[3.5] Tips and Tricks for Psion(Shaper)?

[Phelix-Mu]

I just want to know what powers and tricks you find most useful for Shaper. Please, I do know about the "Drown 'Em in Poison" and associated tricks for psionic minor creation. Anything else is welcome. All 3.5 sources are good, with perhaps some allowance for 3.0 stuff that meshes with the revised psionics in EPH.

Also interested for good PrC for a high-level shaper, if you know of any unusual ones.

EDIT: For Details that I probably should have thought to put here in the first place.:smalleek:

It's an epic shaper cohort for an epic monk/wizard character of mine. We're outside the D&D-verse, and currently on Earth, so I'm pretty much stuck with human. Could be worse.

The cohort is for a LG character, so no undead. Also, there is high-tech armour in this future Earth, so the cohort will probably have a combo of power armour and energy shields from tech, so I'm just gonna pick up force screen and call it a day.

So far, it looks like he's a crafter type, with knowledge of useful high tech stuff (formerly studied robotics and engineering), and he has Epic Manifesting, so he's developed epic powers for making him extra awesome, including an invisible crystal-version of Gaara no Sabaku's sand, and fast-growing explosives made of crystal. I really can break anything I want with epic powers, so I'm not too worried about breaking the game back when he was level X.

I dipped Thrallherd and picked up a 17th level telepath thrall, so telepathy tricks are also on the table. He's already done the psychic chirurgery with her, though for plot reasons she's now stuck in a construct body (near-death experience some time ago), essentially a telepath mind in a large, floating crystal.

Were there ever any other epic feats for psionics released? I can get some mileage out of Psicrystal Power, but I'm thinking there may be better choices.

[Mithril Leaf]

You have just chosen my area of expertise. Alright, you have two main options as far as races go. You're either a (no levels of the racial class) Primordial Half Giant, because you get a free +1 manifester level which is really hard to snag. Or you're a warforged because immunity to poison is immensely useful, and the other immunities aren't bad. Other standard psionic races aren't bad either.

As far as powers go, you want astral construct and psionic minor creation, plus probably entangling ectoplasm. Although psionic minor creation is well known for poison, an underutilized liquid to create is distilled jeffrey pine resin, which is highly explosive. Beyond that, you want generically useful powers, I like inertial armor because later tricks let you have some seriously high AC. If Hyperconsious is on the table, you'll definitely want to pick up psianimate dead (which I made a PrC (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=248274) for if you can use stuff like that). Psianimate dead is basically better, free, easy animate dead that lets your undead made of any type keep their int score.

Skills, you'll want to max out UPD and try to get transparency in effect for that. If you can't, see if you can barter for half of your ranks in UPD counting as UMD as well. This lets you use kalshatar embedded shards, namely power link ones. These let you augment beyond your manifester level 3 times per day. Maxing them out lets you make 3 powers have augmentation equal to 3 times your manifester level, powers such as inertial armor. If UMD transparency works, you can either simultaneously or when needed also emulate a horse so that you can use horseshoes of flames from Savage Species which give you a nice +10 Int. Other ranks should go in generic good psion skills.

If you have any more specific questions, feel free to ask. The advice in the Handbook (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=5343) is nearly all good too.

[Humble Master]

Only PrC I know of for a Shaper is Ectopic Adept from Complete Psionic. It is 3.0 and is rather weak though.

[Terazul]

Only PrC I know of for a Shaper is Ectopic Adept from Complete Psionic. It is 3.0 and is rather weak though.

Well, Complete Psionic is 3.5, actually, but you shouldn't use it anyway since it arbitrarily nerfs astral constructs. Avoid the Ectopic feats, as IIRC they completely overwrite your normal constructs; Boost Construct is strictly better.

As far as PrCs go, there's also The Constructor (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625b) on the wizard site which got updated to 3.5. Great for a construct specialist, in that you get extra menu abilities, new menu abilities, minute/level constructs, and eventually the ability to make extras per 2pp augment on a single manifestation.

