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ghost_warlock
2010-05-01, 09:32 PM
Quick and to the Point:
What would be a good discipline choice for an undead (Necropolitan) psion?
Any decent, thematic PrCs for this type of character?
Would it be worth it to take a 1-3-level dip in Dread Necromancer?

Greenish
2010-05-01, 09:42 PM
Quick and to the Point:
What would be a good discipline choice for an undead (Necropolitan) psion?None of them are undead-centered. The usual suspects are egoist (for selfbuffing), kineticist (for blasting) and telepath (for charm/control).
Any decent, thematic PrCs for this type of character?Not really: thrallherd gives you armies, slayer gives you gishiness.
Would it be worth it to take a 1-3-level dip in Dread Necromancer?
I assume you're thinking of unlimited self-healing. I'd say it's probably not worth sacrifing levels for, even with Practiced Manifester.

Lycanthromancer
2010-05-01, 09:45 PM
I would consider going egoist/thrallherd, actually.

You can buff the heck out of yourself (you can gain a Con score and become a living creature via metamorphosis, if you want to be affected by something that only affects living creatures, by [mind-affecting] effects, etc), and the thrallherd's abilities aren't [mind-affecting] and can be used to pull in respawning undead minions.

If you want unlimited healing, take the Evolved Undead template. Fast healing, and you can continually buy off the LA.

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2010-05-01, 09:45 PM
Any discipline would work, it just depends on what you want to play.

I don't think there are any undead-specific psionic prestige classes. You haven't really given anything specific about the character, other than class and template, but not even a base race or alignment. What do you want this character to do?

Absolutely not, don't lose manifester levels if you don't have to. If anything, go into Thrallherd and get a Dread Necro cohort/thrall. You could also pick up Leadership or even Undead Leadership for a Necropolitan Dread Necromancer cohort without losing any manifester levels.

Darius Rae
2010-05-01, 09:58 PM
There is an online enhancement that details a psionic prc from heroes of horror, ill see if I can find it. Basically you get undead bodyguards and stuff.

Edit: here it is, http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20051125a, the subverted psion.

Gralamin
2010-05-01, 10:01 PM
There is an online enhancement that details a psionic prc from heroes of horror, ill see if I can find it. Basically you get undead bodyguards and stuff.

Edit: here it is, http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20051125a, the subverted psion.

That thing is hideously broken. Seriously. It's Tainted Scholar for Psionics.

Doc Roc
2010-05-01, 10:04 PM
That thing is hideously broken. Seriously. It's Tainted Scholar for Psionics.

That said, it's an amazingly fun class, as long as you don't mind your GM trying to strangle you with a cheetos bag.

Lycanthromancer
2010-05-01, 10:07 PM
A ghost savage progression shaper/constructor would be nice. Have your constructs to do all the heavy lifting, and if all else fails, hurl them at your foes using telekinesis.

Greenish
2010-05-01, 10:15 PM
A ghost savage progression shaper/constructor would be nice. Have your constructs to do all the heavy lifting, and if all else fails, hurl them at your foes using telekinesis.Telekinesis, sadly, is an arcane spell: in psionics, the spell is split to three powers for different uses. (I know you know this, I just didn't want to miss the opportunity to lament this sad state of things.)

Lycanthromancer
2010-05-01, 10:20 PM
Telekinesis, sadly, is an arcane spell: in psionics, the spell is split to three powers for different uses. (I know you know this, I just didn't want to miss the opportunity to lament this sad state of things.)From the SRD: (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/ghost.htm)
Telekinesis (Su)
A ghost can use telekinesis as a standard action (caster level 12th or equal to the ghost’s HD, whichever is higher). When a ghost uses this power, it must wait 1d4 rounds before using it again.

Greenish
2010-05-01, 10:26 PM
Ah, I'm not very familiar with the more exotic racial abilities.

Ramza00
2010-05-01, 10:27 PM
Personally I would reflavor the thrallherd prc into an undead raising prc. The same mechanics for followers and thrall/cohort but instead you are "raising" the dead instead of attracting them from the general area.

