This is a mobile psionic archer that can increase his durability by borrowing a Share Pain off the group's psion to send half his damage to his psicrystal, and the psicrystal itself has Hidden Talent, and also some other useful psionic feats, that he can use via Feat Leech. I'm still working on this, so suggestions are welcome. I kind of went crazy with the ranger wands, but there are a ton of extremely useful 1st level ranger spells... I guess I could turn some of them into scrolls, for things I don't expect to use all the time...
I'm still debating whether it is better to get rid of a bunch of the items and get a Splitting bow, but for the moment I'm leaning towards more versatility and less cheese. ;) I'm also debating whether to take Zen Archery, but with the huge racial bonus to Dex, and how tight feats are anyway, I'm leaving it out for now. It would let me get rid of my +Dex item and put more points into Wis, increasing my Power Points, though... but having a good initiative score is also important, and I will probably eventually buy a Ring of Evasion. And with a 36 PB, I can afford to have some MAD... I plan on using his powers mainly for buffing and mobility, which shouldn't be extremely costly, and won't require high save DCs. I also greatly dislike the "within 30 feet" limitation of the feat. Decisions, decisions...
Name: Planewalker Greth
Githzerai Ranger1/Ardent 4/Slayer 4/Witch Slayer 2 (final build Ranger1/Ardent8/Slayer9/Witch Slayer 2)
Medium Humanoid (Extraplanar, Psionic)
HD: 8+4d6+6d8+33 (8+24+20+33= 87 hp)
Initiative: +11 (7dex+2trait+2psicrystal)
Move: 30 (40 when focused) (Fly 60(good) (70 when Focused), with Psionic Fly)
AC: 27 (10+6armor+7dex+6monk-2), Touch 21, Flat-footed 20
BAB/Grapple: +10/+14
Attacks: Unarmed Strike +14 (1d8+4), Bow +18 (1d8+10)
Full Attack: Unarmed Strike +14/+9 (1d8+4), Bow +18/+13 (1d8+10), Rapid Shot +16/+16/+11 (1d8+5)
Space/Reach: 5/5
Special Qualities:
PLAs: 3xday Inertial Armor, Daze, Catfall, Concussion Blast; 1xday Plane Shift (ML=1/2CL, DC=10+1/2CL+Cha mod)
Other Special Abilities: SR 16 (5+CL), Darkvision 60', Favored Enemy: Aberrations (+2), Quori (+4); Wild Empathy, Mettle, Smite Spirit Sharer, Brain Nausea, Lucid Buffer
Saves: F13 (7+3con+3enh), R14 (4+7dex+3enh), W19 (11+5wis+3enh)(+4 vs. Compulsion and Mind-Affecting)
Ability Scores: (36 PB)
Str 18 (16+2enh)
Dex 24 (14+6race+2enh+2level)
Con 16 (14+2enh)
Int 10 (12-2race)
Wis 20 (16+2race+2enh)
Cha 8
Skills (ranks): Hide +11 (4), Move Silently +11 (2), Sense Motive +15 (8), Spot +19 (12), Listen +11 (4), Knowledge: Dungeoneering +4 (4), Concentration +19 (14), Psicraft +3 (1), Autohypnosis +10 (1), Know: Rel +4 (4) (if not CC for Ardent), Tumble +9 (1)(cc) (56 total)
Feats: Track (ranger1), Practiced Manifester: Ardent (flaw1), Point Blank Shot (flaw2), Precise Shot (1), Rapid Shot (3), EK: Feat Leech (6), Manyshot (9)
Flaws and Traits: Aggressive (+2 ini, -1 AC), Vulnerable (-1 AC), Murky Eyed
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Languages: Common, Gith
Mantles: Freedom, Guardian, Time
Powers known: (PPs 75 (46+27wis+2race) , DC 15+level)
1st: Thicken Skin, Dimension Hop
2nd: Hustle, Damp Power, Feat Leech
3rd: Time Hop, Dispel Psionics
4th: Fly
5th: Anticipatory Strike
6th: Temporal Acceleration or Mind Over Energy
Mantle Powers:
Freedom: +10 to speed when focused, expend focus for +ML to escape a grapple
Guardian: Expend focus as an immediate action to take a hit for someone. Must do this the after attack roll, but before the damage roll.
