Psions: How do you repair your psicrystals?

[ApologyFestival]

Hi, Playground! I'm playing a psionic-theurge character in a campaign that has recently lost its cleric--the only real means of healing the party had given the absolute rarity of magic items in the campaign setting. Given that the other players won't change their character builds to suit, I'm looking to try doing something weird and become a self-sacrificing healer by taking my allies' damage with the share pain power and vigor, in conjunction with a psicrystal's share powers ability to give the entire party as much extra HP as possible. Essentially, healing by mitigation. I don't think it's a particularly original concept, but I really like the idea of the selfless psionic healer.

There is, of course, a problem. If I am going to have my psicrystal take a lot of damage...


It cannot heal damage, but it can be repaired.
How do psions repair their psicrystals?

As an aside, I have an extra question related to this. Would a psicrystals hardness apply against damage transferred to it by share pain, prolonging its lifespan a little?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Psionic Repair Damage (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/psionicRepairDamage.htm) or a Healing Belt (MIC) is probably the most effective way. I can't recall any general rule on constructs treating positive energy healing effects any differently than other creatures, though most constructs will have a specific trait that affects this. Psicrystals have no such trait. Otherwise constructs can be repaired through use of the Craft Construct feat, according to the Construct creature type.

If you're a Warforged you can use Psionic Repair Damage on yourself and share it with your psicrystal.

Generally you want to keep it in a compartment on your person so opponents never have line of sight or line of effect to it. That way it can't be targeted directly or even hit with any area of effects. You can give it a healing belt and it can use that to fix your character when needed, even during combat.

Yes, its Hardness 8 applies to any damage it would take from Share Pain or any other effect that doesn't specifically bypass hardness. Even if an attack against your character would bypass hardness, it doesn't cause Share Pain to bypass the psicrystal's hardness when it transfers half your damage to it.

Be sure you're using Vigor and sharing that with the psicrystal.

[Zaq]

Craft checks can be used to slowly heal warforged, but I can’t recall if that’s a specific warforged rule or a general construct rule. If it’s a specific warforged rule, it makes sense to me to allow it as a general houserule.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Psicrystals can't normally heal on their own, but they can BE healed, as they're creatures that aren't immune to positive energy and don't have magic/psionics immunity. As that is the case, just share whatever healing effects you use on yourself with it. You could also try a The Big Guy Is With Me (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?471379-The-Big-Guy-is-With-Me-Psicrystal-Build-(Scion_Of_Coldshard)) build and give it vampiric claws or a vampiric weapon using a psionics power or via spending some gp. Psicrystals also gain feats via their Construct HD, so give it Martial Study and Martial Stance for some healing maneuvers. There're also the maneuver granting items, for cheap. Or some healing auras via Draconic Aura. If you boost your UMD/UPD, you could buy or craft some healing wands and/or dorjes for it to use.

[Psyren]

They're creatures, just heal them. Generally though, you should be liberally using Vigor to make sure your psicrystal doesn't get hurt in the first place.

[ApologyFestival]

Psicrystals can't normally heal on their own, but they can BE healed, as they're creatures that aren't immune to positive energy and don't have magic/psionics immunity. As that is the case, just share whatever healing effects you use on yourself with it.

They're creatures, just heal them.
I would really like these to work, as they are the simplest and most beneficial solutions, but this seems like a shaky reading of "[a psicrystal] cannot heal damage," and "[constructs cannot] heal damage on their own, but often can be repaired by exposing them to a certain kind of effect (see the creature’s description for details) or through the use of the Craft Construct feat."

I want to believe it, but even I'm not sold.

[Psyren]

I would really like these to work, as they are the simplest and most beneficial solutions, but this seems like a shaky reading of "[a psicrystal] cannot heal damage," and "[constructs cannot] heal damage on their own, but often can be repaired by exposing them to a certain kind of effect (see the creature’s description for details) or through the use of the Craft Construct feat."

I want to believe it, but even I'm not sold.

Body Adjustment has no type restriction. Even if it did, again, you should be using Vigor to prevent the damage in the first place. If you're not willing or able to, don't use your psicrystal in combat.

Also, Psionic Repair Damage qualifies as "a certain kind of effect" - specifically, one that targets constructs directly.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Cure <X> wounds spells don't work because they specify that they work on -living- creatures. Any spell or effect that heals a creature and doesn't specify the creature must be living works just fine though.

[Fizban]

If you comb through the language regarding hit points, healing, and constructs, you'll find that the only definition of "healing" is the recovery of hit points. There's natural healing and magical healing, and magical healing says "various abilities and spells can restore hit points" (the only part that actually locks this to creatures is that it's the Injury and Death section about creatures in combat, while objects have their own section). Healing restores a creature's hit points, nothing prevents a construct from being healed by something as long as that effect can target them and doesn't exclude constructs (and of course the construct type doesn't prevent healing, just the "healing of damage on their own.") That's why you can use a Healing Belt: a unique effect that heals on touch but has no other given restrictions despite what people may assume based on the prerequisites and the fluff associated with damaging undead.

The designers probably intended there to be a sharp divide between magical creature healing and magical construct repair and all that positive energy mumbo jumbo, but they failed to institute it properly as part of the core rules for healing, so there is no such divide. The construct entry was written with golems in mind as can be seen with the reference to "certain effects," which in core can only refer to golem magic responses, and since the core healing spells specifically exclude constructs and golems are "immune" to magic anyway, someone failed to do it right.

