Kalashtar Psion/Thrallherd for an Undead-Heavy Campaign

[Endarire]

Greetings, all!

I intended to play a Kalashtar Psion/Thallherd for an Undead-heavy campaign. I chose Kalashtar due to the extra power points and the ability to pass for Human (due to roleplaying reasons). This will most likely be a a female Thrallherd with a male Human (or Human subrace, like Silverbrow Human) main thrall again for RP reasons.

Character creation details are to be announced, but all official 3.5 (and unupdated 3.0) material is presently fair game. (No third party, including the spiffy Hyperconscious.) This means books, magazines, web articles, etc. and we are using Complete Psionic's nerfs. We'd likely start at ECL 5 or 6 and end no later than ECL15. The rest of the party is to be determined.

Thus, what primarily discipline, powers, and feats are best for the Psion? I want to be generally effective and was seriously considering Shaper for crowd control and the occasional damage ability. Astral construct is still useful, even if it's only 1 active at a time. (Build help for this Psion is the primary purpose of our discussion.)

Also, what build do y'all advise for the main thrall? I was seriously considering Inspire Courage (http://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=8936.0) support Bard with Silverbrow Human for Dragonfire Inspiration.

[Venger]

in a vacuum, telepath is usually advised since it gets the most powers. however, since you're in an undead-heavy campaign, and undead will be immune to most of your mind-affecting stuff, you should go egoist and never look back. as a kalashtar, you don't need ek either due to your racial mindlink ability.

as far as what your cohort should be, what's the rest of your party building? you could fill gaps that way.

[Endarire]

From the first post: "The rest of the party is to be determined."

Another player will likely be a Psion of another discipline, but details are TBA.

To clarify, the main focus of this thread is build advice for the Psion, not the thralls.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

If you can become an [Evil] outsider (taking the Otherworldly feat and finding a way to gain the [Evil] subtype, such as through Savage Species's type/subtype rules), you could take a few levels of fiend of possession to possess your thralls and use them to shield your body from harm. Or you could take levels in the ghost savage progression (buying off the LA as you go) and could basically do the same thing, using malevolence. Get a big, mean thrall with some offensive and defensive abilities you like (hydras are nice) and be the party's meat-grinder.

Note that the thrallherd's main ability can enthrall potentially anything, including constructs and undead. They are largely immune to most undead abilities, and you won't have to worry about nasty things like disease or level drain.

[Piggy Knowles]

Frankly you can get a lot of mileage against undead just by taking psionic shrink item + telekinetic thrust or astral construct (or both), as well as standard powers like psionic grease and ectoplasmic cocoon, so between that and the fact that you get mindlink via your race you have a fair bit of freedom in how you build out your Psion. If you have a specific direction you’d like to go in I’m happy to help you further; I love Psions and enjoy building them.

EDIT: For example here’s a scout and party face telepath/thrallherd/ebon saint I built for another campaign that never ended up happening. It’s not specifically geared toward undead but it has plenty of tools that it can use in an undead-heavy campaign while still being a classic telepath:


PsyRogue 1/Telepath 5/Thrallherd 9/Ebon Saint 5

1 PsyRogue1- Inquisitor, Psicrystal Affinity
-Compression
2 Telepath1- Practiced Manifester (Psion)
-Mindlink, psionic grease, vigor
3 Telepath2- Expanded Knowledge (Astral Construct)
-Astral construct, conceal thoughts, entangling ectoplasm
4 Telepath3-
-Ego whip, psionic glibness
5 Telepath4-
-Share pain, psionic tongues
6 Telepath5- Mindsight
-Dispel psionics, time hop
7 Thrallherd1-
8 Thrallherd2-
-Telekinetic force, solicit psicrystal
9 Thrallherd3- Combat Expertise
-Psionic charm, psionic divination, psychic reformation
10 Thrallherd4-
-Wall of ectoplasm, schism
11 Thrallherd5-
-Psionic dominate, mind probe, anticipatory strike
12 Thrallherd6- Improved Feint
-Psionic true seeing, ectoplasmic shambler
13 Ebon Saint1-
14 Ebon Saint2-
-Temporal acceleration
15 Ebon Saint3- Darkstalker
-Psionic contingency, psionic disintegrate
16 Thrallherd7-
-Personal mind blank
17 Thrallherd8-
-Energy conversion, psionic moment of prescience
18 Thrallherd9- Expanded knowledge (mass ectoplasmic cocoon)
-Psionic greater teleport, mass ectoplasmic cocoon
19 Ebon Saint4-
-True metabolism, shadow body
20 Ebon Saint5-
-Reality revision

[Endarire]

Our GM has been one to require anyone scouting to have Darkvision due to other scenarios with him where this has been very true.

I was debating Telepath for its Telepathy Psion5 ACF and Mindsight thereafter, and it is a possibility, but I was also conflicted over using Egoist for metamorphosis or Shaper for native astral construct and ectoplasmic coccoon access. I would like to have some blasting abilities (since that has been useful so far with this campaign), but also want less PP-intensive options for days when we should conserve.

Undead aren't the only thing we would find in this campaign as opposition, but knowing his affinity for using things immune to mental effects or having high saves/SR, I was hesitant to go Telepath.

