Dwarven telepath build

Kyramus · Aug 30, 2002

welcome.

I'll be checking this on and off. I use psionics in the game but few use it as pc's so I end up making really tailored npc's.

Eventually If I ever become a player again, I will have to make a psion to fool around with.

This saturday's game may include a psy war opponent that is going to mess around with the pc's. He'll tackle them either from afar or invisibly and just keep stunning them with mind thrust. lol.

StalkingBlue · Aug 31, 2002

Here's my own 10th level plan.
Kyramus, I'm shamelessly stealing ideas from you. Only I count four feats at 10th level, not three, and I'm focussing her more narrowly on telepathic powers (I admit catfall and displacement are tempting and I may break down later and take displacement after all

)

Tiektorm Whitegranite, female gold dwarf Psi10 (telepath):

Str 10
Dex 10
Con 18
Int 14
Wis 10
Cha 20
(80 pt linear point buy, original stats before racial and level adjustments: Str 10, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 18)

Psionic combat: All 5 defenses; no attack modes (yet - but looking forward to Mind Blast at 11th level)

Power points: 70 = 43 + 27 (am I using the bonus power points table correctly here?)

Feats: Inertial Armor (1st level), Resculpt Mind (3rd - from web), Combat Manifestation (6th), Chain Link (9th - from web)
Bonus metapsionic feats (through resculpt mind feat) at 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th level - not necessarily in that order: Heighten Power, Hide Power (Vi), Quicken Power, Twin Power

Powers (6+d/3+d/2+d/2+d/1+d/d):
0 - befuddle (web), burst, daze, detect psionics, memory recall (web), missive, telempathic projection
1 - control light, disable, sense link, steadfast gaze
2 - brain lock, detect thoughts, sensitivity to psychic impressions
3 - crisis of breath, greater concussion, mindlink
4 - Inflict continual pain, mindwipe
5 - Greater domination

Comments?

Kyramus · Sep 1, 2002

I know i'm not perfect. (grins)

Ok. This looks great. and I have to brag. Just had a game and.... used 4 - level 1 psy warriors, and THEY took down a level 8 fighter (PC)!!!!!

Two died in the end when the other pc's arrived, and the first one was from the downed PC. They all used Mindthrust. hehehehe
God that was fun, stun. sleep poison. and Off they ran with his prized sword and his body and the rest of the pc's chased. lol.

Now back to the psion.

The reason I picked the powers was they still focus on your primary discipline and gives you some defensive capability. With your low dex, you definitely want something like displacement.

Your AC is going to be your main opponent, so focus on staying out of combat, EVEN if you have to fight after you move away. In some cases make sure you take a 5 foot step before you fire off your power.
DO NOT get cornered because then you can't manifest without being AoOed. you may have to do a concentration check if you are.

In the midst of this. you will want to do the most damage with lease amount of work. go with the domination as soona s you get it, when you take chain link that's when you can upgrade those powers.

ALSO look at the power chains, you will need to know which power to take so that when you get chain link, it just flows through. One of the few reasons why I would take chain link early, that way I can just upgrade the power whenever I get to the next power level.

Urbanmech · Sep 1, 2002

Do not ignore Psionic Focus and Greater Psionic Focus, most of your telepathy powers are save or nothing. +4 to the DC is a great bonus.

Don't take Inertial Armor when you can wear masterwork studded leather with no penalties. When you get higher level invest in a mithral chain shirt for the same AC bonus as Inertial Armor while saving you a precious feat.

Also don't bother with Combat Manifestation. Your exceptional Con score and maxed ranks in concentration should allow you to manifest on the defensive almost all the time.

Psychoanalyst and Psychic Inquisitor are great feats that will play to your stellar charisma skills. Maxed Diplomacy, Sense Motive and Bluff combine with these feats to let you talk your way through most difficult diplomatic situations. Sometimes they will even let you get by without using any mind controling powers.

