Newbie to playing Pyschic class

[Mnemius]

A friend is about to try dm'ing for the first time. Party has a paladin, cleric, and rogue so far. Screams make something that fits the knowledge and arcane roll.

I've played witch a bit before (loved it, but later levels tends to clunk the table, and gm is new, so don't want to introduce the bane that is "will save or sleep, rogue gank!"

So I'm thinking Wizard. But I've also been sitting on the occult adventure's book for a bit. And there's a caster that goes to level 9 spells, int-based, gets all knowledges. (Sorcerer progression, spontaneous caster though.)

Setting background is there's an island, someone once found a great treasure trove on it but only got out with part of it. And of that adventuring party, one went mad. Past bit there were 2 countries fighting over it, but that's largely over now. The winning side (due to war costs) is letting adventurer's explore it, map it, clear out monsters, etc. Cleared lands are largely turning into settlements (and mining where the ore is good.)

I'm looking at a playing Glim, a dwarf psychic, str 13, dex 12, con 16, int 16, wis 16, cha 8; of the Self-Perfection discpline (wis to AC sounds fun.)

Are then any pitfalls to the psychic class? This doesn't work the way you think it does type things? Glaring obvious things newbies to psychic will miss?

(Like, it just dinged for me that I can technically wear armor without spell failure, but the penalties.)
Or should I scrap this and just go either wizard or sorcerer?

[Florian]

Nah, grab a level of Fighter (possibly Foehammer) and be happy that you now can hide behind full plate and a large shield, nothing against that. Swap Self-Perfection for Faith and you're running pretty smooth.

The problems with the Psychic are twofold:

First, you have to deal with the shut-down mechanism to you casting, which are fear and intimidate. Dwarf and the Fighter dip are actually good starts to handle that. (Human and a lot of the things Aldori help even more)

Second, that particular class comes with a very specific casting system (Undercasting), which is supported by a Phrenic Power. Depending on the particular kind of game you're entering into, this could either be a major boon or a total trap.

[Dekion]

+10 DC to all concentration checks or taking a move action to center to remove that penalty for all Though component spells. It's a hefty penalty or loss of your move action. I think there is a way to reduce this action requirement, but I don't have the time to dig for it at the moment. Of course, not getting hit or staying out of AoO threat range is an option too.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Stop: collaborate and listen. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?444796-CTP-s-Guide-to-the-Pathfinder-Psychic)

I wrote a guide! DWERF!

[Psyren]

Nah, grab a level of Fighter (possibly Foehammer) and be happy that you now can hide behind full plate and a large shield, nothing against that. Swap Self-Perfection for Faith and you're running pretty smooth.

The problems with the Psychic are twofold:

First, you have to deal with the shut-down mechanism to you casting, which are fear and intimidate. Dwarf and the Fighter dip are actually good starts to handle that. (Human and a lot of the things Aldori help even more)

Second, that particular class comes with a very specific casting system (Undercasting), which is supported by a Phrenic Power. Depending on the particular kind of game you're entering into, this could either be a major boon or a total trap.

Agreed with above but I do want to point out that the fear thing isn't as bad as it seems. Emotion components are basically Psychic Magic's version of somatic components, so spells that don't have a somatic component (like Dimension Door or Teleport) can still be used even if you are panicking or euphoric. And even if there are (E) spells that you want to use, you can pick up Logical Spell (or a metamagic rod of same) to get the drop on your foe.