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Human psion telepath

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
mr.scruffy
Sep 18, 2011 16:05:52 Well, new to 3.5 (we had a person join halfway into a campaign who brought almost eery single 3.5 sourcebook)

As the title suggests, I'm planning on making a human psion who poses as a merchant, a lunatic, or something very non-threatening.
As I'm new to 3.5, I was wondering on the best way to build this guy.

I'm going to try and give him as many power points as possible, while maxing out his save DC's by augmenting. We only have the expanded handbook for him, but I think it should be what's needed. So, what are great feats and stuff for this guy? I think wild talent would be for the extra PP and the free 1st lvl power, and at least 5 ranks in concentration at 1st level.
Ways to make him awesome?
#2
Tempest_Stormwind
Sep 18, 2011 16:43:29
Well, new to 3.5 (we had a person join halfway into a campaign who brought almost eery single 3.5 sourcebook) As the title suggests, I'm planning on making a human psion who poses as a merchant, a lunatic, or something very non-threatening. As I'm new to 3.5, I was wondering on the best way to build this guy. I'm going to try and give him as many power points as possible, while maxing out his save DC's by augmenting. We only have the expanded handbook for him, but I think it should be what's needed. So, what are great feats and stuff for this guy? I think wild talent would be for the extra PP and the free 1st lvl power, and at least 5 ranks in concentration at 1st level. Ways to make him awesome?

First, a couple corrections. Wild Talent does not give a new power. That's Hidden Talent, and Hidden Talent does not add it to your powers known. Instead, you always manifest it at manifester level 1. You also cannot take 5 ranks in one skill at level 1 (max ranks in 3.5 is your level +3).

We're also going to need to know several things: Your starting ability scores or the method used to generate them, your starting level (I'm assuming 1st, given your overemphasis on low-level powers), and what other books are available. (Not just psionic books, btw - for instance, Races of Stone has some amazing Concentration-related feats out there for psychic warriors, and the Tome of Battle is a phenominal book in its own right with one of its schools having a lot of psionic synergy.)

Finally, a warning that I'll make explicit here: you cannot spend more power points on any power than you have manifester levels. This is an absolutely critical point in the XPH, but new players often miss it for some reason, and that leads to a lot of problems. On a related note, the game assumes you are fighting four encounters of CR = your party level per day, more or less. This means that you should always keep that in mind when augmenting your powers. It's very easy for new players to fully augment every one of their early powers and not know when to hold back, meaning after a few rounds you're busting out the crossbow and generally dragging the team back.

With that out of the way...

The psion is an extremely diverse class that takes a bit of finesse to work with, especially for a new 3.5 player. All "spellcaster" types fit this bill, although psions are among the easiest of those to work with. Telepaths are powerful, but you have to be creative with them, and you have to have options to fall back on once you run into a mind-immune foe. (A perennial favorite on these boards is Expanded Knowledge: Astral Construct. Great power in general, amazing for telepaths since anything that's mind-immune is probably matched by a big tough tank.)

To get your DCs high, you want to start with a LOT of Intelligence. This is especially true for telepaths, since their powers tend towards Will Negates. Consider a race with +Intelligence (Gray Elf is the usual core standby for this, with Sun Elf being a better but setting-specific choice); barring that, Human and Strongheart Halfling (setting specific, but probably better than Human for telepaths) are other good choices. As a side effect of high Intelligence, you'll also get a lot of bonus power points. You can make these last longer through the use of psionic items - if you find yourself using Mindlink a lot, for instance, toss it in a dorje or psicrown.

DO NOT take Psionic Talent - it's a trap. Likewise, the XPH has a prestige class, the Metamind, that is supposedly all about gaining power points and has an unlimited power point ability as its capstone... but this PrC is probably the biggest trap ever printed by Wizards. You will find you will be far more efficient with your power points if you learn to hold back, when to surge forward and when to pace yourself. This is especially true if you look into powers with long durations - for instance, Psionic Dominate doesn't cost you all that many power points, and gives you a LOT that you can do without spending any more. (Aside: Definitely look up the errata for that power, because it's actually far better than it looks.) Likewise, you can do far more damage with Mental Rage than you ever could with Mind Thrust, even if you don't augment its damage all that much. (It also combines really well with astral constructs, who are immune to its effects.)

