Meditant
Prestige Class (v.3.5)
Updated by Mark A. Jindra

Back when I started work on the original meditant, or ruminator as it was called in its working title, my goal was to create a prestige class that took the concept of psychic meditation and ran with it. In the editing process we ended up changing much of how those feats worked, and, in turn, the meditant was greatly altered from its original concept. Since that time many things in D&D have changed, we have a 3.5 edition, an Expanded Psionics Handbook and more. I took this opportunity to dig up the original documents and keep them handy when doing this revision. In the end I believe that psychic meditation and the meditant have become a little more complex, flexible, and fun to play.

A meditant has discovered the wondrous powers that can be released when mind and body become one. While exploring the inner depths of solitude that meditation provides, the meditant finds an inner peace and harmony that few will ever experience or understand. Over time, meditants become masters of meditation and easily awaken their psychic energy centers to manipulate the psionic forces buried deep within. Meditants possess a strong belief that by preparing their minds, the scales of chance will tip in their favor.

Hit Die: d4.

Requirements

To qualify as a meditant, a character must meet the following criteria.

Skill: Concentration 9 ranks.
Feats: Deep Psychic Meditation (3 times), Psychic Meditation.
Psionics: Manifester level 5th.
Alignment: Any lawful.

Class Skills

The meditant's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Autohypnosis (Wis), Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Knowledge (any) (Int), Profession (any) (Wis), Psicraft (Int), and Sense Motive (Wis).

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Class Features

All the following are class features of the meditant prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Meditants gain no proficiency with any weapons or armor.

Powers Known: At each level, with the exception of 1st level, a meditant gains additional power points per day and access to new powers as if she had also gained a level in whatever manifesting class she belonged to before she added the prestige class. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (bonus feats, metapsionic or item creation feats, psicrystal special abilities, and so on). This essentially means that she adds the level of meditant to the level of whatever manifesting class the character has, then determines power points per day, powers known, and manifester level accordingly.

If a character had more than one manifesting class before she became a meditant, she must decide to which class she adds the new level of meditant for the purpose of determining power points per day, powers known, and manifester level.

Inner Peace: Through much practice, the meditant has learned how to more quickly bring herself to inner peace. Meditation time required to awaken each of her psychic energy centers is reduced by 30 minutes per level of meditant.

Meditative Sustenance (Su): At 1st level, the meditant has learned to tap into the energies of the base psychic energy center. By meditating for 1 hour, the meditant can go without food and water for 1 day.

Deeper Psychic Meditation: At 2nd level, and every other level thereafter (4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th), the meditant gains two additional activations of an awakened psychic energy center per day.

Intense Psychic Meditation: Starting at 3rd level, the meditant discovers how to awaken greater psychic energies. When awakening a psychic energy center, the meditant can choose to give up two of her daily activations to increase the bonus granted by activating a specific psychic energy center. Each of the meditant's energy centers can receive this increase only once. Meditation time for awakening the center increases by 2 hours. The meditant's total amount of daily activations is reduced until that specific energy center has been reset.

At 7th level, the meditant further increases the intensity of her meditation, which allows her to give up three daily activations to increase the benefits of activating one of her psychic energy centers. Meditation time is instead increased by 3 hours for that center.

For example, Vollus, our psion 6/meditant 7, has a total of thirteen daily activations. He gives up three of those activations when awakening his crown psychic energy center. He now adds a +6 natural armor bonus to his AC for 1 hour when he activates his crown center. Vollus isn't done however; he next gives up two daily activations when awakening his heart center. Now when he activates that center he is granted 24 temporary hit points and fast healing 1 for 1 hour. This leaves Vollus with a total of eight activations per day

Table 1-2 Intense Psychic Meditation Benefits

* Bonuses from this table replace the benefits from the Psychic Meditation feat to determine the bonuses granted from activation of a specific psychic energy center.

Prepared Mind (Su): Starting at 5th level, the meditant can attempt to turn mind-affecting effects that specifically target her against their originator when she makes a successful saving throw to resist their effect. Effect and area spells are not affected. The effect uses its original DC (and other attributes), but the meditant is considered the effect's originator and the originator is the now the target. The meditant can use this ability as long as she maintains psionic focus.

Ethereal Form (Su): At 9th level, the meditant and her equipment can become ethereal and return back to material existence as a standard action. The amount of time she spends as ethereal is unlimited, but she can become ethereal and return to material existence only three times per day. The meditant gains all the benefits and limitations as described on page 76 of the Dungeon Master's Guide.

Inner Harmony (Su): Provided the meditant has awakened all seven of her psychic energy centers, activating a psychic energy center may now be done as a swift action. Using this ability does not provoke an attack of opportunity and it counts as the character's one quickened action per round. Additionally, the duration of the bonuses granted by activating a center increases to 4 hours.

The Meditant

• Main Page
• Chance Favors the Prepared Mind (revised feats and psionic items)
• Meditant (revised)
• Psychic Weapon Master (revised)
  
• Various Power Conversions