Manipulation of the Mind Blast

[Manly Man]

To get to the point immediately, I have a question for you all. The mind flayer's mind blast attack is, normally, considered to be a spell-like ability, and with the psionic-based version, a psi-like ability, considered to be a fourth-level power.

As such, who here would allow a mind flayer to use metapsionic feats to manipulate the mind blast as it would a normal power (Maximize Power would make the stun last for twelve rounds, Enlarge Power would make it a 120 ft. cone, etcetera), and have the costs of them use up the mind flayer's power points? It's treated as a power of fourth level, albeit one that costs no power points. I ask this because it would be quite awesome for the DM and scary for the players to have a mind flayer able to add different twists to their blasts to great effect.

[Segev]

Technically, what you're looking for are feats like "Maximize Spell-Like Ability." The reason is that spell-likes (and psi-likes) aren't targetable by metamagic and meta-psi, precisely because they don't use spell slots/power points.

Now, a DM house-ruling it to work? It would definitely make them scarier, but expect anybody who manages to get psi-like abilities to want to do the same thing. I would be sure to keep track of psionic focus, as well, because meta-psi feats require its expenditure. (Maximize Spell-Like Ability doesn't, but has limited use/day.)

[Mr. Mason]

Hmmm... as Segev stated, there are ways to do this; I think the issue, however, is not whether you can but whether you should, and that all depends on the skill level of your party and the challenge in question -- if your party is strong enough to handle it, why not increase the difficulty? Conversely, if the party seems to be struggling, you don't have to use it. The cool thing about abilities such as this is their ease of existence -- you can plan to use it, but if the party is too challenged, it needn't be used.
I don't see any reason for you not to be capable of using it -- trusty rule zero again!

I hope this helps.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Metapsionic Mind Blasts are not significantly more dangerous than standard ones imo. If you fail the save you're already stunned for 3 rounds minimum.
That's pretty much a death sentence in any kind of serious combat. So, of you want to use metapsionic feats on it i wouldn't mind. It probably won't make much of a practical difference.