Master of the unseen hand. Maybe one of the best prestiege classes (apparently)

[SuperMuuh]

So while looking at the art concept in complete warrior, I stumbled upon that great picture of "master of the unseen hand". And thought to myself.. I really want to play such a character.

My friend and I were just brainstorming about character ideas, and suddently he mentioned something about a skill trick. Swift Concentration.
Depending on how you interpret this, you can maintain concentration on a spell, for the remaining time of that spell, when used.. AS A SWIFT ACTION
Well that was my friend's conclusion, although I thought it sounded a little too good, because of the possibilities. But there are still options like; "Extraordinary Concentration" and even "Steady Concentration" if you will.


The benefit of playing a Master of the Unseen hand
This prestiege class really makes telekinesis a very good spell, that you can use for many things in combat, such as:

Controlling a sword with a BAB that exceeds your actual combined level.
Throwing opponents around the battlefield, in any direction you see fit. -Even aim them at each other
Control you and move willing creatures within 40 feet of you. You can literally move a whole party around, to gain a huge tactical advantage in a battle.



And the best thing of all!

All this comes at the cost of a seperate action. You can still move and take standard actions, while maintaining this spell


Other spells that requires you to maintain concentration for the spell not to end, can obviously also be used in this manner. I do however think that telekinesis is the best spell at hand, while used in this manner (so far).

Personally I would favor these feats for a character, such as this:

1. Spell focus (Transmutation)
3. Improved initiative
5. Metamagic feat extend
6. Greater Spell focus (transmutation)
9. Martial weapon proficiency (Great Sword). (Asuming that you would need proficiency with your controlled weapon). Also its BAB is your combined caster level +int mod. Crunch on that one for a bit.
10. Whatever you'd like
12. Practiced spellcaster


-If the skill trick swift concentration does not work in that manner, you can swap in either one or both of the other feats as mentioned, and maintain concentration on spells with at least a move action instead. But still use the skilltrick when needed ofc.

Well guys that concludes my thoughts on the master of the master unseen hand. What do you all think about this idea?

[Phelix-Mu]

Swift Concentration is quite good for just two skill points, but, like all skill tricks, can be used only once per encounter (unless the skill trick explicitly states otherwise). So it's good, but not quite as abusable as it might seem at first glance.

But, as one might expect from fantasy/scifi genres generally, telekinesis is the bomb, and anything that makes a build focusing on it more feasible is really good, especially from a flavor standpoint.

[Jeff the Green]

If you can manage to hit a DC 40 Concentration check reliably, Extraordinary Concentration will let you do it as often as you want, though.

[SuperMuuh]

But, as one might expect from fantasy/scifi genres generally, telekinesis is the bomb, and anything that makes a build focusing on it more feasible is really good, especially from a flavor standpoint.

Yea! Being the guy who controls the battle with waving motion, behind your temmates pulling the strings is awesome. Not to mention that you can still move and cast other spells, while doing this


If you can manage to hit a DC 40 Concentration check reliably, Extraordinary Concentration will let you do it as often as you want, though.

Yea. Two actions per turn :), at the cost of some class levels.

[Nettlekid]

People have made builds of MotUH fairly often, and they're pretty cool. Somewhere there's a Wu Jen build which uses its Spell Secrets on Telekinesis, and eventually uses Chain Spell to pick up CL weapons and use them together.

It's far from the best prestige class, though. After all, you're a caster base fulfilling a melee role. Once you're a high enough level to cast Telekinesis, it's hard to let go of the potential power of higher level spells and resign yourself to swinging around swords, be they one or twenty. The other things it lets you do, like bull rushes or flying, are done by other, lower level spells, and often better. (Compare it to the actual spell Fly, for example.) Also unfortunately, so many of the cool Telekinesis abilities you gain still rely on failing Telekinesis' save, which is never that surefire of an option. And what makes me so disappointed is the pretty meager weight limit on Telekinesis. The idea of doing a Magneto pose and raising sailing vessels or giant statues is a great idea, but they're way too heavy, and you won't be able to do serious damage by crushing someone with a house. It's a great idea, and if the Master of the Unseen Hand was really a master it would be a different story, but as is...meh.

[Fax Celestis]

There's also sonorous hum, bard/sor/wiz 2, spell compendium. Next spell you cast with duration of "concentration" just uses sonorous hum's duration instead.

[DeAnno]

There's also sonorous hum, bard/sor/wiz 2, spell compendium. Next spell you cast with duration of "concentration" just uses sonorous hum's duration instead.

Ah, for Clerics and Sor/Wiz it's 3. Also it doesn't technically extend the duration, it just concentrates for you as a free action, so TK still only lasts 1 round/level. It's still a very nice combo though, especially since it doesn't even eat your swift.