[Phelix-Mu]

You have just chosen my area of expertise. Alright, you have two main options as far as races go. You're either a (no levels of the racial class) Primordial Half Giant, because you get a free +1 manifester level which is really hard to snag. Or you're a warforged because immunity to poison is immensely useful, and the other immunities aren't bad. Other standard psionic races aren't bad either.

As far as powers go, you want astral construct and psionic minor creation, plus probably entangling ectoplasm. Although psionic minor creation is well known for poison, an underutilized liquid to create is distilled jeffrey pine resin, which is highly explosive. Beyond that, you want generically useful powers, I like inertial armor because later tricks let you have some seriously high AC. If Hyperconsious is on the table, you'll definitely want to pick up psianimate dead (which I made a PrC (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=248274) for if you can use stuff like that). Psianimate dead is basically better, free, easy animate dead that lets your undead made of any type keep their int score.

Skills, you'll want to max out UPD and try to get transparency in effect for that. If you can't, see if you can barter for half of your ranks in UPD counting as UMD as well. This lets you use kalshatar embedded shards, namely power link ones. These let you augment beyond your manifester level 3 times per day. Maxing them out lets you make 3 powers have augmentation equal to 3 times your manifester level, powers such as inertial armor. If UMD transparency works, you can either simultaneously or when needed also emulate a horse so that you can use horseshoes of flames from Savage Species which give you a nice +10 Int. Other ranks should go in generic good psion skills.

If you have any more specific questions, feel free to ask. The advice in the Handbook (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=5343) is nearly all good too.

It's an epic shaper cohort for an epic monk/wizard character of mine. We're outside the D&D-verse, and currently on Earth, so I'm pretty much stuck with human. Could be worse.

The cohort is for a LG character, so no undead. Also, there is high-tech armour in this future Earth, so the cohort will probably have a combo of power armour and energy shields from tech, so I'm just gonna pick up force screen and call it a day.

So far, it looks like he's a crafter type, with knowledge of useful high tech stuff (formerly studied robotics and engineering), and he has Epic Manifesting, so he's developed epic powers for making him extra awesome, including an invisible crystal-version of Gaara no Sabaku's sand, and fast-growing explosives made of crystal. I really can break anything I want with epic powers, so I'm not too worried about breaking the game back when he was level X.

I dipped Thrallherd and picked up a 17th level telepath thrall, so telepathy tricks are also on the table. He's already done the psychic chirurgery with her, though for plot reasons she's now stuck in a construct body (near-death experience some time ago), essentially a telepath mind in a large, floating crystal.

Were there ever any other epic feats for psionics released? I can get some mileage out of Psicrystal Power, but I'm thinking there may be better choices.

Really should have just put this in the first post....lemme edit that.

[Fouredged Sword]

I would go into crystal master if anything. DR6/-, +6 def, +6 to all saves, +6 Con, +6 dex, +6int, and power resistance are all worth the hit to manifester level.

[Mithril Leaf]

It's an epic shaper cohort for an epic monk/wizard character of mine. We're outside the D&D-verse, and currently on Earth, so I'm pretty much stuck with human. Could be worse.

The cohort is for a LG character, so no undead. Also, there is high-tech armour in this future Earth, so the cohort will probably have a combo of power armour and energy shields from tech, so I'm just gonna pick up force screen and call it a day.

So far, it looks like he's a crafter type, with knowledge of useful high tech stuff (formerly studied robotics and engineering), and he has Epic Manifesting, so he's developed epic powers for making him extra awesome, including an invisible crystal-version of Gaara no Sabaku's sand, and fast-growing explosives made of crystal. I really can break anything I want with epic powers, so I'm not too worried about breaking the game back when he was level X.

I dipped Thrallherd and picked up a 17th level telepath thrall, so telepathy tricks are also on the table. He's already done the psychic chirurgery with her, though for plot reasons she's now stuck in a construct body (near-death experience some time ago), essentially a telepath mind in a large, floating crystal.

Were there ever any other epic feats for psionics released? I can get some mileage out of Psicrystal Power, but I'm thinking there may be better choices.

Really should have just put this in the first post....lemme edit that.

