New to Psions

[GrimJester]

I've been wanting to make a psionic character for awhile now and finally have the chance to build one. I plan on being a Xeph Kineticist, or a Xeph Psychic Warrior. I want to be a Xeph for the burst ability. I'm looking for a character that can move fast and specialize in cold damage. Which do you think would be better for a first time playing psionic and also what feats would be good to have. I am also thinking of prestige classing into Diamond Dragon what are your thoughts. Thank you for your comments and help.

[Yora]

Someone made a really great guide explaining everything one needs to know about psionics with relatively short amounts of text. I see if I can find it.

As a psychic warrior you probably would want to make use of psionic feats, but as a psion you would have to learn more powers. It probably evens out, though I think psychic warrior will be a bit easier. Much less to get wrong with them.

Edit: Psyren had it in his signature, that made things easer. Basics of Psionics explained. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10635999&postcount=2)

[eggs]

On Diamond Dragon feedback, the class has some issues. Namely that its natural weapons eat combat actions, they don't stack with other natural weapons and the class loses some manifesting. You could probably do most of the same things better, and with the same fluff, with a straightclassed Psychic Warrior with Dragontouched+Shape Soulmeld (Claws of the Wyrm) feats from Dragon Magic and the Dragon Tail power from Magic of Eberron. If you just like the class, it won't cripple a build or anything, but it's just not all that great.

One of the advantages Xephs have going for them is the Xeph Celerity feat in Complete Psionic. If you take it at low levels, you get to have Haste/extra attacks quite a while before anyone else (even if it's very few times per day). The Extra Xeph Burst feat can be useful with the Celerity feat at low levels, but it's one of those feats that shows CPsi was written in a week: it needs a bit of adjustment to do anything the first time you take it (probably just turning it to +2 uses/day). But with either of those feats, you'll probably want to retrain them to something more useful once Haste and Boots/Weapons of speed start becoming commonplace.