Aegis harness power stone question

[MeeposFire]

In preparation for a move to a new area I have decided to make sure that I am well versed an prepared for any major RPG system. For Pathfinder (a system I don't normally play) one of my choices looks to be the aegis.

My question is that they have several customizations that allow them to harness power stone and it sounds useful but I want to make sure I understand how they work with the class abilities. It sounds like the stones are similar to scrolls but have psionic powers and the class abilities allows you to use them by using your own power points rather than making them disappear. If so this ability sounds fairly potent to me as a way to boost versatility (I would likely use it mostly for utility powers). So am I reading this correctly along with how it is used or if not could somebody give an easy to understand description of the ability.

If the ability is not as nice as I think I might go for the aberration version of the class since I can get free natural armor and this was the only customization I have found that I might miss by going that route.

[JusticeZero]

Yes, stones are reskinned Scrolls. Your interpretation is right. I am not sure if the stone is consumed by any part of the process, though.

[MeeposFire]

The harness ability seems to say to me that instead of expending the stone as normal you get to use your power points instead and thus can use the power many times. At least I think this is what it does.

[JusticeZero]

That's right. I'm just trying to remember whether the stone is consumed by the process, that is, do you get the stone back when you shuffle it out again.

[Psyren]

Yes, the Harness Power Stone line is potent - it is in fact the most powerful ability an Aegis possesses, though it is limited by being WBL-dependent.

Here is a summary of how the Aegis' Power Stone Repository and Harness Power Stone work.

Power Stone Repository:

- Power Stone Repository lets you absorb X power stones into your suit, where X is your Aegis level.

- There are several benefits to doing this; the most notable one is that you can "hold" multiple stones this way, each one being treated as if you're holding it in your hand. Thus an Aegis can "hold" up to 20 power stones simultaneously. As each one can also potentially hold multiple powers (similar to a scroll holding multiple spells) you can amass a substantial repertoire of tricks this way if you have the cash.

- Other benefits include: the inability to have a held stone disarmed, sundered or stolen from you during combat; the ability to hide a stone that you are using (possibly fooling bystanders into thinking that you are a manifester, or disguising the source of a power entirely); and gaining an untyped bonus to your UMD checks equal to the number of stones you have stored. (Thus, the more stones you have absorbed, the easier they are to activate.)

- You can freely swap out any stone you haven't completely flushed/dissolved. Doing so takes two minutes - one to remove the old stone and one to absorb a new one.

- If you dismiss your suit, or it is removed in some other way (e.g. Dismiss Ectoplasm) any stones you have absorbed will disappear with the suit, and reappear with it whenever you reform it. If you swap out this customization,

- Without Harness Power Stone, you need UMD checks in order to use any stones in your repository (because Aegii lack manifesting ability), and doing so will flush those powers from the stone as normal. If the last power is flushed from an absorbed stone, that stone gets dissolved into your suit - i.e. you don't need to spend a minute removing the burned out stone.

Harness Power Stone:

- Basically this works like Unlocked Talent: it gives you a not-manifester-level, which you can use to manifest a single power from one of the stones in your repository as though it were a power known to you, using your power point reserve instead of the energies of the stone itself. Thus you can manfiest it as many times as you have PP to pay for it, and the power chosen will not be flushed from the stone.

- Losing the customization for any reason, or switching to a different power (even within the same stone) will flush the harnessed power. This is therefore not the best one to use with temporary abilities like Augment Suit - save those for other customizations.

- There are 4 grades of HPS, each successive grade requiring more customization points. In order these are: HPS, Improved HPS, Greater HPS, and Superior HPS. Each grade increases your not-ML, and lets you harness a higher level power (up to 4th-level.)

- Each grade of HPS can be taken twice, letting you select a new power to harness from among the stones in your repository. Your not-ML does not increase by taking a given grade a second time - only the next grade will boost it further. Thus you can have up to 8 powers harnessed at a time, and your ML will be treated as a total of up to 16 (1 + 3 + 5 + 7) if you select all 4 grades at least once. If you select the highest-level power each time, this will let you harness two 1st-level powers, two 2nds, two 3rds and two 4ths.

- it is unclear whether this effective manifester level can be increased by outside sources, such as Psionic Knack and Orange Ioun Stone.


The harness ability seems to say to me that instead of expending the stone as normal you get to use your power points instead and thus can use the power many times. At least I think this is what it does.

This is correct. Switching powers within that stone, or switching to a different stone, will flush the first power however.

There is a trick you can do to prevent a power from being flushed - simply eject it before changing the customization. There are downsides however - ejection takes 1 minute, so you probably won't be able to do this during combat. In addition, your Harness Power customization will still be locked to the power in the ejected stone, so you will either need 8 hours of rest or a limited-use ability like Reconfigure.

[MeeposFire]

Sounds nice then. I am not worried too much about the money. Wouldn't power stones be priced similarly to scrolls? If so they are cheap where the main cost to them is that they are one time use so usually you need to buy a lot of them. It sounds like this ability allows me to use up to 4th level powers using my power points instead of using up the stone so I just need to buy a power once and keep it around. If I pick my powers right (my thinking are always useful buffs, utility powers, and the like) then I can just buy them as I go and not worry too much about cost.

[Psyren]

Sounds nice then. I am not worried too much about the money. Wouldn't power stones be priced similarly to scrolls? If so they are cheap where the main cost to them is that they are one time use so usually you need to buy a lot of them.

They're priced identically to wizard scrolls but that can add up after awhile. Still, Harness does let you get more longevity out of the lower level ones, and augmentation makes lower level stones more valuable than lower level srolls (e.g. Time Stop is 4th level in Psionics) so you're correct that the cost is not a dealbreaker.

Not to mention, Aegii are generally saving money on armor anyway.


It sounds like this ability allows me to use up to 4th level powers using my power points instead of using up the stone so I just need to buy a power once and keep it around. If I pick my powers right (my thinking are always useful buffs, utility powers, and the like) then I can just buy them as I go and not worry too much about cost.

Yes, just be careful which ones you "lock in" - during combat, if you are forced to switch to a different power or stone, you will flush the first one.

[PsyBomb]

Due to how Augmenting works, there are a LOT of good and versatile powers to choose. Hostile Empathic Transfer, Expansion, Astral Construct, and there are tons more just as good. Those are just off the top of my head, I think the Psionic version of Freedom of Movement is also selectable

EDIT: Psychic Reformation. The end.