To make the most of save-DC-boosts, you'll note that they're all expend-focus feats. (Read the FAQs below if you don't have a crystal-clear understanding of psionic focus; it's easily the biggest balancing factor for psionic feats.) To maximize these, you're going to need Psicrystal Affinity (a wonderful feat in any case!) and Psicrystal Containment, plus preferrably Psionic Meditation and, perhaps, even Expanded Knowledge (Hustle - from the Psychic Warrior list, not the Egoist list).

Overchannel is also worth looking into - it's a wonderful feat, particularly if you're trying to hit an augment "breakpoint" early, although blocking its damage isn't entirely trivial if you aren't prepared for it. Talented does the trick, but if you're expending focus on other effects, that usually isn't an option. (The usual method of psionic tanking can work here - manifest Share Pain between you and your psicrystal, then manifest Vigor and use Share Powers to have it affect you and your psicrystal. Any damage you take is cut in half (split between you and your crystal), working its way through temporary hit points instead of regular hit points. Furthermore, while the crystal has your hit point total, it also has Hardness 8, which - interestingly enough - is effective against empathic damage. So basically, if you're hit for 20 damage, you actually only lose 10hp and your crystal only loses 2, which is completely mitigated by a single 2pp Vigor a few minutes earlier.)

That's the basics. For more information, I suggest you check out the following resources:
3.5 Psionics FAQ
New, No-Nonsense Guide to Psions
Psion Build-Guide and Compendium
#3
mr.scruffy
Sep 18, 2011 17:22:07 Thanks for the advice, as it is, I pretty much volunteered to be our pisonis demonstrator for this campaign

I know we have tome of blood, warriors of something, tome of magic, Ad defenders of the faith, but I haunt perused our entire collection of 3.5 books yet

We do the 4d6 subtract lowest method, I personally think it has the more randomfeel of a gene pool, and one guy won't be uber smart but a total wimp

I am going to print out a sheet tonight and start filling it out (maybe tomorrow)
And thr human thing is entirely for the fact that humans are versatile enough that I an use it as a first time character without a major penalty
#4
mr.scruffy
Sep 18, 2011 17:24:39 Dang it, I the nt being able to edit on my phone!!!

Anyways, isn't expanded knowledge metapsionic? I had assumed I would have to e epic level to get that
#5
Tempest_Stormwind
Sep 18, 2011 18:19:36 I feel your pain about the mobile editing. About a third of what I write here is on my phone as well.

1) Tome and Blood and Defenders of the Faith are 3e books, not 3.5. Most of their material was updated in Complete Arcane and Complete Divine, respectively. The books of most interest to psionic characters are:
-Expanded Psionics Handbook (NOT the "Psionics Handbook", that's 3e and generally not worth the paper it's printed on)
-Complete Psionic (not a great book, but it does have some gems in it)
-Races of... series, especially Races of Eberron and Races of Stone (These had a large amount of psionic content in them - note that Races of Eberron is not actually an Eberron setting book!)
-Tome of Battle (mostly for the Diamond Mind discipline; most of the time this will be for psychic warriors, but with a Diamond Mind ring, anyone can make use of some of it)
-Magic of Incarnum and Dragon Magic (both had a decent amount of psionic support in them).

The Tome of Magic is a good book, but almost entirely due to the Pact Magic section. You won't find much there to help psions, sadly. (There are psionic vestiges online, but that's to turn the binder into a psion, not the other way around.)

2) Expanded Knowledge is a non-epic psionic feat, and a mainstay of most psions. (They're more limited than specialist wizards, really, so EK really helps mitigate this.) Generally speaking, if you can't decide on a feat, EK is going to be a good fallback.

On 4d6 drop lowest, that's statistically going to be similar to the Elite array. For a telepath, you could do worse than: 8 Strength, 12 Dexterity, 14 Constitution, 15 Intelligence, 13 Wisdom, 10 Charisma. (The 13 Wisdom can be swapped with the 10 Charisma if you're not planning on getting Psionic Meditation.)
#6
awaken_D_M_golem
Sep 19, 2011 16:19:12
... who poses as a merchant, a lunatic, or something very non-threatening ...

