Good Feats for Psions?

[AzureNightshade]

A player requested to play a psion in my campaign, I'm alright with this but i know absolutely nothing about psions! As I have agreed to help create everyone's characters, I need some advice for feats to give psions, cuz I have personally never dabbled in psionics.

They are tending towards blasting and transport utility powers.

(They are a purple cat who's psicrystal is embedded in their forehead, lol)




TL;DR: I need to know good feats for psions! pls halp!

[Psyren]

Read this (http://www.brilliantgameologists.com/boards/?topic=10238.0) - focus primarily on the Psionic and Metapsionc subsections, but be sure to read the others as well. If you have time, read the entire guide, there's a lot of great advice there.

Above all, don't forget the cardinal rule of psionics - A psionic character cannot spend more power points on a single manifestation than his/her manifester level.

[AzureNightshade]

Read this (http://www.brilliantgameologists.com/boards/?topic=10238.0) - focus primarily on the Psionic and Metapsionc subsections, but be sure to read the others as well. If you have time, read the entire guide, there's a lot of great advice there.

Above all, don't forget the cardinal rule of psionics - A psionic character cannot spend more power points on a single manifestation than his/her manifester level.

I read that guide before coming here, but I don't know enough about psionics to really GET the feats that they are recommending, I was hoping for a general use feat list for a learning as you go player/dm lol.

This is my second time encountering psionic using characters and my first time dming for one! I know about that rule at least! I know how their casting works just not whats good. They have to be at least minimally optimized because most of the party is fairly proficient and I don't want them to feel useless.

[Psyren]

Err.. hmm. Not sure what you mean. It seems pretty clear to me, if you're inexperienced stick with the blue and purple rated stuff. I guess I could help pare down the guide's recommendations some? What kind of psion (i.e. what discipline and why) is your player planning to play?

The main choices, sticking with the XPH, are things like Overchannel + Talented, Psionic Meditation, Expanded Knowledge to pick up any good powers (especially from other classes/disciplines), Extend Power, Psicrystal Affinity, Improved Psicrystal and Psicrystal Containment.

[Blightedmarsh]

I think he is trying to say that he understands that X is supposed to be good but he doesn't get why. How it works to enhance a build or mitigate its weaknesses. Truth be told this kind of information is left out of a lot of handbooks and would be quite useful to a novice.

[Ravitiate]

Hi,

I just started reading about Psionics a few days ago, and what really helped me "understand" Psionics is trying to get together a 1-20 build. Figure out what you want to do, try building it, Google what suggestions other have gotten and see how they could help you. Once you can't make your build fit in all the feats you want you're on the right track! :)

First of - "every" Psion wants a Psicrystal, so just lock that feat into every build. There are lots of good feats and powers that boosts the Psion through the Crystal (ie. Psicrystal Containment), and every spell you cast on yourself can simultaneously affect your crystal as long as it is within 5 feet of you.

The easiest Psions to make seems to be "Egoists" and "Telepaths" simply for their exclusive powers. I myself find Egoists to be superior as they get access to, I’ll try to explain why I like some of the Egoist-spells:

- Metamorphosis (Basically Psionic Polymorph. Grant yourself a better STR/DEX/CON, Natural Armor, roleplay another in a strange city, hide yourself, get Wings, burrow below the ground, breathe in water, tons of utility)
- Hustle (Swift Action to gain a move action, obviously handy)
- Fission (Split yourself into two characters, effectively doubling your available actions and reducing your mortality)
- Empathing Transfer (Transfer damage from someone to yourself, healing them and damaging you for half of what you removed. Combined with tricks like Vigor (Granting yourself and your crystal temporary extra HP) and Share Pain you’re effectively the party’s best tank and healer.
- Fusion makes you combine your form with another’s form. An easy way is to Metamorph your crystal to something that grants lots of good stats and immunities, and simply fuse yourself with the crystal.

