Mini-Guide: Psion Equipment at Low Levels [Archive] - Wizards Community

Mini-Guide: Psion Equipment at Low Levels [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
hovnarr
06-18-07, 05:29 PM I got the inspiration to write this guide up from this thread (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=867599). Psions are strong from mid-level and onwards, which means they need all the cheese they can get at low levels. Equipment can help a lot, so we'll explore getting the most bang for your low level buck in this guide. First some general considerations, and then a detailed progression up to level 5.

Carrying Capacity
Let's face it - psions generally don't put points in Strength. A medium sized character with Strength 8 has a light load limit of 26 lbs or less. As scientific research has shown that it sucks to have a 20' move, we'll try to keep it below 26 lbs at all times. For reference, leather armor weighs in at 15 lbs or about 60% of your total.

The Joy of Crafting
If you have ranks in Craft, you can make items at 1/3 the cost. The high-Int psion has skill points to spend, and they can always be reallocated using Psychic Reformation at high levels, when the financial benefit becomes irrelevant. To get the most savings out of your skill points, mainly consider Craft (Armorer) and Craft (Alchemy), since that's where the big bucks are to be found.

Level Progression
I've converted the normal wealth by level table to level-by-level increases in wealth, so that you can follow purchases and sales for each level. The progression assumes you can make your own armor and alchemical items for 1/3 the listed price, and even sell them for profit occasionally (as long as you stay within the wealth by level guidelines). The purchases are listed in order of importance. You should have a little gold left most levels to spend on power stones, potions and alchemical items.

Level 1: 75 gp average
*mule (8gp)
*leather armor (15 lbs, 3.33 gp to make)
*heavy wooden shield (10 lbs, 2.33 gp to make)
*light crossbow (4 lbs, 35 gp) + bolts (1 lb, 1 gp)
*dagger (1 lb, 2 gp)
*torch (1 lb, 1 cp)
*club (3 lb, 0 gp)
*pack with various adventuring gear (remaining gold, kept on mule if it has a listed weight).

A mule is only 8 gp and a CR 1 creature which makes it a fierce combatant. You'll probably have minimal control over it though, since it's not trained. It will likely only take part in combat to defend itself, but you might get more use out of it if you have a generous DM. Its main use is to carry your equipment for you however, so that you only need to use any combination of the following actually equipped:
- Armor, crossbow and bolts: Your default strategy. Stay away from combat if you think you can avoid it, and save your PP for when it matters. The crossbow doesn't factor in your strength penalty, and you get no ACP from the leather armor. Total weight 20 lbs.
- Armor, shield and dagger/torch: You suck in melee anyway so you might as well carry the torch. You can manifest just fine without any hands free, and you can be effective against swarms to boot. 26 lbs total just makes the limit. Use this setup when you think the shield will be needed. The club is horrible to use with the shield since it weighs too much, but at least it's free so you can just throw it on your mule as a back-up.

Level 2: +825 gp
Sell: mule, leather armor, heavy wooden shield
*Riding dog (150 gp)
*MW heavy darkwood shield (5 lbs, 86 gp to make)
*MW mithril chain shirt (12.5 lbs, 367 gp to make)
*Ioun stone of continual light (135 gp)
*MW tool (50 gp, Concentration is probably the most important skill to have it for)

Your mule gets upgraded to a well trained riding dog, who is about as powerful as a level 1 fighter and serves as a body guard, carries your gear, tracks etc. You get a +6 bonus to AC from your armor and shield, and it all weighs less than your level 1 equipment! The ioun stone is a heatless light source that hovers around your head or your psicrystal. Getting a +2 skill bonus from a non-magic item only costs 50 gp according to the PHB, so get a MW Concentration item (I call them "focus gems").

