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View Full Version : Building an evil psion that consumes intelligence



Drogorn
2010-07-17, 06:48 PM
I was reading through Hyperconscious and Untapped Potential for the first time, and I came across a very interesting power: Intellect Feast. (http://dsp-d20-srd.wikidot.com/intellect-feast)

I was intrigued by that power(and I love its awesome art in the book), but the duration of only 1 round per level made it nearly useless. So I took the persistent power feat from Hyperconscious, which allows me to increase its duration to 24 hours. To actually use that feat effectively, I had to take several other feats, but at the end of it all, the power lasts 24 hours, and is therefore viable. Add in the ability to restore intelligence damage, and he just has to keep some prisoners around for supper.

To hasten the arrival of persisting that power, the character has the various overchannel feats, a feat to lower the metamagic cost on that specific spell, and a torc of power preservation, to make powers cost less. He can currently persist that power at level 13, for 16 power points, plus however many he has to spend to avoid overchannel damage.

One thing I noticed is that he's really vulnerable to a dispel magic, but I don't know if there's any way around that.

What else might this character find useful?

Intellect feast psion (http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AiU9wdfqTLGcdHRzM0dPVjFEcGM0XzlJQXVGTEMyd nc&hl=en&authkey=CMyOgYoG)

Notes (https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1rNgZikS1lADKOB12F-o8qmSnWuU767YcrcsQbKEUzP0&hl=en&authkey=CPSH_fYF#)

Glimbur
2010-07-17, 08:44 PM
Shazam (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/dispellingBuffer.htm)!

Also, there is Midnight Augmentation in Magic of Incarnum. It'll cost you a feat, or more if you want more out of it, but it lets you slightly sidestep the whole PP spent < ML thing psionics has, for one power you choose at the start of each day. I'm not sure if that helps you meta-psionic things though.

Drogorn
2010-07-17, 09:37 PM
Midnight Augmentation would require the DM(who is nonexistent at this time) to say that metapsionic feats count as augmentation. If I could do it though, I'd be able to use an essentia helm to reduce the power point cost by 3. I'd have to drop metapower, but that would still be a net gain of one.

Edit: As for Dispelling Buffer, since it's a kineticist power, I'd have to find a way to replace the absolutely necessary Restoration power. Otherwise I'd have to cart around several very powerful creatures to feed my intelligence addiction.

Glimbur
2010-07-17, 10:27 PM
You could also Expanded Knowledge Dispelling Buffer at level 15, but that's expensive. The tricks you are doing to up your ML so you can Persist will also help a little with resisting dispelling.

There are other ways to restore ability damage: I'm thinking of the Orb of Mental Renewal from Magic Item Compendium. You could also dip Cleric or Paladin(unlikely to avoid falling) to use a wand of lesser vigor... or cross-class UMD, but that way madness lies.

An Orange Ioun Stone should increase your ML by one by default transparency rules:
Though not explicitly called out in the spell descriptions or magic item descriptions, spells, spell-like abilities, and magic items that could potentially affect psionics do affect psionics.
and

+1 caster level

Drogorn
2010-07-17, 10:57 PM
Excellent! Though we're now well over half 12th level wbl to get here. Can't rely much more on items now.

Frosty
2010-07-18, 02:59 AM
So THIS is how the God-Emperor of humanity in 40k started out...

Drogorn
2010-07-18, 12:58 PM
I noticed that he's not actually able to take talented at first level, so I replaced it with Elan resilience, enhanced from Complete Psionic. That lets him prevent 4 damage for each power point he spends on Elan resilience. Due to the 1st Elan racial substitution level, he gets free power points for his Elan abilities equal to what he spends on a power. So, he burns his immediate action each round to overchannel with near-impunity. This works better than talented anyway, since using talented requires him to expend his psionic focus.

Did I mention that I love Elans?

taltamir
2010-07-18, 01:11 PM
So THIS is how the God-Emperor of humanity in 40k started out...

Heratic! How dare you besmirch the name of the god emperor!

ShadowsGrnEyes
2010-07-18, 01:20 PM
do this as a mindflayer. . . become an illithid savant. . . . win

Drogorn
2010-07-18, 01:36 PM
A normal Illithid has too high a level adjustment to make that worthwhile. And, while he could use Metamorphosis to get there since he's already an aberration, that represents a level of cheese that I am unwilling to undertake.

Optimystik
2010-07-18, 01:46 PM
Couple of suggestions here:

1) Be a Favored Discipline (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a) Erudite (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20060406b&page=1) (Psychometabolism), not a Psion. They can learn IF as a Psywar Power, which lets you learn it at level 5 rather than level 7. Not only do you learn it earlier, it means that Talented will now apply to it (since it is a 3rd-level power this way) - therefore you can Overchannel it without taking any damage at all, even with the accelerated Overchannel from Hyperconscious.

Erudites also do better focusing on one power than Psions do - your UPD will cease to matter even if your DM takes the lowest interpretation. And finally, you can learn Dispelling Buffer without spending a feat.

2) Because Erudites are Psions, you can still take the Elan Aberrant Manifesting Racial Sub, and it will have even less of a drawback. Learning 1 less power per level isn't a problem when you have unlimited powers known.

3) Enter Slayer - you'll get a free +1 to your ML when manifesting this power. Your BAB will also skyrocket, making it easier to hit with your tentacles, and you gain heavy armor proficiency. A ranger dip will get you into Slayer, and Practiced Manifester will make up the two ML you lose this way.

4) The power cannot lower enemies Int below 1 - to kill opponents, you'll want a way to do 1 point of intelligence damage. Enter Mindfire, a 3rd-level power from CPsi, which inflicts the Mindfire disease on opponents from the SRD.

5) You'll also need a way to take on enemies that are immune to mind-affecting powers. Metamorphosis + Slayer (or just plain Slayer) can make you a melee monster to thrash such enemies.

6) You can get Talented early with ease - use flaws. Give your free Psicrystal the ability to contain a focus, and now you have an extra focus you can spend on Talented while you maintain yours for Persistent Power, before you pick up Permanent Focus.

More to come as I think of them.

Drogorn
2010-07-18, 02:48 PM
I was wrong about not being able to take talented at first level; I was looking at a source that had it wrong. However, Enhanced Elan Resilience is still better, since it doesn't require expending psionic focus. With that racial substitution level, he effectively spends his immediate action to overchannel with impunity.

Optimystic, that isn't quite what I was aiming for here. This guy isn't meant to use Intellect Feast in combat. Instead, he uses it to gain a +8 or greater enhancement bonus to intelligence just before he trances at night by consuming the intelligence of some prisoner he's collected. Since he can persist it, the bonus intelligence lasts all day. As such, all his powers get a +4 bonus on saves and manifester level checks, and he gets a considerable amount of bonus power points each day.

I do not normally allow flaws in games I DM, so I don't build around allowing them.

The Erudite-slayer route could make for a fun gish though.