Tips for building a Silhouette Psychic Warrior?

[EisenKreutzer]

I'm speculating on a build in case my current character dies, and I really like the Psychic Warrior Silhouette archetype.
It's an interesting way of balancing a pet class, and I really dig the flavour.

The problem is, I'm not really sure where to start. I've been looking over the various PsyWar archetypes available, and none seem compatible with the Silhouette. Thats not a problem, I'm excited to play a straight up Silhouette, but its nice to know what my options are.

I'm also a litte lost on what feats to go for. How many feats should I trade out for Shadow Talents?

One if the ideas I had in mind was an AoO build using a scorpion whip and the Balor Whip line to set up some nice attacks of opportunity from my shadow using Grasping Shadow. Dragging enemies left and right between myself and potentially two shadows who each get full AoOs seems fun, but I have a feeling it's not really optimal.

What feats are a safe bet for this archetype?

Also, which powers complement the Silhouette?

[phlidwsn]

Useful tricks:

Grasping shadows and AOO based teamwork feats, Broken Wing Gambit (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/broken-wing-gambit-combat-teamwork/). Or for higher level play, Outflank (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/outflank-combat-teamwork/), Paired Opportunist (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/paired-opportunists-combat-teamwork/), Improved Outflank (http://www.archivesofnethys.com/FeatDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Improved%20Outflank).

For Powers, Consumptive Shadows pairs nicely with Vigor. Share Vigor with the shadow and split incoming damage with Consumptive for a 10hp per 1pp ratio. Pick up Split Shadows for a 15-1 ratio

Personally, I'd trade out all bonus feats and Martial Power for more Shadow Talents.

[EisenKreutzer]

Cool, my ideas for an AoO-based build mesh nicely with those feats.

Is the Balor Whip idea workable at all, or should I just abandon it completely? I'm not married to it, I just thought it might be fun.

[phlidwsn]

I love whip-based material, but it's probably too feat-heavy for a Silhouette given you're going to want to spend all your bonus feats on talents.

For other powers besides vigor, I went with Expansion, Inevitable Strike, Corrosive Aura, Hustle, and Repositioning Strike.

Expansion for reach and damage, Inevitable for when you *need* to hit, Corrosive Aura for swarms, or share it with the shadow for more coverage, hustle because action economy is king, and Repositioning for "Now you're suddenly behind *my* lines, have fun."

[EisenKreutzer]

How many Shadow Talents could I reasonably skip?

[phlidwsn]

Depends on what level you're starting at and how many talents are keystones for your build. If you're going for AOO shenanigans, for instance, you have to take at least one for grasping shadows. I'd figure out what style you want to go for, which talents you *need* to make it work, and then consider the talents as equal to the feats and fill out the remaining bonus feats with your choice of feats or talents, whichever works best for your build.

[EisenKreutzer]

Thanks! I'm going to play around with the build a little, see what I can fit in and what has to go. You've been very helpful!

[EisenKreutzer]

Depends on what level you're starting at and how many talents are keystones for your build. If you're going for AOO shenanigans, for instance, you have to take at least one for grasping shadows. I'd figure out what style you want to go for, which talents you *need* to make it work, and then consider the talents as equal to the feats and fill out the remaining bonus feats with your choice of feats or talents, whichever works best for your build.

I'm looking at my preliminary build now, and I'm trying to decide whether going Improved Trip, Greater Trip and Psionic Trip (using Dirty Fighting as entry) is a good idea. In theory, this should end up with me and my two shadows doing an extraordinary amount of AoOs and providing some battlefield control, but it's 4 feats and I feel a little like I'm overspecializing.

I also want to try and work some basic psionic feeats into my build, but I'm having trouble finding good candidates. I would have to drop the trip idea anyway if I want to squeeze more feats into the build.

[Hogsy]

I'm speculating on a build in case my current character dies, and I really like the Psychic Warrior Silhouette archetype.
It's an interesting way of balancing a pet class, and I really dig the flavour.

The problem is, I'm not really sure where to start. I've been looking over the various PsyWar archetypes available, and none seem compatible with the Silhouette. Thats not a problem, I'm excited to play a straight up Silhouette, but its nice to know what my options are.

I'm also a litte lost on what feats to go for. How many feats should I trade out for Shadow Talents?

One if the ideas I had in mind was an AoO build using a scorpion whip and the Balor Whip line to set up some nice attacks of opportunity from my shadow using Grasping Shadow. Dragging enemies left and right between myself and potentially two shadows who each get full AoOs seems fun, but I have a feeling it's not really optimal.

What feats are a safe bet for this archetype?

Also, which powers complement the Silhouette?


Seeing as DSP is allowed, can you also choose from Path of War? If that's so, I'd start out with 4 levels in Warder (Dervish Defender) for Int to AC, TWF goodies and of course the 4th level ability which is awesome for AoOs:
Dervish Defense (Ex)
A dervish defender is capable of an aggressive defense, attacking even as they defend. Starting at 4th level, whenever a dervish defender uses a counter to successfully negate an opponent’s attack and the opponent is threatened by her, she can make an attack of opportunity against that opponent.

After that, you focus on Thrashing Dragon and Eternal Guardian (most AoO based Discipline) maneuvers for maximum carnage during YOUR turn. Your next step is to pick up Thrashing Dragon Style & Pounce(level 3 and level 7 respectively) which allow you to make an additional off-hand attack at full BAB whenever you make an attack as a standard or attack action (Style) or when attacking with a maneuver (Pounce). That's +2 attacks using Haste.

If you're feat-starved though, Thrashing Dragon Pounce is redundant in my opinion cause with Seize the Opportunity (lets you use attack actions with your AoOs) you get to make two attacks PER Attack of Opportunity which is WAY better and here's why:

Eternal Guardian really opens up provoking AoOs to interpretation with numerous effects that can cause enemies to provoke AoOs when they normally wouldn't. Using a Counter successfuly also provokes an AoO thanks to DD 4. Greater Trip (at the cost of 2 feats) adds 2 more AoOs every round. Add in Silhouette to the mix, and with the help of Grasping Shadow have your very shadow do the exact same thing as you since they use your exact statistics (feats etc.) and this nice piece of text "attacks of opportunity without counting them against the normal limit on the
shadow’s attacks."

Here is one of the many possible examples using this build or an iteration of it.
You trip somebody using a strike that grants a free trip attempt or your shadow for two AoOs from yours truly as well as two AoOs from your Shadow because you'll select the Twin Blades talent for it and since it copies your game statistics, it also has the Thrasing Dragon Style feat, which allows it to make two attacks on each AoO it makes AND Seize the Opportunity (both are combat feats). Then when an enemy attacks you, you get two more AoOs if you use a counter successfuly, and finally using Eternal Guardian you can get 2-4 more AoOs for a potential total of 10 attacks during 5 AoOs (Greater Trip, Dervish Defender, Eternal Guardian shaenanigans and the glue that holds it all together: Thrashing Dragon Style and Seize the Opportunity.). If you use your Shadow to trip the enemy, that's a full attack (using Thrashing Dragon maneuvers for maximum bloodshed) plus, being a bit conservative, 6 AoOs for a total of easily 10+ attacks per round.

You can tone it up with Thrashing Dragon maneuvers, like a stance which adds +2d6+ your Initiation Modifier (intelligence) to all your damage rolls (that's 20d6+ 10 x your Int for 10 attacks!) on top of everything else or tone it down and go for more defensive or CC maneuvers.

That's what I'm doing right now with my Silhouette build and it's working perfectly. I'm also gonna go 5 levels of War Mind for Sweeping Strike, so all those AoOs hit multiple enemies and not just one. A real army of one if you ask me. Your IL, assuming Warder 4, Silhouette 11, War Mind 5 and Practiced Initiator trait is going to be 13th level, which means 7th level maneuvers. That's more than enough if you ask me.

Final Note: You can close this build with various teamwork feats that add upon AoOs such as Outflank, Seize the Moment since using 18-20 weapons and light weapons with Deadly Agility is favorable in a build like this that wants to maximize high dex. Another great one that has already been mentioned is the Broken Paw Gambit. Makes an enemy more likely to attack you, which makes it more likely for you to use Dervish Defense. What's best is that it is likely that both your shadow and you get hit, for multiple AoOs. With Split Shadow I'm really thinking that this build can truly be disgusting. The best part is that with all these feats, you basically have numerous possible ways of making your enemies provoke, so it's not like you hav to use them ALL at once.

Best of luck to you, my friend.

MAJOR EDIT: WELL, I completely forgot Thrashing Dragon's style "Once per round" clause, but fear not! Because this build actually works just fine without that crazy number of attacks, and your shadows can still use it 1/ round so 3 AoOs per round (you, shadow A & shadow B) are 6 attacks basically. That's still more than enough.