Synchronicity Shenanigans

[VariSami]

Hi.

Ok, straight to business. In my current campaign, there is a Psychic Warrior whose player uses Linked Power and Psionic Meditation and asked me if I allowed their use with Synchronicity. My philosophy being that if the RAI allows it, I shall too, I did allow it (although I also warned him that if he cannot remember how the rules regarding them work, punishment will be dealt accordingly).

Earlier I grimaced at the possibility that the group's Crusader might attempt to become an idiot but it seems I have a much more urgent chance of infinite actions at hand.

Basically, it seems that you manifest a swift action power linked with synchronicity. Using either that turn's or the next's move action, you regain your psionic focus. The next turn, you will have your standard action AND the readied action from Synchronicity. Once again, since you have your psionic focus, you may rinse and repeat. Effectively this gives you an extra standard action with readying limitations each turn for a few power points at a time.

Do I have this down correctly? I know that he could try and go infinite (in which case the campaign will simply end - or his character will become subject to psychic overload). However, how game-breaking a combo have I allowed exactly? I am well aware that messing with the action economy is among the cheesiest things possible but since he is a Psychic Warrior, it seems that he just wants to make an extra attack or two with his greatsword each turn. Any experiences on this?

[Orran]

I'm no psionics expert, but the power schism allows you to have one extra standard action per round for rounds/level anyway. It is purely mental, but a comparison between the two sounds fair enough.
What is he doing with this extra standard action? He can't full attack with it, but he could manifest extra buffs, which is a benefit, a few pp per round seems like a fair trade, psionic warriors don't get a great deal anyway.

[VariSami]

Well, unlike Schism, he can actually use the actions to make physical things with both - although doing mental things is the more powerful thing to do 90% of the time.

I suppose there should be no real reason for worry. The player simply approached me as if he was anticipating that I would not allow it and that is a sign of something broken more often than not. Also, I know for a fact that he must have picked it from one optimization board or another since the player is relatively new and relies on these kinds of advice (too much, IMHO). When I googled it myself, there were references to infinite actions per turn which had me worried.

[AmberVael]

I think the difficulty with Synchronicity is that even if you want to use it reasonably, there's no actual line where its power ends. If push comes to shove, why not use it to start multiplying your actions rather than just adding one or two more? I mean, if you really need it, you do have that option... and then once you've done it once, why not use it again later?

It's easier for it to start going downhill.

However, I do think it is reasonable to want to use Synchronicity and not try to break it so horribly. So, if I were you, I'd put this one simple houserule in place which will deny infinite actions without even denying extra actions: No synchronicity nesting. You can link synchronicity with synchronicity. You can twin synchronicity. But you cannot use a synchronicity action to use synchronicity in any form.

In any case, using synchronicity to get extra actions is pretty strong, but I don't know that I'd worry too much about it so long as he isn't avidly pursuing other action avenues too. Casters can use things like quicken to get extra actions, initiators get a range of abilities that allow them to easily use all of their actions very effectively (which is a bit rare), factotum can generate extra actions... I think it should be okay so long as there is no nesting going on, and the other people in your party have comparable action capabilities.

[Maginomicon]

The Linked Power feat was badly written. Here are some clarifications on it:

“Intend to manifest” means that you must still wait until your next round before you manifest what you intend to manifest. It’s essentially saying “it’s linked, but there’s a 6-second delay before the linked power goes off”. Since those 6 seconds are fluid, you can choose to have the [latter] linked power manifest (or choose to not manifest it at all) at any time during your next turn (even though it does not expend any power points or actions to manifest it). To think of it another way, append the following to the Linked Power feat: “On your next turn, you may manifest the linked power once as a free action for no power points, which still provokes an attack of opportunity like manifesting a power would and follows the limitations described above.”

“Not altered in any way” means you cannot augment either power affected by the linked power feat or apply feats like Metapower.

My personal house rule regarding "Linked Power Loops":


You can’t use the Linked Power feat to form a loop. This includes single loops, cross-loops, or any other convoluted loops. An act that would complete a loop and set it in motion always fails. This is similar to the weirdness for how a bag of holding and a portable hole interact.
Keep in mind, every use of the Linked Power feat requires expending a psionic focus anyway, and the only known way to get around this problem is to use the “meditation hustle” trick or the “dominant ideal” ardent ACF.

