[Akashic Mysteries] How to get the most out of the Amplifier Prestige Class?

[EisenKreutzer]

I'm looking at the Amplifier PrC, and it's interesting.
Akashic Amplification has some interesting effects. Basically, whenever you cast a spell/manifest a power, you get to either increase the caster/manifester level (as a move action)l, or you get to boost the essence of a veil. This effect starts off kind of weak, but even so it effectively allows the Amplifier to break the cardinal rule of Psionics (you can't spend more pp on a power than your manifester level) and push his veils beyond their normal limits. As the effect gets progressively stronger, the Amplifier becomes much more powerful than a three-way multiclass character could otherwise be.
The healing is useful, I guess, but pretty meh compared to the other two uses of Akashic Amplification.
Another cool feature is that it increases both veilweaving and spellcasting/manifesting from level 1, which makes it a much more attractive prestige class.

So, how do you take advantage of this PrC most effectively?
I'm thinking psionics is the way to go, because that increased manifester level is too sweet to pass up. Vizier seems the obvious choice for the veilweaving half, since the Amplifiers BAB is poor and we are most likely building a full caster anyway.

Thoughts or ideas?

[Ssalarn]

I did three basic builds with Amplifier for playtesting- Vizier/Psion/Amplifier, Vizier/Wizard/Amplifier, and Guru/Cleric/Amplifier.

The Guru/Cleric/Amplifier was probably the least effective due to the heavy BAB loss not blending well with the Guru's abilities, though it had a few tricks that were decent since it could burn channel uses with Divine Essence to boost its essence pool and capacity, but at a lot of levels that's fighting amplify and energize, and Guru veils are mostly passive or reactive. Workable and potentially fun, but not winning any competitions for best in show.

Vizier/Psion and Vizard/Wizard are really what the Amplifier was meant for, and I've found that they really tend to favor different build options. Amplify and Energize can be really fun for blaster psions; you can use Amplify and Energize off the same power to beef up a power; if you're in a fight where fire is a viable attack form, this can make Circlet of Brass a really nice veil to have, as you use it to boost an energy effect on the first round amplifying and energizing your attack while boosting its damage with the associated veil (energy stun boosts Circlet of Brass, which boosts energy stun), and then you can use the now boosted bind power of Circlet of Brass as a follow up attack on the next round that doesn't cost you any additional resources other than action economy.

Vizier/Wizards are fun for creating veil lists that compliment your spell list or vice versa, and favor diversification more than the psion options do. Casting fear while you have Pestilence Cloak shaped is a fun synergy, as is scintillating pattern while you have Hands of the Bard shaped.

You can probably squeeze similar stuff out of the psion, but the wizard's broader array of potential spells known plays better with mixing up different tricks and having a diverse veil selection, while the psion's somewhat narrower power progression will generally favor focusing on a narrower number of boosted tricks.

I've recently been looking at some other builds using Occult Adventures, like Vizier/Psychic/Amplifier. The psychic's spell list plays very, very well with the Vizier's veil list, you have stat synergy, and I'm looking at what kind of options undercasting opens up, seeing if there's not some flexibility in using lower level boosted spells, but I'm only just kind of starting to look at that.

[EisenKreutzer]

The Occult option is something I hadn't even considered, I'm sure there is tons of potential there!

Cleric could potentially be an interesting way into Amplifier, your attempt at using the Guru notwithstanding. Perhaps with a few levels in Daevic? You could potentially use the buffed caster level and essence to power a formidable gish build.

[Ssalarn]

The Occult option is something I hadn't even considered, I'm sure there is tons of potential there!


There are a lot of interesting possibilities there. I've been meaning to look into Mesmerist as a possible Amplifier component.



Cleric could potentially be an interesting way into Amplifier, your attempt at using the Guru notwithstanding. Perhaps with a few levels in Daevic? You could potentially use the buffed caster level and essence to power a formidable gish build.

Cleric/Daevic could be interesting... Maybe Desire since it's more "casty" anyways? The Charisma synergy would help with using Divine Essence, and Daevic proficiencies are nothing to scoff at. I'd have to look at the possible spell lists and veil combos though; you're sacrificing a lot of BAB for that build. You'll only be 1 BAB short of full when you qualify, but that's going to taper quickly so you'd need to be sure you could balance the benefits well. The daevic will get Willful Throw as a freebie at 3rd level, so you can really focus on your CHA and WIS, and you can potentially prebuff with Eagle's Splendor and stack it up with other attack boosters. Seems doable!

Keep in mind the Akasha-Infused Spells feat for arcane or divine casters and the Akashic Augmentation feat for psionic manifesters; these will also help with maximizing the synergies between your power sources the Amplifier creates. Veilbound Metamagic is another great feat for Amplifier builds as you can use it to apply metamagic to spells by applying essence instead of increasing their spell level, and then amplify them at their original level using your class abilities.

[EisenKreutzer]

I think I love this build.

I'm going to try and build this character, to see if I can make it work! There are a lot of moving parts to this, so the result should be interesting.