What to get with Expand Knowledge?

[frogglesmash]

What are some good powers that aren't on the psion power list and are worth nabbing with Expanded Knowledge?

[Inevitability]

Hustle can be gotten as a 2nd-level power from the psychic warrior list, and last time I checked abusing the action economy was still great.

Egoists are better off picking something else, obviously.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Dimension Hop is a 1st level PsyWar power. Swift action teleportation.
You can also get Compression (PsyWar 1) and Steadfast Perception (PsyWar 4)

The discipline lists are also worth looking at. Just disregard what's in your chosen discipline.
Metamorphosis (Egoist 4) is good for the same reasons Polymorph is good. They also get Psionic Revivify (Egoist 5) and Psionic Restoration (Egoist 6), which can be helpful if you lack a cleric.

Kineticists get Dispelling Buffer (Kin 6), which is either useless or priceless depending on your campaign/DM.

Nomads offer Dimensional Anchor (Nom 4) and the awesome (and very, very abusable) Mass Time Hop (Nom 8).

Seers offer lots of good powers for information gathering, but you can get two of the biggest ones (Clairvoyant Sense and Object Reading) from affordable items.
Remote Viewing (Seer 5) is worth it though as the only scrying effect that lets you freely cast/manifest through it, limited only by your ML. Also incredibly abusable.

Shaper gets the fantastic Astral Construct (Shap 1), but you can pick it up with Hidden Talent at level 1. If Hidden Talent isn't allowed it's worth it for every manifester though.
The same is true for Psionic Minor Creation (Shap 1). There's also Astral Seed (Shap 8) for life insurance at later levels, but by the time you can get it with Expanded Knowledge you could probably pay someone for Psychic Chirurgery and save the feat.

Telepath's big contribution is definitely Schism (Tel 4). Abusing the action economy is always good. It also has the enchantment-equivalents, which can be useful depending on the campaign.
If you want to go into Thrallherd Mindlink (Tel 1) is also here.

[Psyren]

There are several good candidates among the discipline powers - they are available to psions of that discipline, but depending on yours they won't be on your list. Powers like Astral Construct, Metamorphosis, Teleport/Fly, Hustle and Schism.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Another vote here for "plunder discipline lists." Most of the Psion's best powers are on those things.

[Rerednaw]

What are some good powers that aren't on the psion power list and are worth nabbing with Expanded Knowledge?

Already had my best picks...but I would ask:

What do you want / envision your character as doing? What kind of campaign? Undead-heavy? Non stop fighting endless waves? Investigative? Low combat?

[frogglesmash]

Already had my best picks...but I would ask:

What do you want / envision your character as doing? What kind of campaign? Undead-heavy? Non stop fighting endless waves? Investigative? Low combat?

I'm not sure yet, I was just looking for general suggestions so I'd have a better idea of what was worth taking.

[Rerednaw]

I'm not sure yet, I was just looking for general suggestions so I'd have a better idea of what was worth taking.
Then my top top list:
Astral Construct for all the reasons why summons are good.
Schism to break action economy.

[Soranar]

Charm is mutually exclusive with astral construct and both have tons of utility so whatever discipline you picked , take expanded knowledge to get the other one

[Sagetim]

Don't forget that you can rip stuff out of other psionic lists, like the Ardent. Healing Touch isn't great for a power economy to healing ratio, but it's better than dying because no one has any healing in the party. It's upgraded version has a much better ratio, but a much higher floor to use too. Psionics isn't great for healing, but if you're looking to expand your utility options, it can be an unexpected non-god send.

Astral Construct has already been mentioned. Also look at Minor Creation (for wooden balls full of wicked organic poisons like, what was it, Black Orchid poison? or just for Black Orchid poison). Fabricate, and Greater Fabricate (because you can use Greater Fabricate and your power point limit per day to reshape a mountain side into a tower/castle given enough days), Decerebrate (7th level)- it's an instant kill that's already on the psion generic list, but it's a save or die and you don't have a lot of those.

Psychic Crush (which I think is on the telepath list) for a lower level save or die. Even if the target gets a +4 on it's will save, I don't think most things have a good will save anyway. Being reduced to -1 and bleeding out is a pretty ignoble way to die. Especially if it's described as suddenly going 'brbrbrbrbrbrbbr' and shaking as their eyes and ears bleed and they just fall over.


If you want healing hacks at the cost of some manifester level, you could go with the mind's eye Sangehirn PRC. It gets straight DR/- and after 6 or so in it, has fast healing as long as you maintain psionic focus. Proceed to hit and run tactics to make the most of it, as you recover between strikes and your opponents run down their limited healing supplies until they are dead.

Mind Thrust looks good on the tin, with a 1d10 damage per point spent, but it's a save vs no damage at all. Along with being short range, and having no solid modifier to the damage dice, and a lot of things having immunity to mind effects later, you'd be better off with Energy Ray for consistent damage dealing out of a level 1 power.

That said, I would suggest Energy Bolt over Energy Ball, because your party members are going to hate you for having a point blank aoe. And Energy Barrage (from complete psionics, which is also where ardent is from) is one of the few powers that actually has a better ratio of damage dice to power points than 1:1.

Oh, and Ectoplasmic Cocoon can be handy as an equivalent of a hold spell. Some of the Recall powers can work well too, because (as far as I remember) they inflict untyped damage. So Recall Pain, Recall Death, and so on.

I've gotten some milage out of animal affinity (was that the name of it?). With it's augment it can hold your party over for a while until you start getting items with a +4 or better enhancement bonus for those stats.

[gooddragon1]

Astral Construct has already been mentioned. Also look at Minor Creation (for wooden balls full of wicked organic poisons like, what was it, Black Orchid poison? or just for Black Orchid poison). Fabricate, and Greater Fabricate (because you can use Greater Fabricate and your power point limit per day to reshape a mountain side into a tower/castle given enough days), Decerebrate (7th level)- it's an instant kill that's already on the psion generic list, but it's a save or die and you don't have a lot of those.

Black Lotus Extract?

Rehashing again
Astral Construct (Summons are good), Metamorphosis (Polymorph is too good for it's level), Hustle (note that you do still provoke an attack of opportunity in some cases), and Empathic Transfer (if you want to be the party healer if there isn't one).

[Sagetim]

Black Lotus Extract?

Rehashing again
Astral Construct (Summons are good), Metamorphosis (Polymorph is too good for it's level), Hustle (note that you do still provoke an attack of opportunity in some cases), and Empathic Transfer (if you want to be the party healer if there isn't one).

Yeah, there was a work around with regards to minor creation because of the poison list that exists within 3.5. At some point I remember people going on about how to break it as a spell, and how psionics was broken becase you could start doing it at level 1 since Psionic Minor Creation is a level 1 shaper power. I might have the name wrong, but the gist of it is: you can use minor creation to make very potent, normally very expensive, organic poisons. Deploying them is another matter, but they last long enough to at least do the initial damage.

[Rerednaw]

I did not include tricks or combos because OP isn't sure which schtick or kind of campaign.

I should point out that minor creation can make some poisons...but there is the matter of crafting DC. Black Lotus is around 35 or so. A bit hard at low levels. But if you can make it...be a warforged and soak your body in it. :)

Summons and action economy though are usable in almost every type of game to some extent.