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crizh
2010-04-22, 03:46 PM
Hey guys, been lurking here for a while as the WoTC boards are on life support.

I'm working through an idea for a tweak to my current DnD character and I wanted to get some feedback on my logic to make sure I haven't missed anything.

So this all stems from the way Ardents learn powers. You can learn any power you have sufficient ML to manifest unlike other psionic characters who are stuck with a fixed progression of maximum level of power learned.

I noticed that the text of the Psion class feature states that a 'psion can manifest any power that has a power point cost equal to or lower than his manifester level.'

This means that while you cannot use the 'Powers Known' class feature to learn powers with a higher level than that defined by your 'Maximum Power Level Known' class feature you can manifest higher level powers if you can find some way to gain access to them and have a sufficiently high ML.

I've been using this with Metaconcert for a while know, my Thrall knows level 6 powers and I only know level 5. The way we are running Metaconcert means that we use my ML when I'm the conductor and my Thrall's when she is the conductor. As my ML is two higher than hers I've just been taking the conductor role and manifesting her level 6 powers without hindrance as I 'know' them without using the normal learning procedure and have sufficient ML to pay the PP cost.

I've subsequently branched out into 'borrowing' level 6 powers from my Thrall using Mindlink(Thieving) using almost identical logic.

We've recently finished the Heart of Nightfang Spire which is swimming in Undead and levelled up. This has left me with an EK: Stygian Ward feat that is surplus to requirements and needs to be replaced with something more useful.

Having looked at it today EK seems to have almost exactly the same language as Mindlink(Thieving). I can add any power to my powers known that is at least one level lower than the highest level power I am able to Manifest.

Well she'it, that's level 8 if I include Overchannel!?

Seems like I can learn any power of level 7 or less.

Unless my logic is somehow faulty or I missed something somewhere....

Optimystik
2010-04-22, 04:56 PM
1) You're right about the Ardent - if an Ardent's ML is sufficiently high enough at the time it learns new powers, it can learn powers that it shouldn't normally be able to, because it can break the learning sequence. (i.e. if its ML > its ECL)

2) You're mistaken about Metaconcert - Metaconcert creates a separate entity, which has access to the powers (and a share of the PP) from all the participants. The conductor merely directs that entity - he is not the manifester of the powers himself. The ML of each power used by the entity is determined by the ML of its contributor. Otherwise you could have a level 5 Psion in concert with a level 13 Psywarrior, tossing out 13d6 energy rays.

crizh
2010-04-23, 08:29 AM
Yeah, I know I'm right about Ardent, the point was that under certain limited circumstances you can pull the same trick with Psion.

I said that we were house-ruling Metaconcert. I don't think anybody actually uses Metaconcert in play without house-ruling it.

alisbin
2010-04-23, 09:05 AM
i just read the SRD version of Metaconcert and it says nothing either way about the manifester level being equal to whoever contributed the power. the way its written though it seems ASSUMED that the conductor provides the base manifester level.

Ryuuk
2010-04-23, 09:21 AM
There are a lot of holes in Metaconcert actually. As written, the DM has to decide a lot of things.