So, all you need are effects that fail to specify "living creature" or exclude constructs. Touch of Healing makes the assumption and is thus usable, as does Lay on Hands, though amusingly the Dragon Shaman's Touch of Vitality does specify living creatures so they can't pull it off. The various arcane healing spells also tend not to care, though for constructs they could obviously take Repair Damage. In addition to the Healing Belt, the Helm of Glorious Recovery and Amulet of Emergency Healing are also written with nice natural language that lacks the exclusions, and probably a ton more items.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Cure <X> wounds spells don't work because they specify that they work on -living- creatures. Any spell or effect that heals a creature and doesn't specify the creature must be living works just fine though.Actually, cure light wounds' Target is "One creature." You can totally target a construct with the cure spells, as the effect affects all creatures touched. It's just that it lays a divide between living and undead, but it says nothing at all about non-living, non-undead creatures.

[umbergod]

Actually, cure light wounds' Target is "One creature." You can totally target a construct with the cure spells, as the effect affects all creatures touched. It's just that it lays a divide between living and undead, but it says nothing at all about non-living, non-undead creatures.

Spell description mentions healing a living creature though, with the lack of a con score, are constructs living?

[Aimeryan]

Spell description mentions healing a living creature though, with the lack of a con score, are constructs living?

Per the spell, you could target a Psicrystal but given that there is no text for a non-living, non-undead creature it would be up the DM what effect it would have.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Actually, cure light wounds' Target is "One creature." You can totally target a construct with the cure spells, as the effect affects all creatures touched. It's just that it lays a divide between living and undead, but it says nothing at all about non-living, non-undead creatures.

You can target them, sure, but it doesn't do anything. The first segment says what the spell does to living creatures and the second says what it does to undead. Constructs are neither of these. In the absence of any text for what it does to them, the spell does nothing to constructs.

[DrMotives]

The fact that constructs can't be healed by positive energy spells is the whole reason the "repair X damage" line of spells exists, on the wiz/sorc list as well as Urban Druid list. I don't have Eberron books, so I don't have Psionic Repair Damage, but it sounds like the psionic version of the arcane spells for healing constructs. And shouldn't the Expanded Knowledge feat allow you to add it to your powers known, regardless of race? It specifically ignores class when you use it to select a new power known.

[Aimeryan]

It should probably also be noted that a destroyed Psicrystal is not forever lost, although there is no RAW other than "you get another one" to establish what happens.


Easily Recoverable
If your DM rules that it requires something akin to 24 hours of meditation, like a Druid's animal companion, then losing a Psicrystal is only a loss for the remainder of the dungeon/whatever. If it helps to make the argument for this, Pathfinder went this way.

The Psicrystal only has to be within 5ft of you to share powers (and must remain so); there is nothing about requiring line-of-sight or line-of-effect, so storing it in your backpack, a pocket, where the sun doth not shine, etc., is perfectly fine. Given this, it is highly difficult to have your Psicrystal damaged other than through Share Pain - which can be dismissed with a standard action. Also, Vigor and Hardness will mean that the shared damage will often not get through to actual HP.

Basically, if the penalty for recovering a Psicrystal is light, and the likelihood of actually doing this is infrequent, then you don't really need a way to repair damage.


Not Easily Recoverable
If your DM rules that the Psicrystal is lost for something more like a year and a day, such as that of a Wizard's familiar, then you would likely very much want a way of repairing damage.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Even if the psicrystal is destroyed, you still retain the feat, meaning you still retain the benefits of the feat. So you should be able to reform one immediately upon its destruction automatically. If not, there's always psychic reformation to replace Psicrystal Affinity with another Psicrystal Affinity.

[Calthropstu]

Smash your psicrystal and get a new one the next day. Repaired.
Edit: Just realized for 3.5 the srd doesn't have wording that complete psionics or psionics unleashed from DSP has. A new psicrystal forms 24 hours later. So smashing it and getting a new one is likely the cheapest solution.
Psions can also have a repair construct power, but that costs powerpoints and those are precious. Still, it could be preferable to use pp to heal it, especially if it is fueling healing to the party.

[Psyren]

Smash your psicrystal and get a new one the next day. Repaired.
Edit: Just realized for 3.5 the srd doesn't have wording that complete psionics or psionics unleashed from DSP has. A new psicrystal forms 24 hours later. So smashing it and getting a new one is likely the cheapest solution.
Psions can also have a repair construct power, but that costs powerpoints and those are precious. Still, it could be preferable to use pp to heal it, especially if it is fueling healing to the party.

You could just buy a couple of dorjes to tap it with, similar to budgeting for some wands of cure light for the party, if your own PP/PK are too precious to spend on that.

[Calthropstu]

You could just buy a couple of dorjes to tap it with, similar to budgeting for some wands of cure light for the party, if your own PP/PK are too precious to spend on that.

True. It depends what is most valuable I suppose. If a day without your psicrystal is unacceptable, which is more precious... gold or powerpoints? Answer will likely vary from character to character and player to player.

[Zaq]

Smash your psicrystal and get a new one the next day. Repaired.
Edit: Just realized for 3.5 the srd doesn't have wording that complete psionics or psionics unleashed from DSP has. A new psicrystal forms 24 hours later. So smashing it and getting a new one is likely the cheapest solution.
Psions can also have a repair construct power, but that costs powerpoints and those are precious. Still, it could be preferable to use pp to heal it, especially if it is fueling healing to the party.

What page of Complete Psionic says that a psicrystal reforms if destroyed? Genuinely curious.