gearing a psion

[Devronq]

So im the dm in my group and i told one of my players i would help him gear his psion but i dont have that much experience with using them. could i get some suggestions on what i should let him buy? im not going to tell you the build as thats not what im asking lets just say hes basically a blaster. any suggestions ether defensive or offensive? hes currently lv.8 and the group as a whole has about 50,000 to spend and he very little gear, cloak resistance, ring protection etc

and as a secondary question why is body fuel marked as a bad feat? it seems pretty good to me, use it only when your completely out of PP mind you but why is never used?

[Flickerdart]

Body Fuel sucks because ability burn is notoriously difficult to recover from (magical healing does not work, so you have to wait it out). The return for the ability burn you suffer is pitiful, because a couple of PP stops making a difference past level 5 or so. The combination of these factors makes a feat that you can only use every couple of days to get a negligible bonus, and the rest of the time it is detrimental rather than beneficial (since you've burned all your stats away).

A psion doesn't need to much gear. He can grab a cheap armour (psionics don't suffer from arcane spell failure, so something like a mithral chain shirt is a cheap AC boost, even if he's not proficient) to improve his defenses. A cognizance crystal is nice if he has the spare cash, but it's not a must because of how expensive they get. At level 8 you're in no danger of running out of PP if you are careful, so he doesn't need a weapon. A psionatrix or third eye penetrate will help if he has trouble affecting targets, though these are 8000 a pop, and are pretty pricey for a party that's grievously under WBL.

[Devronq]

Thank you for the advise :)! So how come a psion shouldn't run out of PP after level 8? My player runs out all the time and has nothing else to do so spends alot of time running around handing out potions or whatever he can. Mind you he goes all out on every battle even when its completely unnecessary and everyone has been encouraging him not to lol but anyways i don't see why you shouldn't be running out really fast when going all out so why do you say that?

[olelia]

I believe because by that point you can buy a stack of 50 +1 Manifester arrows and laugh at how your PP pool just sky rocketed.

[Devronq]

ya that arrow trick doesn't work whatsoever by the way it specifiably says melee weapon only and im the dm and wouldn't allow something so dumb anyways

[Anzyr]

ya that arrow trick doesn't work whatsoever by the way it specifiably says melee weapon only and im the dm and wouldn't allow something so dumb anyways

Manifester

This kind of weapon generates 5 power points once per day that the wearer can use when manifesting a power he knows. These power points must all be used on the same power. As usual, a psionic character cannot pay a power’s cost with power points from more than one source, so the power points in the weapon must be used for discrete manifestations.

Really care to point out the part that say melee weapon only? It is a perfectly fair ability, why would you believe otherwise?

[Flickerdart]

I believe because by that point you can buy a stack of 50 +1 Manifester arrows and laugh at how your PP pool just sky rocketed.
No, that's just bad form.

At 8th level, a Psion should have 58PP just from class levels, and an additional 24PP due to his Intelligence. Spending 8PP every round means that he can manifest a fully augmented power nine times before running out. That means he can afford to manifest twice per encounter, on average, and still have 8 PP remaining. Therefore, with an action set of "fully augmented power, fully augmented power, 1st level power, 1st level power" he can successfully clear four 4-round encounters without feeling the shortage. CR8 monsters have 80-100 HP, generally, and two fully augmented blasts without any sort of feat support will leave a mark of about 72HP (save halves), if he's using an element with a damage bonus. In those two rounds, assuming that his party members are doing something, they should be able to kill the enemy no problem. With Metapower (Empower Power) on his blasting power of choice, multiply that by 1.5, absolutely free, meaning you need less booms to finish the job.

If he still has problems with PP management, next level point out the Energy Current power. Look at that duration. See how it's Concentration instead of Instantaneous. That's right: he can keep concentrating on the power, and it will keep doling out damage absolutely free.

[Devronq]

thank you flickerdart it is extremely bad form, would you as dm allow this item? 16000gp grants 50 extra level 3 spells? because that's effectively what this item does... but anyways this inst what i intended to discuss, gear suggestions please?

[faceroll]

36,000gp for a torc of power preservation. It's a very, very cool item. -1 to the cost of all powers you manifest (unless they only cost 1 pp).

[Flickerdart]

36,000gp for a torc of power preservation. It's a very, very cool item. -1 to the cost of all powers you manifest (unless they only cost 1 pp).
There's a cheaper Torc in the MIC that only works 5/day, more affordable for a level 8 character.