Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Tyroki 06-08-07, 02:14 AM	As the title asks. Is it? I mean, theres that fear which allows you to have +4 to manifester level so long as it doesn't go above your HD... That means you could have a manifester level of 20 and a spellcaster level of 14. Any good? You do lose a few feats overall though.
teshen 06-08-07, 05:41 AM	It depends on what you are doing... The short answer is... kind of. Cerebromancer suffers from the same problem as most dual casting classes. It's usually behind in power even with the practiced manifester/practiced caster feats. If you want to make the most of it, you either need to find some sort of advance spell/power progression prc and combine that with your base class. Like the beholder mage prc... but that one is kind of hard to get into... ;) Try and get classes that work off the same stat, like psion/wizard or erudite/wizard. Pick a concept for your powers/spells and go for as much synergy as possible in your powers. Let your spells do the things that psionics has a hard time doing... There is even less overlap in the usefulness of feats, such as metamagic for mystic theurges... but with a kind dm and the magic/psionics transparency you might convince him to let some of the feats do the equivelent of the 'other' version... like maximize power and maximize spell feats... So yes, it can be worth it... but you have to plan for it. (If I'm thinking correctly, the divine/psionic version, the psychic theurge can be gotten into earlier thanks to the way the class ardent and practiced manifester work... but I guess that's neither here nor there.)
Gingerbread Guy 06-08-07, 06:34 PM	I'm curently playing a low-level cerebremancer (grey elf kineticist/generalist wizard racial substitution from Races of the Wild), and I think its more effective than people tend to give it credit. What I like about it is that I'm free to chose very generic psion powers that I know I will use quite often without worrying about flexibility and utility. Being a kineticist takes care of the damage aspect: between mindthrust and energy missile I can deal all sorts of different damage types against any saving throw I chose, and the spell's damage and DC scales as I augment. I find that energy missile is one of the best blasting spells for group combat, since I don't have to worry about injuring allies. As for my wizard spells, since my psion levels are mostly taking care of the blasting, I'm free to learn and prepare more unusual utility spells that don't become useful very often, but are wonderful when the occasion arrises. With even just a few caster levels I'm free to keep a trick up my sleeve for almost any occasion without worrying that I'm unable to defend myself. Losing some caster levels hurts at the low levels, but it pays off as you advance in power. I'd say its an interesting tradeoff. ~Ginger
jokey665 06-08-07, 09:25 PM	This is my favored way to do it: Level 1, be a Wizard and take the precocious apprentice feat. From Complete Mage or Arcane, can't remember which. Levels 2-4, Psion. Level 5, go into Cerebremancer. Finish out with Psion or even try Slayer once you run out of Cerebremancer levels. Take Practiced Caster/Manifester as needed.
teshen 06-09-07, 12:41 PM	This is my favored way to do it: Level 1, be a Wizard and take the precocious apprentice feat. From Complete Mage or Arcane, can't remember which. Levels 2-4, Psion. Level 5, go into Cerebremancer. Finish out with Psion or even try Slayer once you run out of Cerebremancer levels. Take Practiced Caster/Manifester as needed. Precocious apprentice is in Complete Arcane... and there is some argument over whether it works or not. I believe one of the designers involved said that it does not work... but I don't have a link. If Illumian had a psionic attribute/interaction with their sigils, it would be an excellent choice for race. Even without it, thanks to magic/psionics transpanency you could argue for Krau adding to manifester level. Consider anarchic initiate from Complete Psionics... the PrC is intended for wilders but they goofed on the prerequistes. It's full casting and gives a bonus on wild surge/overchannel so it's good for psions in the kind of broken way... and since you'll be behind in casting a bit as a cerebremancer, you won't lose any more.
jkdjr25 06-09-07, 03:03 PM	I've been thinking about the Cerebremancer presitige class and one way to get maximum benefit from it would be to enter the class as a wizard/erudite and as you're progressing build up a good, solid number of powers from other psionic classes. It'll give you some more versatility in what you know and allows for some flexibility; even if you can only use certain powers x number of times per day. One could also create another dual-casting PrC to enter upon completion of Cerebremancer in order to get those last four levels of spell casing on each side, thus giving access to higher level spells and powers. I think most DMs would be ok with that, considering that you wouldn't get access to the highest level ones until level 20.
Tyroki 06-09-07, 10:38 PM	My DM refuses to allow anything outside of the official books. We've already started. I'm a level 1 Elan Shaper with: Str: 6 Dex: 10 Con: 9 Int: 21 Wis: 17 Cha: 15 Yay for being 1003 years old xD Don't worry, I have a backstory to cover for being level 1. Thats why I'm looking for options while I can. >.>