Suggestions for this Psion?

[13_CBS]

My group and I are about to embark on a new campaign next week, and I have elected to play a Psion. As this is my first time playing a Psion, and my first time playing a battlefield controlling caster, I'd like some suggestions as to what feats, powers, and items I should get.

Some crunch details:

1) I'm planning on playing this character primarily as a battlefield, Batman-style controller--save or dies, debuffs, etc. Outside of combat, he will be the party scholar.

2) Books: The setting is an original one, but for the purpose of races, classes, and feats, as far as I know it's pretty much "anything goes" as long as we don't go overboard on min-maxing. The one exception is stuff found online--the DM disregards any online supplements, even if they're official.

3) We have 25,000 XP to work with. IIRC, this usually translates to a level 8 character for 0 LA races. If we want to play a +X LA race, we must have at least 1 class level (so races up to +7 LA is fine). This isn't particularly relevant, though, since I plan on playing as human.

4) Starting gold is 25,000. Stat generation is 32 point buy.

5) Multi-classing XP penalties are in place.

6) The DM's not entirely sure about this himself, but it seems that Magic-Psionics Transparency is in full effect: stuff like Detect Psionics works on magic, and vice versa, etc.

7) WARNING: DUE TO CAMPAIGN CIRCUMSTANCES, I HAVE BEEN FORCED TO TAKE BLASTING POWERS. My other party members ended up picking builds such that, aside from me, we lack real means of dealing large amounts of damage, particularly at range. As a result, they (including the DM, who was kind enough to give me some forewarning) strongly advised me to go blaster. I had no desire to play a blaster, as I see it as being a relatively inefficient way of playing a caster, but I also saw their point about us not having a real dedicated damage dealer; as a result, I have some direct damage powers in my powers list. I also went Shaper so that I could conjure up a beatstick as well. So, this is just a heads up as to why those things are there.

8) My fellow party members are the following: Githzerai Rogue (skillmonkey), Favored Soul (healer, buffer, party face), some sort of Incarnum guy (tank, party face), Spellthief/Warshaper (...yeah. 5th party member, as far as I can tell), and myself.

9) Not likely relevant, but the DM really wants to DM a Good Guys game this time--he's gotten rather tired of his usual players (which does not include me, as, I'm rather new to the group) running around raping and pillaging every single campaign. As a result, my Psion is Neutral Good, and plans to remain that way.


Here is the Psion itself:

Race: Human

Class: Shaper Psion 8

Hit Points: 53 (our DM uses a system where you roll for HP, but if you roll below half on the dice, you get to reroll that roll. So for example, if I roll a 1 or a 2 on a d4, then I get to reroll it until I get a 3 or a 4.)

Attributes: Attributes do not include bonuses from equipment.
8 Str | 8 Dex | 16 Con | 20 Int (18 + 1 from level 4 + 1 from level 8) | 14 Wis | 8 Cha

Skills: Name (Attribute bonus) Ranks (total bonus on skill check)
Bluff (Cha) 0 (-1)
Concentration (Con) 11 (+16) (11 ranks + 3 Con + 2 setting specific bonus)
Craft*(Int) (Sculpting) 2 (+8) (for Minor Creation)
Craft (Int) (Alchemy) 5 (+11) (for Minor Creation)
Disguise (Cha) 0 (-1)
Knowledge* (Arcana) 7 (+15) (7 ranks + 6 Int + 2 setting specific bonus)
Knowledge (Architecture) 1 (+7)
Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 6 (+12)
Knowledge (Geography) 1 (+7)
Knowledge (History) 1 (+7)
Knowledge (Local) 1 (+7)
Knowledge (Nature) 1 (+7)
Knowledge (Nobility) 1 (+7)
Knowledge (Religion) 2 (+8)
Knowledge (Planes) 2 (+8)
Knowledge (Psionic) 10 (+16)
Profession (Wis) 0 (+2)
Psicraft (Int) 10 (+16)

Feats:
Human 1: Boost Construct
Level 1: Empower Power
Psion bonus 1: Quicken Power
Level 3: Expanded Knowledge (Energy Missile)
Psion bonus 5: Psionic Meditation
Level 6: Expanded Knowledge (Empathic Transfer)

Powers:
Level 1: Energy Ray | Entangling Ectoplasm | Deja Vu | Astral Construct | Grease
Level 2: Concussion Blast | Crystalswarm | Control Sounds | Detect Hostile Intent
Level 3: Dispel Psionics | Ectoplasmic Cocoon | Time Hop | Telekinetic Thrust | Energy Wall
Level 4: Telekinetic Maneuver | Wall of Ectoplasm | Dimension Door

Equipment:
Periapt of Intellect +2 (2,000)
Skin of Ectoplasmic Armor (3,000) (I'm debating between either this or the popular Darkwood Shield + Mithral Chain Shirt combo)
Light Crossbow (35)
50 Bolts (5)
Shortspear
Dorje of Force Screen (750)
Dorje of Minor Creation (750)
Dorje of Missive, Mass (4500)
Power Stone of Fly x 3 (2100)
Power Stone of Levitate x 10 (1500)
Power Stone of Know Direction x 10 (250)
Handy Haversack (2000)
(~8k left over)


Again, any suggestions for equipment, powers, feats, and skill point spread is highly appreciated. :smallsmile:

[eggs]

Remember that magic items treat powers as spells, so things like Circlets of Rapid casting and Bracers of either Entangling Blast or Blast barrier can be fun to fiddle with. (I like Entangling blast, but there's some redundancy with Entangling Ectoplasm that you might not be into.)