[Psyren]

The quickest and easiest fix for Synchronicity is to add this line:

"This power cannot interact with metapsionics."

Now it is still useful (whether augmented or not) but not broken.

[Rebel7284]

You need to a) have infinite power points, b) be a Dominant Ideal Ardent to do infinite actions. Otherwise you can burn a bunch of power points and then get 2-3 extra actions next turn. Very powerful, but won't break the game on a psychic warrior.

The best way to fix it is to say you can never have more than one readied action queued up at a time (and indeed the rules sort of support this from what I recall).

Edit: Power wise, you are transforming a Swift Action into a standard action, needing an extra move action to do it again. How powerful this is depends on WHAT the character can do with the actions. On a psychic warrior, this is actually less powerful than Factotum 8 I think. On a full Manifester, this can be effectively 3.0 haste (again, minus the swift action... which IS relevant)

Note that any character can wear a Belt of Battle and do this once a day.

[Psyren]

Note that any character can wear a Belt of Battle and do this once a day.

Belt of Battle isn't a useful comparison. In addition to being 1/day as opposed to reusable, the Belt also doesn't have the flexibility that Synchronicity does. With the Belt, you have to take the action immediately, but with Synchronicity, you can specify the conditions such that you take the readied action right away, after moving or performing some other action, or even out of turn by responding to another person's action.

In other words, Synchronicity is considerably more powerful, so any decisions to nerf/ban it don't need to take BoB into account.

[VariSami]

I do not think that Maginomicon's clarification really clarifies anything since that is essentially what is happening: the character manifests the Synchronicity part on his next turn as per Linked Power. However, I agree with you and Psyren (I think) on the fact that it should probably not be used to manifest extra Synchronicities. Actually, my player claimed that he should somehow be able to receive two extra standard actions each turn but I cannot twist my brain around how that is supposed to work (and really, I understand most rules well enough so this is quite stressing).

Then again, he seems to have begun understanding my point that IF he takes his optimization to combo levels that leave the rest of the party behind, I will need to adjust the encounters accordingly and that this can only lead to trouble for his character or for the rest. I think he might contend with one extra action each round, and that can be enforced with the "you cannot use Synchronicity actions to make Synchronicity-related actions" or "you may only have one action readied at a time". I actually think the latter is more elegant, and I thank Rebel for that. Most definitely RAI.

[Maginomicon]

I do not think that Maginomicon's clarification really clarifies anything since that is essentially what is happening: the character manifests the Synchronicity part on his next turn as per Linked Power.The "intend to manifest" clarification prevents someone from using Linked Power Synchronicity to get as many standard actions as they have power points in a single turn using the Dominant Ideal trick. Also recall that the number of power points you can spend on a power (including augmentation and metapsionics) can be no more than your manifester level, so there's a hard limit on how many you can spend. Regardless, the "not altered in any way" clarification prevents abuse of this.

[Rebel7284]

Belt of Battle isn't a useful comparison. In addition to being 1/day as opposed to reusable, the Belt also doesn't have the flexibility that Synchronicity does. With the Belt, you have to take the action immediately, but with Synchronicity, you can specify the conditions such that you take the readied action right away, after moving or performing some other action, or even out of turn by responding to another person's action.

In other words, Synchronicity is considerably more powerful, so any decisions to nerf/ban it don't need to take BoB into account.

Belt of battle gives you a standard action. You can use a standard action to ready a standard action. Augmenting Synchronicity throws that out of the window though by taking away some of the typical limits on readying. :)

[Psyren]

Belt of battle gives you a standard action. You can use a standard action to ready a standard action. Augmenting Synchronicity throws that out of the window though by taking away some of the typical limits on readying. :)

Synchronicity actually removes two limits on readying.

1) Unaugmented: You don't have to specify the condition under which you'll take the action - you simply choose when to do it.
2) Augmented: You don't have to specify the action you're going to take either.

So even unaugmented Synchro is different (i.e. stronger) than a belt used for a standard.