Astral Construct, Holy Moley

[Kaji]

I was looking at the Astral Constucts in Psionic Handbook and Wow! are they cool. They have great flexibilty, which you can change from casting to casting, and they are much cooler than Monster Summon or Nature's Ally as far as I can tell. Has anyone played these bad boys? I'd like to hear some feedback if they worked out as well as I think they might. They would go into a MetaCreative character I'm working on with Augment Construct and Upgrade Power, and one other feat I forget that also buffs your Astral Construct. Thanks in advance.

 

[chilibean]

Our DM created an NPC that was a specialist in creating these things. He could wipe the floor with any 5 PC's of his own level. Unless he lost init that is. Then he'd be toast.

But given init he could take virtually anything solo. They are seriously overpowered and unbalancing IMO for a PC. Since it was an NPC in our campaign it didn't get out of hand too much, but while that NPC was along, the entire rest of the party wasn't really needed.

 

[Geoff Watson]

They can dish out the damage, but are no where near as versatile as Summon Monster, which can get you a wide variety of spell-like abilities, as well as kick-ass combatants.

Geoff.