Help with a Dragonborn (Warforged) Ardent

[Torathir22]

So this is going to be my first campaign in which I can play a character with all books open, so I'm hoping that you guys can give some advice.

So far I have this:

Dragonborn (Variant Warforged)
+4 Con, -2 Dex, -2 Int, -2 Cha.
Str: 14
Dex: 11
Con: 14
Int: 6
Wis: 16
Cha: 11

1 Flaw undecided on which one)
Feats: Hidden talent? Psiforged Body, Psicrystal Affinity (Nimble)
Primary Mantles: Freedom, Mental Might

Note:
The primary mantles can and probably will change, and if the dm gives the ok for the Hidden Talent power to be wis based instead of cha I'll dump that as well. I will probably ditch Psiforged body, but I am not yet sure what I'll get instead.

[Fouredged Sword]

I would avoid any template that makes you no longer a warforged, as you will no longer qualify for your body feats.

Instead, I recommend becoming the king of smack, or some variation of natural weapon psiwar. I think you can get a second slam through a feat and a bite attack as a warforged. Then get the claws power, then get big and go to town with multiattack and 5 natural weapons.

[Psyren]

1) Instead of Psionic Eldritch Knight, show him the adaptation for Abjurant Champion in Complete Mage that lets you turn it psionic (Psychokinetic Champion) and take that. Now you have a full BAB PrC with great abilities and don't lose any ML or powers known.

2) Your Str is kind of low for a melee. I would personally put the 14 in Wis, 13 in Con and 16 in Str, then all stat boosts to Str (with maybe a point in Con.) With Psychic Warrior, you are "Warrior" first, "Psychic" second, unless you are starting at level 10+ and can dump your physical stats by using Metamorphosis. Since you have a long road to get there, you need to live long enough and hit hard enough to survive. By the time you get to 5th-level+ powers, you should have an item enhancing your Wis to gain access.

3) For powers and feats, have you checked the Psychic Warrior Handbook? (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=f17sk5hjedd8f41s04br25sm45&topic=1542.0) A must-have at first level is Vigor, this will be invaluable at all levels and make you a brutal tank. Even at level 1 it will last the entire combat, and if the HP get taken down you can simply recast it. Best of all, it isn't subject to your racial healing reduction.

4) I'm fairly sure you cannot take both Psiforged Body and Adamantine Body normally but I'm AFB so can't verify that. However, Since Adamantine Body won't stack with Inertial Armor, you have a good reason to get rid of it anyway (especially if you do go with Psychokinetic Champion as I suggested above). In exchange, pick up Psicrystal Affinity - Your psicrystal is a must for Sharing Pain with, combined with Vigor and you will be very, very hard to kill and not need a lot of healing; its personality will also give you nice bonuses, such as Nimble, Observant, Single-Minded, and Resolved.

[Torathir22]

Eldritch Knight was what I used as an example, so he should be fine with Abjurant Champion, once I figure out exactly which powers it would apply to.
I'll amend the stats like you said and I have investigated that handbook.
Is psicrystal affinity really worth grabbing so early though? I'm not really going to be getting share pain for a few levels.

As for the Dragonborn Template and warforged, look here: (http:////www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ask/20070112a)
I think I could use this to convince the dm to let me keep living construct with certain other templates, as in his setting all warforged are made in a forge powered by the soul of a dead god or something. So half Celestial or something would be easy to get, as I'd say that my guy was tainted with celestial essence or something (Not that I'd take it).

[Big Fau]

How exactly are you switching the Wis penalty for an Int one? Did your DM let you, or is there something else going on?

[Torathir22]

The dm let me. He justifies it with them being robots that follow orders, but I just wanted to not have a wis bonus

[Psyren]

Is psicrystal affinity really worth grabbing so early though? I'm not really going to be getting share pain for a few levels.


It's helpful at all levels - It's an extra spot/listen check (along with a bonus to yours from Alertness), it can spy and sneak for you easily, and its personality gives you additional benefits. But there are other feats competing for that level 1 slot; if you can access it, the absolute best choice is Hidden Talent.

[Torathir22]

That feels weird, since I'm already psionic, but Ill see if I can grab it. But wouldn't the extra power be near useless to me anyway?

[Psyren]

That feels weird, since I'm already psionic, but Ill see if I can grab it. But wouldn't the extra power be near useless to me anyway?

1) You can never, ever have enough powers known. No, not even then.

2) 2 extra PP is a lot at first level (especially for a Psywar), and you get those in addition to the bonus power. For a feat, that's plenty of benefit.

