Manifester level, stacking class levels and racial HD?

[supermonkeyjoe]

I have a bit of a question as to stacking racial Hit Dice and levels for working out the total ML.

Say a creature has psi-like abilities and the manifester level is equal to HD is this an actual manifester level? If the creature gains levels in a psionic class do they stack?

As an example would a phrenic (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/monsters/phrenicCreature.htm) bugbear (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/bugbear.htm) (3HD) with 7 levels of psychic warrior have a ML of 10 for psychic warrior and 10 for Phrenic abilities, or 7 for psychic warrior and 10 for Phrenic, or 7 for psychic warrior and 3 for phrenic?

The phrenic template specified that ML=HD but what about a monster with a static ML, like the psionic aboleth (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/monsters/abolethPsionic.htm) is stated as having ML13, would this co up if it took levels in psion?

Thanks

Edit:

I found this in the SRD:

Multiclass Psionic Characters

If you have levels in more than one psionic class, you combine your power points from each class to make up your reserve. You can use these power points to manifest powers from any psionic class you have.

While you maintain a single reserve of power points from your class, race, and feat selections, you are still limited by the manifester level you have achieved with each power you know.

the wording on that isn't too clear and doesn't really help me much what manifester level would the above example bugbear character have achieved 10/10, 10/7?

[Big Fau]

Manifester levels for different classes/sources do not stack. The Bugbear's racial ML would not add to the Psychic Warrior levels, but the HD from the class levels should increase the Phrenic template's manifester level.

[FMArthur]

That block of rules text is sort of relevant in detailing that only your power point reserve is actually affected by having multiple sources of psionics in your character. So you just calculate the rest of your abilities separately as normal. A 7th level Psychic Warrior has a ML of 7. A Phrenic creature has a ML = HD and not ML = RHD, so it is basically the sum of your RHD and your levels in any class (10 here) - not being affected at all by the fact that some of those levels themselves may be manifesters.

[supermonkeyjoe]

O.k, I guess that makes sense, looks like he'll need to take the practiced manifester feat.

Are then any psionic beasties that explicitly do stack such as certain creatures that "cast arcane spells as a 9th level sorcerer"


Edit: I just realised that makes the phrenic template quite awesome, it turns almost any creature into a Psychic Warrior-lite! Especially since Psi-like abilities automatically scale with HD.

On a related tangent, is there any limit on how high ML can go? if I stick the phrenic template on a 35HD monster will it be getting +11 to AC and saves for 35 minutes from defensive precognition

[FMArthur]

O.k, I guess that makes sense, looks like he'll need to take the practiced manifester feat.

Are then any psionic beasties that explicitly do stack such as certain creatures that "cast arcane spells as a 9th level sorcerer"

There are probably a fair number. Off the top of my head, psionic mind flayers in the EPH cast as 9th level telepath psions.

[Psyren]

There are a few out there. Unbodied (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/monsters/unbodied.htm), for example, stack their RHD with Psion levels.

The creature's entry must specifically state this however.