There is an Undead Leadership feat in Libris Mortis page 31 with additional rules detailed on pages 32 and 33. Just adapt the mechanics to thrallherd just like you would the normal leadership feat.

Here is how the followers would be translated into undead

Lvl 1 followers: Skeleton 1 HD, or Zombie 1 HD
Lvl 2 followers: Skeleton 2 HD, or Zombie 2 HD
Lvl 3 followers: Skeleton 3-4 HD, or Zombie 3-4 HD
Lvl 4 followers: Skeleton 5-6 HD, or Zombie 5-6 HD
Lvl 5 followers: Skeleton 7-8 HD, Zombie 7-8 HD, or Ghoul
Lvl 6 followers: Skeleton 9-10 HD, Zombie 9-10 HD, or Shadow (if a monster is killed by the Shadow than it is turn into Spawn but the Spawn is not controlled by the creator Shadow or the master unless the master has an extra follower slot of 6th level)
Lvl 7 followers: Skeleton 11-12 HD, Zombie 11-12 HD, Allip, Ghast, or Wight (if a monster is killed by the Wight than it is turn into Spawn but the Spawn is not controlled by the creator Wight or the master unless the master has an extra follower slot of 7th level)

The thrall/cohort is pretty much the same rules except it has to be undead.

----------------------------------------

If you can do hyperconscious you can do a 5th level metacreativty power called Psianimate Dead.

And while it is up to your DM there is no reason you can't research psionic versions of classic undead spells.

ghost_warlock
2010-05-01, 11:27 PM
:smalleek: Wow, that was a lot of fast responses!

For the record, I wanted to give more details in the OP but was pressed for time (had get the ex to work).

The character is planned as a replacement for my current character in the World's Largest Dungeon campaign I've been playing in. I've been playing a swordsage/swashbuckler but I'm a bit bored being completely useless outside of combat so I wanted to play something with a bit more utility. Just as well, the DM hates my current character and calls the swordsage a "munchkin" class. He also hates psionics, but I'm going to take the advice of one of my fellow players (who's been playing with the DM for far longer) and just ignore the whining and play something I think is fun. :smalltongue:

Most of the party hit 3rd level last session, although a couple characters leveled earlier because they'd split the party in an session before I started playing with them - only played in four sessions so far. I'll likely be bringing in the necro at ECL 2 or 3, depending on whether I introduce the character this upcoming week or hold off until some of the party levels to 4th.

The party composition changes from week to week, as the game's open to whoever shows up and can play after our weekly 4e Encounters game. The most consistent members of the party are me, an elven cleric 1/wizard 2 that's heading towards mystic theurge (evil-aligned, rebukes and spontaneously inflicts), a dwarven rogue/fighter (not sure which class has more levels in it), and a 3rd-level satyr bard that's technically cheating with the savage progression rules from Savage Species and taking class levels part-way through the satyr racial progression. Occasionally, we're joined by an elven fire-domain cleric 3, a magic missile-obsessed sorceress, another dwarven rogue/fighter, and recently a human paladin 3 (who's apparently completely ignorant that he's traveling with an evil cleric). So, we've got blasting fairly well covered and there's generally enough meat standing around to not have to worry about the squishies getting pinned in melee too often.

The necropolitan was once a human psion nobleman who fell out of favor with his liege-lord for some yet-undecided reason and was thereafter unwilling subjected to Crucimigration and dumped into the world's largest dungeon as punishment. (Fluff-wise, the dungeon is inescapable by mortal magic so it's sort of like being imprisoned forever in the world's largest landfill.)

Stats will likely be Str 8, Dex 12, Con - (was 8), Int 18, Wis 13, Cha 16. Alignment is undecided, but I'm leaning towards roleplaying it as LN. We're using max-hp-per-HD so even as a caster the necropolitan should have plenty of hp.

I had originally planned on being an egoist and entering the Meditant (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040827c) PrC, but decided that the feat-investment to enter the class was too high.

