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View Full Version : [3.5] How to build a roguish psion?



Pika...
2010-01-07, 04:52 PM
Hey,

So a player of mine wants to try his hands at DM (the discworld fanboy one), and is rushing up a game for the coming Sunday. And I am thrilled, since I FINALLY get to play again!

Anyway, the guy is taking homebrewed material of mine that he likes (I am so honored), and he has OK'd my Dogbolds (a Kobold subrace based on Kobolds ate my Baby) for me to play, since he was going to stick them in a strange area anyways for some "mysterious reason".

Anyway, I wanted to keep true to the Kobolds ate my Baby style, so I wanted him to, while being highly intelligent (aka high Int score) with some degree of being "civalizeb", he is still by nature a sneaky chicken/baby stealing bottom dweller. Because of this and his fluff the DM is allowing me to switch out skills on a one for one bases for this goal.

And the campaign is basically going to be high plagiarized from mostly Discworld he says due to time retrains, which I am not sure is relevant or not to this situation.

Oh! And while the guys has a very high Int, his Wis is a 4. The background I worked out with him is that he basically has a neither evil nor good class of Far Realm entity only the dumbest of his race (aka Dogbolds) are sought out for, due to having even more extra space in their huge heads than your average one (normally their brains are peanut sized, his is more pea sized.). Hence why his Int is huge for such a usually dumb creature, why he can manifest psionic abilities, and why he will just automatically know how to craft psionic items. Also, when the entity takes over the character's eyes will glow.

I guess knowing what discipline and/or powers to take might be the best starting point?



Also, in case it is relevant he is adding the following houserules concerning psionics:

While not transparent, magic and psionics still can affect/interfere with each other with soem extra effort.
Like in my own rules all powers/spells must be learned through effort in game. Learning them, buying stone/scrolls, etc. (Again, I am honored!).
You can only get powers that fall under your discipline, though you can pull powers from the main psion/wilder list if they are of your discipline. I kinda like this.
You can gain "sub-disciplines" as you go, which I am intrigued by.
"Augmentation is free". I am worried about this one, but I had a talk with him saying "Listen, please understand you are homebrewing psionics on your first go, so please don't get a bad impression to the system based on this campaign.". I think he understood.



ps. Any roleplaying tips for playing a character who is BOTH uber intelligent, but has dangerously low Wis would be greatly appreciated. I have never played one with such two contradictory extremes, and this one seems like a real fun prospect. Feel free to include how you think such a creature/race should act as well!


pss. Here is an image of him (I had posted him earlier, but the thread wen nowhere):

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f173/celestialkin/My%20characters/MrImDelicious-1.jpg


A cookie for anyone who recognizes his inspiration/the model I used.


psss. His name is Mr. Delicious, I'm for those who might actually be curious.

Draz74
2010-01-07, 05:09 PM
... you are using rules that are too heavily homebrewed for me to comment on without losing my sanity.

deuxhero
2010-01-07, 05:14 PM
Use this (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723b) and or this (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723d)?

jiriku
2010-01-07, 05:19 PM
Elocator makes for a roguish psion. As for high-Int, low-Wis: casually assess every situation, make a snap decision based on practically no information, confidently announce the solution, and never consider the possibility you might be wrong. Your low Wisdom manifests itself as a reckless overconfidence in all situations: you never take the time to carefully consider what you're doing or evaluate the quality of your plans: you're so smart, how could you make a mistake? Likewise, self-doubt or learning from past mistakes is strictly off-limits for you.

Optimystik
2010-01-07, 05:34 PM
Your homebrew is a tad too extensive for normal optimization to work. Free Augmentation + Buying powers + Single-discipline lists + partial transparency is just too much variation.

FlamingKobold
2010-01-07, 09:49 PM
I second that the best "roguish psion" is a psychic rogue. It is literally a rogue with psionic powers. As for other things... to homebrew for normal comments to have any affect.

erikun
2010-01-07, 10:39 PM
The best roguish psions are the Psychic Rogue (linked earlier), the Lurk (Complete Psionic) or one of the Psions. Look at both the skills and powers you get with each discipline: Shaper might be useful for the Bluff/Diplomancy skills, but Telepath may have the powers you want.

