Psion/Cleric Dual Progression Melee-er, How To?

[Vrock_Summoner]

I was hoping to play a Psychic Theurge focused on melee combat in an upcoming game, starting at level 7. I'd prefer to avoid books flying at my head, so no early entry tricks. Speaking of books, all official and 3rd party allowed, no dragon/dungeon mag or homebrew. No traits or flaws either. I'm intoxicated by the idea of playing a Fire Elf for this, but I'm not necessarily married to the thought and I figure it's extremely suboptimal for the role. So how should I do this? Race, starting feats, eventual feats and build, good spells and powers, so on and so forth.

[Snowbluff]

Well, the easy answer is Divine Power.

Ardent would blend better with Cleric, and you can use Practiced Manifester to settle the ML/Power Level penalty without being OP.

Ardent1/Cleric3/Ardent+1/PSychicThuerge2

Your BAB (4/7) and HP are below par. However, you will be able to cast Divine Power in 2 levels, and you may manifest and cast freely while in full armor.

[Fouredged Sword]

Ok so here is my idea of a way to make this kinda work. It loops through some rough spots, and blooms late, but I think you can shoe horn this into something half way playable.

What you want are DMM persist, 9 levels of cleric casting, and the psionic version of Abjurant champion suggested right after the class in the book that has abjurant champion.

Your build will look something like this.

Cleric 3 / Psion 3 / Psychic Theurge 9 / Psionic version of Abjurant Champion 5

OK, the trick to this build is as follows. You loose 8 levels of cleric casting, and 3 levels of psion casting. What you get out of this is DMM persist for divine power. This gives you full bab and bonuses to your strength score. Gish it up as a psion in full plate with inertial armor (for massive AC) and miss chance providing powers. Get a psicrystal and share vigor and share pain for unkillable levels of temp HP.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Full Plate doesn't stack with Inertial Armor.

The problem with the concept is that Psychic Theurge is about as unsuited for melee as you can get.
That and cleric casting and manifesting have a lot of overlap and not all that much synergy aside from action abuse (which you only need a dip for).

If you want to make it work at least somewhat you'll want to use Ardent, and you'll have to sacrifice either 9th level spells or 9th level powers.
Even then you'll lag behind in casting and manifesting both for the whole game as well as melee until you get Divine Power (probably around level 9, if you use Ardent).
You'll also be short on feats, for one side if you choose to focus on one aspect or for everything if you try to be a jack of all trades.

[RavynsLand]

If you really wanna do full melee, maybe some kinda cleric/War Mind build? Maybe? Just throwing War Mind into the mix.

[Rebel7284]

At level 20
Ardent 10/Ur Priest 2/Psychic Theurge 8 with Dominant Ideal is probably the best way to do this. Assuming the Ardent mechanic RAW of your progression being tied to your manifester level, you learn powers as fast as a strait Ardent and your casting and manifesting are both Wisdom based. You can use your Ur Priest as your passive side with most slots being used for Persisted buffs or buffs that can be extended to last all day.

Avoiding the Dominant Ideal cheese, you can do something like:

Monk 2(invisible fist)/Ardent 3/Ur Priest 2/Psychic Theurge 8/Psionics progressing class 5.

If you want to go Cleric specifically, Cleric 3/Ardent 2/ works as entry too I guess.

[Vrock_Summoner]

I get it's probably not a great idea mechanically, but it's something I'd like to make work to some level of decency.

Though Ardent is a good call. Less MAD is good. Dex is as dump-able as ever for melee characters since armor doesn't interfere with Manifesting. Which is sad, as that makes Fire Elf pretty much the worst possible race.

I think I can manage for two levels before Divine Power comes online. That will be quite helpful. What would be some good Ardent mantles for this? I've never played Ardent before.

[Snowbluff]

I think I can manage for two levels before Divine Power comes online. That will be quite helpful. What would be some good Ardent mantles for this? I've never played Ardent before.

Freedom would be good for mobility. It has D Hop and Hustle for swift action movement, and Teleport as a handy utility.
Fate has a couple good buffs.
Magic give Metaphysical Weapon, which compliments the lack of GMW on the Cleric list. It's unimpressive otherwise unless you're cheesing.
Natural World has Metamorphosis.

And now I really want to build one of these. :smalltongue:

I suggest Persistent Power, which is in the old psionic handbook if you're grabbing buffs. Since it wasn't updated, I think it may be legal.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

The greatest benefit I see to going Divine/Psionic over pure Divine for melee is using Share Pain (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/sharePain.htm) on your Psicrystal. You'll take half damage from all sources, and its Hardness 8 will reduce every instance of damage it takes from Share Pain by that much regardless of the original attack's type. Keep it in a compartment on your person so opponents will never have line of sight/effect to it and cannot target it directly or hit it with area effects. Give it a Healing Belt and it can use that to heal you during combat when needed, since wondrous items shrink to fit the wearer. You can share beneficial powers with it such as Vigor and Body Adjustment.

If you use Ardent, definitely go with Substitute Powers (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a) for Share Pain, Vigor, and many others. Consider using Warforged with Adamantine Body and get Psionic Repair Damage (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/psionicRepairDamage.htm). You'll probably want to start out Cleric 3/ Ardent 1/ Psychic Theurge 3, with Practiced Manifester. If using magic/psionics transparency you can get Extend Spell and it will count as Extend Power, and get Persistent Spell and it will count as Persistent Power, which is from the 3.0 Psionics Handbook but it's still officially valid for use in 3.5, you can also find it in the d20 Modern SRD (http://www.wizards.com/d20/files/msrd/ArcanaOccupationsandFeats.rtf). That can be used with powers like Force Screen, Offensive/Defensive Precognition/Preconscience, Mental Barrier, Thicken Skin, etc. Get a Strand of Prayer Beads with the Bead of Smiting removed and it's only 9,000 gp per DMG pricing, you can get +4 caster level when casting your buffs which is the same as +4 manifester level with transparency, so it's easier to manifest persistent powers. You can also use (Lesser Rod of Extended) Magic Vestment on your Adamantine Body and on the shield effect of your Force Screen. You can use DMM: Persistent Ice Axe until you get access to Divine Power.

[RavynsLand]

This made me think of a Crusader/Psion who uses Hostile Empathic Transfer to just ruin EVERYONE's life, and Psionic Body to bridge the hit point gap.