Unfortunately, the DM doesn't want any homebrew or 3rd-party supplements used for the game (else I'd probably be avoiding all this and playing my own shadowmage :smallwink:).

Doc Roc
2010-05-01, 11:33 PM
can't go wrong with body leech.

Lycanthromancer
2010-05-01, 11:33 PM
:smalleek: Wow, that was a lot of fast responses!

For the record, I wanted to give more details in the OP but was pressed for time (had get the ex to work).

The character is planned as a replacement for my current character in the World's Largest Dungeon campaign I've been playing in. I've been playing a swordsage/swashbuckler but I'm a bit bored being completely useless outside of combat so I wanted to play something with a bit more utility. Just as well, the DM hates my current character and calls the swordsage a "munchkin" class. He also hates psionics, but I'm going to take the advice of one of my fellow players (who's been playing with the DM for far longer) and just ignore the whining and play something I think is fun. :smalltongue:

Most of the party hit 3rd level last session, although a couple characters leveled earlier because they'd split the party in an session before I started playing with them - only played in four sessions so far. I'll likely be bringing in the necro at ECL 2 or 3, depending on whether I introduce the character this upcoming week or hold off until some of the party levels to 4th.

The party composition changes from week to week, as the game's open to whoever shows up and can play after our weekly 4e Encounters game. The most consistent members of the party are me, an elven cleric 1/wizard 2 that's heading towards mystic theurge (evil-aligned, rebukes and spontaneously inflicts), a dwarven rogue/fighter (not sure which class has more levels in it), and a 3rd-level satyr bard that's technically cheating with the savage progression rules from Savage Species and taking class levels part-way through the satyr racial progression. Occasionally, we're joined by an elven fire-domain cleric 3, a magic missile-obsessed sorceress, another dwarven rogue/fighter, and recently a human paladin 3 (who's apparently completely ignorant that he's traveling with an evil cleric).

Stats for my necropolitan will likely be Str 8, Dex 12, Con - (was 8), Int 18, Wis 13, Cha 16. Alignment is undecided, but I'm leaning towards roleplaying it as LN.

The character was a human psion nobleman who fell out of favor with his liege-lord for some yet-undecided reason and was thereafter unwilling subjected to Crucimigration and dumped into the world's largest dungeon as punishment.

I had originally planned on being an egoist and entering the Meditant (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040827c) PrC, but decided that the feat-investment to enter the class was too high.

Unfortunately, the DM doesn't want any homebrew or 3rd-party supplements used for the game (else I'd probably be avoiding all this and playing my own shadowmage :smallwink:).About the best out-of-combat psion type is the shaper, especially with the constructor PrC (it's in The Mind's Eye, which is OfficialTM). Lots of little things to do outside of a fight, such as using fabricate to turn weapon A into weapon B (so long as you dispel it first).

ghost_warlock
2010-05-02, 01:54 AM
I think I'll go with thrallherd as it's not as hungry for powers known slots. The campaign is kind of funny about XP gains and downtime so I don't want to rely on learning powers via independent research; mostly have to stick with the Expanded Knowledge feat. On the upside, if I was able to put aside time to do research, we're allowed to substitute 5 gp/XP for crafting and such so if I can amass a small fortune I wouldn't have to pay the XP cost for research. Given I'm already working with a level adjustment (not sure if I can buy it off), gold will be much cheaper than XP in the long run. :smallsmile:

Tentative build:
Str 8, Dex 10, Con -, Int 18, Wis 13, Cha 18

Psion (telepath) 5/Thrallherd 3/Psion +5/Thrallherd +7.

Feats:
1st: Psicrystal Affinity, Psionic Body (B), Able Learner (B)
3rd: Linked Power
5th: Inquisitor (B)
6th: Psionic Meditation
9th: Extend Power
12th: Expanded Knowledge (metamorphosis)
13th: Metamorphic Transfer (B)
15th: Psicrystal Containment
18th: Quicken Power

Focused Skills:
Concentration, Diplomacy, Know (psionics), Psicraft, filler for synergy bonuses.