Whats the best way for a Halo Knight Psychic Warrior to become an initiator?

[EisenKreutzer]

I picked up Psionics Augmented: Psychic Warrior the other day, and the Halo Knight really fascinates me. I'd like to try building one to take advantage of the Elemental Flux discipline and it's animus augmentations.
To my disappointment, the Pathwalker archetype for the PW is incompatible with the Halo Knight archetype, because they both replace psionic proficiency. Thats sort of sad, as the combination would have been very cool.

I know I can just take the feats for it, but is there another way?

[meemaas]

I like two levels in Aurora Soul Mystic personally. It's benefits outweigh the lost manifester levels and with the errata you can still grab higher level maneuvers through Advanced Study and swaps.

[EisenKreutzer]

I like two levels in Aurora Soul Mystic personally. It's benefits outweigh the lost manifester levels and with the errata you can still grab higher level maneuvers through Advanced Study and swaps.

Thats actually a really cool combination! The two Aurora Soul Mystic levels synergize quite nicely with the Halo Knight, both thematically and mechanically. The extra AC makes light/no armor builds vible.
Would you base the build around Improved Unarmed Strike, which the Aurora Soul grants at 1st level?

[meemaas]

I feel it can work either way, though I prefer a Dex build to take advantage of the no armored playstyle, building for unarmed strikes allows you to take full advantage of Broken Blade and if you own the material, Fools Errand.

[Eldaran]

I like two levels in Aurora Soul Mystic personally. It's benefits outweigh the lost manifester levels and with the errata you can still grab higher level maneuvers through Advanced Study and swaps.

Advanced Study, even with errata, requires 4 levels in a martial disciple class, you only have 2.

[EisenKreutzer]

Advanced Study, even with errata, requires 4 levels in a martial disciple class, you only have 2.

Thats a shame. 4 levels means you lose out on a lot of manifesting from the PsyWar. Any ways around that?

[Dr_Dinosaur]

Even without Advanced Study you can pick up stronger maneuvers as long as you take a few levels of PsiWar first, right? Or does Initiator Level not work like that anymore?

If you want to focus on Unarmed, consider VMC Monk. Its Unarmed progression stacks with Aurora Soul's

[EisenKreutzer]

Yeah, I don't really want to focus on Unarmed. I want to focus on Animus and the Halo Knight archetype.

Is losing 4 levels of PsyWar for 4 Mystic levels and access to initiating and Advanced Study worth it?

[Eldaran]

I've not read the Halo Knight, so not sure how it works. But I highly doubt it's worth losing all that manifesting. Psychic Warrior has plenty of feats to pick up the Martial Training line.

[EisenKreutzer]

I've not read the Halo Knight, so not sure how it works. But I highly doubt it's worth losing all that manifesting. Psychic Warrior has plenty of feats to pick up the Martial Training line.

It's a PsyWar archetype that grants an Animus pool and several ways to use Animus to enhance them in battle.
The reason I'm exploring options for going into initiation is that the archetype has the ability to grant himself pretty hefty chunks of Animus, seemingly more than the Mystic can gain per turn. Pouring that into maneuvers seems like a cool idea.

[meemaas]

I'd stick with two nonetheless. I missed the errata on Advanced study but that doesn't change the maneuver swaps, so you can still remain relatively relevant. Especially since you can pick up pounce from manifesting, or just choose nothing but strikes to use round after round with no dead turns