"Thou shall not give up caster levels," I get it. Doesn't mean I care when it comes to build concepts. I've been asked time and again by various people to come up with a character that does a certain trick well, or that emulates a ficitonal character. This PRC works well for many of such requests.
TK (Telekinesis) is already a really good spell, you don't need to go into MOTUH to make it crazy good, you just need to use the right gear and supporting spells. This is true, I may be arguing myself out of MOTUH.
Even with all that, there's some good stuff going in MOTUH and its use of TK;
Improved Caster Level, this is neat because with Practiced Spellcsater you can basically have CL=character level by MOTUH 4, and add 4 for your TK effective caster level.
Versatile Telekenesis, the ability to switch between TK modes after casting, spell ends when Violent Thrust is used
Telekenetic weilder, OK at best, but see below for why the ability to make an attack with TK as a standard action is cool
Sustained concentration, allows you to continue to use TK while only dedicating a Move action, rather than standard to concentrate
Full attack telekenesis, yeah, now you can make a full attack with a weapon held by your TK, treating your caster level as your BAB to determine iterative attacks
Improved violent thrust, this basically makes your TK act as a breath weapon when it comes to the Violent Thrust option, rather than ending your spell
What neat tricks can be done to maximize your use of TK while minimizing the weaknesses that come out of relying on it, especially if giving up caster levels?
Focused Specialist basically ensures that if you've got halfway decent Int (18+2 for gear, by 9) that you'll have 4/day Telekenesis as soon as you can cast it.
Wu-Jen has some neat metamagic tricks, which help you to cast the spell under virtually any situation, but persionally I would much rather have the raw power of a Focused Specialist (and the far broader spellbook).
Master Specialist, gets to use TK for one round even after it's been dispelled, which is always a risk, and can increase Transmutation caster level by 2. Most of the other abilities are weaksauce for the build, sadly.
Red Wizard of Thay, giving up a third school of magic sucks absolutely. That said between the base CL increases and Circle Magic you can do some truely abusive things with TK.
Incantitrix, of course this is good, it's always good. Has some of the same pro's and cons of Red Wizard, lost school and Circle magic, again? It does most of the same tricks as Wu-Jen, without the sad spell list, and with the gigantic spells/day of Focused Spec.
Are there similar threads already? Did I do my homework? Etc...
Phoenix, anybody?
MotUH 5 doesn't exist, since you can do everything it does with a regular violent thrust. This dovetails nicely with Practiced Spellcaster.
Ghost savage progression gives you at-will, scaling-CL telekinesis (min CL 12, but if your HD are higher it rises to match) for a 2-level dip (and only +1 CR). Comes with most of the other things you'd ever want from being ghostly as well (barring malevolence). The cheap cost doesn't affect your normal CL or BAB as much as you might think, but since you can't get back all the CL lost from 6 levels, this may be more useful if you're focusing on the wielder side of things.
Spells
- Sonorous Hum (SC) for wizards
- Finding the Center (CA) for wu jens (its level is way higher...)
Feats
- Extraordinary Concentration (CAdv) - beware the caveat at the end
- Familiar Concentration (LEoF) - requires heavy investment
Other
- the Swift Concentration skill trick, only good for 1 round/encounter
You might as well have several TKs going on while you're at it.
So I have a question, its.a tad off topic but I feel its relevant to the thread. If you were to make an npc to fight a group of pcs would it be better do use a wizard with master of the unseen hand. Or alternitavly would a psion specialized in using telekinetic abilities such as telekinetic grapple and thrust. I'd be curious for a comparison of the two since the play styles are so similiar
Why not try both?
- the Swift Concentration skill trick, only good for 1 round/encounter
If you're willing to burn spells, Magical Trickster can refresh skill tricks... though it's also a swift action, which is tough. Also you lose another CL so maybe it's not the best choice, but worth a mention.