EDIT:
Oh, and if you're a shaper with some resources invested in Astral Constructs, the Personal Construct ACF is gold.

EDITagain
Your feat progression has some problems - of your last 3 feats, you can't take one of them until level 4, and the other two are off limit until ECL 5. So something's going to need to be shuffled out or justified with shenanigans.

[RunicLGB]

For a bit of mixing Control with Blasting I kinda Like Energy Stun. It deals two less dice then the other energy powers based on its cost, but the any enemy that fails the damage save and a second will save is stunned for 1 round(not much, but enough if your team is competent in DPR). it hits a 5 foot radius, which sadly can't hit a lot of foes but can be easily placed in the thick of combat without much fear of hitting allies.

The real trick with that power is its augments. Every other energy spell augments at +1d6 damage every point, and +1 DC every 2 points. Energy stun augments at +1d6 and +1 DC for every point. So its easy to get ridiculous DCs with that power (at level 8 the full augment would deal 6d6 damage, and with your 20 (+5) int would have a save DC of 22 or 24 if you used Electricity.) Every level further ups the potential DC, much quicker then most other powers. Following the Above math, at 20th level with no overchanneling it would have a DC of 34, 36 electricity, and thats without further int boosts either.

Just a thought.

[TuggyNE]

Something weird going on in skills. :smallconfused: You appear to have a -2 Cha modifier, despite having 8 Cha, and you have 14 ranks in Concentration at level 8.


Bluff (Cha) 0 (-2)
Concentration (Con) 14 (+19) (14 ranks + 3 Con + 2 setting specific bonus)


Periapt of Intellect +2 (2,000)
(...)
Ioun Stone, Scarlet/Blue (+2 to Int, 8,000)

These don't stack, because they're both enhancement bonuses.

Also, you might want to grab a psicrystal and use it for a second focus, instead of or in addition to Psionic Meditation.

[eggs]

Also, for Psion blasters, there's always Empower Spell-like Ability, but that deserves any books that get thrown. :smalltongue:

[13_CBS]

Remember that magic items treat powers as spells, so things like Circlets of Rapid casting and Bracers of either Entangling Blast or Blast barrier can be fun to fiddle with. (I like Entangling blast, but there's some redundancy with Entangling Ectoplasm that you might not be into.)


Noted.



EDIT:
Oh, and if you're a shaper with some resources invested in Astral Constructs, the Personal Construct ACF is gold.


What book is the Personal Construct ACF in?



EDITagain
Your feat progression has some problems - of your last 3 feats, you can't take one of them until level 4, and the other two are off limit until ECL 5. So something's going to need to be shuffled out or justified with shenanigans.


Something weird going on in skills. :smallconfused: You appear to have a -2 Cha modifier, despite having 8 Cha, and you have 14 ranks in Concentration at level 8.


These issues seem to have come about because of a catastrophic misunderstanding of the Skills rules on my part. For some reason, I thought the max number of ranks you could have on a character was 2 x character level. :smallconfused: Will fix ASAP.



For a bit of mixing Control with Blasting I kinda Like Energy Stun. It deals two less dice then the other energy powers based on its cost, but the any enemy that fails the damage save and a second will save is stunned for 1 round(not much, but enough if your team is competent in DPR). it hits a 5 foot radius, which sadly can't hit a lot of foes but can be easily placed in the thick of combat without much fear of hitting allies.
*snip*

That's the issue...right now, I am running under the assumption that my teammates are NOT going to be terribly competent in DPR. However, I am also not entirely sure what sort of challenges my DM will throw at us: if we're lucky, our having our primary melee damage dealers be my Astral Construct and 2 Sneak Attackers will constitute "competent DPR".

If we're lucky.
:smalleek:




These don't stack, because they're both enhancement bonuses.

Doh!



Also, you might want to grab a psicrystal and use it for a second focus, instead of or in addition to Psionic Meditation.

Noted.


Also, for Psion blasters, there's always Empower Spell-like Ability, but that deserves any books that get thrown. :smalltongue:

I'm afraid you've gone over my head here. Is Empower SLA broken? Or just weird? :smallconfused:

[eggs]

What book is the Personal Construct ACF in?
It's in the Mind's Eye article (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070411a) series, which is oddly enough where the best first-party psionics support wound up.


I'm afraid you've gone over my head here. Is Empower SLA broken? Or just weird? :smallconfused:
It's not broken, but it breaks the two big psionic limitations (manifester level capping the augmentations on a power and psionic focus capping the number of metapsionics used at once), and does it in a really sleazy way (combining two fairly obscure bits of psionics trivia - all powers being PLAs and PLAs being valid for Empower SLA).

[13_CBS]

It's in the Mind's Eye article (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070411a) series, which is oddly enough where the best first-party psionics support wound up.


I would gladly give it a look, but...


The one exception is stuff found online--the DM disregards any online supplements, even if they're official.

...I'm afraid that I am unable to use things that exist solely on the internet, even if it's official. :smallfrown: