I can haz more Power Points?

[GoldWizard]

Playing a Tibbit Psychic Rogue, and as the group's only psychic character, I find myself burning through my PP quite quickly. Any ways I can shore up my power reserve without being completely cheesy? (torc of Power Preservation + Stone Power + Share Power, I'm looking at you:smallwink:) let me restate it, I don't want infinite power points, just a good strat for getting a good backup battery so to speak. My present plan is using Psicrystal affinity, and having my psicrystal repeatedly take psionic Talent to turn into a Cognizance crystal charging port. is there a more efficient/better way?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Manifester (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/items/weapons.htm#manifesterWeapon) is a +1 weapon property that grants +5 power points per day, and you have to use all of them in one manifestation (so a 1 pp power would eat up all of the effect for the day). +16,000 gp to the weapon's cost. Now, that's pretty terrible, overall, until you realize that 50 manifester arrows, bolts, or sling stones each grant +5 pp for the same cost.

If you give your psicrystal a [Host] feat or some other psi-like ability without giving it access to power points, the powerleech weapon ability (Lost Empires of Faerun) costs +8,000 gp and allows you to drain power points from anything you hit. Now, the wording is per hit, not per damage, so add it to a sap and smack your psicrystal around with it. The sap will deal nonlethal damage (which your psicrystal is immune to), and you'll gain power points from it. But since your psicrystal has psi-like abilities but not power points, it won't be drained, even though you're getting the benefit of smacking a [psionic] creature with your powerleech sap.

There are lots more ways to recharge power points. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?264023-fastest-way-to-recharge-power-points) Tons more than are in that thread, in fact.

[GoldWizard]

I asked my GM, and he vetoed the ammo. as for the other stuff, I'm not looking for a recharge loophole to be able to infinitely refill my Power Points. GM will nope that too. I'm just looking for an efficient way to have a large Power Point reserve to draw from.

[Anthrowhale]

If you take a single level of Wizard or Sorcerer and the Arcane Mastery feat, then you can use a scroll of Mental Pinnacle with 0% failure at caster level 11. This provides 33 PP and limited list of powers known as a Psion for 11 rounds. Aside from playing a psion for a few rounds, these PP are available to the psychic rogue as well since multiclass psionic classes combine their PP. The scrolls cost 1950 gp, so they aren't cheap. If you have an adequate UMD, you may be able to avoid the cost of everything except the scroll.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Take Linked Power, synchronicity, and Metapower (Linked Power + synchronicity). It costs your psionic focus, and the second power won't come into effect until next round, but you gain an immediate standard action to use how you see fit between now and your next round, and the combo of the two powers costs 1 pp less than it would otherwise, saving you power points in the long run.

You might also want to consider buying or making a bunch of 1st level power stones. They're very cheap and can be used for powers that work really well without being manifested at anything but ML 1, like entangling ectoplasm and psionic minor creation. Invest in Use Psionic Device for powers not on your list.

You could also take Supernatural Transformation (Psionics) and dip a few manifesting classes. Supernatural abilities always have a caster level of your HD, and so any time you gain a new manifesting class, your bonus power points (based on your ability scores) would be calculated at your HD instead of your class levels. So an ardent 1/psywar 1/psychic rogue 10 would count as ML 12 for all three classes for the purposes of bonus pp and manifesting powers, and all three power point sources would add together into one pp pool. The more classes you dip, the more bonus pp you get.

[edit] Oh, and take at least one level in psionic spellthief (psithief) and the psionic version of Master Spellthief (Master Psithief) to go with it. Add all your manifester levels together to determine your final manifester level.

[Crake]

Supernatural abilities always have a caster level of your HD

That's incorrect:

"Unless otherwise noted, a supernatural ability has an effective caster level equal to the creature’s Hit Dice."

They default to your HD, if otherwise unspecified, but if they're specified, they use the specific caster level. In this case of a theoretical supernatural transformation (psionics) (if your DM even allows that combo), the psionics still has a specified ML equal to that of your class level.

As a side note, supernatural transformation converts one SLA you know into a supernatural ability, so you can't just take it once for all your psionics.

[Zaq]

What level are you?

More importantly, what build resources are you able/willing to devote to this? A level, a feat, two feats, some gold, etc.? Are you able/willing to regularly devote standard actions to this or does it need to be "background"? (I don't have a specific idea for you at present, but your available resource pool makes all the difference in the world.)

