Psionic Warlock? (3.5)

[AtwasAwamps]

I have been wondering if dipping into a psionic class would be a good idea for a glaivelock. Specifically, I had in mind the Psychic Warrior and Warmind classes. I came up with a fluff for the idea I’m enjoying and want to see if its vaguely workable.

Fluff: A psychic warrior devoted to seeking perfection in combat, delving too far in his searches and binding himself to a dark entity in search of more power. Struggling with the dichotomy of his PsyWar training (focus, discipline, and the power of the mind) and the sheer power offered to him (by warlock training…unadulterated power, with no discipline whatsoever), he continues to seek perfection in the art of combat. He realizes that the fell power he has bonded with is not the correct route and seeks to wrench himself free of his reliance on his dark ally. In the process, he stumbles upon a reclusive warmind who takes the obviously troubled and talented soul in, helping him re-establish the absolute value of discipline and training in his quest. Mastering himself once again, the psychic warrior sees the fell power he was granted as now just another weapon to train himself in and, with thanks to the teacher that saved his sanity, embarks to continue his journey towards perfection.

The Crunch: Human. Build would be something like PsyWar X/Warlock X/ Warmind X. I’d like to have enough levels in PsyWar to manifest hustle, enough levels in warlock to utilize fell flight and have at least a 3d6 eldritch blast, and then warmind for the rest. I’ll deal with the alignment changes via fluff. Secretly, I would like to slip enlightened spirit (the redeemed warlock-themed class) into my build (only one or two levels, perhaps…I forget what EB progression is exactly and am away from my books), but realize that is probably impossible and spreading myself too thin.

I would focus on strength/wis, with dex/con as my secondary stats, possibly just going str/con if my rolls are high enough and I can at least net a few extra power points for additional hustle uses with a leftoever high wis score or something. The obvious goal would be to grant myself the ability to make as many full attacks utilizing eldritch glaive as much as possible. I would avoid the various EB riders that rely on CHA to reduce the need for CHA at all in the build and avoiding to much MADness, basically focusing on making heavy power attacks with my mid-BAB against touch attacks.

Does this sound at all viable, or is it simply too complicated? Note that I have read the glaivelock handbook and it doesn’t really help me much in this particular case…I have an idea of what I want my lock to be able to do, but no clear concept of whether or not Psionics really fits in here.

I would personally like to avoid ToB as my current group has had bad experiences with power gamers using it and I don’t think they’d appreciate more of it.

Key Build Feats/Powers IMO:

Powers: Hustle
Feats: Power Attack, Quicken Spell Like Ability, Able Learner (Human)
Invocations: Eldritch Glaive
What I’m looking for:

Suggestions to make the concept of a psionic glaivelock interesting/fun/powerful (any or all of the three)…what feats and powers I should be looking at, if you expect this to work out at all, where my truly glaring weaknesses are, etc.

Thanks for your help, playgrounders!

[Keld Denar]

Classes that give +1 Arcane Spellcaster Levels advance EB damage AND Invocations. Cerbromancer advances a Psionic class and an Arcane class.

Thus, you could build like:

PsyWar2/Warlock4/Warmind4/Cerbromancer10 or something.

Maybe Ardent instead?

BAB is gonna be an issue, unfortunately, so you might look into UMDing an item with Divine Power for really tough battles.

[Tokiko Mima]

Classes that give +1 Arcane Spellcaster Levels advance EB damage AND Invocations. Cerbromancer advances a Psionic class and an Arcane class.

Thus, you could build like:

PsyWar2/Warlock4/Warmind4/Cerbromancer10 or something.

Maybe Ardent instead?

BAB is gonna be an issue, unfortunately, so you might look into UMDing an item with Divine Power for really tough battles.

The only problem is that (rather annoyingly) Warlock doesn't count for any 'Able to cast Xnd level spells' requirements, which is something Cerebremancer requires.

However, if you're going the Psionic route with Warlock, Psionic Shot and Greater Psionic Shot make decent options to increase your ranged damage. Won't work with the Glaive, though.

PsiWar is full of nice powers you can stack with Eldritch Glaive, though. Don't give up! Here's a helpful mini-guide to Glaivelocks: http://community.wizards.com/go/thre...-_A_Mini-Guide

The only suggested build I can see there that might interest you is this one.

Human Warlock 1/Fighter 2/Psychic Warrior 1/Crusader 1/Warmind 10/Fighter 4/Crusader 1
Aberration Blood (human), Inhuman Reach (1st), Power Attack (Fighter 1), Combat Reflexes (Fighter 2), Improved Bull Rush (3rd), Knockback (Psychic Warrior 1), XXXX (6th), XXXX (9th), XXXX (12th), XXXX (15th), XXXX (Fighter 4), XXXX (18th).

