Soranar
2016-09-23, 10:32 PM
The combat drone is a simple idea: how broken would a wilder hengeyokai sparrow be?
Let's find out.
Race: Hengeyokai (Sparrow)
Templates: none
Age Category: middle aged
Alternate class features: educated wilder
STATS (32 pts buy, though 28 would work just fine)
STR 7 dump (1 in sparrow form)
DEX 7 dump (23 in sparrow form)
CON 14 fairly important
INT 14
WIS 14
CHA 19 (main stat, gets every increase)
2 flaws
Feats:
Level 1 Illithid heritage, Illithid Compulsion, hidden talent (astral construct)
Level 3 Illithid Legacy
Level 6 Boost Construct
Level 9 Greater Illithid Legacy
Level 12 practiced manifester
Level 15 expanded knowledge
Level 18 expanded knowledge
Power known
Level 1
-Astral Construct (hidden talent)
-Charm (illithid heritage)
-Inertial armor (with your 24 naked AC, this alone makes you almost invulnerable to physical attacks)
-Energy Ray (your to hit is +14 at level one and you deal touch attacks, needless to say you don't need true strike)
Level 2
-Amethyst Burst (anything not affected by energy ray will be affected by this)
-Read thoughts (illithid heritage)
-Clairvoyant sense (1rst bonus expanded knowledge)
Level 3
-Dispel psionic (greater illithid heritage)
-Time hop
-Empathic transfer, hostile (2nd expanded knowledge)
Level 4
-Dominate (greater illithid heritage)
-Divination
-schism (3rd bonus expanded knowledge)
Level 5
-anticipatory strike
Level 6
-Temporal acceleration
-Disintegrate, psionic (expanded knowledge, level 15 expanded knowledge)
Level 7
-Mind blank, personal
-fission (4th bonus expanded knowledge)
Level 8
-Bend reality
-true metabolism (level 18 expanded knowledge)
Level 9
-stygian conflagration
-Reality revision
Combat
-You start your day by manifesting inertial armor. As usual you should use wild surge since you're out of combat and there's no reason for you not to do so.
Lets compare this Wilder to a Mailman Sorcerer
a mailman's schtick is pretty simple
arcane fusion, true strike + orb of force
at higher level it'll be a twinned empowered repeated orb of force
The Combat Drone doesn't seem to pack that much of a punch at first but a Combat Drone never fights alone. First he casts anticipatory strike to go first
then he casts temporal acceleration (which you can augment to get several more rounds, if you enervate you just lose a round recuperating)
during your temporal acceleration the combat drone does the following
-manifest schism
-manifest fission (now there are 2 of you)
-manifest an astral construct at maximum wild surge (if you are stunned you will be spending your stunned turn in temporal acceleration anyway, besides your schism self is unaffected)
-meanwhile your clone also manifests anticipatory strike
-he also manifests temporal acceleration
-he also manifests schism
-he also manifests an astral construct at maximum wild surge
combat starts
you now have 2 astral constructs (one at your manifester level + wild surge, the other at manifester level + wild surge -2) in play and you have 4 standard actions per round (1 at full manifester level, one clone at -2, one schism at -2 and another schism at -4)
say a level 20 character
this means 2 level 9 astral constructs
each entity manifests energy ray for about 90d6 of damage or 315 damage (enough to kill anything CR appropriate by yourself)
if you're facing something with bad FORT saves, you can switch to disintegrate
if you're facing multiple opponents, you can carpet bomb the entire place with amethyst bursts
if you're facing multiple tough opponents, you can open the round with stygian conflagration (at full wild surge that's 1d4+4 negative levels, no save) then your schism can do the same (at 1d4+3) before your clone destroys whatever is left with rays or bursts.
Most easy encounters though, a simple fully augmented astral construct should do the job while you stay out of trouble.
Unlike a sorcerer, you have plenty of useful out of combat powers. You only had to spend 3 power known on attack powers and you get every summon you need with a single power. You also get all the charm/dominate spells in 2 powers so there's no real need to invest your skills in bluff, intimidate and diplomacy.
Instead the Combat drone focus on finding targets (listen, spot), concentration, psicraft and use psionic device (which lets you fill out all the utility powers you shouldn't waste a feat on).
Finally, if you really want to show off, you can even take vow of poverty. I considered taking metamorphosis but the sparrow form is so useful I don't see much point in turning into a melee character, I much prefer letting the astral constructs do the fighting.
