Post/Author/DateTime	Post
MnemonicSV 05-17-07, 04:10 AM	Inspired by another thread, I'm starting this thread to explore all the various means a manifester can use to get his/her precious power points back. From the obvious to the obscure, many means are available to bring that PP reserve back up without a decent night's rest, or resorting to temporary power points. Below are several techniques for gaining power points back, and/or gaining back more than you're actually spending: 1) Body Fuel (Feat) A good all around feat for those who fear hitting 0 PP, right out of the XPH. Pros: - Easy to gain; no prerequisites. - Good for classes/builds that don't rely too much on their physical ability scores, like Psions. Cons: - Ability damage is bad enough... ability burn is worse. - Overuse could quite literally kill or incapacitate you. - Not good for classes/builds which rely on physical abilities, like Psychic Warriors. 2) Volatile Leech (Feat) Building upon the Volatile Mind class feature of the Wilder, this psionic feat allows a Wilder to absorb those power points which are wasted by other manifesters who utilize telepathy powers against the Wilder. Appears in Complete Psionic. Pros: - Good when going up against opponents who use telepathy powers quite often. - No action is required on your part to use, beyond being psionically focused. - Friendly PCs or NPCs can "donate" to your reserve by using harmless telepathy powers on your character. - Volatile Escalation feat from Complete Psionic improves drain. - Point-for-point transfer rate is very efficient. Cons: - Must be a Wilder, and Wilders are feat-thirsty enough already. - Feat depends entirely on the actions of others (you ultimately can't decide when or where to gain power points back). - PCs may not wish (or can't afford) to "donate;" Cost of hiring NPCs for this purpose may become prohibitive. 3) Phrenic Leech (Feat) A useless metapsonic feat in regards to recovering power points, it can be found in Complete Psionic. Do not be fooled: You can't actually ever replenish your PP reserve through use of this feat. Pros: - Can apply feat to any power you know that targets a single psionic foe. - Good for weakening foes. Cons: - Can never gain more PPs than you expend in any scenario. - Must expend psionic focus to use feat. - Poor transfer rate: 1 PP gained for 1d6 PPs lost. 4) Power Leech (Power) This Psion/Wilder 4/Consumption 4 power from the XPH allows the user to drain power points directly from one psionic character to replenish his or her own. Pros: - Power can be used to (albeit slowly) gain more power points than you spent to use the power. - Willing PCs and NPCs may allow you to use power on them. - Power weakens foe. Cons: - Requires full-round action and line of effect to concentrate to maintain power, thus making you an easy target. - Must maintain power for at least 8 rounds to gain more than you lose (making this power useless if you take it at the lowest manifester level possible). - Friendly PCs and NPCs will likely not be willing to be subject to this power. - Poor transfer rate: 1 PP gained for 1d6 PPs lost. Weak targets may run out of PPs before 8 rounds have passed. 5) Bestow Power (Power) Although Bestow Power (XPH) itself cannot be placed into an item, there are several other possibilities for how one may use Bestow Power to replenish one's power point reserve. They are divided below: 5A) Bestow Power via PC or NPC. Having another psionic character give you power points at their own expense is always a good and efficient option for you... if such willing individuals can be found to do so. Pros: - No action/feats/powers required on your part. - Decent transfer rate: 2 PPs gained for 3 PPs spent. Cons: - NPCs may expect compensation for their efforts; PCs may need PPs themselves. - Unless you tell them, PCs or NPCs have no way of knowing when you have reached full capacity, and may overspend. 