Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Endarire 04-13-08, 04:24 PM	The psion in question is a grey elf kineticist. I'm not concerned about him breaking the game, but am curious what powers he would be best off getting. His planning is short-sighted and he's the group's 'magic-user' since we have no sorcerers, wizards, or the like, and he's the group's only psionic character I wanted to ensure he at least had a build to cover traditional arcane roles such as blasting, crowd control, and teleportation. His feat plan involves crafting psi items and getting fusion ASAP. Race & Class: Grey Elf Psion (Kineticist) Stats: 8/16/12/18/12/10 Feats: Improved Initiative, Psicrystal Affinity Powers: bolt, grease, my light Campaign Setting: Greyhawk Character Generation: 28 point buy or 4d6 drop lowest Gold: 200 Level 1: A character with a level adjustment (LA) of 1 begins with no class level, but a number of HP equal to his CON modifier, minimum 1. Races with a level adjustment of higher than 1 aren't allowed. Races Allowed: Player's Handbook + Expanded Psionics Handbook + goblins + kobolds. Blues (XPH) have no level adjustment. Source Material Allowed: Any, pending my approval. I tend to trust first-party (Wizards of the Coast) material over other sources. Transparency: Psionics/Magic transparency is in place. Definitely Banned Spells & Effects Any spell that works on alignment, such as holy word, detect evil, or undetectable alignment. antimagic field - Being affected by AMF requires about as much recalculation as being in a different form. Also, AMF nullifies casters and turns many high level people into fancy commoners. celerity - This series is banned simply because the game eventually comes down to initiative. The opponents need to get a turn. foresight - We simply cannot plan everyone's moves one turn in advance. scrying - This allows casting villains to locate you. Coupled with teleport, it means you need to sleep in a rope trick every night and be continually under nondetection if you want a significant chance of surviving. time stop - Coupled with Delay Spell, this becomes too good. Even for buffing, escaping, and summoning, a well-prepared caster with this causes too much trouble. wraithstrike - This is balanced soon after it's gotten, but when a gish has enough slots so he can use this every round, it hurts the casters who need to breach touch AC.
Tobias_Bluesummers 04-13-08, 04:43 PM	Well with him being a kineticist, he'll have the blasting part taken care of. As for crowd control and teleportation, it will all depend on his powers. Teleportation might be a problem since that's normally the domain of nomads. But that can be worked around with the Expanded Knowledge feat.
calronmoonflower 04-13-08, 05:24 PM	Well first make sure you know psionics rules real well. Then read the two stickied threads at the top of the page and most of the common errors are pointed out.
The_Shaman 04-13-08, 05:27 PM	He could take a few elocater levels, too - the levitation-like ability is one of the handiest tricks I've seen a class ever get, and he doesn't lose too many caster levels unless he goes for the entire 10 levels.. Prerequisites are a pain, though. Crowd control is imo best done with shapers, but he should be able to get a little mileage out of entangling ectoplasm, energy wall, ectoplasmic shambler or a few other powers... Hey, can you use psionic fabricate to change the floor/ground/whatever in or around combat? It sounds possible, if rather time-consuming.
Tobias_Bluesummers 04-14-08, 08:10 PM	Don't know about the fabricating the terrain into something else, since the text of the power (actually the spell since it references the spell) says you can only change something into something else that is of the same type of material. I guess it's all up to the DM on what you can turn the ground into. Then there is the casting time that's required, but it would be an interesting use of the power.
