Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Viconus 04-17-08, 02:40 AM	I created a second level Astral Construct, and thought it was pretty bad-assed. But it missed all three attacks, plus an attack of opportunity, all while another person flanked his opponent! If I read it right, it was only +4 to hit, and my highest roll including that was 11. Do any of the options in menu A help with this? Also, the will save for a mind thrust is 10+intelligence bonus+spell level, no matter what the manifester level is, correct? I'm sorry for asking for confirmation of what I already think is true. I'm just in disbelief at how ineffective I was tonight against a group of pirates.
The_Mess 04-17-08, 03:00 AM	um... help you roll better? Google "loaded dice". Seriously, with a +4, your average result should have been 14.5 If your highest was under that, the dice were messing you up. It happens to all of us at some point.
Slagger the Chuul 04-17-08, 03:01 AM	I created a second level Astral Construct, and thought it was pretty bad-assed. But it missed all three attacks, plus an attack of opportunity, all while another person flanked his opponent! If I read it right, it was only +4 to hit, and my highest roll including that was 11. Do any of the options in menu A help with this? None of the menu A options in the Expanded Psionics Handbook will increase an astral construct's attack roll. By the sound of things, you were just rolling low on your attacks that session, nothing higher than a natural 7, if what you've said is right. Better luck next time. :cool: Also, the will save for a mind thrust is 10+intelligence bonus+spell level, no matter what the manifester level is, correct? That's correct, except that the DC for the Will save increases by 1 for every 2 power points of augmentation you apply (and also increases the damage). For example, a 3 PP mind thrust deals 3d10 points of damage and has a DC of 12 + Int bonus.
AntiDjinn 04-17-08, 03:23 AM	Sometimes you just have an evening when the dice do not favor you. Maybe an encounter that should have been a cakewalk is a TPW. It happens. It was not the astral construct's fault. The dice are used to simulate the odds of events taking place; in your case they simulated a low probability event. You have the DC of Mind Thrust right. Don't worry about boosting it much higher than that. Soon you will be looking at a Will save of equivalent DC that can leave the target stunned, suicidal, dead, or under your control. Given the same all-or-none odds and a better payoff, you will simply stop using MT once you have better options.
CrimsonDeath 04-17-08, 03:30 AM	That's correct, except that the DC for the Will save increases by 1 for every 2 power points of augmentation you apply (and also increases the damage). For example, a 3 PP mind thrust deals 3d10 points of damage and has a DC of 11 + Int bonus. Don't you mean 12+Int? (10 +1(power level) +1(augment) +Int mod)
Slagger the Chuul 04-17-08, 03:34 AM	Don't you mean 12+Int? (10 +1(power level) +1(augment) +Int mod) Yes, my mistake.
Tempest Stormwind 04-17-08, 03:53 PM	Actually, at low levels, the constructs do have a better option -- avoid the attack roll altogether. Look at Improved Bull Rush. This pits your construct's substantial Strength score (with a hefty bonus -- as much as +6 if you're charging, assuming the construct's the same size as the target) against your opponent's Strength score (which doesn't improve as fast as attack rolls or AC). I often found that this ability, combined with charging and a sense of what's available on the battlefield, made the low-level constructs far more effective in combat than their low attack bonuses would indicate -- in part because it automatically hits.