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ZiggZagg
2010-08-14, 06:46 AM
Ok, so I'm looking to play my first psionic character sometime soon, and I always have a penchant for gishes and their types, so I would like to try my hand at the psychic warrior. What powers and tactics should I be focusing on to make sure he shines in a group of melee characters? One request, I would like to use manufactured weapons, such as greatsword or longsword-and-shield. Not really interested in the claw powers just yet. I have never played with psionics, so I turn the discussion over to those who are more learned than I. Thanks in advance :-D

WinWin
2010-08-14, 07:09 AM
King of Smack might help.

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19866038/The_king_of_smack.

Basically makes use of Claws and Expansion to deal lots of damage. It is easy to customise the build. Could make a good zone control character with the reach and a few battlefield control feats.

edit:Sorry, missed the part about claws. Expansion is still a great power. Jaws of the wolf adds a natural attack to weapon attacks. Use of a reach weapon + combat reflexes will give a few bonus attacks over a wide area. Hustle is great at higher levels, allowing movement and a full attack, or a buff and a full attack.

Some of the powers referenced in the king of smack build will still help, just ignore all of the claws references. Many of the claw augments have a weapon equivelant.

Fouredged Sword
2010-08-14, 10:07 AM
Psi War is a great class. You will always be short on P though, throughout the build. You have some choices to make about where you want to spend your PP and what kind of combat style you want to have.

First you have the choice to use expansion or not. Now this may seem like a silly choice as it is a great power that grants you abilities few single characters can pull off at level one. Expansion is great for reach weapons and for combat reflexes. This is a time a spiked chain is a great idea. You get a nice size boost to trip and such, stacked with a sweeping spiked chain and your 20ft reach and you will be very hard to move past. The problem is that you take a dex hit when large. You can ether focus on dex and not worry about hitting to hard or you can focus on strength and not worry about controling space.

I would think of it as a choice between focusing on powerattack / cleave (your huge reach will make sure another target is in range) or combat reflexes / improved trip. Pick the combat method you want and go with it.

Or you can choose not to use expansion. It isn't useable everywhere and you do take a serious AC hit (you loose both dex and get bigger) and that works out to -2 per size catagory. Not a big issue, but something to keep in mind.

Now the question is do you where armor or not? There are powers to grant AC, but they cost PP and are not on all the time. PP are hard to come by, and if you are useing PP to grant AC, it will all go away when you run out.

Pick powers that will grant a wide set of boosts, not ones that will grant all the same style of benifits. Make sure to get mobility powers, defence powers, and offensive powers (not attack powers, but things that boost your inate ability to do damage). You aren't there to cast energy ray, so don't.

Other than that, psi war is a great class. Look at the class in two parts. First you are a fighter, you have bonus feats and hit things with a weapon. Pick a style of fighting and go with it. Second you are a self buffer. Pick your powers thinking like a fighter and you won't go to bad.

RMS Oceanic
2010-08-14, 10:24 AM
Have you got access to Complete Psionic? If you do, there's a nice couple of things you can pick up, but they need a little explaination.

In CP, there's a Clericesque class called the Ardent, who makes up his choice of powers by selecting mantles, domain-style groups that gives them access to spells they can learn. At Wizards' website, there is an alternate class feature for Psychic Warriors that allows you to give up your bonus feat at 2nd level to gain a mantle instead. If picking a single mantle for PsyWar, the Freedom Mantle is the best choice. It lets you learn Psionic Fly and Psionic Teleport, which are always good powers. As a special mantle ability, it also gives you +10 to your movement speeds when psionically focused.

Fouredged Sword
2010-08-14, 10:26 AM
That is a good idea, but be careful. You never do get a lot of powers, and that will restrict you choices even more.

RMS Oceanic
2010-08-14, 10:32 AM
It only adds those powers to your potential powers learned, and I think picking up Fly is a worthy investment. Also, the +10 movement means it's strictly better than using that feat for Speed of Thought.

Fouredged Sword
2010-08-14, 11:14 AM
You are correct. I was under the mistaken idea that you had to take those powers when they became avalable.

By all means take the freedom mantel in place of a feat. That is a nice ability.

To bad you can't also use the soulbound weapon power on the next page. The ability to summon a +something bane (whatever I happen to be fighting) weapon is powerful. It is PP expensive though.

dobu
2010-08-14, 11:21 AM
there's a shiny new handbook. you find it here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=162701). :-)