Time: +2 to Initiative. Can expend focus as an immediate action to delay damage from an attack or effect for 1 round. You cannot gain immunity to this damage in the mean time. It affects you as it would at the time you delayed it.
Psicrystal
[sblock]Size/Type: Diminutive Construct
Hit Dice: 8 (43 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), climb 20 ft.*
Armor Class: 19 (+4 size, +2 Dex*, +3nat), touch 16, flat-footed 17
Base Attack/Grapple: +6/-13
Attack: —
Full Attack: —
Space/Reach: 1 ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: —
Special Qualities: Construct traits, hardness 8, psicrystal granted abilities (improved evasion, self-propulsion, share powers, sighted, telepathic link, deliver touch powers, telepathic speech (30 feet), Nimble personality (+2 to initiative)
Saves: F10, R11, W16
Abilities: Str 1*, Dex 15*, Con
remember to take Knowledge Devotion and Woodland Archer
actually you might eve try this:
Soulknife 2/ Ardent 5/ Soulbow 1/ Slayer 3
or even
Soulknife 2/ Ardent 5/ Soulbow 4
:D
Unless you use the 3.0 version, which gives you mettle and weapon spec at first level, of course.
Personally, for an Ardent Gish I'd suggest you take advantage of the Ardent's weird manifester list and purchase some of the relevant Djorles. The Ardent does get access to some pretty decent powers, and unlike wands, Djorles have no upper limit on power level.
I don't have enough skill points to get good use out of Knowledge Devotion, or a spare feat. :P Maybe later, but there are so many good feats to choose from, and this character will never have massive knowledge skill checks, anyway.
Woodland archer looks ok, but I have a ranger wand that lets me ignore concealment (except total concealment), and I don't plan on sniping. The +4 to hit after a miss is nice, though. I guess I could replace Greater Psionic Shot with that. Hmm...
I see that they got rid of the 30 feet limitation on Zen Archery when it was updated to 3.5. That makes it more appealing... I might consider it now.
Thanks for the suggestions. I don't think I'll switch to a Soulbow, though.
That's a good idea about the Djores. I'll look into what might be good for that. Thanks, Kerrus.
In that line, I've actually thought about using the spell/power transparancy in order to grab arcane archer. Not strictly legal, but viable under the transparancy rules.
So I don't think dorjes would be very useful for utility powers, since I can get almost any power I want via that trick. And of course Dorjes are not very good for "blasting", since they do piddly damage and have crappy saves, and in general aren't worth an action. So I think I'll skip on that.
I also think the psion is taking ranks in UPD (which the DM is also counting as UMD), so his psicrystal will actually be tricked out with Dorjes and Wands. So there is no need for redundancy from me on that front.
I did a little analysis of the pp cost for going crazy with Greater Psionic Weapon + Hustle + the crystal weapon, and decided it was just going to be too expensive. With Manyshot + Hunter's Mercy + Oil of Bless (or Curse) Weapon, I can dish out almost as much damage and spend little to no power points on it (maybe 2 for the Deep Crystal weapon), and be guaranteed to hit and crit on both shots.
I dumped my Boots of Speed and upgraded my weapon to Collision, instead. With that setup, my two shots can do around 90 damage on average, and I can fire them with a readied action which should be awesome for disrupting enemy spellcasters.
This makes me a bit weaker vs. crit-immune enemies, but I still have Rapid Shot + a deep crystal weapon for those. It is also a bit item dependant, but I don't see that as a big deal. My psicrystal can dump the Oil of Bless Weapon onto my arrows for me, and I'll keep the wand of Hunter's Mercy in a Wand chamber, so it takes 0 setup time to start rocking out. :D
Costs you what? 7 power points to get an extra standard action in a round, a standard, readied action to be precise, at the expense of your focus and a swift action. Psychic Chirurgury should take care of sychronicity for you, if you can find an NPC casting of it. And quicken power could easily be your 12 HD feat.
I admittedly only skimmed it, but what are you using Feat Leech for? Stealing from your psicrystal? Very tricksy, precious, very tricksy.
I admittedly only skimmed it, but what are you using Feat Leech for? Stealing from your psicrystal? Very tricksy, precious, very tricksy.
