Psicrystals

[Drathric]

A few questions about the extent of a psycrytal's abilities in combat:

Can they flank for you?

I know they can deliver touch powers starting at level 3, but what attack information do they use?

Could you use share power with Strength of My Enemy and have the psycrystal deliver attacks that drain strength?

If you were to use share power with Share Pain and Empathetic Feedback would the enemy be damaged twice, once for the damage to you and once for the damage to the psycrystal?

[Segev]

Can they flank for you?No. As Tiny creatures, they can only threaten their own square, and thus cannot be on the opposite border or corner from you.


I know they can deliver touch powers starting at level 3, but what attack information do they use?Their own. They have stats, including attack bonuses.


Could you use share power with Strength of My Enemy and have the psycrystal deliver attacks that drain strength?Yes.


If you were to use share power with Share Pain and Empathetic Feedback would the enemy be damaged twice, once for the damage to you and once for the damage to the psycrystal?No, because they didn't deal the damage to the psicrystal. In fact, it's arguable (though I would probably rule against it if I were DM) that YOU are dealing the damage to your psicrystal, and thus lose the benefit of having transferred half your damage to it.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

They have a reach of 0 ft., so I doubt they could help flank, since you need to be on opposite sides of an enemy to flank them.

Their stats are given in the monsters section of XPH, also here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/monsters/psicrystal.htm).

Yes you can share Strength of My Enemy with it and have it make attacks, but don't bother doing that unless you're going to use Metamorphosis or similar to turn it into a viable combatant.

If you target another creature with Share Pain and share it with the psicrystal, half the damage the other creature takes would go to both you and the psicrystal, and half the damage dealt to either you or the psicrystal would be dealt to the other creature. For example, if that other creature is hit for 20 damage, it takes 10 and both you and the psicrystal each take 10 damage. If you were hit for 20 damage, you would take 10 and that other creature would take 10 damage. The best use of Share Pain is to target the psicrystal with it every day without using share powers, so you take half damage from all sources and the other half goes to the psicrystal. Note that the psicrystal's Hardness 8 reduces every instance of damage it takes from Share Pain regardless of the original attack's type. Keep the psicrystal in a compartment on your person so opponents never have line of sight/effect to it and cannot target it directly or hit it with area effects. You can put a Healing Belt (MIC) on the psicrystal and it can use that to heal you during combat when needed. You can share powers like Vigor and Body Adjustment (or Psionic Repair Damage if you're a Warforged) with it.

If you share Empathic Feedback with the Psicrystal then it would cause melee attacks against either of you to deal damage back on the attacker, but would otherwise have no advantages. If you have Share Pain on your Psicrystal and Empathic Feedback shared with the psicrystal, a melee attack against you is not a melee attack against the psicrystal even though it takes half the damage from the attack, so the shared instance of Empathic Feedback will be of no benefit.


If you want to make the best use of the psicrystal's actions in combat, get Control Body (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/controlBody.htm) and Solicit Psicrystal (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/solicitPsicrystal.htm). Use Control Body on yourself, then use (Extended) Solicit Psicrystal so the psicrystal takes over concentrating on the power for you, though it only does so for one round/level. The psicrystal spends its round controlling your physical actions, which still use your own BAB and Int bonus since you're the one who manifest the power, leaving your actions free to manifest powers and regain your psionic focus. You can also use Schism to manifest even more powers every round.