Playing A Psychologist

[*Pellease]

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!

[*Nimiane]

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:

[*rapsam2003]

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? :)

[*Hydra]

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.

[*Veylandemar]

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

[*Mick64]

I'd second Bard. They get the most skills (Not as man points as Rogue, but Inspire Competence makes up for it), which makes them good to play non-adventurer professions. And bards are people persons, so it makes sense for them to want to learn what makes people tick, how to influence it, to help them. Bards are all about social interaction so...

(And they get a bit of magic if need be)

[*Strawberry Jam]

A telepath would be most effective in a regular game. The top telepath power psychic surgery is as powerful as it gets.

Various others that boost social skills to epic levels. Don't forget sense motive skill, also the suggestion powers.

You can even transplant consciousness from one body into another.

If you're looking for something more mundane in terms of psychology actually they have variants rules for sanity and treating mental conditions with a variant skill. You can use the heal skill as substitute.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/sanity.htm

[*rapsam2003]

Don't forget sense motive skill, also the suggestion powers.

Which, for clarification, isn't actually in NWN2 and was never added by SCoD. (Because Obsidian did... silly stuff: http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Excluded_skills.) Maybe you could RP things with the Enhanced Senses ability and Spot/Listen, to do something similar?

[*TheorumOfNeutrality]

Like Nimiane, I play a Bleaker Alienist. He's also a Bleaknik.

To be honest, you can do any class. It's always more intriguing, however, when you use real methodologies to treat mental illness - it's a longer, harder road. My character is a fan of hypnosis, for example (and it happens to go in toe with his skill for Enchantment magic). Just using psionics/enchantment to fix everything doesn't provide as much opportunity for character development on either side of the equation.

Edit: Also, in Planescape Lore, the Bleak Cabal is mentioned as an authority of matters related to psychology (due to their extensive research in how to best manage the Grim Retreat). That said, the Godsmen also have an Asylum in Sigil, and like to spur heavily damaged people towards what they see as their eventual apotheosis. A Sensate would make a good Psychologist, as well. Someone with such a vast array of practical knowledge from experience could relate to all kinds of people.

A Fated Psychologist might be interesting - a person who encourages someone to gather their strength of will or character to make it past their troubles (for a nice fee, of course).

The point is - it's an adaptable concept you can mold to any character.

[*Darker_Thought]

Wizard / Psion / Mystical Theuruge....With focus in Enchantment and illusion... :P

Faction: Bleaker