Divine Mind, Earnestly

[Warlocknthewind]

Alright, I first have to admit my love of playing the low tier classes. I enjoy being the underdog running along-side the other tiers. In the past I asked the Playground advice and built my Psycarnum Duergar Soulborn. After he got hosed I used the Psycarnum trick on CW's Samurai w/ smites galore, but his abismal will save lead to his timely demise. The Divine Mind is the next class I've turned to, having started in a campaign using only the psionic classes and races. It's obviously the most gimped psionicist, but after taking a good square look at it, the class itself isn't terrible if you are very pericular about what you want our of it. I am seeking to play a Meat Shield/ Support/ Battery role for the party, taking as much from auras as I can, and most useful (less offenseive) powers choices. Fluff & such is mutable and mantels (thankfully) are disassociated from particular deities, so free choices on which ones best suited.


I'm going to start at level 5 in a psionically remixed Red Hand of Doom campaign, with two other players of unknown class/race as of yet. Stats at (18,16,14,14,12,10) across the PC board, or. (15,14,13,12,10,8) w/LA +1

Anything but "Don't do it" would be gratefully taken into account, and considered for the character.

The Half Giant example art looks very nice in my opinion, but I suspect heavier armor and non-reach weaponry wouldn't be a great choice :smalltongue:

Praise be to the Foot!!

And thank you for any input!

[Chronos]

My first thought would be to stack on a bunch of other things that give auras, or other ways to mass-buff your teammates. Does "using only the psionic classes and races" mean exactly that? Because a dip each in Marshal and Dragon Shaman might do well, plus maybe Bard.

If the classes themselves aren't on the table, you can still pick up a dragon shaman aura using a feat.

EDIT: Another thought-- IIRC, divine mind auras are pretty small-area, or at least start off that way. You might want to pick up Widen Supernatural Ability, from Tome of Magic (the pact magic section). It's only usable once per day, but there's no duration limit, so it should keep going as long as you never turn off your aura.

[Troacctid]

Dip Crusader at 5th level. Instant melee competency. Pick up Foehammer and Mountain Hammer for extra damage, Crusader's Strike for healing, and Iron Guard's Glare (with a reach weapon and armor spikes) as a de facto aura that gives your allies +4 AC.

[Warlocknthewind]

I love the Initiator levels in the mix, adds a great deal of potency, and synergy with a little investment.t

Could be dragonborn something and pick up an aura with a feat. It's better healing than what I get in class for a long time.

I waa considering the Justice Mantle to start off, using that AoO to keep does focued on me, instead of my allies in the allies close by to benefit from my aura. other ones seem better, although.

Thoughts on mantle choice?

Or race, for that matter. Kalashtar, for bunch of bonus PP, Xeph for massive attack stacking, Half Giant for Poweful Build , and so on. They all seem reasonable choices to me.

[Troacctid]

If you want powerful build, the extra +2 Str from Goliath is probably better than the extra 2 pp from Half-Giant.

[torrasque666]

If you want powerful build, the extra +2 Str from Goliath is probably better than the extra 2 pp from Half-Giant.
I think he has to have the psionic subtype naturally, not from the class, for his restrictions.

[Warlocknthewind]

I think he has to have the psionic subtype naturally, not from the class, for his restrictions.

Which is true, and also disqualifies Crusader unfortunately. Its a most sturdy class. I am allowed access to any subsystem, but only classes & races considered to be psionic. Which is the cheapest mode of healing I'd have access to? I like Draconic Aura; Vigor , but that is a heavy investment, equal to Martial Study & Spirit for crusader healing maneuvers, just more passive and effects all in radius, not just a single ally.

[Jeff the Green]

Maybe taking Instant Clarity or Psychic Renewal will make Crusader psionic enough?

[Warlocknthewind]

Checked with DM , he declined. The Divine Mind IS the Crusader of this world, there are no organizations to teach maneuvers en-masse, so it is an unrefined art. I can still use the system, but not the base class.

Both Martial Spirit Stance and Draconic Aura Vigor take the same feat investment. DAV is passive and effects several people, but the stance/maneuvers are more exciting and heal larger amounts..

I think I would go with the stance. I can heal people to full in a fist fight after a fight, instead of half health.

I still haven't a clue for my mantle as of yet, though. Justice seems like a decent one. But has poor powers. Fate is handy, once a day. And Guardian could keep damage down on the front line with it's aura and ability.

Edit: I don't know if this is any good, I just know that true healing in Psionics is rather inefficient, and I am unsure if I will find much healing outside of my own self sufficiency. I don't feel the need to invest too heavily into offensive boosting feats this early, I feel like my aura and powers will be more than sufficient.

If I chose Kalashtar as my race, I could take the roll of party face. Xeph would synergize with Martial Spirit (but only with more feat investment). Maenads are kind of useless. Synad could give me on free aura swap a day (more with feats).

It's a good thought excercise. I am enjoying thinking of this character much more than others in the past :smallcool:

[Chronos]

The aura only requires one feat, while the stance requires two. You don't need to be dragonblooded to use the aura; that just makes it scale with level. But the Vigor aura is about equally effective with or without scaling: Either way, it's too slow to make much difference in combat, but fast enough to be useful outside of combat.

On the other hand, Martial Spirit will allow you to heal everyone up to full... if the DM agrees. By RAW, it lacks the limitation that you have to be in combat with something that's a real threat, like all of the healing strikes have, but many DMs consider this to be a mere mistake, and houserule it that way anyway.