[3.5] Psionic and Magic Equipment for a Psy. Rogue?

[Luccan]

I have one built right now, but I'm not sure what equipment I should give him, as I haven't really used psionics in the past. 12kgp is what I have to work with. His skills are dedicated towards standard thief skills, face skills, and his psionic skills.

[Sagetim]

Well, the armor check penalty might be a kick in the pants, but Psychoactive Skin of Ectoplasmic Armor is pretty solid for defense, and counts as light armor (or at least, requires light armor proficiency to use). You would want to check with your GM first, but in games where I have gotten my hands on the item, I've been allowed to enchant the item as if it were any other suit of magical armor, which has been really, really nice. Because it's like 1 pound plate mail. As I recall, it's in Complete Psionics (3.5).

You might want to specify if you're doing 3.5 or Pathfinder, just to be clear.

I'm not overly familiar with Psionic Rogue (the closest thing I recall to it is the Lurk, which never seemed very impressive to me). But as a Rogue items like a Cloak of Elvenkind and Boots of Elvenkind are going to be your friend for stealth.

At least one +1 magic weapon should probably be somewhere in your magic items. You may have call weaponry or something else that gets you access to a magical weapon, but that would eat power points, and just straight up having even a basic +1 short sword or dagger could be very helpful in not wasting your limited manifesting resources, and helping you to murder monsters with dr/magic. Also, to hit bonuses are nice.

Gloves of Dexterity are probably going to be pretty high on your list of things to get as a rogue, in general. A lot of key roguey skills are dexterity based, and with the right armor you can benefit in your AC from high dexterity. It beefs up your reflex save, and initiative bonus, and of course helps with ranged attack rolls. So it's a nice stat to have high.

If you go for high dexterity, you'll probably also want to use Mithril Chain Shirt as your armor of choice, a +1 set would only run you something like 2100 gold. It would admittedly weigh more than the psychoactive skin and provide a lower armor bonus, but it would have no armor check penalty and (operating from memory) a higher max dex bonus.

A Rogue, psychic or not, can rarely go wrong with a hat of disguise. I can't remember how much they cost in 3.5 and pathfinder, but if you can fit it into your budget, you can abuse it for all kinds of shenanigans having to do with disguises and bluffing.

On the charismatic side of lying to people about things, a cloak of charisma and a circlet of persuasion stack to provide a fair bonus to lying to people about things, diplomacying your way around problems, and even intimidation. They are not cheap options though. But more something to consider for later if you find yourself doing a lot of social manipulation.

While you are going to have some really limited power points per day, I wouldn't recommend a Crystal Capacitor. Mostly because you have to fill them with power points. Unlike their counterpart, the Pearl of Power, which is strictly better because it refreshes on it's own entirely.

If you want more power points per day, I'd look at investing in a headband of intelligence. It's costly, but at least it raises your actual power points cap instead of giving you the finger by making you have to refill it for every use, then giving you the finger again because of the difference between how psychic powers and spells scale.

Then, of course, there are basic defensive items that you can invest in, like a ring of protection +1, an amulet of natural armor +1, and so on. For about half your starting cash you could invest pretty well into bringing your ac up by getting Mithral Chain Shirt +1 (2100g), a Ring of Protection +1 (2000g), and an Amulet of Natural Armor +1 (2000g).

A Healer's Belt (from the Magic Item Compendium) is a good general use, low level adventurer's item. It's only 750 gold and since it has daily charges, it is a healing item that just keeps on giving.

I would suggest some low level wands of useful spells, but I'm not seeing Use Magic Device on the list of psychic rogue skills. So, you know, good luck with that. Dorje's always seemed like something of a crapshoot to me.

[Zaq]

12k isn't a ton. You could pretty easily drop that all on basic +numbers gear (Vest of Resilience, magic armor, magic weapon, maybe a +stat item for DEX or INT), if you feel like your numbers need help, and it probably wouldn't be a total waste.

Dorjes are always fun if you have UPD. If you don't have UPD, dorjes are still fun for a PsyRogue—you don't need a UPD check to use a dorje of a power on your class list, after all.

You might have fun by looking at the advanced permanent or semipermanent tattoos from the old "Getting Wired" article in the Mind's Eye archives, which I would link to if I weren't on mobile.

If you can use the MIC, it's basically never bad to buy a cheap Healing Belt.

Is there a particular area where you feel like you need shoring up? Gold is good at covering weaknesses, after all.