How does Overchannel work?

[Nicrosil]

Hello Playground! I'm having... troubles with a character and was wondering if you could help.

This guy wants to play a Psion. Last campaign, he also made a Psion, but somehow was dealing 6d6 of damage. We called him out on it, and he pointed to the Overchannel feat. Here's what the SRD says about Overchannel:

"While manifesting a power, you can increase your effective manifester level by one, but in so doing you take 1d8 points of damage. At 8th level, you can choose to increase your effective manifester level by two, but you take 3d8 points of damage. At 15th level, you can increase your effective manifester level by three, but you take 5d8 points of damage.

The effective increase in manifester level increases the number of power points you can expend on a single power manifestation, as well as increasing all manifester level-dependent effects, such as range, duration, and overcoming power resistance."

My interpretation: Before casting a power, you can deal a d8 of damage to yourself. Your Power Points increase to the next level, and you can use these new points to augment that one power. It wears off after you cast the power, but you can chose to do it again next time you cast a power.

His interpretation: You deal a d8 of damage to yourself. Your manifester level increases, meaning you gain more Power Points, new powers, and potentially increasing your maximum power level. It is permanent.

Help?

[khachaturian]

your interpretation is clearly correct

[Doc_Maynot]

Neither, you gain no power points or powers, you just can spend more on powers than your ML would allow. Which is one power point per ML.
A first level psion with overchannel can take 1d8 to be able to spend two power points on a power.
An eighth level can take 3d8 to spend ten power points on a power.
And a fifteenth can take 5d8 to spend 18 power points on a power.
Note that includes Manifest+Augment costs

[Thorvaldr]

The rule says while manifesting a power, you increase your effective manifester level. Not that you gain a new manifester level. And it only says this happens while you're manifesting a power, not always or permanently.

If a sorcerer increases his Effective Caster Level (let's say by an orange ioun stone), he doesn't get knew spells known and more spells per day. The spells he can already cast just become more effective.

[torrasque666]

I have never used psionics any shape of the word, but even I can see that in order to get his interpretation you'd have to deliberately misread it. It even has a WHILE clause in it. First thing actually.

[Red Fel]

My interpretation: Before casting a power, you can deal a d8 of damage to yourself. Your Power Points increase to the next level, and you can use these new points to augment that one power. It wears off after you cast the power, but you can chose to do it again next time you cast a power.

No. First of all, it's not a "before and after" - as others have observed, the damage takes place at the same time as the manifestation. Second, you gain nothing. You're confusing "levels in a manifester class", which grant you powers known, power points, and so forth, and "manifester level," which is simply a metric and limitation. By way of illustration, let's say a level 3 Psion chooses to cast Energy Ray (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/energyRay.htm). This is a simple ability that deals 1d6 damage, and can be augmented by 1d6 damage per extra PP spent. (We will ignore the energy type bonuses for now.)

The limitation on augmentation is your manifester level - you cannot spend more on a power than your manifester level. Because this character is a level 3 Psion, he can spend a total of 3 PP on Energy Ray - one to cast, and two to augment. That gives him a total of 3d6. In addition, note the range of the power - it is a ray with a range of 25 ft. + 5 ft./2 manifester levels. Because he has a manifester level of 3, it has a total range of 30 (25 + 5).

Now, our Psion does the same thing, but using Overchannel. He takes 1d8 damage, and his manifester level is treated as +1, which would be 4 in this case. If he chooses to fully augment the power, he can spend 4 PP - 1 to cast and 3 to augment - for a total of 4d6 damage. In addition, he is treated as having a manifester level of 4 for casting purposes, which means the range is now 35 feet (25 + 10).


His interpretation: You deal a d8 of damage to yourself. Your manifester level increases, meaning you gain more Power Points, new powers, and potentially increasing your maximum power level. It is permanent.

Extraordinarily wrong.

[RolkFlameraven]

His interpretation: You deal a d8 of damage to yourself. Your manifester level increases, meaning you gain more Power Points, new powers, and potentially increasing your maximum power level. It is permanent.

I don't even want to know how on earth he got THAT idea...

Do I even want to know what his thoughts on Talented is? or did he just forget that it even existed as it makes his interpretation glaringly wrong.

Talented [Psionic]

You can overchannel powers with less cost to yourself.

Prerequisite: Overchannel.

Benefit: To use this feat, you must expend your psionic focus. When manifesting a power of 3rd level or lower, you do not take damage from overchanneling.

[Nicrosil]

Ok, thanks for the help! So Overchannel increases your Maximum Power Level, which means you can augment your power even more. That makes sense! :smallbiggrin:

I'll explain this to the player. We're all really new to D&D; in fact it was our first campaign. We knew something was up when he got a Yahtzee for damage (did nothing though, thing we were fighting was fire resistant :smallamused: )

So what I learned today:
-Overchannel increases how much you can augment a power for, for a cost in damage.
-This guy was really liberal with the rules
-Dont' be a Psion if it's your first campain
-Don't be a Psion if it's your entire party's first campaign
-Don't be a douche

Thanks everyone!

[Cloud]

Just to clarify Overchannel increases your Manifester Level for whatever power you overchannel on, which with the you can't spend more PP than your manifester level in one casting means you can augment the power to be stronger (Power Level could refer to say, the level powers have, so clearing that up).

- Correct.
- That's one way to say it...
- Why not? It's not really that much harder than being a sorcerer, and easier than being a wizard.
- Perhaps, but still, why not? It's as easy/hard as any other caster in the game, easier really than a wizard or archivist.
- A good rule for life. XD