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MeklorIlavator
2007-02-04, 09:14 PM
I am new to psionics(kinda, I have seen someone else use them, but only for a few hours, and I had bad sleep deprevation). Now I am making a Psion, but I wanted some of the more experienced psionic users to give me some opinions.

The group consists of:

a barbarian
a cleric(badly played, so no fear of CoDzilla)
and a rouge(really poorly played, often not participating in the battles, he litteraly once left while fighting in our home town, to sleep)
ME,a homebrewed rangerI am probaly switching the characters soon, and I want to create tha character, but I am unsure how to effectivly fill in for a arcanist(if that is possible). So I am asking what you(the posters) think are the best disiplines to focus on. Right now we are level 2, and are hurting for equipment.

GryffonDurime
2007-02-04, 09:20 PM
Well, if you'd like a blaster, a Kinetics focus could be best, or a Telepath. On second thought, I'd choose the telepath: you still have access to a broad range of blasty Energy powers, and you can pull some nifty mind tricks akin to a true arcanist's crowd control, social utility spells, Schism, and Hostile Empathic Transfer.

oriong
2007-02-04, 09:22 PM
It really takes very few powers to make a sucessful psionicist blaster so there's no real need to be a kineticist (it just means you might have to wait a level to take some of the more potent powers)

Truffles
2007-02-05, 12:44 AM
telepath or egoist

pestilenceawaits
2007-02-05, 09:59 AM
Make sure to take the feats over channel and and talented it lets you boost your manifester level on 3rd level and below powers with no damage to yourself.

Person_Man
2007-02-05, 11:12 AM
Well, if you want strait forward blasting power, Energy Missile (http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/psionicPowersDtoF.html#energy-missile) is the way to go.

I'm not a fan of the rest of the Kineticist power list, so I would use Expanded Knowledge to get access to it. My favorite is Discipline is Telepath.

Psion builds will commonly go into Slayer for the superior BAB and hit points. Thrallheard is also fun - is there any problem more minions can't solve?

What exactly do you want to do?

Marius
2007-02-05, 12:32 PM
Telepaths rule but I also love Nomads. I had an air genasi that at high levels had a whole list of psychoportation powers to do almost anything (it wasn't optimazed but it was way cooler :D ) with just a few non-psychoportation for some irreplaceable stuff. The problem only problem is that many powers can only be accessed at high levels but you can use Psychic Reformation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/psychicReformation.htm) to change your powers later.
And nomad or not you just have to choose Time Hop (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/timeHop.htm)

Starbuck_II
2007-02-05, 01:24 PM
I am new to psionics(kinda, I have seen someone else use them, but only for a few hours, and I had bad sleep deprevation). Now I am making a Psion, but I wanted some of the more experienced psionic users to give me some opinions.

The group consists of:

a barbarian
a cleric(badly played, so no fear of CoDzilla)
and a rouge(really poorly played, often not participating in the battles, he litteraly once left while fighting in our home town, to sleep)
ME,a homebrewed rangerI am probaly switching the characters soon, and I want to create tha character, but I am unsure how to effectivly fill in for a arcanist(if that is possible). So I am asking what you(the posters) think are the best disiplines to focus on. Right now we are level 2, and are hurting for equipment.

Does it need to be a Psion?

Ardents from Complete Psionics are cool because they can heal/other things (granted you have a cleric).

Marius
2007-02-05, 02:08 PM
They seem to need a Psion (or an arcanist) a lot more than an Ardent or a Gish.

MeklorIlavator
2007-02-05, 03:13 PM
I only have access to the Expanded Psionics handbook, and I want to be pretty general, so Psion is the only class that really appeals to me. Right now, I am trying to find out some of the better disciplines to use in order to cover our lack of spell casting power. The cleric isn't that...bright. He didn't prepare his spells known or get any equipment, is a horrible roleplayer so far(he is a NG cleric of Bahumut, and talks about drinking the blood from dead bodies, or eating a dead mans liver), so an Ardent wouldn't be uncalled for, except he does know that it is his job to heal, and he does it, so on healing we are okay.