What are your PP getting used on at present? Low-level power spam? High-level powers? Augmented low-level powers? Stuff that isn't actually powers? Is there any chance that perhaps we can implement a "work smarter not harder" solution to find ways to spend less rather than ways to have more to spend?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

As a side note, supernatural transformation converts one SLA you know into a supernatural ability, so you can't just take it once for all your psionics.And "psionics" is listed as a single ability in monster entries, just like "spells" is listed as one single ability.

Your other point might be a viable one, maybe.

[edit] Nope!


The effective caster level equals your total Hit Dice or the effective caster level of the original ability, whichever is higher.

That overrides the general rules of Su abilities, so it does, indeed, work. And if needed, make sure you get access to the Magic mantle to make it fit.

[Darg]

Power points from classes are based on class levels + ability score bonus. Psionics as a class feature are not a SLA as one can see they lack the (sp) tag. This means that supernatural transformation wouldn't work to increase your power points across multiple classes.

The psionic talent feat can give you extra pp. If you don't mind being cheesy, 2 levels of chameleon gets you a feat you can repick every 24 hours. Psionic talent has special text that says that every time you pick the feat it increases the amount you gain from the feat by 1. So your pp total increases by 1 every 24 hours.

[Troacctid]

And "psionics" is listed as a single ability in monster entries, just like "spells" is listed as one single ability.
So are spell-like abilities.


That overrides the general rules of Su abilities, so it does, indeed, work. And if needed, make sure you get access to the Magic mantle to make it fit.
That's not very useful, since you care about manifester level, not caster level.


[edit] Oh, and take at least one level in psionic spellthief (psithief) and the psionic version of Master Spellthief (Master Psithief) to go with it. Add all your manifester levels together to determine your final manifester level.
Psionic spellthieves don't have psionics.

[Crake]

That overrides the general rules of Su abilities, so it does, indeed, work. And if needed, make sure you get access to the Magic mantle to make it fit.

Fair enough, but as Troacctid said, SLAs and Psionics have the same conventions in how they're written in monster entries, they work the same.

Again, assuming your DM even lets you use that combo, as it's of dubious legitimacy

[MaxiDuRaritry]

According to the XPH, the ability to manifest powers is considered a single psi-like ability:


Psi-Like Abilities (Ps)
The manifestation of powers by a psionic character is considered a psi-like ability, as is the manifestation of powers by creatures without a psionic class (creatures with the psionic subtype, also simply called psionic creatures). Usually, a psionic creature’s psi-like ability works just like the power of that name. A few psi-like abilities are unique; these are explained in the text where they are described.



Power points from classes are based on class levels + ability score bonus. Psionics as a class feature are not a SLA as one can see they lack the (sp) tag. This means that supernatural transformation wouldn't work to increase your power points across multiple classes.They are psi-likes, which are the direct psionic equivalent to spell-like abilities. As I said above, if need be, take the Magic mantle to have magic and psionics be considered identical, which should mean Supernatural Transformation works for psi-likes (and thus, manifesting).


So are spell-like abilities.Note that even the rules on psi-like abilities considers the ability to manifest powers to be a single psi-like ability, explicitly.


That's not very useful, since you care about manifester level, not caster level.Manifester level is directly analogous to caster level. And note that with the Magic mantle, psionics is identical to magic, so manifester level is identical to caster level.


Psionic spellthieves don't have psionics.But psithieves do.


Fair enough, but as Troacctid said, SLAs and Psionics have the same conventions in how they're written in monster entries, they work the same.

Again, assuming your DM even lets you use that combo, as it's of dubious legitimacySee above.

[Troacctid]

Manifester level is directly analogous to caster level. And note that with the Magic mantle, psionics is identical to magic, so manifester level is identical to caster level.
No it isn't. They're two separate characteristics. The same ability can have both of them at the same time.


But psithieves do.
Where are you seeing that?

[Crake]

I'm not really interested in arguing the point, I'm just making it clear for others reading that it's a dubious claim and to not have high expectations when asking their DM if they can do it. Argue the validity of whether supernatural transformation can do what you claim by RAW all you like, it's unlikely to change a reasonable DM's perspective unless they're intentionally interested in a munchkin-type game, in which case they were probably already in your camp to begin with anyway, so you didn't really change anyone's mind.

[Psyren]

"Su psionics" is absolutely munchkin levels of cheese and one step below Pun-Pun. If your GM lets you do it, go nuts, but it shouldn't be assumed.