Midnight Augmentation really is absurd

[Pippin]

Hi there.

If you expend your psionic focus when manifesting that power, the power point cost to augment that power is reduced by a value equal to the invested essentia.

The more I read it, the more I'm convinced that the generic augmentation cost is (meant to be) reduced, not the overall cost. Personally that's how I read for the first time, before I had any dark ambitions. If they really meant the other way around, they would have phrased it differently, I'm pretty sure they would have inserted the word "total" at some point, or a synonym thereof.

That being said, would it be so bad? I won't deny that some powers like Temporal Acceleration become cheesy to a stellar degree. On the other hand, the feat affects only one power and you can't change that until the next day. In other words, you can't use it on power A, then switch it to power B, and so on. The feat is absurd, but you have to choose wisely.

Don't you agree?

[Arcanist]

The more I read it, the more I'm convinced that the generic augmentation cost is (meant to be) reduced, not the overall cost.

That is how I interpret it as well. Reduce the augmentation cost(s) of Psionic Charm at 1 essentia to +1, +3 and +3 respectively. It's a very case by case type of feat really depending on what you pick for the day. Once you get to ML 14, you're probably going to usually pick Temporal Acceleration for the foreseeable future because it is generally always going to be your best option, but at low levels you can always pick stuff like Astral Construct, Inertial Armor, and almost anything else that might be augment-able.

Combine with Psycarnum Infusion and Psionic Meditation for greater effects.

[Ramza00]

Yes it is just a surrogate form of Overchannel, Wild Surge, etc.

There are also limitations on it that prevent it from getting broken.

Max amount of Essentia

1, 01st to 05th Level, need a Con of 12
2, 06th to 11th Level, need a Con of 14
3, 12th to 17th Level, need a Con of 16
4, 18th to 20th Level, need a Con of 18

Improved Essentia Capacity is a Feat that requires Con 15, essentia pool 2 and gives you +1 Essentia Capacity.

There may be a couple more ways to improve the essentia capacity of feats, but most of the ways to improve essentia capacity is for soulmelds and Midnight Augmentation is not a soulmeld.

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Furthermore there is another clause that says you can't invest more essentia into the feat / psionic power than the level of the psionic power. Thus you can only do 1 essentia into Astral Construct, 4 into Kineticist's Energy Ball and so on.

In addition another clause states you still need to do 1 pp separate from Midnight Augmentation when you augment a psionic power, for Midnight Augmentation says the reduction in augmentation costs can't reduce the cost of augmentation to less than 1, 1 pp of augmentation must always be used.

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All these clauses greatly limit the amount of abusability of this feat. It can be powerful but you have to sacrifice other things to unlock this power and it is only powerful in certain instances.

So as long as you prevent two psions working together with Bestow Power and this feat the feat is relatively balanced, powerful some of the time, and actually a power decrease in many other times. (For you have the opportunity cost of giving up a feat or more feats, and the opportunity cost if you choose to take a level less of psion / psychic warrior / etc to get more incarnium. For example Psion 10 vs Psion 11 is a lost of 18 power points, is this a great return on investment?)

[Pippin]

So far I didn't find many powers that can be reinvented by this feat, just a few:


Astral Construct: with the Constructor PrC, you can create four 9th-level constructs, for the price of 12 PPs.
Attraction/Aversion: you can manifest them with a DC of 30 + INT modifier, for the price of 20 PPs at ML20.
Death Urge: you can manifest it with a DC of 40 + INT modifier, for the price of 20 PPs at ML20.
Planar Champion: with the Improved Essentia Capacity feat, you can bring either 8 sibyllic guardians or 8 cerebriliths, for the price of 20 PPs at ML20.
Temporal Acceleration: you can give yourself 9 free rounds, for the price of 20 PPs at ML20.

Of course, you could optimise these even more if you find a way to increase your ML. I don't think you really need to go Soul Manifester for Incarnum shenanigans, the Psycarnum Infusion feat does a great job all by itself!