Alright. High end tricks are different. You've got a high level telepath? Expanded Knowledge Fusion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/fusion.htm). Then Astral Seed (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/astralSeed.htm). Illithid Savant Lite. Have your druid buddy prepare shapechange one day and become a Chronotyryn. Fusion -> Astral Seed combo. You now have basically a gestalt trio of Shaper//Telepath//Druid with two full round actions per round. It does take 20 days however. I'd recommend hitting up the druid first if time is a constraint. If time isn't, make sure he makes himself a nice genesis'd home plane to leave his astral seed.

[Phelix-Mu]

Alright. High end tricks are different. You've got a high level telepath? Expanded Knowledge Fusion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/fusion.htm). Then Astral Seed (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/astralSeed.htm). Illithid Savant Lite. Have your druid buddy prepare shapechange one day and become a Chronotyryn. Fusion -> Astral Seed combo. You now have basically a gestalt trio of Shaper//Telepath//Druid with two full round actions per round. It does take 20 days however. I'd recommend hitting up the druid first if time is a constraint. If time isn't, make sure he makes himself a nice genesis'd home plane to leave his astral seed.

Hmm, the druid in the party is actually a little paranoid, but this sounds like the right kind of carrot to entice her to cooperate. Alignment might be an issue, as the druid is officially Neutral, but skews CN, and the two cohorts are LN, I believe.

Time is a big constraint, though we can occasionally carve out a week or two. We are trying to save a series of Multiverses from Tharizdun and his apocalyptic hordes as they rampage on a mission to destroy all creation. Most of the time we are pretty busy, and the DM has made it pretty difficult to exploit varying time traits in the past. Since we've just arrived in a real-life-but-the-future Earth kind of place, we are probably not going to have any time trait tricks, but we finally have a spaceship composed of thousands of awakened trees transmuted to the strength of adamantine and coated in a layer of riverine, so we do have a base of operations.

Which reminds me...time to get back to designing the mythals for the spaceship.:smallcool:

[Mithril Leaf]

Hmm, the druid in the party is actually a little paranoid, but this sounds like the right kind of carrot to entice her to cooperate. Alignment might be an issue, as the druid is officially Neutral, but skews CN, and the two cohorts are LN, I believe.

Time is a big constraint, though we can occasionally carve out a week or two. We are trying to save a series of Multiverses from Tharizdun and his apocalyptic hordes as they rampage on a mission to destroy all creation. Most of the time we are pretty busy, and the DM has made it pretty difficult to exploit varying time traits in the past. Since we've just arrived in a real-life-but-the-future Earth kind of place, we are probably not going to have any time trait tricks, but we finally have a spaceship composed of thousands of awakened trees transmuted to the strength of adamantine and coated in a layer of riverine, so we do have a base of operations.

Which reminds me...time to get back to designing the mythals for the spaceship.:smallcool:

Psionic Genesis doesn't let you mess with time traits, that was just for a base of operations type thing. If you can get any sort of safe haven for that long, you can gestalt your party onto him, I'd personally start with the druid because free double rounds. You'll probably also need metamorphosis so you can become the same size and type. If you can end up with the giant type at the end of all of it, you can use return to nature so that the psion ends up fine sized, which is sweet for any magic type. Since you lose pretty much anything you originally had from race, you only care about racial bonuses to your mentals.

[Phelix-Mu]

Any other suggestions, maybe ones that require a little less druid hijacking?

[Mithril Leaf]

Any other suggestions, maybe ones that require a little less druid hijacking?

If Persistant Power off the DSP SRD is on the table, you can take that with the Permanent Focus (http://dsp-d20-srd.wikidot.com/permanent-focus) feat lets you have a good number of astral constructs up all day by mixing it with a recharge method and some way of hitting a high manifester level. How you want to approach it is up to you, but at epic level it shouldn't be too hard to be able to have 9th level astral constructs up all day. Additionally, you don't have to hijack the druid. The telepath is an equally valid choice.

[Phelix-Mu]

And more shameless bumping in case anyone aside from the very helpful Mithril Leaf has any suggestions.