Level 3: +1800 gp
*Cloak of resistance (1000 gp)
*Dog barding (varies)

Cloak of resistance is extremely useful for only 1000 gp and increases survivability. The kind of barding you'll want to get for you dog depends on if your DM thinks he's proficient with armor or not. Non-proficient means MW studded leather or MW mithril chain shirt are your best options, depending on how much you want to spend. Proficient makes it a whole lot cheaper, but since you're interested in using the +2 Dex bonus to AC, you'll probably go for a breastplate. Dog barding is twice the price of normal armor, put you can make it for 1/3 the cost. The rest is spent on alchemical items, power stones and potions as normal.

Level 4: +2700 gp
*Dorje of enlarged entangling ectoplasm (750 gp)
*Hand of the mage (900 gp)
*Armor upgrade +1 (1000 gp)

You can invest in better offense, defense and utility at this level. Your 1d8 damage crossbow is probably no longer an efficient way to spend a round, so in comes an ecto goo stick when you need to save on PP. You also get at will "microkinesis" for all sorts of uses. Finally you get +1 to AC if you pay only 1000 gp to have your armor enchanted. Doing this should keep you going until you have enough ML and the extend power feat to make inertial armor last long enough to get sufficient PP economy.

Level 5: +3600 gp
- Sell: riding dog with barding
*Handy haversack (2000 gp)
*Shield upgrade +1 (1000 gp)

Your riding dog is getting weak compared to the monsters you're probably facing by now, so you're gonna need a more efficient carrying solution. A handy haversack is not only a solution to your challenged carrying capacity, but also means you can retrieve anything you can think of, buy and put in your pack. And you can do it as a move action that does not draw AoOs. Your AC continues to increase with +1 for 1000 gp this level. At higher levels, you can start going for the 2000 gp AC bonuses (ring of protection +1, belt of natural armor +1) if you need a bump before you begin relying more on your powers for protection.

There are probably many things to improve in this level progression, as there always seem to be some extra cheese to squeeze out of the gold pieces. Please feel free to post suggestions for improvement.
Tempest Stormwind
06-18-07, 05:40 PM A level 1 shaper can travel far lighter than other characters can -- they're the ONLY class with access to Minor Creation at level 1. Need a few 10' poles, piles of rope, ladders, sheets/sacks/stretchers, wedges, or more? Just one power point and a minute of your time for a cubic foot of material, and most of those are really simple on the craft DC (most so simple that any psion with a good Int can likely take 10 to create them). This also scales wonderfully with level and grows in usefulness as time moves on. It doesn't work for permanent equipment but it means you can spare yourself much of the backpack's general kit, unless you need a longer duration than an hour per level.

Another interesting choice that can replace some of your armor selections from about level 3 or so would be the skin of ectoplasmic armor. It's relatively easy to craft (just a feat that you probably considered taking at that point) and not too expensive (crafting one costs as much as normal full plate, but the skin weighs far, far less and can be removed with a standard action if you need to sneak around; since it isn't technically armor then check penalty doesn't apply to your ray powers either). I wouldn't suggest this for every group, but it's a solid idea for a few. (My DM allows the skin to be enhanced; it's since become my psion's personal armor and, for a time, everyone in the party wore a suit of it, until stumbling upon better armor for them from humanoid NPC battles.)
Caterpillar
06-18-07, 05:42 PM Glad to have inspired you! hehe.

If you hadn't helped me earlier this would have been a huge help, thanks again!
Lycanthromancer
06-18-07, 05:43 PM Make sure you get the light crossbow; it's not a full-round action to load, and you can load-and-fire in the same round.

Don't forget to mention that if you're a shaper, or otherwise have access to psionic minor creation to do your best on creating plant-based poisons to dip your arrows in. As a shaper, you can create a level 1 astral construct to dip your bolts for you so you don't risk poisoning yourself. If all else fails, you can make some pitch or some grain-based rubbing alcohol and some flax cloth so you can set your bolts on fire to get an extra +1d6 fire damage with each shot (light them on that torch you're carrying). Then again, you can make your own bolts and arrows from wood using pmc, to save yourself even more money. Ironwood is still wood, y'know.
hovnarr
06-18-07, 06:08 PM Yup, it gets more interesting but also more complex if you factor in powers and feats too, and their equipment synergy.

skin of ectoplasmic armor

what book is it in? item stats?

thanks again!

np!

