Help with a Fighter/Wilder/Sanctified Mind build?

[danielxcutter]

Thought exercise. Might use this for a future character, though.

I think it could work - Fighter 1/Wilder 13/Sanctified Mind 6 gives 9th level powers(okay, only one, but still) and +16 BAB, plus Partition Mind is nice for taking out some of the bite of Psychic Enervation.

Still need help with a few points, though.

-Feats

Absolutely going to take Hidden Talent at least once, don't worry. How about Hidden Talent(Astral Construct)?

The Educated Wilder ACF is also great - three Expanded Knowledge feats beat Volatile Mind any day. Going to grab this too. Suggestions on what to grab other than Schism?

Power Attack is pretty much obligatory for most gish builds, duh. Also want to take Iron Will as a feat instead of using that location thing to get it - it's kinda cheesy, you know.

Yes, I know Psicrystal Affinity is awesome. Next topic!

Psionic Weapon is a great damage increase. Might squeeze in Deep Impact and/or Greater Psionic Weapon too if I can manage it - what do you think? What about Wounding Attack?

Extend Power is a very useful metapower feat. Any others? Maybe Unconditional Power?

Any other ideas? Going for human as the race.

-Powers

Vigor is a must, psicrystal or no. Should I take Inertial Armor as my second 1st level power? Fighter already gives medium and heavy armor proficiency, but Inertial Armor can give more AC and doesn't have an armor check penalty or slow you down. And remember, Elude Touch is capped by your normal AC.

What else should I grab? With Hidden Talent(Astral Construct) and those three bonus EPKs, that's a total of 14 powers at level 20.... yeesh, choosing is hard. :smallsigh:

-Items/Weapons and armor

What should I get? A deep crystal weapon is great, sure... what enhancements? Should I buy a set of armor or not? Any other items that really help for this particular build?

[noce]

Why don't you go Wilder 6 / Slayer 8 / Sanctified Mind 6? Or Slayer 9 / SM 5 to get Cerebral Immunity.
This way you'd get BAB 18 and ML 18.

[Gruftzwerg]

I would recommend Monastic Training & Tashalatora to get monk abilities. If you don't want to use unarmed strikes add Unorthodox Flurry to choose a light weapon for flurry (e.g Kukri). You get monks unarmed dmg, flurry & AC bonus.

Cheaper than TWF and you get 2 extra attacks as max BaB (compared to 3 attacks with -2/-7/-12 with TWF feat chain) which is more worth imho. Or take all of em if you intend to max your attacks/round.

Note: Select Wilder for Tashalatora, this way you get max flurry progress.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Vigor is a must, psicrystal or no. Should I take Inertial Armor as my second 1st level power? Fighter already gives medium and heavy armor proficiency, but Inertial Armor can give more AC and doesn't have an armor check penalty or slow you down. And remember, Elude Touch is capped by your normal AC.
I wouldn't. Wilder powers are almost painfully precious; you want to make sure each one adds as much power and variety as possible. Something that can mostly be covered by an item is pretty much never going to be worth it.


What else should I grab? With Hidden Talent(Astral Construct) and those three bonus EPKs, that's a total of 14 powers at level 20.... yeesh, choosing is hard. :smallsigh:
I strongly recommend Psychic Scimitar for gish types. It lets you make melee attacks at range, it strikes against touch AC, but most importantly, "attacking with a psychic scimitar counts normally as an attack." So you can full attack with it... and Power Attack with it. Against touch AC. It's basically 1 min/lv Wraithstrike.

Otherwise, for Expanded Knowledge options... Astral Construct is great, Expansion is great, Dimension Hop/Hustle/Psionic Lion's Charge is great, Energy Missile is great, Metamorphosis is great... nabbing something like Charm, Suggestion, or Dominate opens a lot of nice noncombat options...

[danielxcutter]

Why don't you go Wilder 6 / Slayer 8 / Sanctified Mind 6? Or Slayer 9 / SM 5 to get Cerebral Immunity.
This way you'd get BAB 18 and ML 18.

Is "don't want to" a sufficient reason? Plus I'd have to burn another feat on Track, as well as a few other minor things that I'd miss out on.


I would recommend Monastic Training & Tashalatora to get monk abilities. If you don't want to use unarmed strikes add Unorthodox Flurry to choose a light weapon for flurry (e.g Kukri). You get monks unarmed dmg, flurry & AC bonus.

Cheaper than TWF and you get 2 extra attacks as max BaB (compared to 3 attacks with -2/-7/-12 with TWF feat chain) which is more worth imho. Or take all of em if you intend to max your attacks/round.

Note: Select Wilder for Tashalatora, this way you get max flurry progress.

Um, no thank you. That is absolutely NOT what I'm looking for.


I wouldn't. Wilder powers are almost painfully precious; you want to make sure each one adds as much power and variety as possible. Something that can mostly be covered by an item is pretty much never going to be worth it.

