[3.5] Psionic archery?

[Flickerdart]

I'm making an Illumian Soulknife/Ardent/Soulbow/Slayer, hoping to use powers to augment the damage on the arrows. The build is 10th level, and due to Ardent being awesome my ML is 10/10 (but my powers known are rather scarce). What would be the best powers to take? Right now I'm looking at Hustle and Feat Leech (to get the whole Psionic Shot shebang off my psicrystal) as potential options.

[sonofzeal]

Looks like you've got the idea already. Still, consider Zen Archery (wis instead of dex for accuracy), and the Warmind PrC. Your psi progression is going to suffer with Soulknife and Soulbow, and Warmind can help you get caught back up more quickly.

[Prime32]

Depending on your DM, you might be able to fire your mind arrows from a normal bow. In which case you can add enchantments like splitting.

[Reynard]

Consider asking your DM if you can use the Pathfinder version of Psionic Shot. It's much better than the 3.5 one.

[Flickerdart]

Looks like you've got the idea already. Still, consider Zen Archery (wis instead of dex for accuracy), and the Warmind PrC. Your psi progression is going to suffer with Soulknife and Soulbow, and Warmind can help you get caught back up more quickly.
Already got Zen Archery, and Warmind's power progression is a lot worse than Ardent's.

Basically, what I have so far (on three attacks: iteratives and rapid shot)
+1 Mind arrows: 1d8+8
Point Blank Shot: 1
Psychokinetic property: 1d4 untyped
Quiver of Energy (Sonic): 1d6 sonic
Greater Psionic Shot: 4d6
Deep Crystal (DM allowed): 2d6

Even with Hustle and Psionic Meditation, I'll only be able to use GPS once per round (though I suppose I could take Schism as my 5th through a custom mantle and use that action to acquire focus). Deep Crystal costs 2PP per shot, and while I have a lot of PP I don't want to rely on it too much.

Krau sigil and Practiced Manifester take care of the lost levels, and Hidden Talent gives me another power, so I'm looking at one 1st level power, three 2nd level, one 3rd and one 5th.

[Reynard]

How have you got Greater Psionic Shot without plain old Psionic Shot?

[stainboy]

You might be better off with actual physical arrows for Dissolving Weapon cheese.

Dissolving Weapon is duration Instantaneous and triggers on your next attack. Whenever you have downtime you can load a few arrows per day with +4d6 acid damage. Depending on the campaign's pace that could easily be every arrow you ever fire.

[Flickerdart]

How have you got Greater Psionic Shot without plain old Psionic Shot?
I have the prerequisite, I just didn't count it in the calculation cause GPS supersedes it.


You might be better off with actual physical arrows for Dissolving Weapon cheese.

Dissolving Weapon is duration Instantaneous and triggers on your next attack. Whenever you have downtime you can load a few arrows per day with +4d6 acid damage. Depending on the campaign's pace that could easily be every arrow you ever fire.
Ooh, that's not a bad trick, and dumping Soulknife/Soulbow would give me quite a bit of room for better class levels. But I do like the idea of infinite free mind bullets. I suppose I could charge bows with that - a few longbows aren't that expensive or heavy.

[Psyborg]

Eh, if you're going to be quickdrawing weapons, go ahead and make them Great Crossbows. 2d8, 19-20/x3. See Crystalkeepthe copies you saved of all the Crystalkeep indices because you knew they were too good a thing to last. (What? You mean I'm the only one? :smallfrown:)

Nah, seriously, I'm away from home computer (and CK copies :smallamused:) right now, and I forget the book reference. But if you're quickdrawing weapons and you can afford or Leech the EWP feat, Great Crossbows are definitely the way to go, for the crit properties if nothing else. (The only exceptions are characters with super-high Strength and little other numeric-bonus damage [the kind that multiplies on crits]. Replace Strength with Dexterity if you dip Targetteer Fighter.)

[Psyren]

nvm - delete

You CAN delete your own posts you know. So long as they are not the opening post of a thread.

@ OP: Schism to reacquire focus sounds like an excellent plan to me, but keep in mind that GPS will still only apply to one attack in your routine unless you're using the Pathfinder version.

If you do branch over into Pathfinder (which I highly recommend), you can reconfigure your build slightly to dip into the awesome Zen Archer Monk (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/monk#TOC-Zen-Archer), giving you even more Wis-based goodies.

[Eldariel]

Well, size increases work rather well with oldfashioned bows; as long as you run off Zen Archery, Expansion is a nice damage multiplier (if you use e.g. Bracers of Archery for a Greatbow, you nicely scale into 3d8 with Huge Expansion and 4d8 with Strongarm Bracers on top of it). Offensive Precognition and Prescience are a given, lest you wish to invest in Knowledge Devotion which is most likely not worth it.

Dominant Ideal would almost certainly be something you want; Linked Power and Quicken Power in conjunction with it and Mantle customization would allow you to develop a decent buff suite you can cast relatively effectively. Psionic Creations obviously go well in conjunction with poisons, in the same vein as Dissolving.


Hustle is a given and yeah, Feat Leech is pretty obvious. Schism is pretty obvious and you kinda need it regardless of how you roll; it's too good to pass up on, especially with a psionic buff suite. Psionic Dimension Door is v. good for archery but it doesn't fall nicely with your levels. You prolly want Vigor and Psionic Dispel just for general utility. Unless you're going all-out with Synchronity, Anticipatory Strike is a v. solid level 5 option especially with your decent Standard Action output, and you can do fun stuff with Teleport Trigger. Dispel Buffer also has some obvious utility.

[Flickerdart]

Bracers of Archery and Strongarm Bracers at once? Hrm.

[Eldariel]

Bracers of Archery and Strongarm Bracers at once? Hrm.

Well, the *1.5 cost combination of items using the same slot is suggested in the DMG. Given both are rather cheap, the cost would be hardly an issue.