Psion Power Selection

[Chilingsworth]

Hey all!

Looking for some advice/opinions about low-level psionic powers:

I have a halfling telepath that just made second level.
Stats: Str 6, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 18, Wis 10, Cha 8.
Feats: Luck of Heroes (Cultural Bonus,) Psionic Talent, Overchannel, and Psionic Body (Cultural Bonus.)
Powers already known: Force Screen, Mind Thrust, and Psionic Charm.

I can get his AC up to 21 (+3 dex, +1 size, +1 luck, +2 leather armor, +4 force screen,) not bad for first/second level.

What should I take for the two powers I get at 2nd level?
I'm thinking Intertial Armor and something else.
At 3rd level, I plan to take the Expanded Knowledge (Compression) feat for even more smallness.

Any thoughts?

EDIT: And thrallherd isn't an option (even if it was, I wouldn't take it in this particular group, we have pleanty of characters running around already!)

[faceroll]

Psionic Grease for targeting Reflex saves. Matter Agitation is an efficient low level source of damage, crystal shard scales very nicely, and no SR no save damage is always nice. Vigor is a great way to get more HP, especially when combined with share pain & a psicrystal. 10 HP/PP is a solid trade.

I would only get force screen or inertial armor (probably inertial armor), no need for both. There's a second level power that gives 20% concealment. That is quite nice.

[Zaq]

Mindlink is amazing in certain groups and useless in others. You know your group better than I do, but it's worth considering. (In terms of flavor, I love the concept of a Psion who just never bothers to speak out loud, but you can get telepathy as an ACF at 5th level anyway.)

Crystal Shard or Energy Ray fill similar niches and stay useful pretty much all the way to high levels. Of the two, I prefer Crystal Shard since it ignores SR/PR, but you'll rarely regret either. You don't usually want to take both, though; one or the other is enough.

Vigor is very good for staying alive. It becomes truly amazing when you share it with your psicrystal, on whom you cast Share Pain.

Psionic Grease is just as good as normal Grease . . . which is to say, pretty damn good.

[Chilingsworth]

Mindlink is amazing in certain groups and useless in others. You know your group better than I do, but it's worth considering. (In terms of flavor, I love the concept of a Psion who just never bothers to speak out loud, but you can get telepathy as an ACF at 5th level anyway.)


Where is this ACF?

[Zaq]

Enjoy. (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070411a) I find it to be quite worth it. The obvious combo is to add Mindsight (Lords of Madness), but even without it, if you can't find a use for telepathy, you're not trying.

[Chilingsworth]

Thanks!

I tried using mindsight once, my dm let me for one session, then he didn't just nerf it, he nerfed and castrated it! Then he banned it. So, it's not an option. Still, telepathy is always useful, as you said. Alternatively, I might try to get my dm to adapt the Mindbender PrC for use by psions and take a dip in that. At least, if I decide to seek out telepathy.

I've also considered trying out Anarchic Initiate as a possible path for this guy, long term of course.

[erikun]

Vigor is good for keeping you alive, and probably better than Inertial Armor at it. Synesthete is a good way to overcome blindness, deafness, or any other temporary disability. Crystal Shard/Energy Ray is a way to damage creatures that are immune to mind-affecting powers, which you'd otherwise be limited to hitting with crossbow bolts. Entangling Ectoplasm is like a psionic Entangle, although only for one creature - only on medium or smaller creatures, though. Detect Psionics may come in handy, depending on the party and campaign. Attraction can be a lot more useful at getting people to agree with you than Psionic Charm.

[Chilingsworth]

Hmm... so many choices!

Too bad my dm doesn't like Erudites, then I could get them all (eventually.)

Then again, last battle, I ended up using all three of my powers at least once. I wouldn't have been able to do that as an erudite.

[Hyperion]

Beside the powers mentioned, the little gems:

Matter agitation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/matterAgitation.htm) It's pretty awesome at low level, continuous damage for 1 pp, as long as you keep concentrating, so move around the battlefield a bit. After level 4 or 5, the power is not too awesome tho.

Crystal Shard, a ranged touch attack that will be useful for most of your career, as you get higher in level, the touch ac of the monsters keep going down.

Control Light: an often underestimated psionic power, help your rogue set up ambushes, blind everybody in the room as you make your escape...the number of uses of this power are close to infinite.

Empathy: Know the subject surface emotions...do I even need to mention how useful that power is? Not taking that power as a telepath is a shame.

[Chilingsworth]

Well, now, another question:

Might it be worth taking some of these powers even after 3rd level (instead of 2nd level or higher powers?)

[Hyperion]

crystal shard would be the only worth taking among the 1st level power but if you hit level 3 I would just go with Ego Whip and Share Pain.

Ego whip=You one or two shots the hydras in good circumstances...yeah.
Share Pain=Basically a way for you to heal by sharing damage with the tank for example.

[Chilingsworth]

Well, I think I'll take Crystal Shard and Vigor. I'm also considering making this character into a psion/wizard/mindbender/cebermancer, specifically psion (telepath)3/wizard(probably diviner)2/mindbender 1/cbermancer 10 (I don't expect the campaign to last to level 20.) I know it's a suboptimal build, but I think it might be fun to play.

[Lateral]

Ehh, cerebremancers take a lot of bookkeeping for not much power or fun; it's basically half a wizard, half a psion, and you have to basically choose one for any given round. Damn action economy.

[sreservoir]

psions are pretty damn good at breaking the action economy.

[faceroll]

Use Sanctum Spell so you can go psion3/wizard1/cerebremancer10/legacy champion 6.

Cerebremancers are wicked fun to play, especially at low levels when you have access to a whole mess of abilities. I would go focused specialist on the wizard side, maybe going for utility. On the psion side, go for blasting.

It's a lot of bookkeeping, but being able to blast, battlefield control, and do utility is fun.

Plus, with Schism & Synchonicity, you can get a lot of actions out, if you don't mind burning the power points.

I found caring around a bunch of shrink item'd boulders & using telekinetic thrust was a pretty sweet way to do business. Had the cleric shape the boulders with shape stone for me.

[Draz74]

Well, now, another question:

Might it be worth taking some of these powers even after 3rd level (instead of 2nd level or higher powers?)

Absolutely. My Level 20 Psion builds generally end up with at least eight Level 1 powers. Agumentable Level 1 Powers are the shizzle.

[Chilingsworth]

Use Sanctum Spell so you can go psion3/wizard1/cerebremancer10/legacy champion 6.

If I even serriously considered trying this, I'd get every book my dm owns launched at my head. Not just sourcebooks, either. He's got pleanty of college textbooks laying around too. That probably goes for any other way of getting into cbermancer save for the class level route. As far as I know, that means psion 3/wizard 3.

Also, I don't remember coming across Synchonicity. Is it in Complete Psionic?

[Lateral]

Meh. Really, it's not that overpowered. The dual-casting PRCs should be longer anyway, and the fact that they can't be entered at normally without 3 levels of both classes is really annoying and is what makes them not worth the trouble.