Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 naresh May 18, 2009 3:39:19	I am completely stumped again, so I turn to the awesome might of the CO boards! I am starting a dungeon crawling game (all the info I have) with another player (there are only two of us and the DM won't tell us what the other is playing) it is 40 point buy with any book except campaign specific ones and MM 3,4 or 5, starting level 15 I was thinking about my character and felt like a change, so I looked up the psionic handbook and fell upon the psion, then rooting through the complete psionics found the ectoplasmic adept and my mind starting thinking of the adaptability and power that this lil goo holds But I feel I could do better, I am a complete noob when it comes to psionics so need advice in all areas, I don't want to play a soul knife or a lurker (?), but apart from that I am flexible Then can some one quickly explain manifesting powers? As I see it I have to "focus" myself by making a DC 20 concentration check before hand to gain psionic focus So, level 15, psionic Go wild ;) and thanks
#2 wings_of_peace May 18, 2009 4:16:39	This is personal preference but after you look over your Expanded Psionics Handbook I recommend cracking open Complete Psion(Or is it Psionic?) and looking around the backish for a class called the Erudite. I then recommend following this link http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a and scrolling down till you find "Convert Spell to Power". Proceeding this learn http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a and http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/spells/dweomerOfTransference.htm. After that you're basically set though if you take it even further learn the meta-psionic feat "Burrowing Power" and manifest Telekinetic Sphere(Psionic) around yourself and proceed to hover around in your bubble of force launching burrowing powers through the bubble at your enemies while laughing maniacally.
#3 carnivore May 18, 2009 4:50:43	try this: Dragonborn Warforged Fighter 1/ Psion(Shaper) 6/ Slayer 8 :D
#4 naresh May 18, 2009 5:11:04	Isn't warforged campaign specific? If not can you tell me where it can be found? Same with slayer any book except campaign specific ones, starting level 15
#5 carnivore May 18, 2009 5:12:33	(MM3 p190) Slayer is Illithid Slayer from the SRD ... found here: http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/psionicSlayer.html :D
#6 naresh May 18, 2009 5:15:27	Ack, I don't own MM3, 4 or 5 Forgot about them ;) I'll go edit my first post
#7 carnivore May 18, 2009 5:21:57	Dragonborn Aasimar .... with LA Buyoff Fighter 1/ Psion(Shaper) 6/ Slayer 8 also works good ...... take Expanded Knowledge(Metamorphosis) and Metamorphic Transfer.....with Practiced Manifester get some very nice 15HD Outsider Combat Forms also you get to use great Armor and Weapons.... :D
#8 carnivore May 18, 2009 5:36:19	another idea is this: 1/2 Fey Wood Elf... with LA Buyoff Ranger 2/ Psion(Egoist) 4/ Slayer 9 gain Flight and SLAs ..... also some nice Combat forms and Great Skills and Saves :D
#9 naresh May 18, 2009 5:42:29	Thanks Carnivore! You have really got the ball rolling on this one ;) I am sorry to be annoying is it possible to choose a less exotic race? :p What about feats and powers? I was thinking of piling on the ones that can be augumented simply for thier versatility and effectiveness through out the levels
#10 carnivore May 18, 2009 5:48:48	look here for more ideas: 3.5 Psion Buildguide and Compendium :D
#11 naresh May 18, 2009 6:26:48	I was thinking of going nomad then elocater I like the idea of controlling time and all that ;) The game won't be heavily psionic though, It will have the odd psionic element but there will be spell casting too I believe the game will start off as: There is a tall tower on the outskirts of town, you must get to the top and kill the enemy, along the lines of all good dungeon crawlers Involving constant back tracking and puzzle solving, random encounters and traps Knowing this, any more ideas?
#12 phaedrusxy May 18, 2009 11:57:53	Elocater is not worth the manifester level losses, nor the steep entry requirements. At least not for a psion. If you really want Elocater, I'd enter it as an Ardent. At this level, choice of disicpline is more about what 8th level discipline specific powers you want to have access to right now, and what 9th level powers you eventually want. I'd go with a Seer or Egoist, I think. I'd also suggest the Thrallherd PrC or Leadership feat, if either is allowed. ;) There is a huge amount of synergy to be had from having multiple psionics working together. For example: If both you and your cohort/thrall take Expanded Knowledge, and at least one of you takes Feat Leech, you can use Feat Leech to steal the other's Expanded Knowledge, and instantly learn any power 1 level lower than the highest you can manifest. Also, if you go with an Egoist, you can use Fusion on your cohort to gain access to all your combined powers known, feats, etc, at the same time. This will let you pull off combos that no psion could do by themselves.