Make sure you get the light crossbow

edited for clarity.
Lycanthromancer
06-18-07, 06:21 PM The skin is in CPsi, and has the same stats as full plate, except it doesn't count as armor, weighs 1 lb, and doesn't decrease your speed. It can also be donned or removed as a standard action.
Crusher217
06-18-07, 06:46 PM According to MIC, it now counts as light armor.
Lycanthromancer
06-18-07, 06:53 PM It's a different item. Not the same, I'm afraid.

After all, it's not armor. That's the whole point.
Tempest Stormwind
06-18-07, 07:04 PM In the MIC it counts as light armor for purposes relating to encumberance -- that is, a monk cannot wear it and retain his monk abilities, but a ranger could wear it and keep his combat style bonus feats (since it's armor, but light armor).

It doesn't change to armor, nor does it require light armor proficiency to use. It's still valid.

Oh, and I should note another key difference between it and full plate -- it doesn't reduce your speed (although it keeps its -6 check penalty), and it doesn't have to look like normal armor (you could have it look like plate, like lighter armor, or like the freakin' Silver Surfer if you want). On the flipside, if you get hit with a targeted dispel (or an area dispel and you roll really well on everything of a higher CL), the skin withdraws, leaving you unarmored. On normal armor, if it's dispelled, you lose its special abilities but not the armor itself. The skin is closer to Mage Armor / Bracers of Armor in that regard.
Millenia
06-18-07, 07:34 PM Personally, I'd just ditch armor completely until you get to the point where you can buy special abilities for armor, as Inertial Armor is one of the best AC-boosting powers around - as long as you don't mind spending a power slot to get it.
Tempest Stormwind
06-18-07, 08:41 PM Personally, I'd just ditch armor completely until you get to the point where you can buy special abilities for armor, as Inertial Armor is one of the best AC-boosting powers around - as long as you don't mind spending a power slot to get it.

In my case, I generally find the power is something I can less easily part with than a few GP to get/make leather armor. I started out with leather armor and upgraded to the skin as soon as I could.

By the way, these figures are all for Medium characters. It changes around a little bit for Small ones, but that little bit is significant: Armor weighs half as much, but they can carry 3/4 the Medium equivalent in gear. This means that armor that would *just* encumber a Medium creature is still a viable option for a Small one, given the same Strength. (I mention this since I play an 8-Strength halfling shaper, and I noticed a few oddball things relating to sizeism. You'd be amazed how much of the game assumes you're playing a Medium creature.)
hovnarr
06-19-07, 03:23 AM I agree with TS. Augmenting inertial armor and putting up force shield is naturally "better" from a strictly AC point of view, but you can't spare the PP nor the action time at low levels. And the duration sucks too at low levels. It's the same with astral construct vs. riding dog. They are both CR1 creatures, but the dog costs 150 gp and lasts until slain, while the ac costs 1 PP and lasts 1 round/level.

When you're level 10 you can have overchannel, extend power and metamorphosis. Then, by all means, overchannel an extended inertial armor for 24 hours for some good PP economy and metamorph to something with a high natural armor bonus in combat. The huge benefit with IA is that it works regardless of your physical shape. Also, pay to have your shield animated so you can use it in any form. And sure, why not keep the ol' mithral shirt for special abilities like Millenia proposes, and to have something against a targeted dispel like TS brings up. It's not like you need the carrying capacity for anything else.
Tyroki
06-19-07, 03:42 AM What book is the Handy Haversack from?
hovnarr
06-19-07, 03:46 AM It's in the SRD (DMG).
ck2001wendt
06-19-07, 05:05 AM One caveat on Inertial Armor: It's a very common houserule that Force effects add to your touch AC as well. For me, Inertial armor that bumps your touch AC is more useful than Leather or a Chain Shirt.