5B) Bestow Power + Cognizance Crystal While you cannot directly transfer power points from cognizance crystals to replenish your own reserve, you can use the power points from a cognizance crystal (or similar storage device) to fuel your manifestation of Bestow Power, with yourself as target. P.S. A large number of low capacity (3 PP) cognizance crystals is much more cost effective than one large capacity cognizance crystal, for the purpose of recharging your reserve. Pros: - You may choose when and where to recover power points from the cognizance crystal. - Decent tranfer rate: 2 PPs gained for 3 PPs spent (from cognizance crystal) Cons: - You must know Bestow Power. - You must have a cognizance crystal on your person with sufficient PPs to power your Bestow Power manifestation. 5C) Bestow Power + Wild Surge (+3) + Enervation Endurance (feat) A Wilder who is able to wild surge for a +3 bonus can effectively replenish her own reserve by targeting herself with Bestow Power. This trick will only really pay off if the wilder also has the Enervation Endurance feat from Complete Psionic. This will take some explaining, as this technique has a narrow window of opportunity: Every manifestation of Bestow Power upon yourself costs you 3 PPs, but with the +3 wild surge you gain 4 PPs back (for a net gain of 1 PP per use). 15% of these attempts will cause Psychic Enervation, penalizing you a number of power points equal to half your wilder level (thanks to the Enervation Endurance feat). So, if you are a 7th level wilder, twenty uses will let you gain 20 PPs, but lose 12 PPs (due to 3 enervations), for an overall gain of 8 PPs in two minutes. That's roughly about 240 PPs/hour added back to your reserve (not including time lost while dazed from repeated enervations). Oddly enough, as the wilder gains levels this tactic becomes less and less effective, until at 13th wilder level, the long term loss becomes greater than the long term gain. Without the Enervation Endurance feat, you will always lose more than you gain in the long run. Surging for more or less than +3 will also cause you to lose more in the long run than you can gain. To keep this trick effective into later levels, you must stop your wilder progression before 13th level at the latest, perhaps choosing prestige classes which grant manifester levels instead. Pros: - Repeated use enables full PP recovery. - No dependence on external items or PCs/NPCs. - Excellent transfer rate: 4 PPs gained for 3 PPs spent (effectively) Cons: - Requires time and patience. - Must be a Wilder. - Must have the Enervation Endurance feat; Wilders are feat thirsty enough as it is. - Must know Bestow Power; Wilders know very few powers, so learning this power further limits their options. - Psychic Enervation limits gains somewhat. 5D) Bestow Power + Metamind class The Metamind's Free Manifesting class ability can be used to power his manifestation of Bestow Power... in effect, he expends a free manifesting abilitiy (2nd or higher) to gain power points back to his reserve. A 10th level Metamind who knows Bestow Power has an even greater edge. Using Font of Power, he can repeatedly manifest Bestow Power upon himself for up to one minute, constantly adding power points back to his reserve at no cost to himself whatsoever. If he knows the Psionic Meditation feat, as well as the Twin Power or Quicken Power metapsionic feats, he can add even more power points back to his reserve in that minute. Even if a Metamind has just finished a battle and only has one or two rounds left to his Font of Power ability, he would be a fool not to use that time to Bestow Power back to himself. Pros: - Exchange Free Manifesting uses or Font of Power use for PPs (effectively no cost) - Exceptional transfer rate: 2 PPs gained for effectively 0 PPs spent (limit: manifester level). - Makes being a Metamind not so bad. Cons: - Must be a Metamind (at least 3rd level) - Must know Bestow Power ---------- That's all I can think of for now. Anyone else have ideas I haven't thought of? (Try to stick to WOTC material though.)
