Wilder efficiency vs/level [3.5]

[gomipile]

At low levels the Wilder's Wild Surge gives a pretty good power point efficiency boost, but at high levels, this efficiency disappears even when using low-level powers.

For example, at level 1, the wilder gets a free power point from each use of wild surge, at a 5% risk of losing 1 power point to psychic enervation. This gives the wilder an average (+1-1*.05), equal to .95, free power points per use of wild surge.

At level 20, the wilder gets (+1-20*.05), equal to 0, free power points per level of wild surge used on a power.

The idea of extra efficiency in exchange for the risk of being stunned is one of the things that excited me about the wilder class when I first read about it, until I realized that the efficiency disappears completely at level 20.

Would it make sense to houserule psychic enervation so that it only costs you as many power points as you actually spent on the power? That way for powerful uses of a power, where you are spending 20 points, the situation would be the same as it is now. However, if you only spend 1 point on a power, you get an average of (+6-1*.30) or 5.7 free power points.

Since the wilder is alreafy considered a tier lower than the psion due to reduced versatility, I was wondering if this adjustment would be considered overpowered or balanced in general.

[Ernir]

Wilders should sit in the same power tier as Psions, they share the power list, and the manifestation mechanics. Their limitations (much fewer powers known, no bonus feats, no discipline access out of the box) would place them at a much lower place within that tier, but still within the same one.

Anyway - I don't think an houserule along these lines would be unreasonable.

[Optimystik]

The PP loss isn't really what hurts the Wilder - after all, when Wild Surge works, it pays for your augmentations for free, and it will work most of the time even if you full bore Wild Surge every time (which you shouldn't; +2-3 is really as high as you need to go for most manifestations, for only 15% chance.) So in the long run, your PP expenditure should even out vs. a Psion even if you Enervate a couple of times in a given day.

What hurts more is the daze that goes with it - for the caster, actions are life, and losing them means you're dead weight.

To answer your question - no, I don't think your fix would be overpowered if you're already stacking Wilder up against tier 2 classes. I don't think it's needed, but it wouldn't really break anything.

If you don't mind 3rd party, Untapped Potential's Wilder is much better. Flat 15% chance to enervate, always surges at maximum value, and you get a scary supernova capstone for emergencies. (There are other minor improvements as well, such as Elude Attack vs. Elude Touch.)