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Shhalahr Windrider
2010-09-25, 02:07 PM
I recently started working on a Psion (Shaper) for a game. Naturally, there will be astral constructs. Haven’t asked the DM yet whether or not there will be the 1-construct limit imposed by Complete Psionic, though.

Anyway, I was looking at the Ectopic Form feat and was wondering what the consensus was on its value. Are any of the forms worth it?

Chipp Zanuff
2010-09-25, 02:23 PM
Only the exploding one. Note that using an Ectopic Form feat denies the Astral Construct its menu abilities.


It was a decent idea, but it was horribly executed. And happens to be in the worst splat book ever printed.

Starbuck_II
2010-09-25, 02:23 PM
I recently started working on a Psion (Shaper) for a game. Naturally, there will be astral constructs. Haven’t asked the DM yet whether or not there will be the 1-construct limit imposed by Complete Psionic, though.

Anyway, I was looking at the Ectopic Form feat and was wondering what the consensus was on its value. Are any of the forms worth it?

Depends. Are you thinking of taking Boost construct for extra menu options? Then don't take entropic forms.
They are for lazy people and can't get extra menu options (sadly).

Some forms are better than others.

crizh
2010-09-25, 04:41 PM
Emerald Gyre is pretty funny if you can use it as a Metaconcert form for your Psicrystal. It's not really an advanced creature or a template so it's perfectly reasonable and almost all it's Ex abilities are listed as special attacks.

But otherwise your better off with Boost Construct. Emerald Gyre VII for example has two A picks and 2 B picks. With Boost Construct you can create the same thing with an extra B pick, Muscle sounds good....

Shhalahr Windrider
2010-09-25, 04:54 PM
It was a decent idea, but it was horribly executed. And happens to be in the worst splat book ever printed.
That’s what I was figuring. :smallsigh:


But otherwise your better off with Boost Construct. Emerald Gyre VII for example has two A picks and 2 B picks. With Boost Construct you can create the same thing with an extra B pick, Muscle sounds good....
Yeah, I noticed that the one thing it has going for it is that it gets a B Menu pick—Improved Grab—right at level one. Downside is that it’s too small for the damn thing to be useful. By the time it’s big enough to make use of that ability, it would have Menu B items already.

Aharon
2010-09-25, 05:33 PM
Actually, I still don't really understand where that consensus comes from. Lycanthromancer explained it to me, but unfortunately, I have forgotten his explanation.

The ectopic adept class doesn't say the ectopic constructs don't get the normal menu choices, nor do the feats say so.

The monster section in Complete Psionic even has the following paragraph:



The statistics blocks for standad constructs, minus their menu choices as shown on page 185 in Expanded Psionics Handbook, are given below for ease of reference.
The various Ectopic Form constructs are presented following the basic astral constructs. Their statistics blocks are truncated so that they provide only the characteristics that are different from, or in addition to, those of a basic astral construct of a given level.

I don't see how this can be construed to mean that astral constructs suddenly lack menu choices - they are just given without these for ease of reference.

But, there is a very strong consensus on this, so what am I missing?

Starbuck_II
2010-09-25, 05:38 PM
Actually, I still don't really understand where that consensus comes from. Lycanthromancer explained it to me, but unfortunately, I have forgotten his explanation.

The ectopic adept class doesn't say the ectopic constructs don't get the normal menu choices, nor do the feats say so.

The monster section in Complete Psionic even has the following paragraph:



I don't see how this can be construed to mean that astral constructs suddenly lack menu choices - they are just given without these for ease of reference.

But, there is a very strong consensus on this, so what am I missing?

We got to ask the Complete Psionic designers on the WotC forums a few years back. It was cool to get input from them, but it sucked that they nerfed the forms.

They said they were for beginners no options. Boost construct has no benefit.

Shhalahr Windrider
2010-09-25, 06:00 PM
Yeah, the rules as written are ambiguous. They only really indicate the Extopic forms don’t get the menu options by referring to them as “premade” constructs.

Just kinda hoped I was missing something that made them worthwhile.

Chipp Zanuff
2010-09-25, 06:07 PM
Yeah, the rules as written are ambiguous. They only really indicate the Extopic forms don’t get the menu options by referring to them as “premade” constructs.

Just kinda hoped I was missing something that made them worthwhile.

What's the damage rate on the Exploding ones? Because if it is 2d6/construct level, you've got yourself a decent 1pp bomb (which can move itself further from where you summon it).

Shhalahr Windrider
2010-09-25, 06:13 PM
What's the damage rate on the Exploding ones? Because if it is 2d6/construct level, you've got yourself a decent 1pp bomb (which can move itself further from where you summon it).
1d6 per construct HD, minus 1d6 per round after its creation. 8th level construct is the first with a full 2 HD/level.