#13 naresh May 18, 2009 13:33:45	I think I have all but Decided on my character, a normal human with the following stats (40 point buy) 8,14,14,18,14,12 Is this a good distribution? Levels: lv 14 psion (kineticist) lv 1 fighter (so I can wear armour and still manifest) feats: 1 Psionic Body(human), Psicrystal affinity, psionic endowment(psion) 3 psicrystal containment 5 psionic meditation (psion) 9 enlarge power 10 greater psionic endowment (psion) 12 maximise power 15 Power penetration, improved iniative (fighter) so I get an average of 83 HP (Max first level, average for other levels +18 from psionic body+con What is the best "type" of psi crystal to have? Including fighter is a great way to add HP and armour to the build, but are there any that can do it better (without adding more casting to the character) and without it feeling like a random dip (paladin) What are good prestige classes, I noticed alot don't give full ML, but there are some with some pretty nifty ideas...
#14 phaedrusxy May 18, 2009 13:44:06	Anarchic Initiate is about the only PrC that doesn't lose a ML. It is a decent PrC, also. It's in Complete Psi. I wouldn't bother with the fighter level at all. As long as you can get the armor check penalty (ACP) down to 0, you will suffer nothing from wearing armor you're not proficient with. Even if you still have a little ACP, you'll just take it as a penalty to attacks, which might not matter much, depending on how you play (if you don't use rays or other powers that require an attack roll, it won't matter). For example, a mithril chain shirt and darkwood heavy shield would get you +4 armor and +2 shield bonuses with 0 ACP. You can of course add up to +5 enhancement bonuses to both of those. For psicrystals, I like to get the one that gives +2 to initiative. Don't worry about hit points, as long as you take Share Pain and Vigor. I also wouldn't take Psionic Body. Take Linked Power instead, and make sure to get the Hustle Power. Then you can manifest a Hustle linked to a Vigor (which is shared with your psicrystal) every round to grant yourself a bunch of temporary hit points (THP) as a swift action. Your psicrystal also gets the same amount of THP, and half your damage goes to it via Share Pain. You use the Move Action from Hustle to regain your focus so you can repeat this. This combo will make you insanely hard to kill via hit point damage. (You can effectively get 120 THP per round for 15 pps as a swift action). Of course, you shouldn't need nearly this many THP. If you do, it is very likely that your party mate will die long before you anyway. :P And why kineticist? The high level powers stink compared to the other disciplines, and you can get the lower level powers from that discipline that you want via the Expanded Knowledge feat.
#15 naanomi May 18, 2009 13:53:20	Illithid Slayer, Sanctified Mind, or a combination of the two... each gives up only 1 Manifestor level... and both give full BaB and some nifty abilities. Since you have a fighter level in there anyways
#16 naresh May 18, 2009 14:10:56	I am generally against ithilliad slayer, I doubt we will be fighting many of them... So cutting out the fighter level gives me another psionic feat (assuming I take psion) Then I can waddle around in expensive armour ;) If I do not take Kinescist, what should I take? I am one of those players that prefers sorcerers over wizards (for spont.) and often chooses not to use any metamagic unless it is free (I like the power of higher level slots) I ahve never been a fan of spells like polymorph, gate or similar either... So, shall I go back to my original plan of nomad? or go egoist? (what stats are good for these...) Then what shall I do (prestige class and item and feat wise) OOC: I just saw a hawk fly down and grab a bird in the sky, it looked awesome :D
#17 phaedrusxy May 18, 2009 14:20:51	I am generally against ithilliad slayer, I doubt we will be fighting many of them... You're missing the whole point. Neither do most of the other people who take that PrC. You take it for the full BAB and nearly full manifesting. Everything else is gravy. I'm not saying you should take it, though. Going straight psion is perfectly viable. Who needs a decent BAB when you can summon an Astral Construct? Nomad is ok. Blasting (which is what I think of as a typical Kineticist strategy) is generally inferior, because you'll burn through all your power points very quickly and then be useless. I'd definitely take the Astral Construct power, whatever you decide for a discipline. They are good for combat, and lots of things outside of combat also. Basically, you