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Playing A Psychologist
Topic Started: Feb 13 2017, 04:08 PM (542 Views)
WestonQ
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Blood
[ *  *  *  * ]
Simple question, what class or classes would you play to represent a shrink? What spells or skills would you take?
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Sinlinara
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Player-Support DM
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Expert.

NPC Classes aren't in the module, though. I would recommend using Rogue as an approximation.


Really, just do whatever you want. Shrink should be a Profession skill, not a Class.
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WhenWizardsWar
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Factotum
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Illithid psion telepath, duh :P

I play:
Miranda Ildesserin-"You have no idea what fear is, the greatest fear a mother can have is that of her child growing up...alone"
Eisinar Mindblade: Illithid Soul Knife: "As long as I have my mind, i am never with out a weapon".
Xil'ar'ran'oss-Beholder Psion:What do you mean "IF" looks could kill?
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zethrenx99
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Greybeard
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I'd say probably psion or maybe Wizzard (illusionist) [more for hypnotherapy ^^,].
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Whitefly
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;)
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It's gotta' be a psion, really. Maybe dual it with Enhanced Wizardry Specialist (enchantment) and Cerebromancer?

Keep in mind if you go down the illusion path, you can't cast enchantments, since that's your opposed school of magic. Not ideal for a psychologist since you're cut off from all the major mind affecting spells XD
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Kismet Saljahasa; "really friendly" air elemental sort
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zethrenx99
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Greybeard
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Ah you're right, thought hypnotism was illusion but it is indeed enchantmenthttp://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/hypnotism.htm
So yeah specialize Enchantment ^^,
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Mr_Otyugh
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Wizard with a persistent reduce person available. No?... Okay bad pun.

Really it's kind of a question about what you want from a shrink RP? Reading peoples minds with magic and tell them how to fix it? Or have a little more thought out of it, more akin to what happens in real life? Shoving people full of medication until their eyes no longer move.

Honestly most of my characters don't like other people poking in their mind, it's like the one private place we all have. So while a Psion is great choice for that, you might want to take it more from an aspect of them understanding how mind works, and less about telepathy.
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WestonQ
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Blood
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well my hope for for a character who was actually a doctor. Where I see psi on makes sense from a "I see inside your brain" kind of way. But you can't really fix anything? Or even try there can you?
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Lucadia
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From an rp standpoint that may depend if the truama the patient has is magicaly induced or done from the rigors of living. I would say any pc could probably be a pychologist if they are into the mundane counseling sessions, setting up a plan.

Theres both arcane and psion powers that allow you to litteraly get inside somebodies head and possibly view their mindscape how they see it. and the rp can be very indepth or not.

A more specilized pc might be a wiz/cleric theurge or a cebremancer though so they have access to all sorts of skills that have deal with memory recall, memory wiping, memory modification and so on.
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Nimiane
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As someone who actively RPs a psychologist as a member of the Bleak Cabal (more or less) I've always found it a bit cheap to go with the 'everything can be fixed with magic route'. I say do the RP you want to do, and don't worry about classes unless that's something you strongly feel about! It's not required. What's important is the manner in which the story is told - and I say that with an ex-mercenary who uses her own knowledge and experiences as additional insight.

The RP is very rewarding, I wish you luck. :)
ODETTE VIEUXPONT
"The Bleak Bardess, Walker of Worlds."
+ Terika Ten-Tricks, Vhyenieth.
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Pellease
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I've considered playing a sort of Jungian Summoner. Maybe Druid/Wizard. Treat people like a doctor would, but maybe RP that your understanding of the human condition has allowed you to manipulate the world and bring forth the inner archetypes.

Use your summons to demonstrate all this. Cleric would work too really, maybe you channel said archetypes and the psyche/soul of humanity or whatever race you choose to be.

If Cleric I'd go with animal domain allowing you to bring out the "Animal" in people as well as the Outsiders and later on with create greater undead our very Shadows.

You therapy could look like working with them through the archetypes, but not as a means to heal them with magic. More like a means to allow them to project and observe their inner states and work through them on their own with you as facilitator.