[bekeleven]

Best part about sonorous hum is the lack of restrictions on instances.

A quickened sonorous hum or three has applications in all sorts of builds.

And there's the obvious uses, like silent image.

[Dalebert]

I honestly scoffed at that class when I realized that it doesn't advanced your spellcaster level at all. Didn't seem like the specializations for that one spell were all that great for the cost. You don't even get new castings of telekinesis!

[Xerlith]

This class would be okay except that it's awful. Really. It needs 10 spellcaster levels and then doesn't even give you additional Telekinesis slots. Or any spellcasting advancement. It's marginally better if entered via ghost racial class 2, but it's still... Bad.

Whatever you want it to do, Setting Sun Swordsage/Warblade/Bloodstorm Blade4 does better (and I'm on a build that'll showcase it)

[Socratov]

Sounds fun, but what can we do more with this. and would Psionics help here? I mean, they have the three uses of Telekinesis as powers. Also, I feel that the Practised X feat is immensely powerful here. Since MotUH is not a spellcasting or manifesting class it doesn't apply caster/manifesterlevels, so you can raise it by 4 with just one feat, then you add the bonus from MotUH and get even more out of it. with 15 manifester levels, practised manifester, and 5 level sof MotUH and (at lvl 20) a 24 in your primary stat you will end up with a bab of 19+5+7=31, and as the ability states you get an iterative for every 5 beyond+1, the ability, however, does not mention, nor refers to the cap of 4 attacks per full round attack. So, you get 30/5=6 attacks per round. Or you could lose some manifesterlevels, and get a couple of levels of warblade to get some Diamond Mind manuevers (you will like the focus on concentration), also take the warblade levels late so you can use the rule of half initiatior level for non initiator classes.

So, first 7 levels of Psion(Psychokinesis) to get all 3 telekinesis powers. Then enter MotUH, afterwards go back to psion for 6 levels (until lvl 17), then round out with 2 levels of warblade. Get the feat Practised Manifester so your manifesterlevel is 17, 22 when using telekinesis. Then your initiator level is 11 (10 when first level warblade is taken), take the 3 diamond mind saveboosters (Action before thought, Mind over body and Moment of perfect mind) and whatever takes you fancy after that (make sure that for your 2nd level of warblade that you can pick 6th level manuevers). Now you can do pretty much everything with concentration: gain psionic focus, manifest, make attacks, save against effects, fly, you name it. I mean, by now you are practically the Green Lantern.

[ericgrau]

Instead of caster entry an old trick is to use ghost entry at lower ECL, or savage species for partial ghost entry at even low level.

[Socratov]

So, I'm psionificating the Master of the Unseen hand {know(arcane)->Know(psionics), Spellcraft->Psicraft, Casterlevel increase->manifesterlevel increase, manifesting other power instead of casting another spell while maintaining Telekinetic force}, and changed the requirement to the three telekinetic powers: Telekinetic Force, Telekinetic Thrust and Telekinetic Maneuver. which shouldn't sound all that unreasonable in my opinion. I also added a 2 pp cost for versatile Telekinesis to account for the manuever's higher level power, when switching from Telekinetic Force to Telekinetic Maneuver. It's shaping up to be a very interesting build in terms of offense and defence. Offensive is everyhting telekinetic, apart form the three powers mentioned you get the cherries you want: a bit of boosts, a bit of buffs, doesn't matter that much. Then you get the telekinetic powers and go into master of the unseen hand. Then you start getting iteratives with a flying weapon, meanwhile flying around. Now after master of the unseen hand you go back to psion, to get whatever powers you want (for those situations you want a bit more oomph, or where force tends to not work all that well). And finally you finish with 2 levels of warblade. the warblade brings some Diamond Mind manuevers: Action before thought, Mind over Body and Moment of perfect mind. those three do the folliwng things: remove the possibility of a natural 1, use your concentration skill for saves. Since they are maneuvers for a warblade you can recover them with a standard attack, so no worries about enemy casters. Then there is Moment of Alacrity, which shunts you to the front of the action queue: when you use it (boost) you get a +20 to initiative, but you can only keep 3 manuevers readied. Luckily you are a psion and get some divination going. so divine what's gonna happen, decide which 2 saves you don't want to lose, pick those 2 and get Moment of alacrity. done deal. then for stance get hunter's scent so you can smell threats coming and know where invisible people are if you miss the sight. meanwhile you can use Telekinetic force (as long as you don't move) alongside any power you know. Even though you need to make a few psionic/spell transparency adjustments the build makes sense.

[kulosle]

or you can use ocular spell so that you can persist telekinesis. If you also persist sonorous hum then you can stake them using incantatrix. even if your int is only 20 you get a total of 5 free action telekinesis full auto.