Any other spell casting, not so much. So, what areas would be most beneficial to the party and why. The only thing I know is that I don't want this to be a Blasted focused. The Goliath Barbarian can do that well enough, thank you.

pestilenceawaits
2007-02-05, 03:18 PM
since it is so easy to augment powers you don't need to specialize in blasting to be a good blaster. Telepathy is really cool but many things (undead, constructs etc are immune to its effects).

Marius
2007-02-05, 05:21 PM
I only have access to the Expanded Psionics handbook, and I want to be pretty general, so Psion is the only class that really appeals to me. Right now, I am trying to find out some of the better disciplines to use in order to cover our lack of spell casting power. The cleric isn't that...bright. He didn't prepare his spells known or get any equipment, is a horrible roleplayer so far(he is a NG cleric of Bahumut, and talks about drinking the blood from dead bodies, or eating a dead mans liver), so an Ardent wouldn't be uncalled for, except he does know that it is his job to heal, and he does it, so on healing we are okay.

Any other spell casting, not so much. So, what areas would be most beneficial to the party and why. The only thing I know is that I don't want this to be a Blasted focused. The Goliath Barbarian can do that well enough, thank you.


You don't have to much options at level 2 but you could go with a Human Telepath
Powers: Charm, Psionic, Minklink, Vigor, Conceal Thoughts, Crystal Shard (or mind thrust but mind thrust is mind affecting and doesn't deal any damage on a successful save).
Inertial armor is a waste since you can wear armor (at your level probably just a leather armor or a Masterwork Studded Leather Armor). Force Screen is great but it sucks being a telepath without any of those powers. Precognition (Offensive or Defensive) are great choices too.
At 3rd level you could probably grab Energy Stun (great damage power) and Read Thoughts or Suggestion.
You should have at least a Wisdom of 13 to pick Psionic Meditation you probably want a good Cha too but it's not really important.
As for feats you must have Psicrystal Affinity, Skill Focus(Concentration) is always a good feat, Psionic Endowment (and greater Psionic Endowment) is also good too.
Overchannel and Talented are good but they can burn your pps even faster than normal.
At 3rd level you should take Psicrystal Containment and then at 5th level Psionic Meditation.

Lord Iames Osari
2007-02-05, 05:25 PM
Actually, Inertial Armor is worth it. Psions have no proficency with armor, so you'll be taking check penalties on everything if you wear actual armor, while Inertial Armor grants a +4 armor bonus, with no drawbacks, and you can augment it at higher levels.

Marius
2007-02-05, 06:52 PM
Actually, Inertial Armor is worth it. Psions have no proficency with armor, so you'll be taking check penalties on everything if you wear actual armor, while Inertial Armor grants a +4 armor bonus, with no drawbacks, and you can augment it at higher levels.

No, it sucks. Yes you don't have proficiency with armor but you'll be able to afford a Mithral Shirt for 1100gp (no penalty +4 armor +magic with effects that inertial armor cannot reproduce). And you won't have to spend power points or waste a power (since you don't have that many). As for shields, you could also use a Mithral heavy Shield (+3 armor, no penalty) just as easyly.

Khantalas
2007-02-05, 06:54 PM
What if you don't want to wear armor? Like, being a RPing person?

The_Snark
2007-02-05, 06:58 PM
Inertial Armor definitely becomes worth it at higher levels, when the armor bonus from your mithril chain shirt pans out at +9; by the time Inertial Armor is matching that at level 11, paying the cost for 1 augmented power will last most of the day and doesn't put much of a dent in your power points.

Marius
2007-02-05, 07:04 PM
What if you don't want to wear armor? Like, being a RPing person?

Then don't, maybe you don't even want inertial armor if you are a RPing person and you are playing a Telepath. And actually if you want to rolplay a Telepath is better to choose telepathic powers, no powers as Inertial Armor or Force Screen.



