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Bulwer
2009-04-13, 12:41 PM
I'm building a psion for an upcoming PbP game here on the forums, and it's my first time really cracking the XPH and learning about psionics. I've read through the good bits of the book, and it all seems straightforward, fun, and very balanced, but I'm having trouble picking out some specifics about my character.

He's a Lesser Tiefling Psion 10. I've not picked a specialty, but I'm leaning toward Psychokinesis, Clairsentience, or Psychoportation (the campaign will feature interplanar travel). I haven't picked any feats yet except for my 6th level one, which is Steady Concentration. I have one flaw, which gives me the following feats left to pick:

1st level
1st level Psion bonus
1st level Flaw
3rd level
5th level Psion
6th level (Steady Concentration)
9th level
10th level Psion

With 13 ranks +2 WIS and Steady Concentration, I can hit any listed Concentration DC, including having all my powers have no visible effect, which I wanted for flavor purposes.

The only item I've decided on is a Mithral Chain Shirt, which has no ACP and thus can be worn with no consequence.

What is a good specialty overall? What are some must-have Psion items and powers? In the spoiler below are feats I'm considering. Any advice?

Thanks!

Chain Power
Delay Power
Empower Power
Expanded Knowledge
Psicrystal Affinity
Improved Psicrystal
Psicrystal Containment
Maximize Power
Overchannel
Talented
Quicken Power
Twin Power
Up The Walls

Nate the Snake
2009-04-13, 02:25 PM
From what I've read in other similar threads:

Telepathy and Psychometabolism are considered the best disciplines, for Schism (extra actions) and Metamorphosis (shapeshifting) respectively. Metacreativity offers Use Psionic Device (UMD for psionics) as a class skill, but generally Shapers focus on the Astral Construct power. The others aren't really compelling unless you want them for flavor reasons.

For feats, Overchannel is a must-have (you can never have too many manifester levels), as is Linked Power from Complete Psionic (you manifest two powers at the same time, and the second one happens the next round without costing you an action). Chain, Quicken, and Twin Power are good too because they help you get the most out of your powers and actions.

Bulwer
2009-04-13, 03:05 PM
Is a Psicrystal worth the feat? Is an Improved one worth another?

Eldariel
2009-04-13, 03:08 PM
Standard Psi Crystal is very much worth the feat. It can concentrate for you, hold Psionic Focus for you (with the feat - you should pick that too, as Psionic Foci are a precious commodity you'll be using a lot), etc. Then they give you that bonus too, which doesn't hurt at all (I like Nimble Psi Crystal). So yeah, I'd always pick Psi Crystal Affinity, Containment and Psionic Meditation when making a Psion. Those facilitate Metapsionics (and if you're familiar with spellcasters, you'll know how huge MetaX is), many feats and so on.

Bulwer
2009-04-13, 08:38 PM
Okay, for feats, I went with the following:

Psicrystal Affinity
Overchannel
Quicken Power
Maximize Power
Linked Power
Steady Concentration
Psionic Meditation
Psicrystal Containment

I went with Nomad, for the ability to fly. Awful class skills, though, but I can live with it.

For equipment so far, I have a +3 Mithral Chain Shirt and a +1 Animated Mithral Heavy Shield. I know I could have picked up 2 extra points of AC instead of having free hands, but I don't see the character hauling around a shield all the time.

I've still got more than 28k gold left. What's good?

tyckspoon
2009-04-13, 08:51 PM
I've still got more than 28k gold left. What's good?

Headband of Int +4, if you somehow haven't already got that accounted for. If you do already have one and have all of that 28k to play with, a Third Eye: Sense is pretty awesome (Clairvoyance at will. Excellent.) Multiple minor items tend to be better value for the cash, however- maybe look at a Psionatrix of whatever discipline most of your offensive power comes from and some Gloves of Object Reading.

Waspinator
2009-04-13, 09:14 PM
A dexterity-boosting item wouldn't be a bad choice. Higher armor class, plus if you're using any ranged touch attack powers it'd be handy.

