Which build do you think is better?

[Ragnorrok]

A friend of mine wants to do a psionic heavy campaign sometime and so I'm stuck between two builds. I want to be a melee character that punches people or just in general gets in their face and tears them apart. I've settled on going with psychic warrior for starters. We'd be starting at level 4 as well.

The first build is flat psychic warrior that focuses on using Claws of the Beast which is assisted with metaphysical claws and all those other fancy powers for buffing the claws as well as gaining psionic focus every round with the psionic meditation and narrow mind feats to utilized Psionic Fist to deal a lot of extra damage. Where it should go from there is unknown to me.

The second is more of a Tashalatora build that acts in a very similar way except I dip into the Chaos Monk (as this is going to be a chaotic character) and instead of using the claws using unarmed strike instead. I'm thinking of just start off with one level of Chaos Monk then putting everything else in Psychic Warrior so as to not be behind on the psionics. This build would also utilize psionic fist and psionic focus as well as i think that it seems like a pretty sweet perk.

On a side note the race is gonna be human to get as many feats as I can and the much needed skill points to meet the requirements I need. I'm going to focus heavily in Strength then Wisdom then Con. Dumping into Charisma primarily and Int as a secondary dump stat (trying to keep it high enough to get the skill points).

[Greenish]

They're fairly similar builds, especially at lower levels (barring level 1), so which one you should take is purely preference. Going straight psywarr saves feats and you won't be tempted to walk around without armour, going tashatalora makes your fists pretty deadly. You could even combine both with Beast Strike (Dragon #355) feat to add claw damage on unarmed strikes.

[Ragnorrok]

Huh, never saw beast strike. That would make things a bit crazy and awesome. Though weighing the two which one seems more practical?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Tashalatora Ardent with Practiced Manifester, Substitute Powers (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a), and Metamorphosis. Use the Share Pain: Psicrystal trick and don't forget that its hardness always applies to that. Use Midnight Augmentation with Bestow Power (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/bestowPower.htm) to refill your powerpoints after buffing and between encounters. Maybe even dip Totemist to get a bunch of natural weapons, but never be more than four Ardent levels behind your character level.

Consider making the character a Warforged:
Your Composite Plating doesn't count as armor and doesn't interfere with any Monk abilities.
Psionic Repair Damage (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/psionicRepairDamage.htm) is extremely efficient.
You can use Psionic Minor Creation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/minorCreationPsionic.htm) to cover yourself in Black Lotus Extract (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#poison) thanks to their natural poison immunity.
Get Soulforged Body (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39584) if you use Totemist and/or Midnight Augmentation.

[Ragnorrok]

You completely misunderstand the point of this. This isn't an optimization, I just wanted an opinion on which of the two builds to take. No matter what it was gonna be psychic warrior and no matter what it was gonna be human.

[Greenish]

Tashatalora gets a bit more skills, and could even use Able Learner (RoD) to get them for psywar, but you're already struggling with skill points, and it eats feats.

I might go with straight psywar, especially if you're starting at level 1(-ish).