[3.5] Psionic Question

[Crow]

My question is in reference to the Solicit Psicrystal power and Control Body.

By my reading, a Psion could use Control Body on herself, and have their Psicrystal take over the duty of concentrating to maintain Control Body. The Psion would still be able to perform purely mental actions like manifesting powers, while his body could be directed to make full-attacks, charges, or whatever.

Is this right?

[sonofzeal]

For 1 round/level (plus possible augments), yes. Not too shabby, but not really gamebreaking either. Still, nice find!

[Flickerdart]

Nice trick, actually. Add Swashbuckler 3 and you have a decent Int-based gish.

[pyrefiend]

Wow, that is a cool trick. You would actually be much better off fighting this way, since you get your Int to attack and damage with Control Body. Nice find.

[Lycanthromancer]

It is a good trick (one that's been known for awhile, though kudos on finding it yourself), though you should be careful about how you apply it.

After all, manifesting whilst fighting is a sure way to provoke AoOs, and you'll have to make Concentration checks due to having your body doing its own thing while you're doing something else (see here for details).

Not to mention that psions tend to be a bit squishy without decently heavy optimization (though it's quite possible to have a much higher AC and far more HP than the party's barbarian, if you want it, d4 HD or no).

[Crow]

Not to mention that psions tend to be a bit squishy without decently heavy optimization (though it's quite possible to have a much higher AC and far more HP than the party's barbarian, if you want it, d4 HD or no).

Tell me more. I only have SRD though.

[Emperor Tippy]

Tell me more. I only have SRD though.

Well just be an Elan. With Improved Resilience you can reduce damage you take at a 1 PP per 4 points ratio. And with say 400 PP (reasonable at level 20) that is 1,600 HP in effect.

As for AC, a fully augmented Inertial Armor at level 20 can get you an AC of +14.

[Lycanthromancer]

A lot of it depends on what kind of character you want, what sources are allowed, and what the level spread is.

And a lot of it has to do with thinking outside the box and clever use of abilities. Much like using control body as a buff, rather than offensively.

As for hp, get a psicrystal and share both share pain and vigor with it. You'll get +5 temp hp per pp spent on vigor (an even better rate of return than elan + a feat, but the trick is that you have to have the power up before you take damage), and all of your hp are essentially doubled (including temp hp). This means you basically get 2d4 + 2(Con) + 10 hp/lvl. Potentially much more than even a raging barbarian gets. If you add in the Psionic Body feat, that's an additional +4 hp per psionic feat. Given that psionicists can boost their Con in a few ways (see: animal affinity and metamorphosis - which isn't affected by polymorph or wildshape errata), this can get rather absurd rather quickly.

As for AC, inertial armor + a good Wis + a monk's belt + control body and/or metamorphosis (with some +1 mithral chain with some really nice special qualities, just in case) can get you a competitive AC at pretty much any level without a huge investment in time, money, or other expendable resources. This is helped along by considerable mobility (such as flight or burrowing when appropriate), miss chances (such as concealing amorpha), and various supernatural abilities granted by the Metamorphic Transfer feat (see: pixies), you can manage to rarely get hit if you try hard.

What's really cool is if you use your psicrystal as your primary combatant, while his 'master' hangs back to buff it from afar (or in a haversack, or behind a wall). Generally it's something you'd only really want to do at mid-to-late levels, since you'll want the Channel Powers ability, though you can get it early via taking lots of Improved Psicrystal feats (as early as level 10 - or level 8, with 2 flaws and the human/strongheart halfling bonus feat). In addition, RAW, your psicrystal gets feats of its own, and has medium BAB based on its construct HD, so it'll be a better melee combatant than you are anyway. Not to mention that it keeps its psicrystal granted abilities while metamorphosis'd (see: hydra with Evasion, telepathy, telepathic sight within 40 ft, additional natural armor, and a 50 ft fly speed), and it can take construct forms if you're fighting against, say, undead. It also qualifies for both the Mindsight feat (from Lords of Madness) and Lifesense (from Libris Mortis). It'll be damned near impossible to sneak up on this thing.

Plus, psionic manifesters are the only ones who can make use of the Suppression weapon quality (ie, a fully-augmented dispel psionics on Every. Single. Hit.).

Amongst other things.