Salt_Crow
2009-04-13, 09:20 PM
Schism (Telepath 4) + Twinned and/or Linked Synchronicity (CPsi) = break the action economy! You could always get Schism with Expended Knowledge feat too :)

As to the items, keeping some power stones or dorje of powers like Entangling Ectoplasm or Psionic Grease never hurts either.

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2009-04-13, 09:48 PM
Psicrystals are great because you can have Share Pain on it all day, and share augmented Vigor with it to get a huge temporary HP pool. Also, if you're going to be taking a lot of psionic feats you may as well pick up Psionic Body.

You should look over some of the class feature variants for Psions (here (http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070314a) and here (http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070411a)), Personal Construct is particularly useful but is only available to Shapers. All of the disciplines have their strengths, some have one or two potentially game-breaking powers but I've found them to be mostly equal, plus remember that you can always get Expanded Knowledge for a discipline-specific power.

Salt_Crow
2009-04-13, 09:56 PM
Psicrystals are wonderful and quite nice to have around. There's a famous infinite loop trick using Affinity Field in conjunction with Share Power ability of psicrystal. Say, using just one Synchronicity in the loop would give you a limitless amount of standard actions to use!

Douglas
2009-04-13, 10:01 PM
I'd ditch the armor and shield and take Inertial Armor and Force Screen as two of your powers known. You can augment Inertial Armor to be +8 (better than the armor's +7) and 10 hours should be plenty. Force Screen is shorter duration, but still useful when you really need the AC and even unaugmented it's better than your shield.

Headband of Intelligence +4 is almost mandatory.

Cloak of Resistance, Ring of Deflection, and Amulet of Health are all good basic items.

Crazy Scot
2009-04-14, 04:46 AM
First let me say that I will agree with the earlier posters about which specialty to go with. But in the end, it all comes down to you, so go with what you prefer.

Another option for you to consider would be the Erudite (Complete Psionic p. 153). Erudites are very similar to psions, except that they can get more powers known (they learn as many of them as they want from other psions or from power stones), but they get a limited number of powers they can use per day. For instance, you may know 30 powers, but at 10th level, you can only use 6 different ones per day. When you start your day, you don't have to choose your 6, but as the day goes by and you use power "A", it is added to your list for the day. You can use "A" as many times in the day as you want (pp permitting), but that only leaves you with 5 other open slots for the day. The day progresses and you use 2 more powers ("B" and "C"), they too are added to your list for the day. Until you use your last unique power (6th one) for the day, all known powers are open to you. Other differences include you get the feat Psicrystal Affinity feat for free, as well as the regular Psion bonus feats. You can learn powers from all disciplines, but only up to one level below the highest level power you can manifest (10th level means you can manifest 5th level powers, and 4th level discipline powers). And if you want for even more fun, you can go with the ACF from the WotC website that allows you to learn arcane spells as psionic powers (note: you lose the Psicrystal Affinity feat for this ACF). If you find a bard who will teach you "Cure Light Wounds" as a power, combine that with "Option 2" below, and your party will never need another cure spell, except maybe to help you if you fall.

Second, a short lesson on psionics in general. I like psionics as they have several benefits over arcane casters (no ASF for starters), but like casters, the biggest problem you will be facing is conservation / good utilization of power points per day. It comes down to a question: what do you call an arcane caster without any more spells for the day...roadkill. Just remember, that while you have some advantages, you can end up that way too if you aren't careful. The rest of this post will be suggestions from my experiences with psionic characters in how to avoid this problem.

There are several ways to minimize pp costs for your powers. And the less they cost, the more you can do in a day. There are two main options, and if desired, they can be used simultaneously to even greater effect.