This is a fun dungeon crasher variant. The character utilizes the 2nd and 6th level Dungeon Crasher abilities (substitution levels from Dungeonscape) in combination with the Expansion psionic power, allowing him to utilize the Knockback feat to smash enemies back in combat. Since all of his glaive attacks are touch attacks, the character can not only boost his damage with Power Attack, but also boost his bull rush check by the same amount as his damage. Moreover, should he bull rush an opponent into a wall (which he can do multiple times if the enemy is up against a wall and he’s close enough to make multiple attacks), that enemy will take 6d6+3xStr mod damage from bouncing off the wall. With the two levels of Crusader, the character can also grab the Thicket of Blades stance to make even 5 foot steps provoke Aoos, or alternatively pick up Aura of Triumph to make each attack heal 4 HP. If you really want to make this unfair, grab Expanded Knowledge - Metamorphosis and transform into something silly - like a War Troll, for instance.

[Krazddndfreek]

Alternatively, I think someone on these boards made a psionic warlock on these forums. Witchblade I think it was called, lemme see if I can't dig it up.

EDIT: Nevermind, someone simply mentioned they made a homebrew feat that worked sort of like the Ascetic or Devoted feats, but for Soulknife/Warlock progression instead.

[erikun]

Why Psychic Warrior when you're just switching to Warmind? The two have the same power list, and Warmind has faster progression. Just getting the Wild Talent feat might get you into the class faster.

Also, Mindscourge Homebrew, with extra stuff.

[Pluto]

Why Psychic Warrior when you're just switching to Warmind? The two have the same power list, and Warmind has faster progression. Just getting the Wild Talent feat might get you into the class faster.

Psychic Warrior's good for Warmind entry for a couple reasons:
1. PP pools are shared. If you've ever played a Psychic Warrior, you know how important any extra PP is.
2. Knowledge (Psionics) isn't common.
3. Every build can use more feats. It's better to come out one ahead with Psychic Warrior than one behind with Wild Talent.
4. Theme shifts are awkward. I know this is just personal preferance, but If I can start level 1 with weak versions of all my later level abilities, I will. Levels like Ranger 4 are awkward to RP.

[AtwasAwamps]

Hrmm…Actually, the hidden/wild talent is an idea I hadn’t thought about…which would allow me to squeeze in

So let’s try something like this:

Warlock 5

1: Human Feat: Able Learner
Level 1 Feat: Hidden Talent (or Wild Talent if the DM said no) Hidden Talent Power: Expansion

3: Level 3 Feat: Quicken Spell Like Ability (Question: What book is this in? I seem to recall two versions, one that require me to have a higher caster level and one that doesn’t. If I can’t use this effectively for my purposes (Glaive acts as a second level spell, which would require me to have a caster level of something like 12 for quicken), then this feat would be combat reflexes.

Enlightened Soul 3

6: Level 6 Feat: Power Attack


Warmind X

I know that generally Enlightened Soul isn’t very impressive, but it fits this character’s fluff and would grant me a 4d6 eldritch blast with ghost touch. Grabbing Hidden Talent would give me early access to Expansion, making Eldritch Glaive very useful, since growing using it would be incredibly useful for Eldritch Glaive. Early on as level 2 as a warlock, I could use Eldritch Glaive to hit a reach of 20 squares, which just sounds fun. I’d function basically as a warlock until Level 8, utilizing glaivelock tactics and taking advantage of expansion for large fights. I’d be splitting a lot of skill points between Knowledge: Plains and Knowledge: Psionics, but as a human I’d have the points to do so. Essentially I can dump each of my extra points into Knowledge Psionics every level, so that by level 8 I have the required skill ranks for warmind.

[Tokiko Mima]

The original Quicken SLA is in MM1, and it's updated in MM3 to reflect the addition of swift/immediate actions.

Remember that Eldritch Blast counts as a first level ability (per the Complete Arcane errata) so you don't have to use that Caster level/2 formula printed in the book to compute your feat qualifications. Unfortunately, that still means you can't really take Quicken SLA before level 10 or so, unless you use some trick to increase your caster level. At least it's possible, though.

You're probably sold on Enlightened Spirit (remember, no invocation progression!) but a way I like to smack high miss chance critters around with a Glaive is to take two levels of Incarnate and bind a Crystal Helm to your crown chakra. It's special ability makes all your melee attacks deal force damage, so your Glaive ignores incorporeal and most miss chances and hits ethereal and blinking foes too.

[AtwasAwamps]

The original Quicken SLA is in MM1, and it's updated in MM3 to reflect the addition of swift/immediate actions.

Remember that Eldritch Blast counts as a first level ability (per the Complete Arcane errata)

Does this count for Eldritch Blast with the Eldritch Glaive shape? I believe EG bumps it up to 2nd Level.