Inertial Armor definitely becomes worth it at higher levels, when the armor bonus from your mithril chain shirt pans out at +9; by the time Inertial Armor is matching that at level 11, paying the cost for 1 augmented power will last most of the day and doesn't put much of a dent in your power points.

Maybe, but he starts at level 2 and Force Screen is still better.

Khantalas
2007-02-05, 07:07 PM
Maybe I wanna roleplay someone with inertial armor.

Maybe I am obsessed with inertial armor.

Maybe I still remember the good ol days when inertial armor was a feat.

Maybe I need to be locked away... but the men in white coats can't take me cause I have INERTIAL ARMOR!!! MWAHAHAHAA!

Mewtarthio
2007-02-05, 11:50 PM
What about Seer?

Solo
2007-02-06, 12:23 AM
Just curious, but how good is metacreativity?

I know its the equivalent to conjuration, and conjuration is a fairly strong school.

Also, you can use quintessence to build a Delayed Fireball Tactical Nuke.

oriong
2007-02-06, 12:49 AM
Well, metacreativity isn't quite the same as conjuration. If you mixed Metacreativity and Psychoportive you'd have something closer.

That said, being a shaper isn't a bad deal, you get quite a few good powers (astral construct, ectoplasmic cocoon, greater concealing amorphae, and crystalize). The fabricate and Creation powers can also be quite versatile if you're the creative sort, but they don't have the raw oomph of something with actual mechanics backing them.

The_Snark
2007-02-06, 01:18 AM
Maybe I wanna roleplay someone with inertial armor.

Maybe I am obsessed with inertial armor.

Maybe I still remember the good ol days when inertial armor was a feat.

Maybe I need to be locked away... but the men in white coats can't take me cause I have INERTIAL ARMOR!!! MWAHAHAHAA!

Yeah... good old nostalgia...

At least we can take solace in the fact that the stock MM githzerai kept the continuous Intertial Armor.

CockroachTeaParty
2007-02-06, 01:52 AM
Back in my day, we had psychic attack and defense modes, by cracky! There was a little chart ye had to look at n'everything! Didn't work too well against mind-blind types... unless ye had Mind Blast, but most of yer attack modes cost too much to use at low levels anyway...

Come to think of it, I just about never used them fancy attack modes... but I did use my 0 level powers. Yep... *cough*
One made yer fingernails longer! *gum gum*
Ye could peal an orange without havin' t'find a knife!

'Course, that was assumin' ye had a STR score worth a hoot, 'cause psions needed ALL their attributes to manifest, and that fingernail one was a psychometabolism power... My friend Reggie dumped STR in favor of DEX, and he was always complainin' about how he needed to use that durn dagger to peal his oranges, while I was usin' me fingers. Heh heh heh! *cough*

I ever tell ye 'bout the time I took a level of the Soulknife PRC and
-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......

Khantalas
2007-02-06, 07:28 AM
Back in my day, we had psychic attack and defense modes, by cracky! There was a little chart ye had to look at n'everything! Didn't work too well against mind-blind types... unless ye had Mind Blast, but most of yer attack modes cost too much to use at low levels anyway...

Come to think of it, I just about never used them fancy attack modes... but I did use my 0 level powers. Yep... *cough*
One made yer fingernails longer! *gum gum*
Ye could peal an orange without havin' t'find a knife!

'Course, that was assumin' ye had a STR score worth a hoot, 'cause psions needed ALL their attributes to manifest, and that fingernail one was a psychometabolism power... My friend Reggie dumped STR in favor of DEX, and he was always complainin' about how he needed to use that durn dagger to peal his oranges, while I was usin' me fingers. Heh heh heh! *cough*

I ever tell ye 'bout the time I took a level of the Soulknife PRC and
-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......

Ah, youngsters. Hey, lad, bring me my dice, will ya? I need to check if I have psionic talent.

pestilenceawaits
2007-02-06, 03:41 PM
I am so glad the old days are gone. I love the new psionics. My head hurts just thinking about previous editions rules.