Option 1: Torc of Power Preservation (XPH p. 177-8). This item counts as an amulet for determining how many magic items you can wear, but its benefit is that it reduces the pp cost of any power you manifest by 1 pp (minimum 1) for a hefty 36k gold. Now, if you have LOTS of extra money, you can get this stacked multiple times on the same amulet, note: each bump costs another 72k gold and reduces the cost by another -1 pp. I know you only have 28k to play with, but if you could spare some, I would trade down other stuff you got to get this one. Personally, I would drop the magic armor (use psionics instead), and use the money to get this.

Option 2: the feat "Earth Power" (Races of Stone p. 138). The drawback for this is that you need to burn a basically useless (for you) feat to get it, but the huge benefits for it is that you reduce the pp cost of all powers you manifest by an additional 1 (WITH NO MINIMUM). This one is HUGE for psionic characters. With this power, you can manifest any and all 1st level powers all day with only two restrictions. First restriction: you have to maintain your psionic focus (means you can't use metapsionic feats which require you to expend your focus). Second restriction: you have to be standing on stone or unworked earth (not too difficult unless you are always flying or swimming, so shouldn't be too bad for you). Again, the two restrictions can hurt you a bit, and you do have to burn a useless feat to get it, but IMO it is probably the single most "must-have" feat for any psionic character.

But no matter what you decide, I have found psionic characters to be very enjoyable to play, and wish you the best of luck with yours.

Bulwer
2009-04-14, 10:14 AM
Regarding discipline choice- I don't want to spend my time in or out of combat turning into things or bossing other things around, especially in a PbP game where character is far more of a focus.

Regarding Earth Sense/Power- Mechanically awesome: I'm playing a fairly traditional Beguiler Killer Gnome in a tabletop game with Earth Spell. However, I will likely not be standing on solid ground a whole lot, and I don't really want to put dirt in my boots.

I'm certainly going to look at Erudite when I'm not in Economics class, but most of the same issues remain regardless of class.

I'll shift my equipment funds around so I can get the Torc, though- looks very very good. Psionics for Armor Bonus, other things for deflection and maybe natural armor.

Equipment: Torc, Int+, maybe Dex+, and I can figure out what to do with the change.

Regarding the action economy, I love the ability to break it when necessary, but I don't want to focus on it. More mundane tricks, like Maximize, are more valuable to me, even if less mechanically powerful theoretically, because I'd be willing to use them more frequently.

With that in mind, how does my feat selection look? Are there any other must-haves? If my feats look good, how would I fill the gap if I went Erudite?

namo
2009-04-14, 12:48 PM
Empower is superior to Maximize in most cases. And when it's not... Twin Power is often better.
Expanded Knowledge can be very good. Schism is often my first pick - and here in any case you mentioned you didn't want Dominate nor Metamorphosis.

You should really choose your feats in parallel with your powers : if you're going to augment a lot of level 1-3 powers to the maximum, Talented is definitely worth it.

IMO Inertial Armor is worth it but not Force Screen, so my advice is to get a shield (a Darkwood one => no penalty).

Lycanthromancer
2009-04-14, 01:12 PM
Getting a mithril +1 chain shirt (of Light/Medium/Heavy Fortification) would be worth the expense, and though it wouldn't stack with inertial armor, it'd keep you safe in case you get dispelled and while you're sleeping.

Alternately, get a monk's belt (if your Wis is high) and either use inertial armor or a psychoactive skin of ectoplasmic armor (from CPsi - ignore the stupid nerfs in the MIC). However, though AC is really nice to have, after a certain point it becomes redundant; find ways to get stackable miss chances (especially from full concealment), since they aren't negated by a high attack bonus, and natural 20s don't ignore them. Greater concealing amorpha is especially awesome in this regard, since you become immune to targeted abilities, and you also become immune to attacks of opportunity (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/combatModifiers.htm#totalConcealment).

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2009-04-14, 02:43 PM
If possible, get Persistent Power (http://wizards.com/d20/files/msrd/ArcanaOccupationsandFeats.rtf) (found in the d20 modern SRDs (http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/msrd)). Use it with Force Screen, Mental Barrier, Biofeedback/Inertial Barrier, Psionic Freedom of Movement, and with Overchannel and Metapower from Complete Psionic you can use Persistent Timeless Body at level 20 and be immune to everything, just use Vigor first to absorb the Overchannel damage.