[Piggy Knowles]

I mean, the fun thing about psions is that unless you're particularly interested in a level 9 power, you can always just supplement with Expanded Knowledge. You can easily run a telepath for Mindsight access and mostly just nab Schism and maybe True Mind Switch, while still picking up the relevant shaper/egoist powers via EK. Thrallherd and Kalashtar will give you all the mind-affecting powers you need, really.

If you're starting at ECL 6, you could easily go in with Telepath 5/Thrallherd 1 with Psicrystal Affinity, Inquisitor, Expanded Knowledge (Astral Construct) and Mindsight as your feats (assuming no flaws). You don't need a single telepath power at this point; when you hit ECL 8 you'll want to grab Schism but there are so many great general psion powers at the low levels that you won't be lacking for options.

Against undead, psionic grease, entangling ectoplasm, astral construct and general blasting support will leave you plenty of options at that level. You can pick up ectoplasmic cocoon with your level 9 feat if you'd like.

(Of course, if you're not interested in Mindsight, you'll save several feats by just being a Shaper and instead picking up Schism via EK. Consider grabbing Touchsight instead at that point.)

If you want to blast but conserve PP, you really can't beat Telekinetic Thrust. It's reasonably low level, it has decent damage output, it scales automatically without requiring augmentation, and if you also add in Psionic Shrink Item (and dump all your excess PP at the end of each adventuring day into shrinking things), it can far outstrip any other power on the psion list for damage, without requiring you to go nova.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Shapers are your best bet vs undead (and practically anything else). Just the metacreativity powers alone allow you to never have an encounter where you can't do anything, unless your pp are drained dry. And considering that many of the shaper's best powers are low level and don't augment, such as psionic minor creation...

Also, you may consider taking a 1 level dip in factotum + Able Learner, so you can do pretty much whatever you want, skills-wise.

[Endarire]

Mindsight vs touchsight: What are the main pros and cons? Seemingly, Mindsight costs a feat (and telepathy) but is always on while touchsight is a power known for 1 min/ML and acts like a form of 60' blindsight around the manifester.

Psionic shrink item: Where is this listed? (Google-Fu has failed me!)

[Venger]

Mindsight vs touchsight: What are the main pros and cons? Seemingly, Mindsight costs a feat (and telepathy) but is always on while touchsight is a power known for 1 min/ML and acts like a form of 60' blindsight around the manifester.

Psionic shrink item: Where is this listed? (Google-Fu has failed me!)

Mindsight is better in every way. Any character who qualifies should always take it, period. The only hard counter to mindsight is blocking loe, like earth dreamer, but there's nothing to be done about that anyway. if you're starting at a high enough level to begin play with mindsight, I wouldn't bother with touchsight. if you must start before you can afford mindsight, ask if you can retrain the power later on.

psionic shrink item is on p133 of secrets of sarlona. like all the psionic such and such, it works just like shrink item.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

The only thing that can negate the effects of a Burrowing touchsight is incorporeality. Nothing else evades it. It even works like X-Ray vision. Though Mind Sight is amazing all on its own.

[Venger]

The only thing that can negate the effects of a Burrowing touchsight is incorporeality. Nothing else evades it. It even works like X-Ray vision. Though Mind Sight is amazing all on its own.

Burrowing power can only affect targeted powers. I don't think it works on touchsight. Even assuming it worked the way you describe, I find mindsight to be a little handier since it's reactive and doesn't cost any pp. Assuming you had to choose between the two, that is.

[Piggy Knowles]

Mindsight is almost certainly better for the reasons Venger brought up (better range, always on rather than requiring activation and power point usage, surprisingly hard to stop, gives you useful information like creature type and Int score), but touchsight has a lot of advantages too.

For one, touchsight doesn't just give you minds; it tells you everything about an area. Mindsight will give you the creatures within your range, while touchsight senses everything physical.

For another, mindsight works as blindsense, meaning that the creatures within its range that you do spot still have concealment versus you. Touchsight on the other hand entirely negates concealment.

Then (and perhaps most relevant to you), there's some flavor text in Lords of Madness that implies that mindsight doesn't work on the undead. This didn't get carried over into the feat description itself, but I've seen plenty of DMs rule that mindsight doesn't catch undead.

Finally, in your case, getting mindsight will cost you several feats and some slightly later access to relevant powers: in addition to the Mindsight feat itself, you'll be giving up a bonus feat for telepathy, and you'll need at least a couple of feats to use on Expanded Knowledge for things like astral construct and ectoplasmic cocoon (especially the mass version, which you may not be able to get at all via Expanded Knowledge if your game is unlikely to go past ECL 15). Of course the telepath also saves you a feat on getting schism, but it's still a net loss.

But man, mindsight really is useful. Always being on means it becomes incredibly difficult for someone to sneak up on you, and if the concealment worries you, you can easily combine mindsight with things like bags of flour, wands of glitterdust or the touchsight power itself to negate that. Ultimately it depends on what your build priorities are; I think there are strong merits to going both shaper and telepath here.

[Rebel7284]

Some ideas for the main Thrall:
1. Any other psion with feats to allow power recharge loops.
2. Artificer, psionic or regular, for an amazing force multiplyer.
3. Spell to Power Erutide for converting those delicious spells to powers and then using a power stone of Psychic Chirurgery to give them to you. Can be combined with #1.
4. War Chanter with Inspire Legion can be pretty silly when all your mooks suddenly have 15 BAB.