The_Ditto 05-17-07, 08:26 AM	Bestow Power + Torc of Power Preservation and/or Earth Power = inifinite PP ... more efficient than your Bestow Power + Wilder ... (and then again, Wilder with Torc of Power Preservation and Earth Power is even more effcient!!) As per the rules right out of the XPH ... Bestow Power + a couple of feat investments and you get (effectively) infinite PP ... Most people (I believe) "fix" this problem by "errata'ing" Bestow Power ... (if you care ... :P ) Oh yeah, and if you have access to a friendly arcane caster (or maybe you are a wizard/psion/cerebremancer), then this spell helps lots: Dweomer of Transference Evocation Level: Cleric 4, sorcerer/wizard 4 Components: V, S Casting Time: 1 minute Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels) Target: One willing psionic creature Duration: 1 round/level Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless) Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless) With this spell, you form a radiating corona around the head of a psionic ally, then convert some of your spells into psionic power points. When you finish casting dweomer of transference, a red-orange glow surrounds the psionic creature’s head. For the duration of the spell, any spells cast at the subject don’t have their usual effect, instead converting themselves harmlessly into psionic energy that the subject can use as energy for psionic powers. You can cast any spell you like at the subject, even area spells, effect spells, and spells for whom the subject would ordinarily not be a legitimate target. The spells don’t do anything other than provide the subject with power points, but you must still cast them normally, obeying the component and range requirements listed in the description of each spell. For each spell you cast into the dweomer of transference, the psionic creature gets temporary power points, according to the following table. The transference isn’t perfectly efficient. The temporary power points acquired through a dweomer of transference dissipate after 1 hour if they haven’t already been spent. Spell Level Power Points Acquired 0 0 1st 1 2nd 2 3rd 4 4th 6 5th 8 6th 10 7th 12 8th 14 9th 16 Neat way of turning the spell "Tongues" into 4 pp .... hehe ... or Knock into 2 ... ;) Might be expensive, but it'll go into a Wand ... or just craft a reusable wondrous item ... hehe
crizhII 05-17-07, 11:57 AM	Any creature with the Psionic subtype and an ML of at least 2 can be used as a limitless PP capacitor. Trouble is getting them back can be a problem. You can use Power Leech or Metaconcert if the subject doesn't know Bestow Power. At Epic levels you can use Psicrystal Power to grant your Psicrystal a PP pool, a Manifester Level and Bestow Power. You would have to Metamorph it into something that wasn't immune to Mind-Afffecting to Bestow Power on it but it could store huge amounts of PP and it can pump them back into you as needed. The other method I like is Metapower. You can stack Metapower. So if you took it three times for Twinned Bestow Power you would get 4PP for every three you spent and the only cost would be your focus. You could do that during downtime and reform it away when you didn't need it.... As for Metamind, that's just sick. Swift Powers like Temporal Acceleration and Temporal Reiiteration are effectively free so you can make Font of Power last for hours out of combat. An Ardent5/Metamind10 ( with practiced Manifester) could get 4800PP per hour that he wanted to be bothered cycling through Temporal Acceleration and Bestow Power. Of course that would be apparent time which is even better..
balor64 05-17-07, 10:18 PM	Bestow Power + Torc of Power Preservation and/or Earth Power = inifinite PP ... more efficient than your Bestow Power + Wilder ...Torc of power preservation was updated in the magic item compendium. It now costs 4,000 gp., but only works 5 times per day.
QuarianRex 05-17-07, 11:21 PM	Bestow Power + Earth Power + Midnight Augmentation (Incarnum) = Spend 3pp get back 4pp. Of course, this requires that you have access to 2 points of Essentia and/or Psycarnum Infusion to fuel Midnight Augmentation and you need to blow off your focus. It can be a little feat intensive but it is not class restrictive and is self-sufficient.
Fwib 05-18-07, 01:46 PM	You can stack Metapower. So if you took it three times for Twinned Bestow Power you would get 4PP for every three you spent and the only cost would be your focus.Linked Power would be more efficient in feats. Additionally, Mindfeeder weapon enhancement got un-nerfed in MIC. For a +1 enhancement, it now gives you 1/5 of the damage as temporary pp on a crit. Bring out the downed enemy and the +1 Mindfeeder Sap. (of course, the general usefulness of this assumes that Bestow Power converts temporary pp to real ones...)
