Advice for a new Psychic?

[Excel]

Greetings!

I'll be retraining my 5th level Occultist into a Psychic, simply because my party and role I wanted to fulfill would really be better with a full caster. The class seems similar to Sorcerer but I've never played that either so I'm a bit daunted by the selection of spells, metamagic and disciplines.

My character's Charisma is higher than Wisdom so I thought it might be better to pick a Cha-based discipline, or should I focus more on what the powers actually do than the stat?

My party is made up of a melee warpriest, an archer-inquisitor, and a rogue/magus blaster. So I want to be the party sage and focus on battlefield control in-combat, and divination when out of combat. I'd appreciate if anyone who has played Psychic (or even just Sorcerer, I suppose) could tell me if I'm supposed to build around anything in particular, or if I would be best served by just picking whatever the best spells are.

Thank you!

[Psyren]

"Help me build X" are best served with a handbook. Then you can return with more specific questions :smallsmile:

CTP's Psychic Handbook (https://docs.google.com/document/d/19ucZQWoJVw02H_7uyEeGrex4A-MgVRzfz1f-yUjG9uQ/edit)

dnoisetter's Psychic Handbook (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rttZANEWOsIC4bX6EzL2GEUfa9xOtrV4PzK5A0VMjew/edit)

[Excel]

Thank you for the links, Psyren, those are some pretty extensive reads.

I guess my first question is, how important is it to have a high stat for your psychic discipline? And how important is it to have a way to replenish phrenic points?

My character has really high charisma but the Lore and Faith (and possibly the new Shadow) disciplines seem much more interesting for their abilities, and match my character's style more than any of the charisma-based ones.

[Florian]

I guess my first question is, how important is it to have a high stat for your psychic discipline? And how important is it to have a way to replenish phrenic points?

Sadly, there´s no blanket answer to that. It´s a bit more keyed how many combat you have before a rest and how intense your combat are.

[Slithery D]

Thank you for the links, Psyren, those are some pretty extensive reads.

I guess my first question is, how important is it to have a high stat for your psychic discipline? And how important is it to have a way to replenish phrenic points?

My character has really high charisma but the Lore and Faith (and possibly the new Shadow) disciplines seem much more interesting for their abilities, and match my character's style more than any of the charisma-based ones.

It depends on the discipline. Every discipline gets more phrenic pool from their linked ability. But that's all Abomination gets. Others have limits on how often per day they can use a discipline ability, or "double dip" their phrenic pool by having a recovery mechanism that's limited by your ability score.

[Extra Anchovies]

My party is made up of a melee warpriest, an archer-inquisitor, and a rogue/magus blaster. So I want to be the party sage and focus on battlefield control in-combat, and divination when out of combat. I'd appreciate if anyone who has played Psychic (or even just Sorcerer, I suppose) could tell me if I'm supposed to build around anything in particular, or if I would be best served by just picking whatever the best spells are.

Well, you're already pointed in the right direction. Based on the rest of your party (one melee, two ranged, plenty of self-buff access all around), battlefield control is definitely a good build goal. I would advise against spending too many spells known on divinations, though - unless a certain spell doesn't appear on the Magus or Warpriest lists, I'd recommend leaving that to the prepared spellcasters.

If you want to be a sage-type, you probably want the Lore discipline. It's Wisdom-based, but if you can afford to burn a couple low-level spell slots you essentially get double Wis to your pool thanks to their kickass recovery method. Mnemonic Cache and Superior Automatic Writing both give access options that your prepared-casting buddies don't have, and Memory Palace comes online a bit late for what it gives but it's just too cool. It's also got a pretty solid set of discipline spells.

One of the great things about being a full caster is that your feats can be basically whatever you want. Eldritch Heritage (Arcane) can get you a familiar, and its prerequisite of Skill Focus (any Knowledge) makes sense on a knowledgeable character. A familiar is useful because of the Sage (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/wizard/familiar/familiar-archetypes/sage-familiar-archetype) familiar archetype; having a Sage familiar is pretty much a scaling pile of Knowledge skills, which frees up more of your own skill ranks for good stuff like Perception and Spellcraft. A raven would be useful for its ability to communicate with the other party members, or you could pick a greensting scorpion, compsognathus, or arctic hare for the +4 initiative bonus. Improved Initiative and Defensive Combat Training are also good feat choices.