Of those three, the Psychic Rogue is the most roguish. The Lurk is more of a stealth/assassin class, lacking skills like Trapfinding/Disable Device. The Psion is the farthest from the rogue, but power selection can make up a vast difference.

As for the house rules:

Free augmentation is crazy powerful. It might be less so for a Psychic Rogue or Lurk, as most of their powers are buffs or utility. For a Psion with Energy Ray, though, dealing 20d6 damage for 1 PP is insane. At the very least, require spending PP for metapsionic (and keep the powers within the level cap).

Non-transparency can cause all kinds of problems in a world not prepared for it. A simply invisibility power renders you immune to all detection, from See Invisibility to True Seeing.

Will you be learning powers from levels and learning powers from stones? If you aren't getting any powers from levels, and the DM rations out which stones are availalbe, I think this would lead to a fairly interesting game. If you can just go out and buy whatever you want, though, things will quickly get out of hand.

How would disciplines work if you're not a Psion? Or is the limit only for a Psion?

Pika...
2010-01-11, 01:45 PM
OK, so I managed to talk the DM out of the free augmentation thing. I talked him into basically keeping the psionics mechanics "normal" for his first campaign. The only difference is that he is still keeping the part where you do not automatically get powers, but have to research/find/get taught them, which I like. It is especially good since i managed to get one more first session, and you are not limited per how many per level like this.

Anyway, based on this new situation what do you all think now?



ps. I took Psicrystal Affinity (Sneaky) and Improved Psicrystal (Coward). Again he let us switch some skills around based on fluff, so with some cheap items and a Flaw that gave him access to the Stealthy feat right now he is at a +12 modifier to both Hide and Move Silently at level one. :smalleek:

What powers would you all suggest to take advantage of this?

I am thinking Matter Agitation if I manage to hide my manifestation display. Good idea? Bad idea?


pss. Also, to give the DM a bone I decided to go with a discipline I am not very familiar with. I chose Shapper.

Any advice for how/if I can make a roguish Shaper?

sonofzeal
2010-01-11, 02:13 PM
Control Object can let you play lockpicker and is generally pretty roguey. It can often be used in place of Slight of Hand, too.

AirGuitarGod32
2010-01-11, 02:37 PM
I suggest a combo of Lurk and Psion, multiclassing into the ORIGINAL soulknife PrC from Psi Handbook, and just have fun.

Either that, or coerce your DM into making Blues a 0la race (maybe take from Orc's Dazzle?), then take levels in Lurk and then take the Assassin (Psi Variant from SoS in Eberron) and become Mr. Death Touch.

Either one, focus on concealment and ranged damage powers that work as touch attacks.

To this, however, I have a question:

Deep Impact makes any Melee a Touch Attack
Improved Feint makes foe Flat Footed.

would they stack and would that be Sneak Attack heaven?

paddyfool
2010-01-11, 02:51 PM
Just think to yourself about how someone with a roguish character would (ab)use the powers of a Jedi, and go with it from there.

As for the low Wis... well, just be as foolish as a single-minded genius can be without making the rest of the party want to kill you too badly. The precise variation of that you go on may vary with your personality, your party's playing vibe, and your kobold's Cha score/alignment, but, well, consider easily duped wizards (Vaarsuvius), daffy inventors (Leonardo da Quirm), or, above all, the kind of comic book character who isn't all that malicious, just uncontrollable mischievous (Bob the Angry Flower, Deadpool...). I kind of see two obvious options - either embrace the Chaotic Crazy path and see how many sessions it takes before your fellow players shiv you (or, preferably, your character), or maybe give your character a short list of stuff he really, really cares about, and have him be totally oblivious to everything else.

EDIT: Actually, just ask yourself "what would Deadpool do if he had psychic powers?" and go from there...