Earth Power and the Torque of Power Preservation.

[frogglesmash]

I've been using Earth Power on a psion recently and intend to get the Torque eventually. Until now we've been using it (earth power) to get what is essentially a pseudo +1 to manifester level i.e. getting a tier 5 Astral Construct at level ML8 instead of ML9 or getting +7 AC from inertial armour at ML6. I was curious as to whether this is actually rules legal or if we'd missed something that prohibits this?

[martixy]

It very much is.

Wilder has pretty much the same shtick. And Overchannel too.

It's also the basis of ONE of the psionic recharge tricks. (Yes, there are several. I myself prefer the incarnum version.)

Couple that with Bestow Power and you are capable of getting back more than you give, in essence turning PPs from a per-day pool into a per-encounter pool.*

* Last one is to be discussed with DM prior to implementation, people tend to look at you funny if you spring it on them without warning. Or throw books at you.

[frogglesmash]

It very much is.

Wilder has pretty much the same shtick. And Overchannel too.

It's also the basis of ONE of the psionic recharge tricks. (Yes, there are several. I myself prefer the incarnum version.)

Couple that with Bestow Power and you are capable of getting back more than you give, in essence turning PPs from a per-day pool into a per-encounter pool.*

* Last one is to be discussed with DM prior to implementation, people tend to look at you funny if you spring it on them without warning. Or throw books at you.

I'm already aware of the plethora of recharge tricks, I was more concerned about the legality of using it as a pseudo overchannel.

On a side note: If the Incarnum recharge trick you're referring to is the one that combines Midnight Augmentation and metapower to get a -3 to the PP cost of a first level power linked to a bestow power I'm pretty sure it doesn't work. The reason being that Midnight Augmentation only reduces the cost to augment a power and unless metapsionics are considered augmentations it's useless for this particular infinite PP loop. If you can get your hands on one more point of essentia and either the feat or the item mentioned in my title then it could work.

[martixy]

I'm already aware of the plethora of recharge tricks, I was more concerned about the legality of using it as a pseudo overchannel.

On a side note: If the Incarnum recharge trick you're referring to is the one that combines Midnight Augmentation and metapower to get a -3 to the PP cost of a first level power linked to a bestow power I'm pretty sure it doesn't work. The reason being that Midnight Augmentation only reduces the cost to augment a power and unless metapsionics are considered augmentations it's useless for this particular infinite PP loop. If you can get your hands on one more point of essentia and either the feat or the item mentioned in my title then it could work.

Hm... you may have a point. I am under the impression that adding to the power point cost of a power to produce extra results is precisely what is considered augmentation.

Provided that you are correct, there is a way to "fix" the trick though:
It requires Psycarnum Infusion and Psionic Meditation on top of all other feats and raises the min level to 6(when you get enough essentia capacity to reduce by 2).
r1. Double-focus.
r2. Psycarnum Infusion, move to focus again, standard to manifest augmented bestow power linked to bestow power. This nets you a total of 6 PP at a cost of 5PP(4 now, incoming 2 next round), down from 9(-2 Midnight + Psycarnum on the augmented BP, satisfying that condition, -2 Metapower).

Rinse, repeat.

Total of 6 feats required, but hey... at least it's airtight now.

At least Dominant Ideal and Affinity Field still work as advertised.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I'm already aware of the plethora of recharge tricks, I was more concerned about the legality of using it as a pseudo overchannel.

On a side note: If the Incarnum recharge trick you're referring to is the one that combines Midnight Augmentation and metapower to get a -3 to the PP cost of a first level power linked to a bestow power I'm pretty sure it doesn't work. The reason being that Midnight Augmentation only reduces the cost to augment a power and unless metapsionics are considered augmentations it's useless for this particular infinite PP loop. If you can get your hands on one more point of essentia and either the feat or the item mentioned in my title then it could work.

Just Midnight Augmentation the Bestow Power, so every 1 pp spent to augment makes it bestow 2 pp extra. Spending 4 pp on it breaks even, spending 5 pp on it bestows 6 pp, and it only improves from there.

[martixy]

Just Midnight Augmentation the Bestow Power, so every 1 pp spent to augment makes it bestow 2 pp extra. Spending 4 pp on it breaks even, spending 5 pp on it bestows 6 pp, and it only improves from there.

You can't invest more essentia in this feat than the chosen power's level.

And even without that it doesn't get MUCH better, due to the slow progression of your essentia capacity - at 6, 12 and 18.

MoI Recharge trick v2: Saves a feat: No longer need Psionic Meditation.

Just get any other source of 1 essentia(like another Incarnum feat) you can invest in Midnight Augmentation.
This lowers the recharge rate from 1/2 pp/round to 1/3 pp/round - 2 rounds for focus, 1 round to manifest.

With meditation you can do even better than v1 of the trick.
r1. Double focus.
r2. Standard action manifest, move to focus
r3. Move to focus, standard to manifest

Rinse, repeat.
=2/3 PP/round.


Edit: Trick v2.1(variant): If you can't spare a feat for a second point of essentia, but you can spare a class level, get either Incarnate or Totemist. The PrC's while not hard to qualify for are worthless as far as class features go.

[DrMartin]

Recharge tricks aside (would like to see a game that allows them anyway) I also had the doubt that i was missing something about earth power but there seems to be quite strong consensus on the forum that it works like that.

If you play with transparency and want to build on this pseudo-overchannel, try to get a psionic version of arcanist's glove. They are very cheap, 500 a pair, and give +2 caster level to the next 1st level arcane spell (would have to be converted to 1st level power in your case) you cast. now you get 7th level construct at ML8

If your DM is keen on psionic equivalences, paragnostic apostle (for instance converting Divine Understanding from being based on cleric Domains to be based on psionic Mantles) can advance this another bit further, with a smattering of +1 to caster level to several categories of powers.

not table-shattering, flying-books-magnet OP, but still nice.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

You can't invest more essentia in this feat than the chosen power's level.

And even without that it doesn't get MUCH better, due to the slow progression of your essentia capacity - at 6, 12 and 18.

Or you can just get a MoI race and you have two points of essentia. You only need to invest two points in Midnight Augmentation for Bestow Power, a 2nd level power, to reduce its cost from 3 pp per augmentation to 1 pp per augmentation. You only ever need to invest two essentia, because Midnight Augmentation changes it from "For every 3 additional power points you spend..." to "For every 1 additional power point you spend..." because it reduces the cost to augment the power by two.

You can't bestow more powerpoints to yourself than your manifester level, so you can't even start recharging with it until 6th level, which is exactly when your essentia capacity enables you to invest 2 pp into it.