My kitty avatar finds this rather Deja-Vu-ish, but I shan't relate why.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 mr.scruffy Sep 18, 2011 16:05:52	Well, new to 3.5 (we had a person join halfway into a campaign who brought almost eery single 3.5 sourcebook) As the title suggests, I'm planning on making a human psion who poses as a merchant, a lunatic, or something very non-threatening. As I'm new to 3.5, I was wondering on the best way to build this guy. I'm going to try and give him as many power points as possible, while maxing out his save DC's by augmenting. We only have the expanded handbook for him, but I think it should be what's needed. So, what are great feats and stuff for this guy? I think wild talent would be for the extra PP and the free 1st lvl power, and at least 5 ranks in concentration at 1st level. Ways to make him awesome?
#2 Tempest_Stormwind Sep 18, 2011 16:43:29	Well, new to 3.5 (we had a person join halfway into a campaign who brought almost eery single 3.5 sourcebook) As the title suggests, I'm planning on making a human psion who poses as a merchant, a lunatic, or something very non-threatening. As I'm new to 3.5, I was wondering on the best way to build this guy. I'm going to try and give him as many power points as possible, while maxing out his save DC's by augmenting. We only have the expanded handbook for him, but I think it should be what's needed. So, what are great feats and stuff for this guy? I think wild talent would be for the extra PP and the free 1st lvl power, and at least 5 ranks in concentration at 1st level. Ways to make him awesome? First, a couple corrections. Wild Talent does not give a new power. That's Hidden Talent, and Hidden Talent does not add it to your powers known. Instead, you always manifest it at manifester level 1. You also cannot take 5 ranks in one skill at level 1 (max ranks in 3.5 is your level +3). We're also going to need to know several things: Your starting ability scores or the method used to generate them, your starting level (I'm assuming 1st, given your overemphasis on low-level powers), and what other books are available. (Not just psionic books, btw - for instance, Races of Stone has some amazing Concentration-related feats out there for psychic warriors, and the Tome of Battle is a phenominal book in its own right with one of its schools having a lot of psionic synergy.) Finally, a warning that I'll make explicit here: you cannot spend more power points on any power than you have manifester levels. This is an absolutely critical point in the XPH, but new players often miss it for some reason, and that leads to a lot of problems. On a related note, the game assumes you are fighting four encounters of CR = your party level per day, more or less. This means that you should always keep that in mind when augmenting your powers. It's very easy for new players to fully augment every one of their early powers and not know when to hold back, meaning after a few rounds you're busting out the crossbow and generally dragging the team back. With that out of the way... The psion is an extremely diverse class that takes a bit of finesse to work with, especially for a new 3.5 player. All "spellcaster" types fit this bill, although psions are among the easiest of those to work with. Telepaths are powerful, but you have to be creative with them, and you have to have options to fall back on once you run into a mind-immune foe. (A perennial favorite on these boards is Expanded Knowledge: Astral Construct. Great power in general, amazing for telepaths since anything that's mind-immune is probably matched by a big tough tank.) To get your DCs high, you want to start with a LOT of Intelligence. This is especially true for telepaths, since their powers tend towards Will Negates. Consider a race with +Intelligence (Gray Elf is the usual core standby for this, with Sun Elf being a better but setting-specific choice); barring that, Human and Strongheart Halfling (setting specific, but probably better than Human for telepaths) are other good choices. As a side effect of high Intelligence, you'll also get a lot of bonus power points. You can make these last longer through the use of psionic items - if you find yourself using Mindlink a lot, for instance, toss it in a dorje or psicrown. DO NOT take Psionic Talent - it's a trap. Likewise, the XPH has a prestige class, the Metamind, that is supposedly all about gaining power points and has an unlimited power point ability as its capstone... but this PrC is probably the biggest trap ever printed by Wizards. You will find you will be far more efficient with your power points if you learn to hold back, when to surge forward and when to pace yourself. This is especially true if you look into powers with long durations - for instance, Psionic Dominate doesn't cost you all that many power points, and gives you