cerebremancer + mental pinnacle

[Soranar]

So I've been working on a cerebremancer build for a bit and I came up with a fairly convoluted way to end up with a ridiculous manifester level

Race: Illumian (for the krau sigil)

key feats: practiced spellcaster (bard), practiced spellcaster (sublime chord), arcane the

Level 1-4 Bard
Level 5 Ardent
Level 6-10 Cerebremancer
Level 11 Sublime Chord
Level 12-17 Cerebremancer
Level 18-20 Unseen Seer (gives you access to hunter's eye, couldn't think of anything else that's interesting).

Since Krau also boosts your manifester level using transparency, ardent 1 qualifies you for cerebremancer

Your sublime chord caster level is counted by adding 1 base casting class with it so, by level 20, you end up with

Bard 15 (4 base levels, 2 krau, 4 practiced spellcaster, 5 cerebremancer)

+

Sublime chord 16 (1 base level, 2 krau, 4 practiced spellcaster, 5 cerebremancer, 3 unseen seer)

for a caster level of 31

now the spell mental pinnacle gives you 3 power points per caster level (93 power points for 1 level 6 spell) and it lets you cast as a psion of level 31

and because of psionic rules for multiclassing, you can cast your ardent powers with your newfound psion ability

obviously the ardent powers are very limited (only 2 mantles to choose from + whatever you get with expanded knowledge or tap mantle) but you do have a full spellcasting side to work with and even mental pinnacle gives you 2 powers that augment well enough: mind thrust and ego whip.

Unfortunately astral construct is capped at manifester 17 though the duration is still increased by your manifester level

metaphysical weapon would let you pump your party member's weapon bonus to bypass epic resistance for at least a day.

crystal shard becomes your go to ray spell (31d6, no sr, no saves)

inertial armor gives you 19 AC

anything else you guys can think to do with this or ways to improve it?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

A level in thrallherd for a StP erudite. Pay said erudite money so he can learn psychic chirurgery from a telepath (or another erudite who learned it from a telepath, etc). Have the erudite manifest psychic chirurgery to teach you all of his powers known, arcane spells as powers known, and divine spells as arcane spells as powers known. Win.

[Vaern]

I don't think you could add sublime chord levels with cerebremancer like that.

When a new cerebremancer level is attained, the character gains new spells per day as if he had also attained a level in any one arcane spellcasting class he belonged to before he added the prestige class.

If a character had more than one arcane spellcasting class or more than one manifesting class before he became a cerebremancer, he must decide to which class he adds each level of cerebremancer...
Cerebremancer only seems to care about when you first entered the prestige class, not when you picked up a particular level. You became a sublime chord after becoming a cerebremancer, so the only arcane caster class you have available to advance with cerebremancer is bard.
Also, 6-10 is 5 levels and 12-17 is another 6, for a total of 11 cerebremancer levels listed in your build. You can free up a level and have an extra level to play around with.

Your caster levels for sublime chord and the class you used to qualify for it are determined by adding the levels of both classes together. You wouldn't be able to stack the +2 bonus from Krau on bard and sublime chord and then add it together for a +4 bonus altogether because it's two instances of the same bonus coming from the same source affecting a single caster level.
The same would probably apply to practiced spellcaster - it's technically applying to two separate classes, but they use a single caster level so the same bonus coming from a second instance of the same source wouldn't stack.

Overall, your collective caster level for bard and sublime chord would be:
4 bard + 1 sublime chord + 10 cerebremancer + 3 unseen seer + 2 krau + 4 practiced spellcaster = 24... or rather, 20 because both Krau and practiced spellcaster state that they can only increase your caster level to a maximum of your character level.

Finally, mental pinnacle gives you a list of powers that you have access to and says that you manifest those given powers as a psion of your caster level. It does not let you manifest other powers that you have from other sources (ie your ardent powers) at an increased manifester level. Your astral construct, metaphysical weapon, crystal shard, and inertial armor are all going to be capped at ML 11 (ardent 1 + cerebremancer 10).

[Soranar]

I don't think you could add sublime chord levels with cerebremancer like that.


Cerebremancer only seems to care about when you first entered the prestige class, not when you picked up a particular level.

Literally the first sentence describing the class contradicts this When a new cerebremancer level is attained, the character gains new spells per day as if he had also attained a level in any one arcane spellcasting class he belonged to before he added the prestige class

you choose every time you level


Your caster levels for sublime chord and the class you used to qualify for it are determined by adding the levels of both classes together. You wouldn't be able to stack the +2 bonus from Krau on bard and sublime chord and then add it together for a +4 bonus altogether because it's two instances of the same bonus coming from the same source affecting a single caster level.

krau and practiced spellcaster do state you can't go over your character level, you're not

you're bringing your bard caster level to your level

but yeah, the wording of sublime chord is a bit off (unlike the wording in say master spellthief) so I can't double the bonus like I initially thought

Instead I just get +6 caster level tops (so 26 tops instead of 31)

I've just reread the psionic multiclassing rules and I think you're right, while I can use the spells power points to cast ardent powers, I can't use ardent power known as the spell's ''temporary psion'' but I did find a workaround: hidden talent lets you cast the power you chose with your highest manifester level , doesn't matter which. But you only get 1 since only a soulknife can take this feat multiple times.

Since my ardent manifester level is pretty good (1 ardent+10 cerebremancer+4 practiced manifester +2 krau) I can still use most powers well enough (and I greatly enhance my power point reserve)

as for the hidden talent choice, I guess crystal shard it's either crystal shard or astral construct

[AnimeTheCat]

Literally the first sentence describing the class contradicts this When a new cerebremancer level is attained, the character gains new spells per day as if he had also attained a level in any one arcane spellcasting class he belonged to before he added the prestige class

you choose every time you level

But you two said the same thing... one of you is putting emphasis on the former part of the statement, one of you is putting emphasis on the latter part. One of them is more restrictive than the other, but both have to be met. You're putting emphasis on "Gains new spells per day as if he had also attained a level in any one arcane spellcasting class", which is all true and correct. However, the next part says, "Belonged to before he added the prestige class" which kind of prevents you from applying this to sublime chord since your first cerebremancer level (before adding the prestige class) was before your first sublime chord level.

Just my 2 cp, take it for what it's worth.

[Psyren]

I support the "you need Sublime Chord before entering Cerebremancer to advance it" interpretation.

You could probably do this better with Ur-Priest, Ardent and Psychic Theurge anyway though.

[Soranar]

I support the "you need Sublime Chord before entering Cerebremancer to advance it" interpretation.

You could probably do this better with Ur-Priest, Ardent and Psychic Theurge anyway though.

Mental pinnacle is an arcane spell so that's not an option.

[FauxKnee]

It seems like you're putting a lot of resources into caster level. Have you considered a Spellthief dip (possibly replacing your 11th level of Cerebremancer) with the Master Spellthief feat? It allows you to get extra mileage out of caster level boosts. (Knight of the Weave will do disgusting things in combination if you're willing to spend a level on it.) Dragon magazine 349 page 89 offers the Psiotheurgist feat which allows you to combine your arcane caster level and psionic manifesting level for a given school/discipline.