tiercel
2010-06-22, 05:46 AM
Kicking around "fun hitter" character concepts and was poking through psionics resources (since I haven't played much psi before)... was kind of intrigued that there were very few full BAB psi classes (though you can use powers to make up for this, of course).
Duskblade (PHB II) seems like a pretty interesting way to get into War Mind (XPH/SRD), since it's a full BAB entry class that has all Knowledge skills. All you need is a psionic race with intrinsic power point pool and you can avoid a one-level, BAB+0 dip in a psi class to qualify for War Mind.
The combo becomes much more interesting if you can use the arcane channeling ability to deliver touch powers as well as spells. --YMMV depending on DM, but the Sage has explicitly allowed that divine spells and non-duskblade arcane spells can be channeled, so as long as psi-magic transparency rules are in effect, why not psi? Dissipating touch is a nice simple augmentable 1st level power you could channel as long as you can channel powers as well as spells....
5 levels of duskblade gets you several useful cantrips (notably detect magic) as (Sp) abilities, Combat Casting (YMMV again on whether this feat also covers manifesting powers), Quick Cast 1/day, the aforementioned channeling (which is much nicer if you can pump your psi into it, but still lets you use 5d6 shocking grasp hits), and a handful of spells (e.g. resist energy, true strike, ray of enfeeblement, swift expeditious retreat, shocking grasp and touch of fatigue for channeling, acid splash for troll/etc. disposal). You can cast these spells in medium armor if you care to (so mithral full plate is on the table, if you're willing to eat base 20 speed).
As a full BAB build with some damage boosting already you can consider skipping offensive precognition & prescience (less buffing to worry about, as well as not having to burn your few powers-known slots) and just concentrate on defense and having a bag of tricks (fast movement, for instance -- stacking skate with the Speed of Thought feat, though that means you'll want to drop swift expeditious retreat from the duskblade side). If you *can* channel psi, then dissipating touch, hostile empathic transfer start looking pretty good.
Have people built/played this kind of character before? Elan Duskblade5/War Mind 10 seems the simplest 15-level build, taking, say, Power Attack, Speed of Thought, Practiced Manifester, perhaps Expanded Knowledge or even two. It's an open question as to where the last 5 levels might best go (since War Mind has its own psi progression), but in my experience most campaigns don't actually get up to levels 15+.
I know it's no so-called "Tier 1" wizard-plus-six-full-spellcasting-progression-prestige-classes build, but it seemed like an interesting sort of toy build to consider and wanted to see what people here had done with a build like this.
Duskblade (PHB II) seems like a pretty interesting way to get into War Mind (XPH/SRD), since it's a full BAB entry class that has all Knowledge skills. All you need is a psionic race with intrinsic power point pool and you can avoid a one-level, BAB+0 dip in a psi class to qualify for War Mind.
The combo becomes much more interesting if you can use the arcane channeling ability to deliver touch powers as well as spells. --YMMV depending on DM, but the Sage has explicitly allowed that divine spells and non-duskblade arcane spells can be channeled, so as long as psi-magic transparency rules are in effect, why not psi? Dissipating touch is a nice simple augmentable 1st level power you could channel as long as you can channel powers as well as spells....
5 levels of duskblade gets you several useful cantrips (notably detect magic) as (Sp) abilities, Combat Casting (YMMV again on whether this feat also covers manifesting powers), Quick Cast 1/day, the aforementioned channeling (which is much nicer if you can pump your psi into it, but still lets you use 5d6 shocking grasp hits), and a handful of spells (e.g. resist energy, true strike, ray of enfeeblement, swift expeditious retreat, shocking grasp and touch of fatigue for channeling, acid splash for troll/etc. disposal). You can cast these spells in medium armor if you care to (so mithral full plate is on the table, if you're willing to eat base 20 speed).
As a full BAB build with some damage boosting already you can consider skipping offensive precognition & prescience (less buffing to worry about, as well as not having to burn your few powers-known slots) and just concentrate on defense and having a bag of tricks (fast movement, for instance -- stacking skate with the Speed of Thought feat, though that means you'll want to drop swift expeditious retreat from the duskblade side). If you *can* channel psi, then dissipating touch, hostile empathic transfer start looking pretty good.
Have people built/played this kind of character before? Elan Duskblade5/War Mind 10 seems the simplest 15-level build, taking, say, Power Attack, Speed of Thought, Practiced Manifester, perhaps Expanded Knowledge or even two. It's an open question as to where the last 5 levels might best go (since War Mind has its own psi progression), but in my experience most campaigns don't actually get up to levels 15+.
I know it's no so-called "Tier 1" wizard-plus-six-full-spellcasting-progression-prestige-classes build, but it seemed like an interesting sort of toy build to consider and wanted to see what people here had done with a build like this.