Check with your DM first.
Tyroki
06-19-07, 06:32 AM Hrmm... This is very helpful ^^ Brilliant Hovnarr.

Eww... Private Messages are giving me database errors O.o
Tempest Stormwind
06-19-07, 10:42 AM One caveat on Inertial Armor: It's a very common houserule that Force effects add to your touch AC as well. For me, Inertial armor that bumps your touch AC is more useful than Leather or a Chain Shirt.

Check with your DM first.

Actually, DMs who say that are most often confusing "touch" and "incorporeal touch". Force effects aren't ignored by incorporeal touch attacks, but they *are* ignored by a normal touch attack. Besides, it's an armor bonus, not a deflection bonus, even though it's made of force -- it doesn't make you any harder to touch.

(An incorporeal touch attack is called a "touch" attack since it passes through armor and thus ignores it like a normal touch, not because it's trying to just merely touch you. It can't pass through force armor, so that still applies to your AC.)
Lycanthromancer
06-19-07, 10:50 AM It would be nice if WotC could learn how to use synonyms. For words like level (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0012.html).
Fleem
06-19-07, 01:18 PM I noticed the lvl4 list mentioned a dorje of enlarged entangling ectoplasm. I didn't see anything in the SRD that allows metapsionic feats to be applied to them (only augmentation). Is this explicitly allowed anywhere?

Edit:
Ah, of course. Why put it in the dorje creation section, when you can put it in the metapsionic feat section?
ck2001wendt
06-20-07, 06:35 AM Actually, DMs who say that are most often confusing "touch" and "incorporeal touch". Force effects aren't ignored by incorporeal touch attacks, but they *are* ignored by a normal touch attack. Besides, it's an armor bonus, not a deflection bonus, even though it's made of force -- it doesn't make you any harder to touch.

We're aware of the rule...we just don't use it that way. Whether the change was originally made for simplicity or the perception of better balance is lost to the mists of time.

