Psychic Warrior + Pyrokineticist

[StevenC21]

Would it be a good (or at least not harmful) idea to take a couple levels of Pyro for my otherwise single class Psychic Warrior? I wouldn't go full way, probably just Psy 15/Pyro 5.

I'm a Half-Giant Psychic Warrior at level 3 right now.

Thoughts?

[Zaq]

I wouldn’t. Pyrokineticist loses ML. That always hurts, and it hurts worst at high levels when the opportunity cost is gobs of PP and high-level powers. Pyrokineticist tends to be most useful on a PC who just has a sprinkling of psionic power, not on someone who relies heavily on psionics as their main gig.

Always look at what you lose versus what you gain, and remember that the value of a lost manifester level increases over time.

There’s a shaky argument for taking a single level in order to gain the fiery lash ability, since making attacks as touch attacks is pretty sweet. That’s still not an automatically good choice, though:

You either have to waste a move action on turn 1 to manifest it, or you have to walk around clutching a fiery whip all day, denying you the use of a hand. Speaking as someone who’s broken more than a few arms in my life, doing everything one-handed when you don’t have to really kind of sucks. Sure, fantasy adventurers walk around clutching their swords all day long, but you can sheathe your sword for a minute more easily than this.
It deals fire damage, which is the most commonly resisted kind of damage. (You can look at the alternate-element “X-okineticist” options in the Mind’s Eye article, but the fact remains: high-CR foes are more likely to have resistance and/or immunity to typed damage than to weapon damage, and it’s easier to get past DR than energy resistance.)
It functions as a whip, so you provoke AoOs when you swing it. That’s annoying, to be frank.

And of course you face the scaling cost of a lost ML. So while taking 1 level is likely better for a psychic warrior than taking 5 levels, it’s not guaranteed to be better than taking 0 levels. But ultimately, it’s up to you. If you’re dazzled by visions of your character swinging around a whip made of fire and you can’t find a similarly cool trick in the psychic warrior power list, sometimes it’s okay to not be fully optimized if you’re doing it on purpose. Just be aware of what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and what it’s costing you.

[Rijan_Sai]

Don’t have much to add; Practiced Manifester can make up for the ML loss, and with a couple pieces of equipment + Expansion you can feel like the Balrog! (Plus, not everything is immune to fire...)

[mabriss lethe]

It definitely isn't a particularly good combo. For reasons stated above. If you do take it, you either want to dip as little as possible to get what you want, or commit to 9 levels. (On a PW build, I'd suggest 1 level)

Second: take a minds eye variant if you can. Sonokineticist is my go to choice. You lose a few points of damage, but gain a rare energy type.

A few things to note about one level dipping for the lash. while it is a move action to activate, it has effectively unlimited duration so it can be created out of combat and carried much like another class might go ahead and draw a sword when entering dangerous territory. There also is not an explicit limit on the number you create, so it does work out well enough for twfing, especially coupled with being a touch attack.