Builds for the Voce Warrior

[Nettlekid]

(To start off, apologies, I made this same thread about two months ago but got no replies, so I'm trying again.)

In the 3rd party book Hyperconscious, which is a good supplement to Psionics in general (and written by Bruce Cordell, author of the Expanded Psionic Handbook, so it's pretty legit for 3rd party) there's a cool Prestige Class called the Voce Warrior. I'm not sure how Voce is meant to be pronounced, like "vohs" or "voh-say" or "voh-che" or whatever, because it would make sense to be called the Voice Warrior, because your weapon of choice is your Echoic Saber, a sound projection sword you make by screaming. Pretty low prereqs, easily enterable at level 5 by a Psychic Warrior or level 4 by any full BAB class willing to shill out the skill points and a feat on Hidden Talent.

Anyway, while you get some pretty cool features like being able to upgrade your Echoic Saber to varying levels throughout the day, and the wickedly powerful Sketono Voice which allows a 1/day auto-hit, auto-crit, Fort save 10+damage dealt or die, I think the most optimizable aspect of this PrC is that at first level, all your weapon-specific feats morph so that they apply to your Echoic Saber. Now, it intends for these feats to be along the lines of Weapon Focus, Improved Critical, etc, feats where you pick a weapon to apply the feat to. But the wording is very much like that of the Aptitude Weapon in Tome of Battle, and it very basically states that all weapon-specific feats now apply to the Echoic Saber instead of their original weapon. This sounds really breakable to me (well, as breakable as anything melee gets). See, what it makes me wonder is, could you apply feats like Lightning Mace, Three Mountains, High Sword Low Axe, Crescent Moon, Hammer's Edge, Anvil of Thunder, and the like, all keyed to your Echoic Saber? Have the foe make a plethora of saves with every two hits from your scream sword, some of which they're bound to fail? Could there be a build that's worth all this (probably investing heavily in PsyWar, Fighter and Feat Rogue for the feats required) and that basically messes up its foes in all kinds of ways by shouting at them hard?

[Fax Celestis]

Absolutely.

Also see the high-end Weapon Spec chain feats in PHB-II (Slashing Flurry, Driving Attack, Crushing Strike). Hilariously, dependent upon how the ability is worded, it could also be used to apply to things like Manyshot, Rapid Shot, or Ranged Pin.

[Nettlekid]

Ooh, I hadn't thought of those three. I think that since the feats specify bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing, then you'd need that kind of weapon still, but your Echoic Saber can count as either bludgeoning or piercing so that's two of the three.

I think Ranged Pin can just be taken outright. I wonder about Manyshot/Rapid Shot. Since you can use a ranged, sort of sound-bullet version of Echoic Saber, I would expect some DMs would let you take those without even being cheesy. The actual wording of the Echoic Saber feat-morphing ability is "When the voce warrior first gains the ability to generate an echoic saber, his weapon-specific feats (if any) are instantly transformed—they no longer apply to the weapon they were originally chosen for—and now apply to the echoic saber."

See, this would be so cool! It's like a versatile Fus Ro Dah.

[Fax Celestis]

Was rereading this one today.


Base Attack Bonus: +3
Knowledge (Psionics): 1 rank
Listen: 3 ranks
Move Silently: 3 ranks
Manifesting: Ability to manifest synesthete
Feats: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (any), Skill Focus (Listen)

I would say Psychic Rogue would be the best entry here, but they don't get synesthete. You can Expanded Knowledge it for your sixth level feat, though that seems sort of lame. Lurk gets synesthete, but is otherwise lame.

I guess as long as you're already using third-party we can look at DSP's stuff. If we do, Gifted Soulknife (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/soulknife/archetypes/dreamscarred-press/gifted-blade) gets synesthete, has full BAB, and can basically walk into the class at fourth level (EWP at first, Skill Focus (Listen) at third). Plus, that gives you a backup weapon if you happen to get hit with a silence spell and can't use your echoic saber. Dependent upon how you read the echoic saber ability, you may or may not be able to wield a mind blade alongside it: "Moreover, while using the echoic saber, the character cannot use any physical weapon." A mind blade may or may not be considered a "physical weapon", as it is not really physical: it's made of force of will and psionic energy. And due to the way soulknives interact with +1 existing manifesting prestige classes, you get three more levels of mind blade empowerment out of voce warrior.

It's okay: not amazing, not terrible, but okay. Wondering if there's a better way into this class. Sadly, Sighted Seeker doesn't get synesthete. Psychic Fist, however, does. Monk into Psychic Fist into Voce Warrior has some potential, especially if Dragon is allowed: you can take Unorthodox Flurry from Dragon #279 to make your echoic saber into a special monk weapon. Stagger voce warrior and psychic fist levels and end up with something like Monk 6/Psychic Fist 7/Voce Warrior 7, Monk 6/Psychic Fist 4/Voce Warrior 10, or Monk 6/Psychic Fist 10/Voce Warrior 4 (depending upon which abilities you really want; I'd go with 6/7/7, myself: the higher level voce warrior abilities are cool but not incredible, and you end up with full manifesting out of Psychic Fist).

EDIT: Wanderer Monk (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/core-races/human/wanderer-monk-human) ends up saving you two feats: you get one freebie for being a human, and a second because you get free EWP at first level (and another at fourth). It later gets rid of Slow Fall and High Jump (mediocre) and replaces them with more interesting (and more useful, in the case of Slow Fall) things.

[Nettlekid]

I'd prefer not to use other 3rd party stuff, since I in general try to stay away from that, even though yeah I'm using 3rd party here (but mainly because it's the same guy who wrote the XPH itself. I'm even conflicted about that, but meh.)

I kind of like that Psychic Rogue entrance. I think that, considering it's a 3/11 psionic progression class, it might be best to not even think of it as psionic at all. People sometimes dip Shaper Psion, or maybe Erudite, for a useful power known, right? You'd lose a BAB, but if you were any kind of initiator or Barbarian build, say, then the full BAB Voce Warrior keeps up well. Maybe like...Erudite 1/Barbarian 1/Initiator 2/Voce Warrior 11/5 levels of a ToB PrC. I dunno. Haven't put much thought into it. I love the 10th level of Voce Warrior for basically a 1/day instakill, but I don't need the 11th.

[Fax Celestis]

Well, the Monk/Psychic Fist/Voce Warrior thing is pretty core: Psychic Fist is in XPH as Fist of Zuoken.

[Nettlekid]

Well, the Monk/Psychic Fist/Voce Warrior thing is pretty core: Psychic Fist is in XPH as Fist of Zuoken.

Oh no, I'm fine using all kinds of splatbooks, provided they're of the more legit WotC books. No need to keep too much to core. Core's limiting.

I'm trying to figure out some way for an initiator build to go in here well, but you end up losing too many initiator levels to get effective maneuvers. I don't really care about losing ML. What about Psychic Rogue->Psionic Assassin/Voce Warrior? Could that be a cool thing?