Ardent Help

[Vaz]

Okay, I know Ardent's (and CPsi) are a little screwy, but they're brilliant fun. I love the idea of them, and Dominant Mantle is nifty.

I'm planning on multiclassing, but running up to 10th level to get myself Dominant Mantle (starting at 8th). It's a reasonably high powered game, and with Substitute Powers, I'll probably get myself Linked Bestow Power and Syncronicity, combined with Time Mantle to say "Hi, Action Economy" as I sail right on past it.

However, I want to go into a non-Psionic Prestige Class, and using Practised Manifester (at 9th), followed by 4 levels in the prestige class, followed by Dominant Ideal Ardent at ECL14, for ML14, therefore gaining access to Powers of 13 PP.

Due to standard Magic/Psionic Transparency, would you allow an Orange Ioun Stone to advance my Manifester Level to 15 when I take Ardent 10 at ECL14, therefore allow 15 PP Powers? Is there any other permanent/Instantaneous boosts to Caster Level outside of class levels that will let me do this? Does Overchannel get me any benefit for this purpose?

Is there any way to increase powers known without Wild Talent etc? 10 Powers at 10th level is pretty poor, really, and it's already feat starved. Through the ACF's I can select my powers easily enough, so 3 Mantles is fine, but it's the number I'm having struggle with getting used to.

Lastly, I'm wanting to turn it into some sort of Party Face style City Assassin, but 2 skill points is a killer, especially with its fairly horrendous list. I'm thinking using Disguise (through City Slicker) and using Compulsion and Charm to push me through, followed by Metamorphosis and Read Thoughts to learn what the Guards are thinking. Minor Creation comes into play before the battle to gain me Poisons I can apply to targets (Old Lace and Arsenic is printed out before me ready. With Con and Wisdom already requiring large investiture in a point buy, and Dex and Cha also being particularly relevant, how should I allocate skill points? If I say abilities of 8/12/14/12/16/14 (nominally; using the Substitute ACF to gain Expansion for extra Strength as and when), that gives me 30 Skill Points.

Disguise 10 gets me +24 when I get Metamorphosis, Disguise Kit, etc at ECL 10, so that's a must. Concentration for being a Psionic Character is always useful, so maximising that. Leaves me with 10 points to spread across Craft Poisonmaking, Bluff (5 ranks for synergy), Forgery, Intimidate, Diplomacy, etc. Spot and Hide can always be achieved by Metamorphosis and a Hat of Disguise. Metamorphosis to take the form of a Skulk or something, and let my Wisdom bonus buff it, while I use a hat of Disguise to take the form of whatever Humanoid race (provided Original Form refers to the unmodified type) I'm meant to be exploring, perhaps taking the form of a Captain of the Guard.

[Psyren]

Due to standard Magic/Psionic Transparency, would you allow an Orange Ioun Stone to advance my Manifester Level to 15 when I take Ardent 10 at ECL14, therefore allow 15 PP Powers? Is there any other permanent/Instantaneous boosts to Caster Level outside of class levels that will let me do this? Does Overchannel get me any benefit for this purpose?

Yes, this works, along with any other magic item that increases caster level (such as a bead of karma, which gives +4 ML for 10 minutes/day, provided you can activate it.)

Any magic item that raises your CL to 15 (even temporarily) will also raise your ML, letting you spend 15 PP on a power. In addition, anything that lowers your PP costs (such as a Torc of Power Preservation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/items/universalItems.htm#torcofPowerPreservation)) will also let you manifest 15 PP powers, by spending 14.

Feats that lower the PP cost you pay will also work. This includes feats like Earth Power and Midnight Augmentation*.

*for 15 PP powers that cost that much due to augmentation, like a 15 PP Astral Construct.



Is there any way to increase powers known without Wild Talent etc? 10 Powers at 10th level is pretty poor, really, and it's already feat starved. Through the ACF's I can select my powers easily enough, so 3 Mantles is fine, but it's the number I'm having struggle with getting used to.

Aside from feats, you can:

1) pay a higher-level telepath to Chirurgery additional powers into your brain - this will let you bypass your limit. However, this is likely to be expensive and there may not be any psions of this power in your campaign. (At least, not ones willing to help you.)

2) You can use a psicrown - these are basically psionic staves, which means you use your own ML and Wis to operate the powers stored inside (though you must use the PP stored in the psicrown - you cannot use your own reserve on it normally.) You also don't need to worry about given powers being "on your list" so long as you know the command thought necessary to activate the crown. You can purchase an existing one or collaborate with another psionicist to craft one containing powers you don't know.



Lastly, I'm wanting to turn it into some sort of Party Face style City Assassin, but 2 skill points is a killer, especially with its fairly horrendous list.
...
With Con and Wisdom already requiring large investiture in a point buy, and Dex and Cha also being particularly relevant, how should I allocate skill points?

This is about as difficult as making a (non-cloistered, domainless) Cleric into a skillmonkey - i.e. very. Without any feats to get things like soulmelds or Open Minded, your recourse is likely going to be powers - which will probably mean putting skill-based powers into your psicrown.

As far as disguise, I'm uncertain about Disguise Self stacking with Polymorph/Metamorphosis, but can't find anything wrong with it by the rules. Your DM may frown on combining these two though.