We do the same thing for Bracers of Armor.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
hovnarr 06-18-07, 05:29 PM	I got the inspiration to write this guide up from this thread (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=867599). Psions are strong from mid-level and onwards, which means they need all the cheese they can get at low levels. Equipment can help a lot, so we'll explore getting the most bang for your low level buck in this guide. First some general considerations, and then a detailed progression up to level 5. Carrying Capacity Let's face it - psions generally don't put points in Strength. A medium sized character with Strength 8 has a light load limit of 26 lbs or less. As scientific research has shown that it sucks to have a 20' move, we'll try to keep it below 26 lbs at all times. For reference, leather armor weighs in at 15 lbs or about 60% of your total. The Joy of Crafting If you have ranks in Craft, you can make items at 1/3 the cost. The high-Int psion has skill points to spend, and they can always be reallocated using Psychic Reformation at high levels, when the financial benefit becomes irrelevant. To get the most savings out of your skill points, mainly consider Craft (Armorer) and Craft (Alchemy), since that's where the big bucks are to be found. Level Progression I've converted the normal wealth by level table to level-by-level increases in wealth, so that you can follow purchases and sales for each level. The progression assumes you can make your own armor and alchemical items for 1/3 the listed price, and even sell them for profit occasionally (as long as you stay within the wealth by level guidelines). The purchases are listed in order of importance. You should have a little gold left most levels to spend on power stones, potions and alchemical items. Level 1: 75 gp average mule (8gp) leather armor (15 lbs, 3.33 gp to make) heavy wooden shield (10 lbs, 2.33 gp to make) light crossbow (4 lbs, 35 gp) + bolts (1 lb, 1 gp) dagger (1 lb, 2 gp) torch (1 lb, 1 cp) club (3 lb, 0 gp) pack with various adventuring gear (remaining gold, kept on mule if it has a listed weight). A mule is only 8 gp and a CR 1 creature which makes it a fierce combatant. You'll probably have minimal control over it though, since it's not trained. It will likely only take part in combat to defend itself, but you might get more use out of it if you have a generous DM. Its main use is to carry your equipment for you however, so that you only need to use any combination of the following actually equipped: - Armor, crossbow and bolts: Your default strategy. Stay away from combat if you think you can avoid it, and save your PP for when it matters. The crossbow doesn't factor in your strength penalty, and you get no ACP from the leather armor. Total weight 20 lbs. - Armor, shield and dagger/torch: You suck in melee anyway so you might as well carry the torch. You can manifest just fine without any hands free, and you can be effective against swarms to boot. 26 lbs total just makes the limit. Use this setup when you think the shield will be needed. The club is horrible to use with the shield since it weighs too much, but at least it's free so you can just throw it on your mule as a back-up. Level 2: +825 gp Sell: mule, leather armor, heavy wooden shield Riding dog (150 gp) MW heavy darkwood shield (5 lbs, 86 gp to make) MW mithril chain shirt (12.5 lbs, 367 gp to make) Ioun stone of continual light (135 gp) MW tool (50 gp, Concentration is probably the most important skill to have it for) Your mule gets upgraded to a well trained riding dog, who is about as powerful as a level 1 fighter and serves as a body guard, carries your gear, tracks etc. You get a +6 bonus to AC from your armor and shield, and it all weighs less than your level 1 equipment! The ioun stone is a heatless light source that hovers around your head or your psicrystal. Getting a +2 skill bonus from a non-magic item only costs 50 gp according to the PHB, so get a MW Concentration item (I call them "focus gems"). Level 3: +1800 gp Cloak of resistance (1000 gp) Dog barding (varies) Cloak of resistance is extremely useful for only 1000 gp and increases survivability. The kind of barding you'll want to get for you dog depends on if your DM thinks he's proficient with armor or not. Non-proficient means MW studded leather or MW mithril chain shirt are your best options, depending on how much you want to spend. Proficient makes it a whole lot cheaper, but since you're interested in using the +2 Dex bonus to AC, you'll probably go for a breastplate. Dog barding is twice the price of normal armor, put you can make it for 1/3 the cost. The rest is spent on alchemical items, power stones and potions as normal. Level 4: +2700 gp Dorje of enlarged entangling ectoplasm (750 gp) Hand of the mage (900 gp) Armor upgrade +1 (1000 gp) You can invest in better offense, defense and utility at this level. Your 1d8 damage crossbow is probably no longer an efficient way to spend a round, so in comes an ecto goo stick when you need to save on PP. You also get