ardent help [3.x]

[Somensjev]

ok, for those who have seen my threads before i have a slight habit of getting out of hand sometimes :smalltongue:
so, this time, i'm staying away from any and all things cheesy/questionable/etc

so, i was wondering, how do ardents work exactly, and what would be a fun level 6 build for it (any race, standard wbl, please no LA/RHD)

i'm currently using this (http://dndtools.eu/classes/ardent/) website, but i cant find it mention how you aquire new powers, of a higher level, all it says is

"She must be able to manifest the new power at the level at which she learns it, however. For example, an ardent who attains 5th level can learn any power from one of her mantles that costs 5 power points or less to manifest; she cannot learn a power from a mantle that costs more than 5 power points to manifest until she attains a level capable of manifesting a power with that cost.
To learn or manifest a power, an ardent must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + the power's level. For example, an ardent with a Wisdom score of 13 can manifest powers of 3rd level or lower."

so, does that mean to use a 5pp power i need to be at least level 5, or at least a level 5 ardent, or just have 15 wisdom? or all of the above? (i think it's probably all of the above, just making sure though)

any help would be appreciated, and if i start getting out of hand, make sarcastic remarks or something, i dunno, be creative :smalltongue:

[Aegis013]

You merely need to have sufficient Wisdom, PP, and Manifester Level to manifest the power to learn it. That means you can dip into other classes, take the Practiced Manifester feat and not slow down your maximum power level. It's why Ardent is considered so multi-class friendly.

[Psyren]

so, does that mean to use a 5pp power i need to be at least level 5, or at least a level 5 ardent, or just have 15 wisdom? or all of the above? (i think it's probably all of the above, just making sure though)

EDIT: Gah! Tripped myself up.
EDIT2: a 5 PP power is 3rd-level (5+1 = 6, 6/2 = 3) so you only need 13 Wis. You do have to be 5th-level though.

There should be an ardent handbook floating around, I'd start there.

[Pluto!]

How familiar are you with 3.5 psionics?

The cardinal (and unbelievably frequently overlooked) rule about 3.5 manifesting is that a psion cannot invest more PP into a power than that psion's manifesting level.

So a psionic character (other than an Ardent) normally couldn't use a power that costs 7 PP until manifester level 7, even if they somehow know the power and have a PP pool of more than 7 PP.

The Ardent's power learning isn't capped the way other psionic classes are of "powers up to 2nd level," etc., and is instead bound by the highest-level power that the character can manifest - typically this power level advancement occurs at the same rate as the psion's, but it gets messier when manifester level buffs (eg. Orange Ioun stones or the Practiced Manifester feat) get mixed in: while ML-boosting effects don't increase a psion's access to new levels of powers, they do increase the max power level that an Ardent can learn at a new level.

[Somensjev]

How familiar are you with 3.5 psionics?

The cardinal (and unbelievably frequently overlooked) rule about 3.5 manifesting is that a psion cannot invest more PP into a power than that psion's manifesting level.

So a psionic character (other than an Ardent) normally couldn't use a power that costs 7 PP until manifester level 7, even if they somehow know the power and have a PP pool of more than 7 PP.

The Ardent's power learning isn't capped the way other psionic classes are of "powers up to 2nd level," etc., and is instead bound by the highest-level power that the character can manifest - typically this power level advancement occurs at the same rate as the psion's, but it gets messier when manifester level buffs (eg. Orange Ioun stones or the Practiced Manifester feat) get mixed in: while ML-boosting effects don't increase a psion's access to new levels of powers, they do increase the max power level that an Ardent can learn at a new level.

i'm not really that similar with psionics, i never even looked them over till a month or two ago, but i'm really getting drawn into them, hence the question

[Somensjev]

EDIT: Gah! Tripped myself up.
EDIT2: a 5 PP power is 3rd-level (5+1 = 6, 6/2 = 3) so you only need 13 Wis. You do have to be 5th-level though.

There should be an ardent handbook floating around, I'd start there.

i knew that, i'm just sleep deprived, i had thirteen to begin with, then decided it looked wrong