3) This gives you a power from any list. Dimension Hop is one of the best choices for this, which you can normally only get from the Freedom Mantle, but there are other great choices right in the XPH - Entangling Ectoplasm for instance is one of the best 1st-level debuffs in D&D, Matter Agitation gives you a strong, cheap ranged attack with no save, Astral Construct gives you a scaling flanking buddy (and later a mount) and Grease gets you out of grapples and disarms your foes.

Minor Creation has the potential to be the most broken of all, particularly for a Warforged. You can make plant material, which means contact poison, whicn you can slather your fists/claws/teeth in without fear since you're immune. I don't actually advise this - it's a great way to get psionics banned at your table - but it's a good way to show what even 1st-level powers are capable of.

[Torathir22]

Yeah. But it keys off of cha. And I have a cha of 6, so no manifesting based off of that

[sleepyphoenixx]

If you want to go melee you could dip 2 levels of monk for bonus feats and take Tashalatora for unarmed damage, flurry of blows and AC bonus as a full monk

[Psyren]

Yeah. But it keys off of cha. And I have a cha of 6, so no manifesting based off of that

It only keys off Cha if you have no other source of manifesting. Since you do, you just get the 2 PP and the free power, ignoring the Cha bit.

So yes, it's still the best level 1 feat in the game for any manifester.

[Fouredged Sword]

I put it right up with psicrystal affinity actually. Psycrystals are also just that good.

[Dusk Eclipse]

For Psions maybe, but Psychic Warriors need all the PP and powers they can get at low levels. You need to be higher level to get the most out of your psycrystal since you need at lease 1 expanded knowledge for Share Pain.

[Torathir22]

So I start with Hidden Talent, Power Attack and Psiforged body, grab the Freedom Mantle at 2nd, and pick up psicrystal at 3rd? Then I want to grab expanded knowledge (share pain), linked power and what?

[Psyren]

There's, ah, quite a lot of good feats to choose from, so your playstyle is ultimately going to decide what you take and when. Overchannel (+ Talented), Psionic Meditation, Psicrystal Containment, Extend Power, Metapower, Earth Power, more Expanded Knowledges/Tap Mantle/Don Mantle, Cleave, the Multiattack line if you plan on natural weapons, the Improved Trip/Knockdown line if you plan on lockdown, Shock Trooper/Combat Brute if you plan on charging, then there's general goodies like Improved Initiative and Improved Psicrystal...

[Fouredged Sword]

I personally like to go Psiwar 5-6 / Crystal master 10

Yes, it's a bit odd, but you get nice DR6/-, +6 strength, dex, con, and wisdom boosts, and +6 to saves and AC.

The prereqs are easy as well.

[Psyren]

Do Meditant instead - you get the same benefits without losing BAB, you double your powerpoints, you lose 1 ML instead of 2 and you can turn ethereal all day long.

[Fouredged Sword]

You raise a very good point. One can use the psywar feats to gain deep meditation. Meditant just takes soo many feats to enter. I like crystal master because it is so easy to get into.

[Psyren]

Agreed, Meditant is pretty feat-hungry - but the feats at least are useful on their own even before you enter the PrC.

[Fouredged Sword]

I wonder the practicality of going Psiwar 5 / crystal master 1 / Meditant 10 / Crystal master 4? Then finish out Crystal master in epic...

I think you have just enough feats to pull it off in time
1 - Psycrystal Affinity
B1 - Meditation
B2 - Deep meditation
3 - Deep meditation
B5 - Deep meditation
6 - Free

I call it the new age hippy build. Makes me want to do it with a warforged though, and slide all the feats down one space to fit in adiamnt body...

[Torathir22]

I could certainly do that. But I need to trade away the 2nd level bonus feat for Mantled Warrior, and I am not sure about spending so many feats on that, especially since the amount of time spent on meditating may anger the party

[Fouredged Sword]

You meditate exactly once, to open the chakra, and you are done. Then, you get the effect a number of times per day based on burning uses from a pool of charges. You only need to meditate to reawaken the chakra if you are dropped to negative HP or such.

Besides, they sleep, you don't.

[Torathir22]

Thanks for the suggestions for the psychic warrior, but I've decided to go with an ardent because mantles are cool (and we apparently have 3 gishes in the party, not counting me). I've edited my first post to reflect that.

One other question: Can a warforged dragonborn wear armour? If not, would it be fair for me to be able to if I drop certain traits (like the natural ac warforged get?)