at will "microkinesis" for all sorts of uses. Finally you get +1 to AC if you pay only 1000 gp to have your armor enchanted. Doing this should keep you going until you have enough ML and the extend power feat to make inertial armor last long enough to get sufficient PP economy. Level 5: +3600 gp - Sell: riding dog with barding Handy haversack (2000 gp) Shield upgrade +1 (1000 gp) Your riding dog is getting weak compared to the monsters you're probably facing by now, so you're gonna need a more efficient carrying solution. A handy haversack is not only a solution to your challenged carrying capacity, but also means you can retrieve anything you can think of, buy and put in your pack. And you can do it as a move action that does not draw AoOs. Your AC continues to increase with +1 for 1000 gp this level. At higher levels, you can start going for the 2000 gp AC bonuses (ring of protection +1, belt of natural armor +1) if you need a bump before you begin relying more on your powers for protection. There are probably many things to improve in this level progression, as there always seem to be some extra cheese to squeeze out of the gold pieces. Please feel free to post suggestions for improvement.
Tempest Stormwind 06-18-07, 05:40 PM	A level 1 shaper can travel far lighter than other characters can -- they're the ONLY class with access to Minor Creation at level 1. Need a few 10' poles, piles of rope, ladders, sheets/sacks/stretchers, wedges, or more? Just one power point and a minute of your time for a cubic foot of material, and most of those are really simple on the craft DC (most so simple that any psion with a good Int can likely take 10 to create them). This also scales wonderfully with level and grows in usefulness as time moves on. It doesn't work for permanent equipment but it means you can spare yourself much of the backpack's general kit, unless you need a longer duration than an hour per level. Another interesting choice that can replace some of your armor selections from about level 3 or so would be the skin of ectoplasmic armor. It's relatively easy to craft (just a feat that you probably considered taking at that point) and not too expensive (crafting one costs as much as normal full plate, but the skin weighs far, far less and can be removed with a standard action if you need to sneak around; since it isn't technically armor then check penalty doesn't apply to your ray powers either). I wouldn't suggest this for every group, but it's a solid idea for a few. (My DM allows the skin to be enhanced; it's since become my psion's personal armor and, for a time, everyone in the party wore a suit of it, until stumbling upon better armor for them from humanoid NPC battles.)
Caterpillar 06-18-07, 05:42 PM	Glad to have inspired you! hehe. If you hadn't helped me earlier this would have been a huge help, thanks again!
Lycanthromancer 06-18-07, 05:43 PM	Make sure you get the light crossbow; it's not a full-round action to load, and you can load-and-fire in the same round. Don't forget to mention that if you're a shaper, or otherwise have access to psionic minor creation to do your best on creating plant-based poisons to dip your arrows in. As a shaper, you can create a level 1 astral construct to dip your bolts for you so you don't risk poisoning yourself. If all else fails, you can make some pitch or some grain-based rubbing alcohol and some flax cloth so you can set your bolts on fire to get an extra +1d6 fire damage with each shot (light them on that torch you're carrying). Then again, you can make your own bolts and arrows from wood using pmc, to save yourself even more money. Ironwood is still wood, y'know.
hovnarr 06-18-07, 06:08 PM	Yup, it gets more interesting but also more complex if you factor in powers and feats too, and their equipment synergy. skin of ectoplasmic armor what book is it in? item stats? thanks again! np! Make sure you get the light crossbow edited for clarity.
Lycanthromancer 06-18-07, 06:21 PM	The skin is in CPsi, and has the same stats as full plate, except it doesn't count as armor, weighs 1 lb, and doesn't decrease your speed. It can also be donned or removed as a standard action.
Crusher217 06-18-07, 06:46 PM	According to MIC, it now counts as light armor.
Lycanthromancer 06-18-07, 06:53 PM	It's a different item. Not the same, I'm afraid. After all, it's not armor. That's the whole point.
Tempest Stormwind 06-18-07, 07:04 PM	In the MIC it counts as light armor for purposes relating to encumberance -- that is, a monk cannot wear it and retain his monk abilities, but a ranger could wear it and keep his combat style bonus feats (since it's armor, but light armor). It doesn't change to armor, nor does it require light armor proficiency to use. It's still valid. Oh, and I should note another key difference between it and full plate -- it doesn't reduce your speed (although it keeps its -6 check penalty), and it doesn't have to look like normal armor (you could have it look like plate, like lighter armor, or like the freakin' Silver Surfer if you want). On the flipside, if you get hit with a targeted dispel (or an area dispel and you roll really well on everything of a higher CL), the skin withdraws, leaving you unarmored. On normal armor, if it's dispelled, you lose its special abilities but not the armor itself. The skin is closer to Mage Armor / Bracers of Armor in that regard.