forsaken1111 04-16-08, 11:56 AM	Don't know about the fabricating the terrain into something else, since the text of the power (actually the spell since it references the spell) says you can only change something into something else that is of the same type of material. I guess it's all up to the DM on what you can turn the ground into. Then there is the casting time that's required, but it would be an interesting use of the power. As far as I know you could 'fabricate' defensive earthworks (pits, walls, etc) from the ground with an appropriate knowledge/craft check. (Siege engineering, in this case I believe... or knowledge: architecture and engineering)
InkBlot 04-16-08, 12:51 PM	The phrase is "you convert material of one sort into a product that is of the same material." So lets work from that. "You convert the wooden floorboards into a wooden fence." 'You convert the stone paving stones into a low stone wall." "You convert the dirt floor into an earthen rampart." And, since the power doesn't make new material from nowhere, this would also leave a hole in the ground where the material came from. It's a very versatile power. However, unless you want to to spend multiple rounds manifesting it, you can only ever affect 10 cubic feet (or 1 cubic foot of mineral). That's not a 10-foot-cube. It's like have 10 blocks which are each one foot wide, one foot long, and one foot deep.* At the level you get both powers, wall of ectoplasm is already making walls as big as fabricate can, but with only a standard action, and without needing a suitable source of material nearby. As you level up, wall of ectoplasm just gets better and bigger, while fabricate stays at 10-cubic-feet (unless you want to be a sitting duck for several rounds). Then there's spells to consider balancing it against, such as wall of ice, entangle, Evard's black tentacles stinking cloud, and web. By the way, have you seen Full Metal Alchemist? *Or 40 blocks which are each 6-inches, or 160 blocks which are each 3-inches, or 640 blocks which are each 1.5 inches, et cetera ad nauseum.
forsaken1111 04-16-08, 02:52 PM	The phrase is "you convert material of one sort into a product that is of the same material." So lets work from that. "You convert the wooden floorboards into a wooden fence." 'You convert the stone paving stones into a low stone wall." "You convert the dirt floor into an earthen rampart." And, since the power doesn't make new material from nowhere, this would also leave a hole in the ground where the material came from. It's a very versatile power. However, unless you want to to spend multiple rounds manifesting it, you can only ever affect 10 cubic feet (or 1 cubic foot of mineral). That's not a 10-foot-cube. It's like have 10 blocks which are each one foot wide, one foot long, and one foot deep.* At the level you get both powers, wall of ectoplasm is already making walls as big as fabricate can, but with only a standard action, and without needing a suitable source of material nearby. As you level up, wall of ectoplasm just gets better and bigger, while fabricate stays at 10-cubic-feet (unless you want to be a sitting duck for several rounds). Then there's spells to consider balancing it against, such as wall of ice, entangle, Evard's black tentacles stinking cloud, and web. By the way, have you seen Full Metal Alchemist? *Or 40 blocks which are each 6-inches, or 160 blocks which are each 3-inches, or 640 blocks which are each 1.5 inches, et cetera ad nauseum. However, fabricated defense works last forever and can be done in advance of a battle to gain an edge. Also you can't counterspell or dispel a wall, though you could esplode it.
InkBlot 04-16-08, 06:28 PM	I don't think any of those things are big enough deals to make using fabricate in this way an abuse. Sure, a fabricated wall lasts indefinitely. Adventurers, however, aren't known for tarrying in one place for long. The wall just has to be there long enough to influence the current fight, and wall of ectoplasm lasts at least 7 minutes (1 min/level). The longest single D&D combat I'ver ever seen lasted about 10 minutes, and the second longest lasted about 2 minutes. If all you have to work with is earth or stone, then you'll only be fabricating 1 cubic foot per round (max 1 cubic foot per level). That might be enough to create one square of rought terrain, but isn't enough to make a wall that's worth noticing. You could do better with greater fabricate, but at that point you're using a 6th level power to replicate the effect of a 4th level power (wall of ectoplasm). At 20th level, with 20 rounds of prep time, you're getting 20 cubic feet from using fabricate on earth or stone. That's enough to create a 10-foot-long earthen wall that's two feet high and one foot thick, with a one foot deep trench extending out two feet in front of it. I could leap over that. Anyone who couldn't isn't going to be a challenge for 20th level adventurers. I think the best you could do with fabricate, on earth or stone, is to try to create rough terrain by putting a 1-foot-cube and a 1-foot-cube-shaped divot in each 5-foot-square. And psionics doesn't have counterspell. Counterspelling is a poor strategy anyway. It's much more effective to just ready an action zap your casting/manifesting foe with a direct damage spell/power. Even with a maxed out Concentration, DC 10 + spell/power level + damage dealt is a tough check to make (with two 7th level psions facing off the DC would be about 45).
DracoPhoenix 04-25-08, 03:43 AM	You could also use fabricate to create pit traps (change the floor material into something else, like a pile of stone or dirt else where) and remove doors / locking mechanisms. A bit excessive, but vault doors are probably warded against knock. You'd probably save a fortune on redecorating - need to add / remove a wall?