Got it! So I should grab an actual set of armor, maybe an animated shield too, and ditch Force Screen and Inertial Armor... fair enough.


I strongly recommend Psychic Scimitar for gish types. It lets you make melee attacks at range, it strikes against touch AC, but most importantly, "attacking with a psychic scimitar counts normally as an attack." So you can full attack with it... and Power Attack with it. Against touch AC. It's basically 1 min/lv Wraithstrike.

Quite interesting. Where was that from again? Secrets of Sarlona?

I do want to use an actual weapon, preferably a deep crystal one... On the other hand, this is basically the psionic version of Lightning Blade, except better in several ways. I guess packing a greataxe as a backup weapon wouldn't be too bad?


Otherwise, for Expanded Knowledge options... Astral Construct is great, Expansion is great, Dimension Hop/Hustle/Psionic Lion's Charge is great, Energy Missile is great, Metamorphosis is great... nabbing something like Charm, Suggestion, or Dominate opens a lot of nice noncombat options...

That's my greatest dilemma; so many cool powers, so few that I have room to choose.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

You can use an Outsider race such as the +0 LA Aasimar (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20040213a) (and never spend a level on it (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20030824a)) to get the martial weapon proficiency prerequisite of Sanctified Mind. In that case you can replace Fighter with Warblade, or use Crusader.

You could go Wilder 4/ Warblade or Crusader 1/ Sanctified Mind 6/ Wilder +9, putting your Educated Wilder powers learned at 4th, 6th, and 8th level or lower. This also gets you up to 2nd level maneuvers and a few stances. Take more Wilder earlier and push everything back to get higher level maneuvers/stances in exchange for a 1st level power as your first Educated Wilder choice.

If you're stuck with a 1st level power for Educated Wilder, the Good mantle has Psionic Protection from Evil, or the Life mantle has Touch of Health. Otherwise I'd grab Energy Missile for sure, and probably Metamorphosis.

For your powers known, the choices will be difficult. Keep in mind you can learn Psychic Reformation whenever you would learn a 5th+ level power, then immediately manifest that to replace itself along with any previously learned powers/skills/feats you don't want any more. Definitely include Time Hop, it's just too good to pass up.

[danielxcutter]

You can use an Outsider race such as the +0 LA Aasimar (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20040213a) (and never spend a level on it (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20030824a)) to get the martial weapon proficiency prerequisite of Sanctified Mind. In that case you can replace Fighter with Warblade, or use Crusader.

Cheesy as heck; most DMs won't let that fly even if I was okay with doing that. I also want to stay away from maneuvers for this build.


If you're stuck with a 1st level power for Educated Wilder, the Good mantle has Psionic Protection from Evil, or the Life mantle has Touch of Health. Otherwise I'd grab Energy Missile for sure, and probably Metamorphosis.

Well, there are plenty of other 1st level powers to choose even if I grab Astral Construct with Hidden Talent. Those powers are still very nice, but Psionic Charm and Psionic Minor Creation are nothing to sneeze at either.


For your powers known, the choices will be difficult. Keep in mind you can learn Psychic Reformation whenever you would learn a 5th+ level power, then immediately manifest that to replace itself along with any previously learned powers/skills/feats you don't want any more. Definitely include Time Hop, it's just too good to pass up.

I'm not totally sure about Psychic Reformation(at least, using it frequently). Time Hop, on the other hand, is so good there's not much reason not to get it if there's room at all.

[danielxcutter]

Hmm... how does this sound?

Fighter 1: Power Attack, Hidden Talent(Astral Construct), Iron Will
Wilder 1
Wilder 2: Psicrystal Affinity
Wilder 3
Wilder 4
Sanctified Mind 1: Extend Power
Sanctified Mind 2
Wilder 5: Expanded Knowledge(Hustle - Psychic Warrior version)
Sanctified Mind 3: Psionic Meditation
Sanctified Mind 4
Sanctified Mind 5
Sanctified Mind 6: Psionic Weapon
Wilder 6
Wilder 7
Wilder 8: Enervation Endurance
Wilder 9: Expanded Knowledge(Dispelling Buffer - Kineticist version)
Wilder 10
Wilder 11: Greater Psionic Weapon
Wilder 12
Wilder 13: Expanded Knowledge(True Metabolism - Life Mantle version)

1st: Vigor, Crystal Shard, [HT]Astral Construct
2nd: Share Pain, [EPK]Hustle(Psychic Warrior version)
3rd: Time Hop
4th: Intellect Fortress
5th: Anticipatory Strike
6th: Temporal Acceleration, [EPK]Dispelling Buffer(Kineticist version)
7th: Energy Conversion
8th: Planar Embrace, [EPK]True Metabolism
9th: Stygian Conflagration