Millenia 06-18-07, 07:34 PM	Personally, I'd just ditch armor completely until you get to the point where you can buy special abilities for armor, as Inertial Armor is one of the best AC-boosting powers around - as long as you don't mind spending a power slot to get it.
Tempest Stormwind 06-18-07, 08:41 PM	Personally, I'd just ditch armor completely until you get to the point where you can buy special abilities for armor, as Inertial Armor is one of the best AC-boosting powers around - as long as you don't mind spending a power slot to get it. In my case, I generally find the power is something I can less easily part with than a few GP to get/make leather armor. I started out with leather armor and upgraded to the skin as soon as I could. By the way, these figures are all for Medium characters. It changes around a little bit for Small ones, but that little bit is significant: Armor weighs half as much, but they can carry 3/4 the Medium equivalent in gear. This means that armor that would just encumber a Medium creature is still a viable option for a Small one, given the same Strength. (I mention this since I play an 8-Strength halfling shaper, and I noticed a few oddball things relating to sizeism. You'd be amazed how much of the game assumes you're playing a Medium creature.)
hovnarr 06-19-07, 03:23 AM	I agree with TS. Augmenting inertial armor and putting up force shield is naturally "better" from a strictly AC point of view, but you can't spare the PP nor the action time at low levels. And the duration sucks too at low levels. It's the same with astral construct vs. riding dog. They are both CR1 creatures, but the dog costs 150 gp and lasts until slain, while the ac costs 1 PP and lasts 1 round/level. When you're level 10 you can have overchannel, extend power and metamorphosis. Then, by all means, overchannel an extended inertial armor for 24 hours for some good PP economy and metamorph to something with a high natural armor bonus in combat. The huge benefit with IA is that it works regardless of your physical shape. Also, pay to have your shield animated so you can use it in any form. And sure, why not keep the ol' mithral shirt for special abilities like Millenia proposes, and to have something against a targeted dispel like TS brings up. It's not like you need the carrying capacity for anything else.
Tyroki 06-19-07, 03:42 AM	What book is the Handy Haversack from?
hovnarr 06-19-07, 03:46 AM	It's in the SRD (DMG).
ck2001wendt 06-19-07, 05:05 AM	One caveat on Inertial Armor: It's a very common houserule that Force effects add to your touch AC as well. For me, Inertial armor that bumps your touch AC is more useful than Leather or a Chain Shirt. Check with your DM first.
Tyroki 06-19-07, 06:32 AM	Hrmm... This is very helpful ^^ Brilliant Hovnarr. Eww... Private Messages are giving me database errors O.o
Tempest Stormwind 06-19-07, 10:42 AM	One caveat on Inertial Armor: It's a very common houserule that Force effects add to your touch AC as well. For me, Inertial armor that bumps your touch AC is more useful than Leather or a Chain Shirt. Check with your DM first. Actually, DMs who say that are most often confusing "touch" and "incorporeal touch". Force effects aren't ignored by incorporeal touch attacks, but they are ignored by a normal touch attack. Besides, it's an armor bonus, not a deflection bonus, even though it's made of force -- it doesn't make you any harder to touch. (An incorporeal touch attack is called a "touch" attack since it passes through armor and thus ignores it like a normal touch, not because it's trying to just merely touch you. It can't pass through force armor, so that still applies to your AC.)
Lycanthromancer 06-19-07, 10:50 AM	It would be nice if WotC could learn how to use synonyms. For words like level (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0012.html).
Fleem 06-19-07, 01:18 PM	I noticed the lvl4 list mentioned a dorje of enlarged entangling ectoplasm. I didn't see anything in the SRD that allows metapsionic feats to be applied to them (only augmentation). Is this explicitly allowed anywhere? Edit: Ah, of course. Why put it in the dorje creation section, when you can put it in the metapsionic feat section?
ck2001wendt 06-20-07, 06:35 AM	Actually, DMs who say that are most often confusing "touch" and "incorporeal touch". Force effects aren't ignored by incorporeal touch attacks, but they are ignored by a normal touch attack. Besides, it's an armor bonus, not a deflection bonus, even though it's made of force -- it doesn't make you any harder to touch. We're aware of the rule...we just don't use it that way. Whether the change was originally made for simplicity or the perception of better balance is lost to the mists of time. We do the same thing for Bracers of Armor.