Building a plausible Psion/Martial Adept

[Dr. Weasel]

Hola. I'm trying to build a Psion/Martial Adept for a long-term game I'm going to be playing. Arcane and Divine magic are disallowed.

I think the goal is to go from level 5 to 20. Yes, it's ambitious and will probably be abandoned, but I want to design a character to be viable for as much of that range as is possible.

I see two real possibilities (with an every-5-level breakdown):

Plan 1:
Psychic Warrior/Swordsage


1:Psychic Warrior 1:Power Attack, Practiced Manifester, Psicrystal Affinity
2:Psychic Warrior 2:Psychic Renewal
3:Psychic Warrior 3:Psicrystal Containment
4:Psychic Warrior 4
5:Swordsage 1
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BA: 3
Initiator level 3
Maneuvers up to 2
Manifester level 4 (5 with Practiced Manifester)
Powers up to 2
PP: 5
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6:Psychic Warrior 5:Adaptive Style, Psionic Meditation
7:Psychic Warrior 6
8:Psychic Warrior 7
9:Psychic Warrior 8:Improved Bull Rush, Shock Trooper
10:Swordsage 2
---------------------------------------------
BA: 7
Initiator level 6
Maneuvers up to 3
Manifester level 8 (10 with Practiced Manifester)
Powers up to 3
PP: 19
---------------------------------------------
11:Psychic Warrior 9
12:Psychic Warrior 10:Quicken Power
13:Psychic Warrior 11:Leap Attack
14:Psychic Warrior 12
15:Swordsage 3:MS-Iron Heart Surge*
---------------------------------------------
BA: 11
Initiator level 9
Maneuvers up to 5
Manifester level 12 (15 with Practiced Manifester)
Powers up to 4
PP: 43
---------------------------------------------
16:Psychic Warrior 13
17:Psychic Warrior 14:EK-Metamorphosis
18:Psychic Warrior 15:Metamorphic Transfer
19:Psychic Warrior 16
20:Swordsage 4
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BA: 15
Initiator level 12
Maneuvers up to 5
Manifester level 16 (20 with Practiced Manifester)
Powers up to 6
PP: 79
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*Basically filler. It's situationally useful and I don't really have anything else to put there.


Plan 2:
Egoist/Slayer/Warblade


1:Egoist 1:Practiced Manifester, Psicrystal Affinity, Psychic Renewal
2:Egoist 2
3:Egoist 3:Psicrystal Containment
4:Egoist 4
5:Warblade 1
---------------------------------------------
BA: 3
Initiator level 3
Maneuvers up to 2nd
Manifester level 4 (5 with Practiced Manifester)
Powers up to 2
PP: 17
---------------------------------------------
6:Egoist 5:Psionic Meditation, Track
7:Egoist 6
8:Slayer 1
9:Slayer 2:Quicken Power
10:Slayer 3
---------------------------------------------
BA: 7
Initiator level 5
Maneuvers up to 3
Manifester level 8 (10 with Practiced Manifester)
Powers up to 4
PP: 58
---------------------------------------------
11:Slayer 4
12:Slayer 5:MS- Iron Heart Surge*
13:Slayer 6
14:Slayer 7
15:Slayer 8:MS-Insightful Strike*
----------------------------------------------
BA: 12
Initiator level 8
Maneuvers up to 4
Manifester level 12 (15 with Practiced Manifester)
Powers up to 6
PP: 147
----------------------------------------------
16:Slayer 9
17:Slayer 10
18:Egoist 7:MS-Dancing Blade Form*
19:Egoist 8
20:Warblade 2
-----------------------------------------------
BA: 16
Initiator level 11
Maneuvers up to 6th
Manifester level 17 (20 with Practiced Manifester)
Powers up to 9th
PP: 250
------------------------------------------------

*Pretty much just filler



So do you have any better ideas? Disciplines/powers/feats to use? Books to check out?

What do you think would be the best option for this sort of character?

[CASTLEMIKE]

I like plan 2 the best except for those low initial hit point levels. Since you will probably never level up to level 20 and that single level 9 power a few More WB levels earlier might be more useful. The +2 LA Phrenic template would be nice with LA buydown.

Two middle of the road approach:

Ranger -1 (Maybe with Hidden Talent or one of the Psionic House Scions)

Factotum - 3 or (Factotum -1, Marshal -1 ((Motivate Intelligence) (if you average BAB for Factotum and Marshal))

WB-1 (This could be your first class level if you don't want the extra 8 skill points you would get from Ranger)

Psion -1 (2 if you only took one level in Factotum)

Slayer -10

BAB before the last 4 PRC levels is +14 +9 +4 equivalent to a psion - 10 at this point before adding 4 more full casting psionic PRCs to taste.

Your PC ends equivalent to a psion -14 with level 7 powers and at least +16 BAB.
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WB-3 (Maybe Hidden Talent Astral Construct)

Factotum -1, Marshal -1 (Motivate Int)

Ranger -1

Psion -1

Slayer - 10

3 more levels to taste (Maybe 3 Psionic PRCs or a mix of 2 Psionic PRCs with Crusader -1 and Sword Sage -1 at different levels of the build to taste for some nice ToB manuevers in the build).

[Dr. Weasel]

I'm afraid I don't own Dungeonscape. One of my friend does, however, which makes Factotum available; I just don't know much about it. How does it improve this?

I worry about taking too many dips because this will need to use so many Power Points just to maintain its buffs (and maneuvers if it really comes down to it). I don't like the idea of relying on Vigor as much as this is going to need to for the first few levels, but I want to be able to afford the Powers that merit the time used in manifestation (Force Screen is the only I see at first-level that really meets this without burning too much pp).


Are there any feats that might make the first option capable? It's not my favorite choice, but it seems there could be an effective approach to it somehow that isn't completely reliant on defense. Perhaps Burning Brand+Offensive Prescience+Claws of the Beast/other attack-generating options could do something for it?