want to think about how to conserve power points and be as diverse as possible. If you can get powers that can fulfill multiple functions, this is ideal (the same strategy goes a long way for optimizing a sorcerer's spells known). For typical "blasting", take the Energy Conversion power and something like Energy Wall or Energy Current. Share Energy Conversion with your psicrystal, and then charge both you and it up using the other power by blasting yourself (and it). This will let you blast the crap out of stuff for minimal power points. For dungeon crawling, knowing what is around the corner and mobility are both very important. So I think Nomad or Seer make decent choices. Shaper is also pretty good. Egoist is great, but you'll be leaving out the best parts if you don't like shapechanging. So I'd skip it. And I don't particularly care for some of your feat choices. Power Penetration and Greater Psionic Endowment? I'd rather take Expanded Knowledge feats to get really amazing powers from a different discipline. The only "dip" I'd really consider would be rogue, spellthief, or ranger (with Trapfinding instead of Track) for skills and the ability to find traps. That might be worth losing a manifester level over. Of course, you could also take leadership and get a cohort who can take care of that. Then can some one quickly explain manifesting powers? As I see it I have to "focus" myself by making a DC 20 concentration check before hand to gain psionic focus You don't have to be psionically focused to manifest a power at all. You just spend the power points, and it happens. You do need psionic focus to use a lot of the metapsionic and psionic feats.
#18 naresh May 18, 2009 14:28:59	Power penetration was just a gap filler until I thought of something better, I think the extra power feat would be better, but I like the idea of keeping GPE That way if I don't end up going for Kineticist, I can still blast off a load of d10 against something with a 1st level power with a pretty high DC (11 base +2 GPE +5 int +7 augmented = DC 25 will save) against the right target, 15PP for 15d10 damage didn't look too shabby Oh, in my stats I forgot level bonuses, int should be 21 I like the idea of seer and nomad, but I don't like the idea of being.... prissy Perhaps psion isn't my class?
#19 phaedrusxy May 18, 2009 15:36:09	Prissy? lol That's all in how you RP the character. You're going to be walking around in armor, with a shield, blowing people up with your mind. You can also take a hell of a lot more of a beating than any non-caster (except maybe a Crusader) using the trick I mentioned with Linked Power, Vigor, Hustle, and Share Pain. You don't have to be "prissy" if you don't want to. You could look at an Ardent (Complete Psi). They are quite a bit harder to build, though. They multiclass better, and make better entries into the PrCs that lose manifester levels due to the wonky way they interact with Practiced Manifester. You wind up with a lot fewer powers known, however.
#20 naresh May 18, 2009 15:51:25	When I say prissy, I mean... Not so involved in the battles, I know buffs, debuffs and all that are the easiest way to win a fight, but there is something satisfactory about blowing some one up with a fire ball, compared to casting mage armour and solid fog I will have a look at both the seer and Ardent and will make a choice tomorrow In the mean time, any tips for an ardent?
#21 phaedrusxy May 18, 2009 16:40:42	Cheap, efficient, and effective "blasting" as outlined above (and also resistance 30 to all energy damage, as a bonus): Take the Energy Conversion and Energy Wall powers. Manifest Energy Conversion and share it with your psicrystal. Then charge both you and it up by standing in an Energy Wall. Once "charged", you and your psicrystal can each fire energy beams once per round (or more with Schism, etc) that do 45 points of damage each. You can store as much energy damage as you want. The only limit is how long you want to sit charging it up with the Energy Wall. I'd definitely take Extend Power as a feat, to keep this combo going longer. It is useful for other buffs and powers as well. Overchannel is also worth it (and maybe Talented). Math: Show Extended Overchanneled Energy Conversion: 5 2/3rds hours, 14 pps Overchanneled Energy Wall: 5 pps, does 2d6+18 damage per round (avg 25) Share Pain + Vigor to absorb the damage from Overchannel: 7 pps You and the psicrystal both absorb about one blast's worth of energy every two rounds. So if you stand around for 10 minutes in it, that's about 50 blasts each (doing 54 damage), or 5400 total damage for 26 pps.