DMing combat sequences with a PC who uses Fabrication/creation based spells/abilities

[trikkydik]

I have a PC in my campaign who gave me a little trouble during our last session, specifically regarding combat.

He's a level 10 Gestalted Ardent(which is essentially a cleric)/psychic warrior.

His 2 main mantles (Domains) are creation and destruction.

His "theme" is to make 10x10 solid cubes of matter, and shape it to his desires.

He's claiming that he can make any shape that is made of (10x10) amount of matter for 1 power point. (essentially a level 1 spell)
I think hes being dramatic and trying to squeeze out every little drop of "win" he possibly can.

This is kind of a home brew-ish thread, but it still has familiar influences (Seeing as PHB3.5 has spells like wall of stone/ice/fire/force.) So i think anyone, Player or DM, that plays 3.5 can give me a little insight on this topic.

I need help on the mechanics of this in combat. (How quickly is the spell manifested in real time? because i DM combat as fluidly as possible, so a lot of times defensive actions are taken during someone else's combat/attack phase.)
And figuring out how many power points to allocate to his spells. (Description below.)
And generally everything about this sort of spell. (LOL)
Psionics doesn't help my cause either, because of ectoplasm and its ambiguous qualities. (Anyone unfamiliar with ectoplasm - it is a portion of the astral plane a psion draws into the material plane for casting an ability that has a material component requirement. it is the only material component regarding psionic spells.)

These are the current allowed Augments:
Change the material of the cube. wood-1 PP, stone-3, iron-5, steel-9,
Change the shape of the cube. +1/2/3/4 PP for each respective type of material
Change the size of the cube. +1/2/3/4 PP for each respective type of material
Craft objects with intricate details. (depends on situation really)

I'm also looking for advice on summoning walls in general, and overall guidelines and rules. (How difficult they are to cast, how long they take, environmental influences.)
I need the most input on incorporating this into combat scenes. Since he likes to use these spells defensively, and makes miniature shelters of odd shapes.

Thanks, playground friends.

P.S. any help on spells or skills to get around my PC's annoying defensive walls would be awesome, heehee.

[J-H]

For 1pp, he's referring to Psionic Minor Creation:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/minorCreationPsionic.htm
It creates 1 cu ft/level, so at level 10 he can create a 1'x1'x10' shape, not a 10'x10'x10' shape (1,000 cu ft). He can make a speedbump... or a 2'x2'x2' cube with two 1'x1' cubes sticking out one side.

The manifesting time is 1 minute, which is 10 rounds of combat.

I don't know where those augments come from, they are not part of the original power.

The power that creates walls is Wall of Ectoplasm, 4th level power:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/wallofEctoplasm.htm
It does make a large wall, but one that can be cut through pretty easily (at level 10, it's 2" thick, so 20hp + 5 hardness - 25 damage in one hit will break a 10' section).

[trikkydik]

For 1pp, he's referring to Psionic Minor Creation:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/minorCreationPsionic.htm
It creates 1 cu ft/level, so at level 10 he can create a 1'x1'x10' shape, not a 10'x10'x10' shape (1,000 cu ft). He can make a speedbump... or a 2'x2'x2' cube with two 1'x1' cubes sticking out one side.

The manifesting time is 1 minute, which is 10 rounds of combat.

I don't know where those augments come from, they are not part of the original power.

The power that creates walls is Wall of Ectoplasm, 4th level power:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/wallofEctoplasm.htm
It does make a large wall, but one that can be cut through pretty easily (at level 10, it's 2" thick, so 20hp + 5 hardness - 25 damage in one hit will break a 10' section).


Thank you so much, you have any advice for somehow saying yes to his desires? Any way for him to augment this spell?

[J-H]

Wall of Ectoplasm is his go-to for crowd control. It's already shapable.

Minor creation lets him create vegetable matter, which includes wood or (the main use) poisons.

Major creation allows him to create metals, all the way up to some short-lived adamantium, which would be the best bet for a wall. http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/majorCreation.htm
At ML 10, it's going to be 10 cubic feet... but 10 cu ft is 1440 cubic inches. I think a 2" thick adamantium wall will make an excellent barrier. 2" thick gives you 720 sqft of space, which is a 120' long x 6' high wall for 10 rounds.

Yeesh, that's actually pretty strong.

Just make sure he pays the full 9 PP so he can't spam it.

[Zancloufer]

The biggest problem with Creation and Fabrication is that BOTH spells have a 1 minute (10 round) casting. Honestly that would be the biggest limiting factor. He is not going to be making adamantine walls as they will disappear before he can shape them.

Though stone or Iron walls still work. There is definitely combat application, though more so in set up than in the middle of the action.

[icefractal]

The biggest problem with Creation and Fabrication is that BOTH spells have a 1 minute (10 round) casting. Honestly that would be the biggest limiting factor. He is not going to be making adamantine walls as they will disappear before he can shape them.The duration starts after the casting stops, so adamantine walls would be around for their normal (short) duration. But indeed, spending a minute to make a wall that only lasts for 2 minutes at most is not usually very useful (making an adamantine pick for someone to smash a door down with, on the other hand ...).

There is a way to make them usable in combat, although still with a delay. Link Power (metapsionic feat), for an extra 1 PP, can have them go off on the next round. So you do need to keep your foes standing still a round, but it's possible.

[Telok]

Do note that while Psionic Minor Creation says it makes plant matter it does not say that it makes poison. That's an extrapolation from the part that says that stuff more complex than a chair requires a craft skill roll. If you allow poisons then you're allowing distilled and derived substances including pure alcohol, pure water, cayanide, morphene, turpentine, and everything else you can render or extract from plant matter.