That's exactly what I'm using it for. That, and borrowing Expanded Knowledge from the party Psion to pick up any utility/long duration buff powers that I might want. :D
I'm away from my books at the moment, but I'm surprised I don't see a feat to grab synchronicity on your list. I'd say quicken power and synchronicity are worth the investment in feats, if you have to spend feats on them.
Costs you what? 7 power points to get an extra standard action in a round, a standard, readied action to be precise, at the expense of your focus and a swift action. Psychic Chirurgury should take care of sychronicity for you, if you can find an NPC casting of it. And quicken power could easily be your 12 HD feat.
I can get an extra full round of actions via Anticipatory Strike (take my round, then manifest that immediately afterwards).
I'll probably take Flyby Attack for the 12th level feat. I wish there was an easier way to never be flat-footed besides Legacy Weapon cheese, which I don't really have the XP for... That makes Anticipatory Strike worth a lot more.
I just saw the revision of Hunter's Mercy in the Spell Compendium. How many freakin' times did they write this spell? The one in there is a Standard action to cast, lasts 1 round, and makes your next shot that hits a critical. This totally screws up my revised build...SC is supposed to trump other 3.5 sources, right?
I'm thinking of changing to this (since we don't have a skillmonkey, either):
Human Feat Rogue 2/Ardent 3/Ranger 1/Slayer 6
Feats: Point Blank Shot (R1), Rapid Shot (flaw 1), Practiced Manifester: Ardent (flaw2), Able Learner (human), Craven (1), Psicrystal Affinity (3), Track (ranger), EK: Feat Leech (6), Manyshot (R2), Psionic Shot (9), Fell Shot (12), Precise Shot (bow mod or wand)
Good skills (and Trapfinding), good BAB, Evasion, full manifesting
In this game, he said UMD=UPD, so I can cash in on that, too. I'm thinking of getting a dorje (maybe an Eternal Dorje, if he'll allow that) of Feat Leech, and taking EK: Schism. Then I can use Schism to activate the Hunter's Mercy wand each round.
Ardent - Mind's Eye
Substitute Powers
Considering the esoteric nature of mantles, different ardents may have the same mantle but have different powers available to them. A mantle can have no more than ten powers in it, and if it has fewer, add further powers to fill the gaps if that mantle has no powers of that level. The powers need to fit the theme of the mantle at the DM's discretion. Otherwise, you can substitute a power of equal or lesser level. For example, the sense danger* power could be added to the Fate mantle as a 3rd-level power since only seven powers and no 3rd-level powers are in it, or the faint memory* power could replace escape detection in the Deception mantle.
*Found in Magic of Eberron.
**
I don't think this has been really CO'd on yet
Step 1 ---.
I read : "Otherwise, you can substitute a power of equal or lesser level."
As by-passing the previous conditions.
Step 2 ---
I read: "A mantle can have no more than ten powers in it,"
As the next ~possible step
Step 3 ---
I read: "add further powers to fill the gaps if that mantle has no powers of that level."
As the spot where some CO-trickery can happen.
What powers can easily get by " ... the powers need to fit the theme of the mantle at the DM's discretion ..." conditional ??
Only the powers that are already on the mantle !!
Then substitute at step 1, whatever power you want (within limits),
and then intentionally create a slot for an extra power, that's already on the list.
Example ---
Air Mantle
Granted Ability: When you are psionically focused, you can treat any fall as if the distance were 20 feet less.
1 Deflection Field*: Provides +4 deflection bonus to AC.
2 Control Air [A]: You have control over wind speed and direction.
3 Telekinetic (Air) Thrust [A]: Hurl objects with the force of the wind.
4 Fly, Psionic: You fly at a speed of 60 ft.
5 Telekinetic (Air) Buffer*[A]: Use the wind to force creatures away from you.
6 Overland Flight, Psionic: You fly at a speed of 40 ft. and can hustle over long distances.
7 Ethereal Jaunt, Psionic: Become ethereal for 1 round/ level.
9 Tornado Blast [A]: Vortex of air subjects your foes to 17d6 damage and moves them.
Could be ---
Any 1
Any 1 or 2
Any 1, 2, or 3
Any 1, 2, 3, or 4
Any 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5
Any 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6
Any 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7
Hole at level 8
Any 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9
and one more slot, which could be one of the powers already on the list.
**
I haven't finished this (time limits).
But I think it might work.
