Raising Manifester Level [3.5]

[Heliomance]

There are many threads on how to maximise your caster level, but manifester level seems to get left out in the cold. What ways are there to raise it, preferably with minimum investment?

[AmberVael]

The Overchannel feat is usually easiest, preferably paired with Talented.
Practiced Manifester can also be worthwhile if you're not a full manifester.

[Heliomance]

I'm mainly asking because, per the SRD, your bonus power points/day is based on your manifester level. So a higher manifester level=more power points.

[Starbuck_II]

I'm mainly asking because, per the SRD, your bonus power points/day is based on your manifester level. So a higher manifester level=more power points.

Some manifester increases like Overchannel don't grant additional power points.
But some do.

[AmberVael]

I'm mainly asking because, per the SRD, your bonus power points/day is based on your manifester level. So a higher manifester level=more power points.

Oh.
Well if all you want is bonus power points, you should focus on increasing your main manifester ability instead. It is more efficient for two reasons:

1) Increasing ability scores is relatively easy in comparison to manifester level (and cheaper when magic items are brought in).
2) Manifester level scales more quickly than your ability modifier will, meaning that if the options were even, it would be more advantageous to increase the ability score (as manifester level is equally important as the modifier- you want the two numbers to be as close as possible to achieve maximum benefit).

Once you have exhausted all the even relatively expensive ways to increase ability score, then you should look to increasing manifester level (assuming all you want is extra power points).

[Lycanthromancer]

Increasing ML also has the effect of allowing you to access augmentation sooner. It also nets you additional powers known in the case of ardents, and allows you to cast higher level powers for erudites.

There are a few ways, including Overchannel and wild surge (including anarchic initiate; great for gestalting), orange ioun stones and (possibly) torcs of power preservation. There's also incarnum shenanigans and Earth Power if all you want is to access higher level augmentations more quickly.

[Stegyre]

Obligatory, self-referential link.