Ulihion 05-19-07, 06:16 AM	I think this works.... Azure talent + Psycarnum Infusion + Bestow Power + a stack of Cognizance Crystals. You do have to be out of PPs for this to work. The idea is, you have no essentia invested in Azure Talent, and use Psycarnum Infusion to supercharge it, giving you a bunch of PPs. They disappear at the end of the round, which is what the Cog Crystals are for. Charge a crystal, repeat as many times as you like (or have crystals), and then use Bestow Power to transfer the points back. There are a couple of "Ifs" with this tactic. It only works if Bestow power can be manifested with points from a Cog Crystal, which the text of the power implies is not possible, but doesn't actually state outright it can be done. A bigger "If" is with the core of the combo. My reading of Psycarnum Infusion and Azure Talent is that if you have no PPs, Infuse Azure talent, then use the points up, you still have only zero PPs, the total can't logically go negative. So you can regain focus, rinse, and repeat. I'm aware, however, that that isn't the only way it can be read. Brainwave! Without crystals, you can use this trick to recharge *someone else*. Or more self-centredly, someone else can recharge *you*. I hate mentioning Thrallherd here, cos it gets used a lot, but that would be the easiest way of getting a loyal minion to keep your reserve topped up. As an alternate minion, I like the idea of a construct of some kind that can do this. Shame one doesn't exist, really. Evil idea... Telepath faced with another psion. Dominate them into walking up to you, and borrowing Bestow Power... then transferring all their PPs to you. Suggestion might do it... but I think they're only obliged to carry it out once, so they could give you 2 PPs from one Bestow power, and then stop. Ulihion
balor64 05-19-07, 04:43 PM	Actually, according to the FAQ, your power points can go "negative". When a cleric has a temporary bonus to his Charisma score, does it affect his turning check or turning damage? Does it change the number of times he can turn or rebuke per day? Unless otherwise stated, a temporary bonus to an ability score has the same effect as a permanent one. For example, a cleric with a temporary +4 enhancement bonus to Charisma (such as from eagle’s splendor) would add 2 to his turning check and to his turning damage while the spell was in effect, since his Charisma modifier is 2 points higher than it was before. Things get a little stickier when talking about powers with daily limits, such as turn/rebuke undead or lay on hands. (Hold on, because this gets worse before it gets better.) In this case, a change to the key ability score indeed affects the daily limit—in the example above, the cleric would gain 2 additional turn/rebuke attempts per day—but these aren’t just “free” uses. Here’s why: Assume the cleric above has a normal Charisma score of 12, granting him 4 turn attempts per day (3 + 1 for Cha bonus). Casting eagle’s splendor increases his Charisma to 16, which would grant 6 attempts per day. At the end of the spell, however, his daily limit would drop back down to 4 attempts. At that point, the player must compare the number of daily uses expended to the daily limit to see if any still remain. Here’s how that might work in play. Our cleric turns undead twice, then casts eagle’s splendor right before a big fight with a horde of zombies. During the duration of the spell, he makes four more turning checks. When the spell ends, he compares his new daily limit (4) to the number of attempts used (6)—whoops, no turns left. Hope all the undead have been destroyed, because even if the cleric cast eagle’s splendor again, he wouldn’t have any more turning attempts available, since he’s already used all 6 of his allotted attempts. If he could increase his Charisma to 18, he’d “gain” one more turning attempt (since he has now used 6 out of his allotted 7 daily attempts), usable only during the duration of the Charisma-boosting effect. The same is true of the paladin’s lay on hands ability. If the paladin gains a temporary Charisma boost, her total capacity of healing via lay on hands improves accordingly, but she must keep track of the healing “used up” to see if any remains after the boost ends. Temporary ability reductions (such as penalties or damage) work similarly. When applying a reduction, do the math as if a bonus had just elapsed to see if any daily uses are left, and reverse that when the reduction goes away to see what (if anything) the character regains. If our cleric above is hit by touch of idiocy and suffers a –4 penalty to Charisma, his daily limit of turning attempts is reduced from 4 to 2; if he’s already used 2 or more, he has none available as long as the spell’s effect lasts. This seems more complicated than it actually is. As long as you remember that the important number to track is not uses remaining, but uses expended, everything else should fall into place.
Ulihion 05-19-07, 05:04 PM	Drat. Thanks, balor64, for finally finding something that shoots that idea down. It's been kicking around my brain for months, and every game-balance sensitive neuron has been screaming that it shouldn't work, but I couldn't find anything written down that explicitly states that it's impossible. Infinite PPs at level 1 is a bit much, I guess. So if you use Psicarnum Infusion on Azure talent and empty your PP pool, does someone else recharging you with Bestow Power have to put back those "negative" points first? (From what you quoted, I guess the answer is yes.) And, a little off-topic, can your PPs go negative when you're drained by some other effect? Or, indeed, if your manifesting stat drops? Ulihion