Also, I have the sneaky suspicion I've RP'd with Nimiane's Toon and I can attest to the fact her RP psychology style was incredibly fun and fufilling!
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Nimiane
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Pellease,Feb 13 2017
09:50 PM
Also, I have the sneaky suspicion I've RP'd with Nimiane's Toon and I can attest to the fact her RP psychology style was incredibly fun and fufilling!

Aww geez. Talk about making my day! :wub:
ODETTE VIEUXPONT
"The Bleak Bardess, Walker of Worlds."
+ Terika Ten-Tricks, Vhyenieth.
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rapsam2003
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Nimiane,Feb 13 2017
03:48 PM
As someone who actively RPs a psychologist as a member of the Bleak Cabal (more or less) I've always found it a bit cheap to go with the 'everything can be fixed with magic route'.

Just musing here...there's likely a lot of "magical Psychologists", if you will, who refuse to actually mess with the mind too much. The human mind (or elven mind or whatever else, frankly) is both very robust and very fragile. Using magic to "fix the mind" is just as likely to damage the mind, really. Depending on how reckless you want to be (maybe how chaotic), just using magic with no thought to it...has the potential for problems. A more chaotic, evil-ish psychologist might venture down the path of someone like the Scarecrow, whereas a less evil psychologist would probably seek to act more like a therapist and try to work through issues with the patient. Magic can be used as a form of therapy, but it needs to be carefully executed, just like any form of therapy. But you don't necessarily need magic or psionics, as it were, to be a psychologist. The important things it comes down to are:
- What are my character's motivations?
- Does my character have certain morals that work hand-in-hand with those motivations? If not, "do the ends justify the means"*? Is my character amoral and lacking in (self- or otherwise) justification, entirely*?
- How does my character act and when?

*These latter two get a little more tricky, because you have to do it in a way that is "evil". But your character may not think/feel that it is evil. A lot of harsh things have been done in the name of science, after all. Or maybe your character fully embraces the evil nature of their experiments and revels in that? Your call.

Etc., etc., etc. What do you, as a player, want to do with this character, and how do you want to do it? :)
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Vaggol'cyth Krahl: Tiefling Cipher

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Hydra
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Ol' Hydra
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Obviously a cleric... People asked them for guidance before psychology became a science and there's no mention that this kind of science exists in D&D.
- Kala Ta'Kan : Factor of the Beleivers of the Source
- Ash (Kazuko Yudeoshi)
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- and many other alts.
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Veylandemar
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The Barmy and the Bookwyrm
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I'm going to break from the crowd and make a suggestion of my own in this matter.

Play a class that you will enjoy, regardless of the mechanical benefits to your character's intended profession. Not every psychologist need be a psion nor even a practitioner of magic, They could just as easily be rogues and bards who - through the course of their lives, developed an interest in the reactions and quirks they observe in people and then study to exploit or understand such.

Not everything needs to be complimentive, in fact, it can be rather fun having a character who doesn't fit the expectations.

Your Spot, Listen and Lore skills might suffer, but you could just as readily lend the concept to a Monk, Cleric (As Hydra has suggested), Paladin or near-enough any other class. Hells, Be that odd-ball Intelligence-based Gnome Fighter if the character is based more around Roleplay than combat.

I'll admit, I tend to think of my characters as 'Mundane everyday occupation' first, faction second and 'ClassGoesHere' somewhere further down the line, which is why Lucelle is a diplomat and sage rather than a Favoured Soul/Sorcerer/Theurge.

At the end of the day, though, The choice should be whatever suits your personal playstyle and invests you in the character.

Side-note, though, If your psychologist ends up as part of the Bleak Cabal, there could readily be some interesting RP with a certain barmy tiefling who's made a reappearance of late.

~V
"Now, in your request, you asked for a draconic sage. To clarify, did you mean a learned scholar on matters relating to dragons or... Ah, I see." ~Lucelle Vand'hovar, Bookwyrm.
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