Wild Surge vs. Overchannel?

[Veya]

Well, I need an opinion.

On my Psion character, I currently have the Overchannel+Talented combo, however, I intent to do the full progression of Anarchic Initiate because, honestly, I have little to lose and a lot to gain, beefier HD, more skill points, and so forth.

The only thing I lose are two Psionic bonus feats, and I already talked to my DM that once I get Wild Surge from AI, he will allow me to retrain Overchannel away since I technically have all the requirements for AI without it, which would give me two feats back and making Anarchic Initiate a straight upgrade.

But what I am asking is, is it worth the risk? at most, I would do a +2 Wild Surge, which gives me a 10% chance of Enervation if I read it right, so it is not that big of a risk, I just want to know if it is worth the risk given it grants me two free feats.

[Douglas]

Have you considered the Postpone Enervation feat (Complete Psionic)? If your combats go like mine usually do it will quite often let you delay the daze until after combat ends, effectively turning the penalty into "can't Wild Surge again this combat", and even when the battle goes long it gives you control over and time to prepare for the exact moment when you suffer the daze.

[J-H]

Anarchic Initiate does get Postpone Enervation as a bonus feat around level 8 or 9.

There's also Unconditional Power, a metapsionic that lets you manifest even when dazed.

You can use the Chaotic Surge (free empower+ 50% of the time) ability with Overchannel, and not have the risk of Enervation like you have with Wild Surge. I suggest keeping both so that you have the option to play it safe or risky.

[Veya]

Chaotic Surge will be indeed pretty useful, as so far, I primarially use Overchannel to give that extra "Omp" to my Astral Constructs(I am a Shaper), being able to summon construts a tier higher than I otherwise would have been a blessing, and I guess a good Chaotic Surge roll will allow me to summon a 9th level Construct as early as level 13.

And I guess I don't really need those extra feats, I can get virtually every Psionic and Metapsionic feat I want with my regular feat progression, those extra feats would only allow me to get fancy about it and grab things like Craft feats, though I might be fancy about it anyway and pick Craft Dorje to throw my Psicrystal on the fray(and by that, I mean "Still hang out with me at all times to not lose shared Vigor, but at least be able to attack with the given Dorje").

Choices, choices...

[Feint's End]

Chaotic Surge will be indeed pretty useful, as so far, I primarially use Overchannel to give that extra "Omp" to my Astral Constructs(I am a Shaper), being able to summon construts a tier higher than I otherwise would have been a blessing, and I guess a good Chaotic Surge roll will allow me to summon a 9th level Construct as early as level 13.

And I guess I don't really need those extra feats, I can get virtually every Psionic and Metapsionic feat I want with my regular feat progression, those extra feats would only allow me to get fancy about it and grab things like Craft feats, though I might be fancy about it anyway and pick Craft Dorje to throw my Psicrystal on the fray(and by that, I mean "Still hang out with me at all times to not lose shared Vigor, but at least be able to attack with the given Dorje").

Choices, choices...

Chaotic surge doesn't really do anything for astral construct.

Otherwise I support the other opinions. Keep at least over channel (talented loses value later on) and just surge most of the time.

[Veya]

Chaotic surge doesn't really do anything for astral construct.
If I read it correctly, it may double the effect of Overchannel on a good roll, which at that level would be +2 to manifester level, and then doubled(assuming a good roll, that is), which at level 13 would make my effective manifester level for that manifestation 17, allowing me to augment Astral Construct to pull out a 9th level construct, as well as increasing the duration to 17 rounds instead of 13.

Or am I missing any detail?

[atemu1234]

All in all, the risk isn't really worth the reward, at least in my opinion. But, it can be really fun (in a Russian-roulette sort of way), and in my experience there's no such thing as badwrongfun.

[J-H]

If I read it correctly, it may double the effect of Overchannel on a good roll, which at that level would be +2 to manifester level, and then doubled(assuming a good roll, that is), which at level 13 would make my effective manifester level for that manifestation 17, allowing me to augment Astral Construct to pull out a 9th level construct, as well as increasing the duration to 17 rounds instead of 13.

Or am I missing any detail?

It only modifies variable effects (dice), so it's mostly good only for damaging powers.

[Veya]

It only modifies variable effects (dice), so it's mostly good only for damaging powers.
Ah, I see, I guess I wasn't fully reading that.