Let's find out.
Race: Hengeyokai (Sparrow)
Templates: none
Age Category: middle aged
Alternate class features: educated wilder
STATS (32 pts buy, though 28 would work just fine)
STR 7 dump (1 in sparrow form)
DEX 7 dump (23 in sparrow form)
CON 14 fairly important
INT 14
WIS 14
CHA 19 (main stat, gets every increase)
2 flaws
Feats:
Level 1 Illithid heritage, Illithid Compulsion, hidden talent (astral construct)
Level 3 Illithid Legacy
Level 6 Boost Construct
Level 9 Greater Illithid Legacy
Level 12 practiced manifester
Level 15 expanded knowledge
Level 18 expanded knowledge
Power known
Level 1
-Astral Construct (hidden talent)
-Charm (illithid heritage)
-Inertial armor (with your 24 naked AC, this alone makes you almost invulnerable to physical attacks)
-Energy Ray (your to hit is +14 at level one and you deal touch attacks, needless to say you don't need true strike)
Level 2
-Amethyst Burst (anything not affected by energy ray will be affected by this)
-Read thoughts (illithid heritage)
-Clairvoyant sense (1rst bonus expanded knowledge)
Level 3
-Dispel psionic (greater illithid heritage)
-Time hop
-Empathic transfer, hostile (2nd expanded knowledge)
Level 4
-Dominate (greater illithid heritage)
-Divination
-schism (3rd bonus expanded knowledge)
Level 5
-anticipatory strike
Level 6
-Temporal acceleration
-Disintegrate, psionic (expanded knowledge, level 15 expanded knowledge)
Level 7
-Mind blank, personal
-fission (4th bonus expanded knowledge)
Level 8
-Bend reality
-true metabolism (level 18 expanded knowledge)
Level 9
-stygian conflagration
-Reality revision
Combat
-You start your day by manifesting inertial armor. As usual you should use wild surge since you're out of combat and there's no reason for you not to do so.
Lets compare this Wilder to a Mailman Sorcerer
a mailman's schtick is pretty simple
arcane fusion, true strike + orb of force
at higher level it'll be a twinned empowered repeated orb of force
The Combat Drone doesn't seem to pack that much of a punch at first but a Combat Drone never fights alone. First he casts anticipatory strike to go first
then he casts temporal acceleration (which you can augment to get several more rounds, if you enervate you just lose a round recuperating)
during your temporal acceleration the combat drone does the following
-manifest schism
-manifest fission (now there are 2 of you)
-manifest an astral construct at maximum wild surge (if you are stunned you will be spending your stunned turn in temporal acceleration anyway, besides your schism self is unaffected)
-meanwhile your clone also manifests anticipatory strike
-he also manifests temporal acceleration
-he also manifests schism
-he also manifests an astral construct at maximum wild surge
combat starts
you now have 2 astral constructs (one at your manifester level + wild surge, the other at manifester level + wild surge -2) in play and you have 4 standard actions per round (1 at full manifester level, one clone at -2, one schism at -2 and another schism at -4)
say a level 20 character
this means 2 level 9 astral constructs
each entity manifests energy ray for about 90d6 of damage or 315 damage (enough to kill anything CR appropriate by yourself)
if you're facing something with bad FORT saves, you can switch to disintegrate
if you're facing multiple opponents, you can carpet bomb the entire place with amethyst bursts
if you're facing multiple tough opponents, you can open the round with stygian conflagration (at full wild surge that's 1d4+4 negative levels, no save) then your schism can do the same (at 1d4+3) before your clone destroys whatever is left with rays or bursts.
Most easy encounters though, a simple fully augmented astral construct should do the job while you stay out of trouble.
Unlike a sorcerer, you have plenty of useful out of combat powers. You only had to spend 3 power known on attack powers and you get every summon you need with a single power. You also get all the charm/dominate spells in 2 powers so there's no real need to invest your skills in bluff, intimidate and diplomacy.
Instead the Combat drone focus on finding targets (listen, spot), concentration, psicraft and use psionic device (which lets you fill out all the utility powers you shouldn't waste a feat on).
Finally, if you really want to show off, you can even take vow of poverty. I considered taking metamorphosis but the sparrow form is so useful I don't see much point in turning into a melee character, I much prefer letting the astral constructs do the fighting.