NPC Summoner

[theForce017]

Any suggestions on how to build and NPC summoner and preferably one that could summon constructs. Probably want to say that this encounter is going to be around 10th level but I'm not sure yet so any help would be great.

Are there any spells such as Summon Monster that allows summoning constructs or am I missing it in Summon Monster.

[Lateral]

Psion (Shaper) 6 (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/classes/psion.htm)/Constructor 4 (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625b); 20th level build is Shaper 6/ Constructor 9/ Shaper 5, with the Personal Construct (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070411a) ACF at level 5 so you can skip Shaper 10 and the Boost Construct feat.

[Rejakor]

Psion (Shaper). Astral Construct. Can look like whatever you want.

Psions have good nova potential, meaning they can blow all their pp on one encounter making them tougher as foes than as PCs, so i'd make this guy level 7 or 8. He's squishy like a wizard, though, so give him a round or two to summon an astral construct or three to chuck in front of him so he doesn't get instadied.


EDIT: Swordsage'd.

[Lateral]

Psions have good nova potential, meaning they can blow all their pp on one encounter making them tougher as foes than as PCs

NO THEY CAN'T. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powerList.htm)

You can spend only a total number of points on a power equal to your manifester level, unless you have an ability that increases your effective manifester level.
Seriously, this is one of the most overlooked and most important rules of psionics. Without it, the arguments that psionics are OMGWTFSTUPIDLYBORKED might actually hold some water.

Manifesting Astral Construct does take one round, though, so definitely use Personal Construct First. Also, the first rule of shaper builds: There Is No Such Thing as the Complete Psionic Errata.

[Godskook]

NO THEY CAN'T. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powerList.htm)

Seriously, this is one of the most overlooked and most important rules of psionics. Without it, the arguments that psionics are OMGWTFSTUPIDLYBORKED might actually hold some water.

Manifesting Astral Construct does take one round, though, so definitely use Personal Construct First. Also, the first rule of shaper builds: There Is No Such Thing as the Complete Psionic Errata.

Wow, Lateral, epic over-reaction. He said nothing about PP/manifest, and was merely mentioning that a Psion can spend all his PP *THROUGHOUT* an encounter fairly easily.

[Vknight]

Which can lead to one of the best reactions when a Psionic enemy at the last moment pulls out a powerful blast last moment.

[Lateral]

Wow, Lateral, epic over-reaction. He said nothing about PP/manifest, and was merely mentioning that a Psion can spend all his PP *THROUGHOUT* an encounter fairly easily.

:smallconfused:

First of all, that was, if anything, a minor miscommunication. Second of all, a psion can spend maybe half his PP in an encounter, barring action economy breaking. Take, for instance, a 10th level Psion with 20 intelligence. He has 118 pp. He may spend a maximum of 10 pp on any one power, and an average encounter lasts 5 or 6 rounds- that's 50 or 60 pp over the encounter. With Quicken Power, you'll be able to spend your entire PP pool over one encounter, but the quickened powers can only be up to 2nd level augmented once.

[Godskook]

:smallconfused:

First of all, that was, if anything, a minor miscommunication. Second of all, a psion can spend maybe half his PP in an encounter, barring action economy breaking. Take, for instance, a 10th level Psion with 20 intelligence. He has 118 pp. He may spend a maximum of 10 pp on any one power, and an average encounter lasts 5 or 6 rounds- that's 50 or 60 pp over the encounter. With Quicken Power, you'll be able to spend your entire PP pool over one encounter, but the quickened powers can only be up to 2nd level augmented once.

1.By 10th level, a psion is more than capable of spending 12+ PP per power, if only cause of overchannel.

2.Schism comes online at level 9 for *ALL* psions, and allows you to spend an additional 10+ PP per power, assuming overchannel and practiced manifester.

3.You're neglecting pre-buffing, both in the all-day variety and the "ok, the PCs are right around this corner" variety.

4.With the Vigor+Share Pain combo running, psions are *VERY* hard to kill with HP damage, making combats with one likelier to run long enough for him to go 'nova'.

5.Quicken yes, adds another 12+ PP spent, but we'll assume this is every other round for ease of calculations(due to psi-focus), so 6+ PP per round.

6.Assuming 20PP spent pre-buffing before the fight, and spending 28PP per round, our psion buddy is going to be bone dry midway into round 4, and I haven't even started to push the nova envelope.

[Rejakor]

I meant that PCs are supposed to husband their pp over the course of fights, and this guy has no reason not to go all out. So his CR is a bit higher.

PCs aren't going to hack through an augmented Astral Construct more than once a round, so unless he's really dumb (stands in the open monologuing), he's going to live until he runs out of pp and constructs.

With certain powers (coughschismtemporalaccelerationcough) and certain feats (coughdelaypowerquickenpowercough) a psion can in one round burn clean through all his power points and unleash massive damage or BFC potential a lot easier than a wizard can, despite wizards having technically stronger spells than psions do powers.

That wasn't what I was talking about. Also, if you're letting your psions break the ML cap, it's no different than letting a wizard have a CL of 50 'just cause'.. or cast as many quickened spells as he wants in a single round.