a LOT that you can do without spending any more. (Aside: Definitely look up the errata for that power, because it's actually far better than it looks.) Likewise, you can do far more damage with Mental Rage than you ever could with Mind Thrust, even if you don't augment its damage all that much. (It also combines really well with astral constructs, who are immune to its effects.) To make the most of save-DC-boosts, you'll note that they're all expend-focus feats. (Read the FAQs below if you don't have a crystal-clear understanding of psionic focus; it's easily the biggest balancing factor for psionic feats.) To maximize these, you're going to need Psicrystal Affinity (a wonderful feat in any case!) and Psicrystal Containment, plus preferrably Psionic Meditation and, perhaps, even Expanded Knowledge (Hustle - from the Psychic Warrior list, not the Egoist list). Overchannel is also worth looking into - it's a wonderful feat, particularly if you're trying to hit an augment "breakpoint" early, although blocking its damage isn't entirely trivial if you aren't prepared for it. Talented does the trick, but if you're expending focus on other effects, that usually isn't an option. (The usual method of psionic tanking can work here - manifest Share Pain between you and your psicrystal, then manifest Vigor and use Share Powers to have it affect you and your psicrystal. Any damage you take is cut in half (split between you and your crystal), working its way through temporary hit points instead of regular hit points. Furthermore, while the crystal has your hit point total, it also has Hardness 8, which - interestingly enough - is effective against empathic damage. So basically, if you're hit for 20 damage, you actually only lose 10hp and your crystal only loses 2, which is completely mitigated by a single 2pp Vigor a few minutes earlier.) That's the basics. For more information, I suggest you check out the following resources: 3.5 Psionics FAQ New, No-Nonsense Guide to Psions Psion Build-Guide and Compendium
#3 mr.scruffy Sep 18, 2011 17:22:07	Thanks for the advice, as it is, I pretty much volunteered to be our pisonis demonstrator for this campaign I know we have tome of blood, warriors of something, tome of magic, Ad defenders of the faith, but I haunt perused our entire collection of 3.5 books yet We do the 4d6 subtract lowest method, I personally think it has the more randomfeel of a gene pool, and one guy won't be uber smart but a total wimp I am going to print out a sheet tonight and start filling it out (maybe tomorrow) And thr human thing is entirely for the fact that humans are versatile enough that I an use it as a first time character without a major penalty
#4 mr.scruffy Sep 18, 2011 17:24:39	Dang it, I the nt being able to edit on my phone!!! Anyways, isn't expanded knowledge metapsionic? I had assumed I would have to e epic level to get that
#5 Tempest_Stormwind Sep 18, 2011 18:19:36	I feel your pain about the mobile editing. About a third of what I write here is on my phone as well. 1) Tome and Blood and Defenders of the Faith are 3e books, not 3.5. Most of their material was updated in Complete Arcane and Complete Divine, respectively. The books of most interest to psionic characters are: -Expanded Psionics Handbook (NOT the "Psionics Handbook", that's 3e and generally not worth the paper it's printed on) -Complete Psionic (not a great book, but it does have some gems in it) -Races of... series, especially Races of Eberron and Races of Stone (These had a large amount of psionic content in them - note that Races of Eberron is not actually an Eberron setting book!) -Tome of Battle (mostly for the Diamond Mind discipline; most of the time this will be for psychic warriors, but with a Diamond Mind ring, anyone can make use of some of it) -Magic of Incarnum and Dragon Magic (both had a decent amount of psionic support in them). The Tome of Magic is a good book, but almost entirely due to the Pact Magic section. You won't find much there to help psions, sadly. (There are psionic vestiges online, but that's to turn the binder into a psion, not the other way around.) 2) Expanded Knowledge is a non-epic psionic feat, and a mainstay of most psions. (They're more limited than specialist wizards, really, so EK really helps mitigate this.) Generally speaking, if you can't decide on a feat, EK is going to be a good fallback. On 4d6 drop lowest, that's statistically going to be similar to the Elite array. For a telepath, you could do worse than: 8 Strength, 12 Dexterity, 14 Constitution, 15 Intelligence, 13 Wisdom, 10 Charisma. (The 13 Wisdom can be swapped with the 10 Charisma if you're not planning on getting Psionic Meditation.)
#6 awaken_D_M_golem Sep 19, 2011 16:19:12	... who poses as a merchant, a lunatic, or something very non-threatening ... My kitty avatar finds this rather Deja-Vu-ish, but I shan't relate why.