrepertoires through several other methods.

Powers Gained at a New Level: Erudites and otherpsionic characters perform a certain amount of personalmeditation between adventures in an attempt to unlocklatent mental abilities. Each time a psionic character attainsa new level, he learns additional powers according to hisclass schedule.

An erudite learns two powers of his choice to add to his

repertoire in this fashion. These represent powers unlocked

through study, practice, and the accumulation of psionic lore.The two free pow ers mus t be of levels the

erudite can manifest, and they cannot befrom a select discipline list.

Exception: If a character with eru-dite levels gains at least as many levels

in another psionic class as he has in hiserudite class, he permanently loses the abil-

ity to add additional powers (above andbeyond the two gained at each new erudite

level) to his repertoire of powers known.Learning Discipline Powers: An erudite

can learn discipline powers only by directlylearning a power from another's repertoire,learning it from a power stone, or taking the Ex-panded Knowledge feat (EPH 46). In any case,an erudite can learn a discipline-only poweronly if it is up to 1 level lower than the highest

level power he can manifest.No matter what the powers source, the char-

acter must first make mental contact (a process

similar to addressing a power stone, requiring aPsicraft check against a DC of 15 + the highest-levelpower contained in the stone or the repertoire). Hecan make mental contact only with a willing psion-

ic character or creature (unconscious creatures areconsidered willing, but not psionic characters under

the effects of other immobilizing conditions).Mental contact requires 1 round of physi-

cal contact. Once mental contact is achieved,the erudite becomes aware of all the pow-

ers stored in the power stone or all thepowers known by the target up to the

highest level of power the eruditeknows himself (if the powers'

host fails a Will save [DC 13 +erudite's Int bonus]).

N e x t , t h e e r u d i t e m u s tmake a Psicraft check (DC 15

power 's level) for each powerhe is trying to learn to see if heunderstands that power. If the

s e l e c t e d p o w e r i s n o t o n h i sclass list or on any of the selectdiscipline lists, he automatical-ly fails this check.

I f t h e c h e c k f a i l s , t h ee r u d i t e c a n n o t u n d e r s t a n d ,

manifest, or learn the power. Hecannot attempt to manifest or learn itagain, even if he studies it from another

source, until he gains another rank in Psicraft. If the powerwas being learned from a power stone, it does not vanishfrom the stone.

If the check succeeds, the erudite understands the selectedpower. He can attempt to manifest the power normally onhis next turn, as described in Expanded Psionics Handbook,or he can attempt to permanently commit the power to hisown repertoire.

Committing the Power to Repertoire:Once an eruditeunderstands a new power through the procedure of contactdescribed above, he can learn it, permanently adding it to

his repertoire.

An erudite knows many morepowers than psion


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Physical Requirements:The erudite doesn't need to keep thepower stone or other psionic source nearby while he fixes thecandidate power in his repertoire. However, should he manifestany other power during the time requirement, he loses focuson the power to be added, forgoing the chance to learn thatpower until he gains at least one more rank in Psicraft.

Time: The process requires 8 hours, regardless of thepower's level. During those 8 hours, the erudite must remain

in meditation.XP Cost:To permanently learn a new power that is not one

of the powers he learns automatically when gaining a level,he must expend 20 experience points per erudite level, whichare deducted from the character at the end of the meditation.At that time, the erudite permanently knows the power andit is in his repertoire just like any other power he knows. Anerudite cannot expend so much XP that he would lose a level.If he doesn't have enough XP to spend on learning a power,he can't learn it until he gains more XP.

An erudite does not have to pay the costs in time or XP forthe powers he gains for free at each new level. He adds themto his repertoire as part of his ongoing meditation.

Other Considerations: In most cases, psionic charactersor creatures charge a fee to erudites for the privilege of learn-ing powers from their repertoires. This fee is usually equal tothe power's level x 50 gp, though many jealously guard theirhigher-level powers and charge much more (or deny accessto them altogether). Erudites friendly to one another oftentrade access to equal-level powers from their repertoires atno cost.

If an erudite learns a power from a psionic character orcreature, the process leaves the target's repertoire unharmed. Apower learned from a power stone disappears from the stone.

LAYING AN ERUDITEAn erudite adventures to exercise his mastery over mental

powers and fulfill his desire to discover new troves of psionic

lore. Of course, he can also have any of the noble or ignoblemotivations that other adventurers have.

Religion:Erudites sometimes worship deities revered fortheir intelligence and wisdom. Erudites who revere a deitydo not conform to any particular choice.

Other Classes:Erudites enjoy traveling with companionswith widely varying skills. They prefer to manifest theirpowers from a protected flank, serving either as "artillery"

or as support to their team.Combat:An erudite wins his way to victory through the

swift and merciless application of psionic powers. Becauseof the character's limitation on the number of unique powersper day, it is important to keep in reserve at least one powerthat he can use for offense or defense.

Advancement: An erudite shares the psion's benefit ofgaining bonus feats every five levels, beginning with 1st level.If an erudite decides early that he'd like to rely on metapsionicfeats, a good complementary feat to take is Psionic Meditation(EPH50), which allows him to become psionically focusedas a move action.

Unlike a psion, an erudite is not limited by the number of

powers he can know. This is an advantage that an erudite shouldmaximize early and often, looking as hard as possible for newpowers to add to his repertoire. An erudite shouldn't wait foropportunities to discover new powers to fall into his lap. Instead,he should actively seek them by making deals with otherpsionic characters, purchasing rare power stones and so onin pursuit of expanding the sphere of his psionic mastery.

Human Erudite Starting PackageArmor: Leather (+2 AC, armor check penalty 0, speed

30 ft., 15 lb.).Weapons:Spear (1d6, crit 3, 3 lb., one-handed, piercing).Light crossbow (1d8, crit 1920/2, 80 ft., 4 lb., piercing).Skill Selection: Pick a number of skills equal to 2 + Int

modifier.

ABLE66: THEERUDITE HITDIE: D4

Level

BaseAttackBonus

FortSave

RefSave

WillSave Special

PowerPoints/

Day

UniquePowers/

Day

MaximumPower Level

Known1st +0 +0 +0 +2 Psicrystal Affinity, bonus feat 2 1 1st2nd +1 +0 +0 +3 6 2 1st3rd +1 +1 +1 +3 11 2 2nd4th +2 +1 +1 +4 17 3 2nd5th +2 +1 +1 +4 Bonus feat 25 3 3rd

6th +3 +2 +2 +5 35 4 3rd7th +3 +2 +2 +5 46 4 4th8th +4 +2 +2 +6 58 5 4th9th +4 +3 +3 +6 72 5 5th10th +5 +3 +3 +7 Bonus feat 88 6 5th11th +5 +3 +3 +7 106 6 6th12th +6/+1 +4 +4 +8 126 7 6th13th +6/+1 +4 +4 +8 147 7 7th14th +7/+2 +4 +4 +9 170 8 7th15th +7/+2 +5 +5 +9 Bonus feat 195 8 8th16th +8/+3 +5 +5 +10 221 9 8th17th +8/+3 +5 +5 +10 250 9 9th18th +9/+4 +6 +6 +11 280 10 9th19th +9/+4 +6 +6 +11 311 10 9th20th +10/+5 +6 +6 +12 Bonus feat 343 11 9th

Class Skills (2 + Int modifier per level, [ts]4 at 1st level):Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Gather Information,Knowledge (psionics), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually), Profession, Psicraft.


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