Psionic Changeling Psycho Killer

[GuestEleven]

Working on the above mentioned concept. A changeling serial killer who is a face stealer, literally and figuratively. I like psionics for mind game purposes, reading thoughts to acquire the likeness of loved ones or allies. I want to mix that with stealthy assassin type abilities, particularly sneak attack over death attack, quick one shot kills aren't really what I'm looking for with this character. I'd love to see how other people would approach the build, especially since this is my first Psionic character I have ever built. Any advice is appreciated. My DM is letting me add half giant to Changeling as a template WITH Primordial Giant from SoX and the Inspired from ECS too! DM is also letting me actually be a host for a Quori spirit instead of just an empty vessel.

So for +2 ECL I'm getting 3 bonus power points at level 1 +1 additional at every level, one free bonus feat of my choice, a nasty set of psi-like (the highlights of which being Inertial Armor, Body Adjustment and Psionic Charm), some hefty ability bonuses, a lot of bonus skill points and a smattering of bonuses to certain skills. In addition to changeling.

STR 13
DEX 16
CON 16
INT 25
WIS 16
CHA 23

I was thinking Lurk might be the best base class. I have access to all official 3.5 and Pathfinder material except ToB(don't ask), I'm getting a feat at every odd level. I would love to find room in the build for Maiming Strike, Disemboweling Strike and Gruesome Finish. I like the idea of boosting kukri threat range, then a crit with Maiming Strike dealing 10+ charisma damage.

[Crake]

Instead of making some weird giant changeling hybrid, you can instead lean into psionics and take the level 1 (egoist i think?) psion ACF that literally gives you changeling’s minor change shape, but without the need to homebrew anything out of the ordinary

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

The Egoist 1 ACF (https://web.archive.org/web/20210729143630/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070314a), as Crake said, is going to completely remove hte need for Changeling.

Psychic Assassin (https://web.archive.org/web/20210729134056/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723d) is worth consideration, for a few reasons:
1. The 5th level special ability Mind Cripple makes you deal 2 Int damage per sneak attack. A few rounds and you'll take down most bruisers regardless of how much hp they have.
2. The core rulebook errata states that when the text and table disagree, the text takes priority, so it advances your manifesting at the 5th level per the text.

I'd go Spellthief 1/ Egoist 4/ Psychic Assassin 6/ Slayer (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/prestigeClasses/slayer.htm) 9. This loses only four manifester levels total, so no 9th level powers at 20th, but Practiced Manifester means you still get full augmentation for your level.

Take Psicrystal Affinity and pick the hero or nimble personality. Put a Healing Belt on the psicrystal and keep it in your boot, it can use that on you during combat when needed and opponents will never have line of sight/effect to it and area effects won't even hit it. Keep Share Pain on it so you take half damage from everything, its Hardness 8 reduces each instance of damage it takes from Share Pain by as much. You can share personal-range powers with it such as Vigor, Body Adjustment, etc.

Take Weapon Finesse and TWF, get Gloves of the Balanced Hand with an Enhancement bonus to Dex added per MIC p234. Eventually get two Swords of Subtlety with Speed added (priced as a +4 weapon with a +20k gp effect). Put a Wand Chamber in each of your weapons and a Wand of Wraithstrike in one. Your Spellthief level allows you to use wands of any spells that class can access, and the Rules Compendium says that takes the same action to activate as the spell's casting time.

[Maat Mons]

Since your DM seems to be quite willing to tweak the rules to help you fulfil your character concept, I’d ask about creating a psionic adaptation of Unseen Seer.

[GuestEleven]

Instead of making some weird giant changeling hybrid, you can instead lean into psionics and take the level 1 (egoist i think?) psion ACF that literally gives you changeling’s minor change shape, but without the need to homebrew anything out of the ordinary

I love changeling, the feats for them are really cool and so is Cabinet Trickster. Egoist does look really awesome though, I'm considering it. Would Inspired be worth keeping?


The Egoist 1 ACF (https://web.archive.org/web/20210729143630/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070314a), as Crake said, is going to completely remove hte need for Changeling.

Psychic Assassin (https://web.archive.org/web/20210729134056/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723d) is worth consideration, for a few reasons:
1. The 5th level special ability Mind Cripple makes you deal 2 Int damage per sneak attack. A few rounds and you'll take down most bruisers regardless of how much hp they have.
2. The core rulebook errata states that when the text and table disagree, the text takes priority, so it advances your manifesting at the 5th level per the text.

