Kinetic Vanguard is a high-pressure psionic Fighter for players who want ranged power, tactical control, and dramatic risk-reward turns. It swaps weapon dependence for a mental-stat combat engine, hurling Manifested Strikes at range while layering discipline-based effects from Cryo, Pyro, or Psychokinesis. Its signature hook is Overload: commit before the roll, hit like a truck, and pay for it in blood only if the attack lands. The class also carries a strong universal toolkit through Deflection Screen, Phase Step, and Advanced Techniques, giving it mobility, defense, and late-game customization without diluting its core identity.
Desperate Overload — new core feature at 3rd level. 0 Psi? Spend what you have, take 1d4 per Psi owed, flat, always. MS stays free. Full Blood Tax rules apply.
Hover — now costs 2 Psi. Base text updated, marked as changed.
Telekinetic Shove now costs 1 Psi to bring in line with other disciplines, previously free
Cross-Discipline Training (10th) — individual feature selection: Renamed from Dual-Pathing. Now grants one pick from the 3rd-level tier and one from the 7th-level tier, chosen freely across all disciplines. Previously you had to take both features as a package from a single discipline — now a Cryo can take Frozen Ground + Blazing Step, or a Pyro can take Deflection Screen + Kinetic Blast. Swap rule unchanged: replace either pick individually on any level-up.
Cross-Discipline Training II (20th) — individual feature selection: Renamed from Dual-Pathing II. Grants a second 3rd-level pick and a second 7th-level pick, again freely chosen. At 20th a Vanguard holds four cross-discipline features total alongside their full primary toolkit. No duplicates allowed; no Overload on any borrowed feature.
I also added some helpful notes and a play guide as well.
Now your character can grab abilities from all three disciplines for true synergistic power.
Blood Tax — per-invocation: Updated the italic note in the Blood Tax box, the Standalone Overload paragraph, the Overload on Discipline Features section, and the How to Play section to all reflect the new rule: each Overload declaration pays its own Blood Tax independently.
Frost Cage — once per combat removed: Tier 1 Overload stun is now unlimited, gated only by the 3 Psi + Blood Tax cost.
I see your point, it is a wide class. And I did try cutting it down to just "the essentials" with version 3.0; however, gutting the class like that removed a lot of the fun and soul from it. Constructively speaking, aside from pulling the disciplines out and making separate cookie cutter classes for each, what would you change?
2.9.0 is out and introduces a fundamental change in blood tax math.
Tier 2 blood tax is no longer a flat d8, it now scales with the amount of Psi points that you are spending, nd4 damage where n is the number of Psi points spent, minimum 1d4. This allows smaller utility skills like blazing step to cost less on a consistent basis while making big flashy moves like Firestorm appropriately more expensive to higher level characters.
This is actually my first homebrew.
Kinetic Vanguard is a high-pressure psionic Fighter for players who want ranged power, tactical control, and dramatic risk-reward turns. It swaps weapon dependence for a mental-stat combat engine, hurling Manifested Strikes at range while layering discipline-based effects from Cryo, Pyro, or Psychokinesis. Its signature hook is Overload: commit before the roll, hit like a truck, and pay for it in blood only if the attack lands. The class also carries a strong universal toolkit through Deflection Screen, Phase Step, and Advanced Techniques, giving it mobility, defense, and late-game customization without diluting its core identity.
What is it will all this AI generated junk in this forum these days...
Thanks for the read man, appreciate it. Any suggestions on mechanics you can provide?
Thanks in advance.
bump version to 2.6.7
Changelog
I feel like this is a pretty solidly theorytested build at this point and am calling 2.6.7 STABLE.
Posted full Changelog summary to first post
Updated Cheatsheets to 2.6.7
I have created a "lite" version of this class for easier table integration, 3.0, here.
I have also backported some of the enhancements from 3.0 to 2.x, 2.7.0, here.
A few corrections to post after integrationg 3.0 into 2.x, I give you 2.7.1, changelogs are inline.
2.8.0 is out, with it a few notable additions:
Cross-Discipline Training (10th) — individual feature selection: Renamed from Dual-Pathing. Now grants one pick from the 3rd-level tier and one from the 7th-level tier, chosen freely across all disciplines. Previously you had to take both features as a package from a single discipline — now a Cryo can take Frozen Ground + Blazing Step, or a Pyro can take Deflection Screen + Kinetic Blast. Swap rule unchanged: replace either pick individually on any level-up.
Cross-Discipline Training II (20th) — individual feature selection: Renamed from Dual-Pathing II. Grants a second 3rd-level pick and a second 7th-level pick, again freely chosen. At 20th a Vanguard holds four cross-discipline features total alongside their full primary toolkit. No duplicates allowed; no Overload on any borrowed feature.
I also added some helpful notes and a play guide as well.
Now your character can grab abilities from all three disciplines for true synergistic power.
Enjoy!
2.8.1 is out.
Chnagelog is pretty short this time, just adding two features per CDT unlonk instead of just 1.
2.8.2 is out.
Changelog:
This subclass seems much more complex than even some 5e classes. Perhaps try making a separate subclass for each discipline?
Any sufficiently widespread magic is indistinguishable from technology.
The second funniest thing to make a D&D party do is explain morality
Try your hand at the Ultimate Skill Build Challenge!
I probably nitpick and scrutinize too much
I see your point, it is a wide class. And I did try cutting it down to just "the essentials" with version 3.0; however, gutting the class like that removed a lot of the fun and soul from it. Constructively speaking, aside from pulling the disciplines out and making separate cookie cutter classes for each, what would you change?
Genuinely looking forward to your thoughts. -Nix
2.9.0 is out and introduces a fundamental change in blood tax math.
Tier 2 blood tax is no longer a flat d8, it now scales with the amount of Psi points that you are spending, nd4 damage where n is the number of Psi points spent, minimum 1d4. This allows smaller utility skills like blazing step to cost less on a consistent basis while making big flashy moves like Firestorm appropriately more expensive to higher level characters.
4.2.0 is out. CHnagelogs attached.
To be honest, I'm not interested in a 10 page subclass. It seems like a bit much.
4.8.0 is now out.
Changlelogs are in document, sorry for the lack of interim posts. Enjoy!
5.5.0 is out, and will likely be the final development of this class. It has been theorycrafted and playtested. Enjoy.
I lied, of course, 5.8.0 is now out. Enjoy.