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riddles
2009-06-09, 04:44 PM
i'm looking to back up my current character due to DM annoyance. liking the idea of psionics and have three possible builds all centred around the ardent class.

1 Ardent POWER ATTACK, IRON WILL
2 Fighter IMPROVED BULLRUSH
3 Ardent LINK POWER
4 Ardent
5 Ardent
6 Ardent PRACTISED MANIFESTER
7 Ardent
8 Ardent
9 Ardent EXTEND POWER
10 Ardent
11 Fighter SHOCKTROOPER [FIGHTER]
12 Ardent PSIONIC MEDITATION

Mantles: Primary - Freedom and Conflict. Secondary - Fate, Life, Time

Powers: dimension hop, metaphysical weapon, precog, offense, hustle, psionic lions charge, precog, defense, clairvoyant sense, dimension slide, fly, teleport, psychic crush, mend wounds, temporal acceleration

in my next 6 levels i'll take sanctified mind. though i'm contemplating dropping one of the fighter levels for sanctified mind and losing the psionic meditation feat.

thoughts? tips? power and mantle selection awful?

Draz74
2009-06-09, 06:52 PM
Why Mend Wounds? This guy should be too busy fighting to heal anyone. And the Life mantle is surprisingly sucky, Mend Wounds and Psionic Restoration aside.

I've found Physical Power a worthwhile mantle. Vigor alone is amazing.

No feats to spare for Expanded Knowledge to cherry-pick excellent things like Schism? That might be more worthwhile than Extend Power.

Edit: Why Iron Will? You already have a fantastic Will save.

Goatman_Ted
2009-06-09, 07:07 PM
Edit: Why Iron Will? You already have a fantastic Will save.
It's a common prerequisite for Psigishes (see Iron Mind or Sanctified Mind).

But it's still a feat you can buy. If you have Complete Scoundrel, I recommend that route.
A few thousand gp's worth less than a feat slot.

in my next 6 levels i'll take sanctified mind. though i'm contemplating dropping one of the fighter levels for sanctified mind and losing the psionic meditation feat.
Depends how your campaign works. If you usually have early knowledge of fights, or they're usually timed closely together, you could probably drop it.
If you regularly need to be able to swift-cast a full buff suite during combat, you're legally obligated to keep it. Lose Extend Power instead. PsyMeditation/Link Power is by far the easiest way to get your buffs up while fighting.

...But with the Otyugh Hole you'll have a feat slot free, so this shouldn't be a problem.


thoughts? tips? power and mantle selection awful?
If you're going to enter a Prestige class, I'd recommend doing it earlier so you can stock up on the most higher-level powers. (Slayer, Iron Mind, Sanctified Mind, Diamond Dragon and Storm Disciple all lose a manifester level early on.) This would also keep class abilities more level-relevant.

I don't like the Life Mantle much. I'd go Natural World instead for Metamorphosis or use either Force or Physical Power to replace the Precognition powers. (I don't think I've ever cast them with a psigish, even when they were on my list. Bigger effects like Hustle, Vigor, Metamorphosis, Lion's Charge, etc. are almost always better uses of combat actions.)

But overall, it looks good as long as the preferred mantle thing works out.

Samb
2009-06-09, 08:26 PM
Get rid of the fighter levels and put in psiwarrior instead for EK. Also you can't take linked power at 3 because you don't have 3 ML. You'll want schism. Metamorphic transfer and EK metamorphisis (or just natural world mantle) should also be there for any psi Gish or it's not Gish. No psicrystal? You're making me cry.

I like creation mantle especially with linked power. Good and evil let you metamorph into a balor or planter for melée cheese.

Conflict and freedom are fine starts though.

Optimystik
2009-06-09, 09:20 PM
Seconding Samb. Fighter over Psywarrior was confusing me also.

riddles
2009-06-10, 01:32 AM
fighter over psywar was because i'm not quite sure how it works with regards to manifester level. i know i get psywar poer points, but what's my manifester level for the 2 psywar powers?

more later. thanks for the replies!

[EDIT] it is now later :)

i'm not sure how good vigor is and its uses, so any tips on that would be helpful. schism is great, and worth picking up, but surely i can just take EK and get it as an ardent rather than dipping into psywar?