I'd go Spellthief 1/ Egoist 4/ Psychic Assassin 6/ Slayer (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/prestigeClasses/slayer.htm) 9. This loses only four manifester levels total, so no 9th level powers at 20th, but Practiced Manifester means you still get full augmentation for your level.

Take Psicrystal Affinity and pick the hero or nimble personality. Put a Healing Belt on the psicrystal and keep it in your boot, it can use that on you during combat when needed and opponents will never have line of sight/effect to it and area effects won't even hit it. Keep Share Pain on it so you take half damage from everything, its Hardness 8 reduces each instance of damage it takes from Share Pain by as much. You can share personal-range powers with it such as Vigor, Body Adjustment, etc.

Take Weapon Finesse and TWF, get Gloves of the Balanced Hand with an Enhancement bonus to Dex added per MIC p234. Eventually get two Swords of Subtlety with Speed added (priced as a +4 weapon with a +20k gp effect). Put a Wand Chamber in each of your weapons and a Wand of Wraithstrike in one. Your Spellthief level allows you to use wands of any spells that class can access, and the Rules Compendium says that takes the same action to activate as the spell's casting time.

Psionic Assassin and Slayer look really cool, pretty much exactly what I'm looking for. That looks like a really good psicrystal trick. I am kind of confused on the Spellthief suggestion though, is the whole purpose of that one level for the wand trick? If so wouldn't it be easier to just make use of UMD?


Since your DM seems to be quite willing to tweak the rules to help you fulfil your character concept, I’d ask about creating a psionic adaptation of Unseen Seer.

I like that class, I'd consider that if I was trying to make a spy but that isn't really what I'm going for.

[ExLibrisMortis]

You can take Metamorphic Transfer for Consume Identity (Su), the greater doppelganger ability. That will cover form-stealing pretty well. Monsters of Faerûn page 36. Ethereal doppelgangers (MM2 95) have a similar ability, but they have 20 HD, so it's harder to get via metamorphosis.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Psionic Assassin and Slayer look really cool, pretty much exactly what I'm looking for. That looks like a really good psicrystal trick. I am kind of confused on the Spellthief suggestion though, is the whole purpose of that one level for the wand trick? If so wouldn't it be easier to just make use of UMD?

On Spellthief, it's basically a choice between that or Rogue or another class that gets the necessary class skills to qualify for your prestige classes. It still gets trapfinding and 1d6 sneak attack at the 1st level, it just gets slightly fewer skill points than Rogue. You could swap it for something like Ranger if you want more BAB, even using this variant (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#ranger) to gain fast movement, and/or trap expert from Dungeonscape, but that doesn't get UMD as a class skill. Furthermore, using a wand is a DC 20 UMD check, you're better off just being able to use it by virtue of your class levels.

[Doctor Despair]

I recommend the following build based on your prompt:

https://i.imgur.com/T3eOf1g.png

You get a number of neat synergies this way. At low levels (like level 5), you can do a routine like:

1. Open up with Never Outnumbered if possible after sneaking up with disguise, rendering the cluster of enemies cowering

2. Quick-change as a move action to reveal your true form, layering on another shaken effect. On their turn, they all will stop cowering and move to shaken (as per Imperious Command), escalating to frightened when combined with the shaken from Abominable Form. Spend your second move action hiding your abominable form again.

3. Now that the party is scattered due to the frightened condition, you can spam Quori Dread and Quick Change to repeatedly debuff and lock down enemies from range.

In a 1v1, you can lock down an enemy with Imperious Command as a move action while you spend your standard to attack.

Meanwhile, Mind Mask means your disguises are protected from many problematic divinations that might otherwise sell you out. You have psionic powers from Psywar.

Later on, you get sudden strike/sneak attack from your prcs (buffed with Craven and Dread Blade), you get the ability to use intimidate at a move action without Quori Dread (which is notable because normal intimidate is not mind-affecting like Quori Dread is and intelligent enemies may begin to get immunity to mind-affecting more commonly at higher levels), you get thought tricks to spam, and your disguises get better via Zhentarim Spy and feat choices.

Most of the feat picks are fairly self-explanatory, but Mask of Gentility may seem a bit redundant with Mind Mask. Be advised: Mask of Gentility is basically only there because it raises the sense motive DC to "get a hunch" which can otherwise make you suspicious even if players/NPCs aren't sure why.

Edit: Upon reflection, maybe it's worth putting in Practiced Manifester and Metamorphic Transfer to leverage the change shape from Cabinet Trickster? I'm not sure what options you'd have for humanoid forms with neat supernatural abilities. If there's cool stuff, try it out