Bulwer
2009-04-14, 04:34 PM
Okay, so forget my metapsionic feat choices. I've got three feat slots, at 1, 3, and 5. What are the two or three best metapsionic feats for midlevel play? Persistent is out because of the +8 modifier, which mean that I can only persist 2-point powers (or 3 with the Torc (right?)). Plus, it's got the less-good Extend as a prereq, which may or may not be worth getting in preparation.

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2009-04-14, 05:18 PM
If you're getting Overchannel you should get Talented. With those you can get +2 manifester level, to Persist up to 3rd level powers with the Torc. Talented, Extend, and Persistent are the three feats I'd take. I'd skip Steady Concentration, even if you're in combat you can take 10 if you're not in a threatened square, and gaining psionic focus provokes an AoO anyway. I'd probably get Psionic Body instead, you'll get +16 HP from it immediately, +2 more for every additional psionic feat you gain.

Lycanthromancer
2009-04-14, 06:30 PM
Linked Power and Metapower (a swift/immediate-action power and Linked Power) allows you to manifest extra powers for very little (if your Metapower'd power costs 1 pp, manifesting both actually costs less than manifesting a single power normally).

Thus, if you took, say, hammer and Metapower (Linked Power + hammer), you can manifest hammer + Linked psychic reformation, and have it cost a grand total of 6 power points. Which, if you'll note, costs less than psychic reformation alone does (and it only costs a swift action to pull off).

If you choose which powers you Link with well, you can get a lot of mileage out of it. Of course, hammer works best for egoists or psychic warriors, since they'll likely use both powers in tandem a lot.

Bulwer
2009-04-14, 07:57 PM
If you're getting Overchannel you should get Talented. With those you can get +2 manifester level, to Persist up to 3rd level powers with the Torc. Talented, Extend, and Persistent are the three feats I'd take. I'd skip Steady Concentration, even if you're in combat you can take 10 if you're not in a threatened square, and gaining psionic focus provokes an AoO anyway. I'd probably get Psionic Body instead, you'll get +16 HP from it immediately, +2 more for every additional psionic feat you gain.


When you take this feat, you gain 2 hit points for each psionic feat you have (including this one). Whenever you take a new psionic feat, you gain 2 more hit points.

Does that apply only to [Psionic] feats, or [Metapsionic] as well?

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2009-04-14, 08:22 PM
It says psionic feats, it doesn't say [Psionic] feats, so it doesn't necessarily have to have the psionic subtype on the feat's name to count. Only psionic characters can gain psionic item creation feats, and only psionic characters would take metapsionic feats, plus you can select them with your bonus psionic feats from Psion. If you go to the SRD and click the link for Psionic Feats, even the General feats from the XPH are listed. It really depends on how your DM wants to interpret it. As a DM I would allow them to count for Psionic Body, as a player I'd definitely want them to count for it.

Draz74
2009-04-15, 12:17 AM
Does that apply only to [Psionic] feats, or [Metapsionic] as well?

RAW, it's only [Psionic], not [Metapsionic]. But I'd imagine quite a few DMs wouldn't care.

Bulwer
2009-04-15, 12:56 PM
If you're getting Overchannel you should get Talented. With those you can get +2 manifester level, to Persist up to 3rd level powers with the Torc. Talented, Extend, and Persistent are the three feats I'd take. I'd skip Steady Concentration, even if you're in combat you can take 10 if you're not in a threatened square, and gaining psionic focus provokes an AoO anyway. I'd probably get Psionic Body instead, you'll get +16 HP from it immediately, +2 more for every additional psionic feat you gain.

You can't take 10 on anything in combat, the wording is "threatened or distracted" which would apply even a few feet back. I think I might keep Steady Concentration.

Lycanthromancer
2009-04-15, 09:47 PM
[How I managed to double post over a matter of days is beyond my comprehension...]