What feats are optimal depends on what your player wants to do, but you should really consider these:

- Psicrystal Affinity (Gives you a Psicrystal!)
- Overchannel (Take some damage to cast powers like you’re of a higher level, pretty good. Later pick the feat “Talented” to not take damage while using overchannel on 3rd level powers and below, and then use the power “Psychic Reformation” to swap Overchannel for another feat).
- Psicrystal Containment (If you’re expending your Psionic focus a lot, this grants effectively grants you another focus).
- Metamophic Transfer (if your character is gonna Metamorph a lot)
- Linked Power (You cast a power now, and link it to another power. This power gets activated for free during your next turn. You pay the PP for both powers at once and the total can’t exceed your manifestation level. Good on targeted powers and buffs).
- Expanded Knowledge (Use it to get a power your discipline don’t have access to).
- Psionic meditation (Grant yourself Psionic Focus as a move-action instead of a fullround action. Combine with Hustle and you’ll get Psionic Focus at the expense of a swift action!)
The best metapower-feats are more or less the same as the Wizards preferred Metamagic feats. The most handy ones are Extend Power, Quicken Power and Twin Power.

[AzureNightshade]

Oh ok, that helps alot actually! I thought psions just got psi-crystals like wizards got familiars, LOL.

Me and the player have worked out their feat choices at least though level 6 so we should be able to do more research between now and then!

Thanks a bunch!

Oh, on a side note; I just remembered they need items! What items are good for psions? Besides the usual no brainer stuff for every character of course!

Edit: oh yeah, they are the Transportation one, although other then that they are mostly focused on blasting because the party already has a favored soul, conjurer, and a beguiler.

[Darth Stabber]

The easiest Psions to make seems to be "Egoists" and "Telepaths" simply for their exclusive powers. I myself find Egoists to be superior as they get access to, I’ll try to explain why I like some of the Egoist-spells:


Egoists are actually one of the harder specialties, and not particularly strong. Telepath and Shaper are easily better, and both are also easier to play than egoists. It you are a newbie who wants to play an egoist, I would recommend psywar in it's place, as it is far more forgiving and can replicate many of the same concepts. Telepath is incredibly strong if you don't run into a bunch of stuff immune to mind affecting, and shaper is all around great (especially with astral constructs). Even if you aren't a shaper then taking expanded knowledge to get astral construct is a VERY worthwhile use of a feat, as that power is strong and very flexible.

[Renen]

- Overchannel (Take some damage to cast powers like you’re of a higher level, pretty good. Later pick the feat “Talented” to not take damage while using overchannel on 3rd level powers and below, and then use the power “Psychic Reformation” to swap Overchannel for another feat).

You can use Talented w/o overchannel? Wut?

[Psyren]

You can use Talented w/o overchannel? Wut?

I don't think he said that...

[Renen]

It sounds like he suggests to swap it away, but leave talented.

[Psyren]

It sounds like he suggests to swap it away, but leave talented.

Oh, I hadn't read it that way. Yeah, hopefully he'd swap them both out.

But honestly, those are both good all the way through your career. No matter how high you augment it, a 1st-level power is still 1st-level (e.g. Astral Construct) and thus will qualify for Talented.

[Shaynythyryas]

- Practiced manifester (Complete Psionic) is invaluable if he wants to multiclass. It gives him +4 to manifester level, capped by HD (basically it allows you to compensate up to 4 non manifesting class levels.)
- besides this feat, if not familiar with psionics, do not delve into the Complete Psionic book. It's poorly written, not well balanced at all and opens up way too many cheese potential (Synchronicity, Hustle...)

- expanded psionic knowledge to get the most powerful tools of other disciplines : Temporal acceleration (low level Time Stop), Schism (1 free extra standard mental action per round !), Metamorphosis, Astra Construct (really, really great summon available really early)...

- Psionic Meditation is mandatory if you want to use metapowers.
- speaking of which : Extend, Empower, Maximize, Quicken or Twin Power are great candidates, up to your preferences.

[ZamielVanWeber]

If you have a spare feat then unconditional power is hot (great with overchannel/taleneted to make some unstoppable L3 powers).

[Perseus]

Well depending on the cheese factor...


Toughness + Troll Blooded.

Take share pain power and hit the psicrystal with it... Very hard to kill via HP damage...

Plus I roleplayed it as my body was out of control due to experiments on me. I gained the power to blow stuff up with my mind and the power to regenerate... I turned green for some reason too.