Another good feat to take would be Psychic Meditation: Heart (I think?). It is posted on the WotC web site. It allows you to meditate for 10 minutes in the morning and gain some extra power points that can be used to manifest day long buffs on yourself. At higher levels a persistant Displacement without eating into your daily power point allotment is a good thing.

See if you can find "If Thoughts Could Kill," by Bruce Cordell. It has a lot of great alternate rules that really should be used to bring the base psion up in power.

My recomended Feats:
1: Psionic Focus: Telepathy
3: Resculpt Mind, Psychoanalyst
5: Psychic Inquisitor
6: Greater Psionic Focus: Telepathy
7:Heighten Power
9

sychic Meditation, Extend Power

(Quicken power and Chain power are a little expensive to take before 10th lv. Since your max metapsionic cap would be 9 at 10th, you could only quicken a 1st lv. power, or chain a 1st or 2nd)

StalkingBlue · Sep 1, 2002

Kyramus - who cares about perfect, as long as you are a genius!

Congrats on your psy war encounter. Sounds like you really had fun there. In my experience, players who play fighters tend to believe their characters are invincible ... until someone comes along to harp on their weak will save.
I'll confess that I'd heard so much about how weak psionic combat was I never had a closer look at it. Good to hear your NPCs went and took down a much higher-level PC, with his non-psionic buffer and all! I haven't yet introduced psionics in the campaign I run ... but that may change. Soon.

Regarding displacement, you have a strong point there. I sometimes love a character concept so much that I'm liable to forget about the survivability staples. However, with inertial armor I'll have the equivalent of mage armor up practically day and night, which should make me about as survivable as a wiz/sor (I think). True?

The chain of domination powers is high on my list of priorities.
If I want the whole benefit from resculpt mind, I'll have to take it at 3rd level. That means I won't be able to go for chain link before 6th level, but that will still be in time to drop lesser domination when I get access to domination at 8th.

StalkingBlue · Sep 1, 2002

UrbanMech -

Psions are not proficient with any type of armor. Rules-wise, I wouldn't exactly call the non-proficiency penalties "no penalty".
Roleplaying-wise, I frankly don't see a dwarf running around in armor with which she's not proficient. Especially not a dwarf.
I am planning on making her a dark type of personality, not someone clownesque.

Regarding Combat Manifestation you may have a point. Other than that, I'm afraid your feat plan wouldn't work, for one simple reason:
Resculpt mind will allow me to postpone psionic combat modes for metapsionic feats only.
Psychoanalyst is not a metapsionic feat. Neither is pychic inquisitor.

Caliber · Sep 1, 2002

But there actually are no penalties for lacking proficiency in several kinds of armor.

If a suit of armor lacks an Armor Check Penalty, the armor is so light and easy to wear, anyone can do so without hinderance. Nice eh?

Kyramus · Sep 3, 2002

Why thank you blue. (Smiles)

Let me know how things turn out, I'd like to know. Email me if you want. it's Kyramus@yahoo.com

Roland Delacroix · Sep 3, 2002

Zerovoid said:
And, Telepath's are way better than Savant's, Con bonus or no.

HA! I tried 5 levels as a Telepath. They are one of the weakest Psions, except when they break your game. You will face Undead, Plants, Oozes, Constructs, and more and be more worthless than a Wizard with no spellbook. At least his familiar can attack. And then on the first game of a new adventure you will read the 'right' guys mind and unravell the DM's long, intense adventure in 5 minuites and spend the rest of the nigh watching wrestling.

Other than that, a fun class to play. Heck, just playing a Charismatic dwarf would be fun

Torque · Sep 3, 2002

As a couple people have mentioned, Power Focus and Greater Power Focus are must-haves for you. Other than that, one power I'm surprised to see missing from the lists is Attraction. If you only read the 1-sentence blurb, it seems weak, but if you read the whole description, you will see that it has a lot of really nice advantages- it affects any living creature rather than just humanoids, it lasts an hour per level, and it lets you specify an object, person, place, action, or event that they will basically do anything non-suicidal for. This gives you an incredible amount of versatility when using it, depending on the situation.