[3.5] Powerful Psionic Character

[Vash9177]

A friend of mine is looking for help to build a psionic character for an upcoming game. I want to help him make up one that can keep up with the current party well but I'm not sure what to start with.

Right now the party is
a Thri-Kreen Soulbow
a Dread Necromancer / Rainbow Servant
a Archivist / Walker in the Waste
and a Wizard / Shadowcraft Mage

We are starting at level 10 with the following restrictions
At max only 2 base classes can be used, so only a little dipping
At max only 2 prestige classes can be used
Free race / template up to +3 la
Starting wealth is 49k
No non Eberron specfic books are allowed.
Dragon mag stuff might be allowed but must be approved
Thrallherd is banned.

Any suggestions to keep up with the above party's power?

[Snowbluff]

An ardent or psion would be ideal. The biggest consideration would be power selection, in order to compete with 3 Tier 1+ builds.

[Hangwind]

Not sure exactly what I would do, but since you have free LA, make a Symbiotic Unseelie Half-giant. Now just add your favorite +1 LA template and enjoy!

[Snowbluff]

Phrenic would probably be the best template. The SLAs alone are pretty sweet.

[Rubik]

Phrenic would probably be the best template. The SLAs Int bonus alone are is pretty sweet.Fixed that for you. The template's Psi-Like Abilities are pretty meh.

They're homebrew, but what about these (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Psionic_Variant_-_Natural_Psion_(3.5e_Template)) templates (http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/Psionic_(3.5e_Template))?

[Vash9177]

Phrenic is a really cool template if he doesn't use a psionic race. Kalashtar could be fun with embed shards, or maybe an Elan or Synad for a gish for access to rapidstrike.

If he went psion which disciple do you think would be best?

I was thinking Ardent might be interesting with the online substitute mantle and dominant ideal.

Symbiotic sounds cool but I'm not sure where it is from.

Edit
@Rubik
I'll run them by the DM they look good and are pretty balanced.

[Snowbluff]

Broke that for you.
Lied about that for you. This behavior is hardly becoming of a human being. I think an apology is in order. :smallmad:

Seriously, how is 2 Int more notable than a crap ton of PLA? How is that even acceptable for 2 LA?

In defense of the list, those are powers you will not need to take for your class. A few of then can be used as swift actions at this level, so the action cost isn't high. In games where the encounters are actually as frequent as they are supposed to be, having additional abilities that do not require PP is valuable.

[tyckspoon]

You have 2 Tier 1 casters and 1 will-be-a-Tier-1 caster in the party. Spell-to-Power variant Erudite all the way. Learn all of your buddys' best spells as powers and rock out (take Imprint Stone, make power stones of the odd utility powers, and manifest from those when you need them so you don't have to burn Unique Powers Per Day on them.. unless your DM goes with the Powers/Day/Level interpretation, in which case it doesn't matter because you functionally have as many as you want then.)

If you want something that is more uniquely psionic instead of just stealing all the best tricks from the Wizard and Archivist, Dominant Ideal Ardent is pretty sweet.

[Vash9177]

Spell-to-Power Erudite is really strong and at our table it is unique powers per day per level. Seems really strong could be really crazy with a Kalashtar and the embed shards. I'll run that by him since I'm not sure if he wants to keep it mainly psionic or not.

For an ardent I'm not sure what fun tricks can be pulled with them other than using linked power as a free quicken on the next round.

[Vash9177]

He thought the Spell to power Erudite was neat but wanted to be more heavily focused on psionics. So looking more at the Ardent what can it do best?

Having the freedom mantle as a Dominant Ideal seems good for a gish. Using hustle or dimesion hop to move and using linked power to throw on a buff that would start in the next round. Maybe seem if he could put Psionic Lion’s Charge in the mantle as well. Any other good powers for this mantle?

The natural world mantle seems like it might be nice if claws of the beast was added, and it already has metamorphosis maybe toss in true metamorphosis instead of earthquake.

How well can an Ardent do as a blaster, not the best route I know but might be fun.

[tyckspoon]

How well can an Ardent do as a blaster, not the best route I know but might be fun.

Dominant Ideal allows you to do the same kind of metamagic-stacking shenanigans as arcane blasters, especially if your DM reads it as working like Arcane Thesis (ie, the pp cost reduction is per metapsionic and just once for the entire manifestation.) So that can work pretty well. The main problem is there aren't a lot of mantles with good blasting powers (they're all concentrated in Energy, and you really don't need to have all of the Energy X powers cluttering up your power selection); you'd probably want to see if your DM would let you sub in Energy Missile or Crystal Shard to another mantle. The Earth Mantle from the web article isn't too bad as is, tho - Crystalstorm, Hail of Crystals, Earth Walk, and Major Creation are all powers worth considering. (Can get really one-note, tho, especially if you also Metapower one of those powers.. at least an Energy Foo-based blaster would have a variety of shapes and energy types to work with.)

[Vash9177]

At level ten we have 5 feats, we gets feats at odd levels like in pathfinder. So feats maybe having Split Psionic Ray, Twin Power, Maximize Power, Empower Power, overchannel.

So with dominate ideal on a mantle with crystal shard, it would be possible to do
Base Power(+1pp)
Split(+0pp)
Twinned(+4pp)
Maximized(+2pp)
Empowered(+0pp)
Overchannel(-2pp)
Augment(+5pp) to augment 7
For 4 ranged touch attacks that each do 48 + (.5 * 8d6). That is pretty good blasting, next level add in quicken for even more fun.

[Phelix-Mu]

I'd say shaper/constructor, but with a dread necro already in the party it seems like summoner is already covered, and too much minionmancy in the party will make combat flow like molten glass (but without looking quite so cool).

How about a telepath/party face with a touch of healer. There are some interesting tricks that can be done with psicrystals and share pain/vigor. Combine it with some of the damage transfer and damage projection powers, and you could have a pretty interesting setup for spreading around damage in combat while moving it off allies and onto enemies. Telepath is mainly for the out-of-combat stuff, but it could just as easily be some other discipline. For combat, I'd use the psicrystal and energy conversion for the laser battery effect.

You should inquire with your DM about whether the 3.0 Psionics handbook or DSP Hyperconscious versions of Persistent Power are available, as either version would add significantly to the arsenal of tricks, and would definitely be worth sinking a feat into.

Depending on the cheese level of the campaign, you might also want to look into the metapower linked synchronicity action loop, as it's pretty borked/awesome if it works the way the RAW reads.

Overall, there is a lot that can be done with psionic tricks and such without straying too far from the base classes.

Totally flavor-based, but I've always loved the woodling template from MM3. Must be my inner druid, but a person made of wood? Haha, AWESOME!

[Kelb_Panthera]

I'd suggest a straight Erudite.

The psion/wilder list plus whatever you like from the discipline lists available for some XP and the same time-frames as a wizard learning a new spell. It's especially strong with your DM's ruling on the unique powers per day mechanic.

It's almost certainly supposed to be X unique powers per day, period, not per level. It's the same progression as the wilder but variable instead of fixed. It does create an odd occurrence when the lowest level power used in a day isn't first level and you end up with a few PP's that you can't use at the end of the day, barring a cognizance crystal or the like.