[Troacctid]

The more I read it, the more I'm convinced that the generic augmentation cost is (meant to be) reduced, not the overall cost.
Why? From the descriptive text, it seems to me like the essentia is meant to replace power points on a one-to-one basis: "You can augment a psionic power with your personal soul energy rather than mental energy." And the rules text is consistent with this, too. How much does it cost to augment an energy ray to deal 5d6 extra damage? How much does it cost if you reduce that cost by 1? Seems fine to me.

[Pippin]

Why? From the descriptive text, it seems to me like the essentia is meant to replace power points on a one-to-one basis: "You can augment a psionic power with your personal soul energy rather than mental energy." And the rules text is consistent with this, too. How much does it cost to augment an energy ray to deal 5d6 extra damage? How much does it cost if you reduce that cost by 1? Seems fine to me.
I totally agree with the one-to-one basis part. But why use an example that is not appropriate to the subject?

I don't believe you straight up augment Temporal Acceleration from 11 PP to 19 PP. You augment it twice with a fixed augmentation cost, and each time you do, Midnight Augmentation applies. I don't think this disputes the descriptive text.

[Ramza00]

So far I didn't find many powers that can be reinvented by this feat, just a few:


Astral Construct: with the Constructor PrC, you can create four 9th-level constructs, for the price of 12 PPs.

Nope from my understanding of reading the text of the feat, 1st level powers can only have their augmentation cost reduced by 1-max no matter how much essentia you give the feat, 2nd level powers can have their augmentation cost reduced by 2, 3rd level powers by 3 and so on.

[Pippin]

Nope from my understanding of reading the text of the feat, 1st level powers can only have their augmentation cost reduced by 1-max no matter how much essentia you give the feat, 2nd level powers can have their augmentation cost reduced by 2, 3rd level powers by 3 and so on.
But that's what I used. I reduced the augmentation cost by 1 PP, then I augmented Astral Construct eight times (to reach level 9), then three more times (for 3 additional constructs).

[Ramza00]

But that's what I used. I reduced the augmentation cost by 1 PP, then I augmented Astral Construct eight times (to reach level 9), then three more times (for 3 additional constructs).

But it is one augment cost not multiple recursive augment costs.


"For every 2 additional power points you spend, the level of the astral construct increases by one."

Yes I know we are debating whether midnight augmentation goes inside the parenthesis or outside the parenthesis, but per the SRD it looks like you augment a power only once, as part of manifesting the power, but the "size of the augment" can be different.

[Pippin]

There is only one cost, and you decide how many times you want to pay.

[Segev]

Regardless of which interpretation is true, reading this raised a question for me: Does this let you get around ML cap?

Let's say Midnight Augmentation is, for argument's sake, letting you manifest Crystal Shard (1d6 damage ranged attack, +1d6 per extra PP spent to augment) for 1 fewer PP than normal. Your ML is 5 (again for argument's sake). Without Midnight Augmentation, you could augment Crystal Shard to a total of 5 PP, for 5d6 damage. With Midnight Augmentation, you're augmenting it to 5d6 damage for 4 PP. Can you go ahead and spend one more PP for +1d6 more, because that would put you at spending your ML in PP? i.e., can Midnight Augmentation give you 6d6 for 5 PP at ML 5, rather than "merely" 5d6 for 4 PP at level 5?

[Crichton]

Regardless of which interpretation is true, reading this raised a question for me: Does this let you get around ML cap?

Let's say Midnight Augmentation is, for argument's sake, letting you manifest Crystal Shard (1d6 damage ranged attack, +1d6 per extra PP spent to augment) for 1 fewer PP than normal. Your ML is 5 (again for argument's sake). Without Midnight Augmentation, you could augment Crystal Shard to a total of 5 PP, for 5d6 damage. With Midnight Augmentation, you're augmenting it to 5d6 damage for 4 PP. Can you go ahead and spend one more PP for +1d6 more, because that would put you at spending your ML in PP? i.e., can Midnight Augmentation give you 6d6 for 5 PP at ML 5, rather than "merely" 5d6 for 4 PP at level 5?

It's not that it 'lets you get around ML cap'

It's that the ML cap rule actually states:


The maximum number of points you can spend on a power (for any reason) is equal to your manifester level.


So yes, you can spend 5pp but get 6d6 at ML 5.