[pf] Vitalist help

[Xunthrae]

Well, one of my characters, a witch, died. The group has an inconsistent priest player so i decided to go Vitalist so I could be the healer for the group and to play something a bit different than a normal caster.

My question is, what can i really do in combat? I know i can move healing around, and i went Soulthief method to make use of Unwilling participant .

My stats are as follows:
15
15
18
15
22(before adding +4 headband)
15

Feats:
H: Unwilling Participant
1: Battlefield Intuition
3: Expanded Knowledge: Dimensional Swap
5: Psionic Meditation
7: Fast Aid
9: Improved Init
9 bonus:Expanded Knowledge: Time Hop

I usually bring these powers:

Vigor, Animal Affinity, Sustenance, Battle Sense, Energy Adaption. And I get Fatigue and Collapse from my method

Any tips on how to be more effective in combat would be great. Psionics is new to the group so this is a bit of a test run to see how the fit with us. Thank you for any help!

[Psyren]

Nice stats. Well, the easiest way to contribute to a fight is Astral Construct; you can even put them in your collective (they have Wis scores). You can contribute to just about any fight with that.

[Fouredged Sword]

Well, take the two archtypes, Sadist and LifeLeech.

It gives you the ability to drain life from members of your collective and give that life to others. It also changes the loss of power points when a member of your collective dies into a bonus of temp PP.

In combat you add a creature to your collective as a move action and vigor the party as a standard action.

Next round you recover your Psi Focus and start draining health from your victim.

Now, that creature is loosing life, and you are healing your allies. They have a nice buffer of temp HP to protect the squishy party members.

The creature you have caught in your collective can't be healed (you redirect the healing to a party member) and dies quickly (due to drained health). Then spend the temp PP you get to throw around more buffs while you drag another creature into the collective to drain away.

Also, Vigor + drain health can be used to turn temp HP into real HP. Drain health can deal damage to a member of your collective who is sitting on temp HP and heal them back in real HP. This means Vigor becomes a very PP efficient means of healing out of combat (a vitalist can spread the temp HP around between targets to increase the pool exponentially per PP spent.

[Xunthrae]

Yea, i rolled 4 15's an 18 and a 13, the Dm let everyone turn their lowest into an 18, so everyone pretty much has 2 of them. Also, what are good items i should try and get? Right now i have a Cloak of Res 3, Nat armor 2, ring of prot 2, and a +3 Aporting Chainshirt (it's a quest item I'm assuming I'll lose once a prophecy is fulfilled)

And to get the astral construct, should i reform [Exp Kno: Dimension Hop] into it? since it's not on my List, unless I'm missing something.

[Psyren]

I'm confused actually, what are you using Unwilling Participant for? I'm not certain Soulthieves need it for anything.

[Xunthrae]

It lets me manifest things on them as long as they are in range of my Collective right? Wouldn't that let me force them into my collective and then use collapse or any of my other assault abilities, or is unwilling participant more for the sadist/lifeleech path?

[Fouredged Sword]

It is very a sadist lifeleech thing. A straight vitalist should be using party buffs and targeted attacks like steal life and hostile emphatic transfer.

[Psyren]

It lets me manifest things on them as long as they are in range of my Collective right? Wouldn't that let me force them into my collective and then use collapse or any of my other assault abilities, or is unwilling participant more for the sadist/lifeleech path?

You can manifest vitalist powers through the collective on them that normally require a willing target (and they are considered willing.) For example, you can use Share Pain on them rather than Forced Share Pain. You can also manifest Network powers on them through the Collective this way -for example, you can use Network Power on Compression, and then shrink them down to fit in your backpack.

Collapse however does not require a willing target, so it gets no benefit, and neither do any of your Soulthief abilities. So if you're going to retrain something to AC, that's a good choice.

[Xunthrae]

Thanks for the help, also, what equipment should I be on the look out for and should try and get?

Edit: Also, since i took it as my human/lvl 1 feat, would i be able to take expanded knowledge since it requires maifester level 3?

The power explicitly does say " Any change made must have been available at the level selected."

[Fouredged Sword]

Wisdom items, resistance boosters, a towershield can be good.

Beyond that, pick up some way to sure blindness and or deafness. There are no powers to do so.

[JusticeZero]

You need Expanded Knowledge feat to access it.
I'm sure there are other builds that work. I wish I had a group I was a player for, so I could experiment with new guardian + miasmist or something like it.

[Psyren]

Thanks for the help, also, what equipment should I be on the look out for and should try and get?

Edit: Also, since i took it as my human/lvl 1 feat, would i be able to take expanded knowledge since it requires maifester level 3?

The power explicitly does say " Any change made must have been available at the level selected."

Just bump one of your other choices down there (like your Improved Initiative) and take EK:AC in its place.