Li: Psychic vs. Psychic Warrior

[Macbeth]

Okay, my thoughts on converting Li to a Psychic:

Character Design: The Psychic much better fits my vision for Li: I can easily keep a steady advancement in psychic skills in the background while adding levels of Samurai. I think the Psychic is a much better fit, character wise.

Changes: If Li did change to a Psychic, he would replace his one level of Psychic warrior with one level of psychic, which would change:
Skills - of course, Li would now have some psychic skills)

Feats - Li would lose either Inertial Armor or Dodge, but he could theortically take whatever he lost again at 3rd level.

Saves - Fort gets worse, Will gets better. not a huge change.


Inertial Armor: There is no paralell feat to Inertial Armor. This would seriously change Li. So I would like to propose a replacement. it is worth noting first that Inertial Armor requires at least 1 power point in reserve. With Li's 3 free mainfestations and 2 power points it is extremely unlikely that Li would ever lose his Inertial Armor unless he was deprived of rest for quite a long time, or he started manifesting powers MUCH more often.

Inertial Armor(Psychic)

While you have Nonlethal damage at least 2 points less than your current HP, this feat acts exactly like Inertial Armor.

This has roughly the same effect. I chose 2 strain since that is the strain to use the Telekinetic sheild power, which has the same effect as INertial Armor. In all likelyhood, the new feat is actually weaker in Li's case, since he has yet to loose his Inertial armor, sine he rarely uses powers more then once a day (or session, for that matter). Really, the feat could be usable as long as the character is conscious, and it would still have the same effect. I think the conversion of Li to a Psychic hinges on finding some feat that grants roughly the same effect as Inertial armor.


In Game Rational: I think that, in game, we could rationaliz the change in Li's powers by his trip into the dreamworld. the trip into the subconscious altered the nature of Li's mind, and now his powers are somehow... different.

So bascially, I think the conversion boils down to finding a equivalent to Inertial Armor. If we can find a feat with the same effect, Li will proabably switch to Pyschic, if not, He'll stay a Psychic Warrior.

 

[BSF]

OK, let's see, the PsiWar gets a bonus feat at 1st level as does the Psychic. So, you shouldn't have a problem with holding on to Dodge. They key is that Inertial armor feat.

As you mentioned, there is a psuedo-equivelant on the Psychics Handbook. The Psychokenesis Feat and Telekinetic Shield as a skill.
The disadvantages
- Telekinetic Shield is not "always on".
- Telekinetic Shield activation is a move action
- The bonus is dependent on your skill check and it is difficult to get the +4 benefit at low level.
- It uses strain, which is a little less appealing just before combat.

The advantages
- It is possible to get a +2 without too much difficulty, and at high levels you can get a +8.
- It is a deflection bonus, which stacks with armor, including mage armor and bracers of armor.

It's a tough call to decide on that. Inertial armor is much more appealing on just these grounds. Hence, the desire for a equivelant feat.

However, there is the whole slew of powers that are opened up with Psychokenesis. Including Telekinetic Grip, Telekinetic Blast (which is a force affect), Telekinesis (including the ability to fly later on), Pyrokinesis, Photokinesis, Electrokinesis, and Cyrokinesis. All sorts of wacky wuxia style action could be possible. With 4 more skill points/level, and skills that complement the Samurai, there might be better synergy going on there.

Because of all of that, I am not sure that the cost of 2 hp in "reserve" is an equivelant cost to the Telekinetic Shield skill. In a higher level campaing, I wouldn't have problems creating some stepping stone feats to get to the same point, but that isn't quite what you are looking for. Creating an Inertial Armor type feat really eliminates the Telekinetic Shield skill. Maye this is balanced by not having Psychokinesis? I will have to think about it.

Another big question comes down to your proficiency with the Nagamaki. At first level, you would not have been proficient. However, I am not that interested in justifying history. Li would have been proficient (and then focused) when he gained Samurai levels. We can easily handwave the history. As a result, I am also not that interested in worrying about a rationalization for the change either.

Hmm, it is an interesting discussion. Aside from Inertial Armor, the Psychic class would complement the Samurai a bit better. The Samurai HD would help reduce the affect of Strain, when Li chose to use Psychic Abilities. Telekinetic Blast is a Force affect, which can affect noncorporeal creatures. Taking something like Energy Shield, and then having a slightly better Fort save from the Samurai levels is quite an interesting concept. Going with Psychometabolism to control your body could be an interesting mystic feel. Hmm, as I said, I need to think about the implications of creating an Inertial Armor style feat. Maybe it wouldn't be that unbalanced because anyone taking it would still not have access to the entire Psychokinesis school.

 

[Macbeth]

Well, the more I think about it, the better it might be to just go with the Psychokinesis feat. Sure, Li would have to start wearing armor or ALWAYS use the Telekinetic Shield, but it becomes really hard to rationalize a +4 to AC without the power point reserve requirement. If you can think of anyway to create a new Inertial Armor type feat, that would be great, because I would like to keep Li unarmored, but I can't count on always being able to use Telekinetic Sheild.

As for the weapon proficiency: yeah I had noticed that too, but since in the long term it makes no difference, I didn't note it. Since Li isn't going back to first level, he'll still have th exatc same proficiency in the Nagamaki.

As for dodge: I just realized that Li never got his feat for being human! basically, he has 1 fewer feats then he should! So keeping Dodge, an Inertial Armor-type feat, and the Pyschic Ability and Bonus Psychic feat of the Psychic should work fine, if we find an Inertial Armor equivalent.

I think my decision to convert Li still boils down to finding an equivalent for Inertial Armor. I can see two options:

(1)No Inertial Armor Conversion
If Li can't stay at his current AC while unarmored, he'll stay Psyhic Warrior, probably use his forgotten Human feat to pick up Psychic ability, and his 3rd level feat for One of the Psychic feats. So even if he doesn't convert, Li will probably stop progessing in Psychic Warrior, instead using Psychic skills to reflect Psychic prowess. The only problem about doing it that way is that Li will always have Psychic skills as cross-class skills.

(2)Inertial Armor Conversion
We find a new feat that providea +4 AC continuously as long as some condition is met, that gives protection roughy the same part of the time as Inertial Armor (i.e. Almost all the time). Then, Li's level of Psychic Warrior will be replaced by a level of Psychic. Just as justification, to keep the same proficiencies at the same levels, we can say that Li took a Samurai level first, meaning he would be proficient in the nagamaki.

 

[Macbeth]

Actually, I think I have a better solution: Li takes his 3rd level as a Psychic.

Upsides:
- As a human, Li's highest class level does not count for multiclassing. Since Li will not be increasing his Psychis Warrior or Psychic levels again, Li will not take the multiclassing penalty.
- We already decided Li could take levels in another class and then return to the Samurai class, so Li could get the Psychic skills of the Psychic, then return to Samurai for the near future.
- No retroactive changes!
- Keeps Inertial Armor, and in the future he will be able to continue to develop Psychic skills.

Downsides:
- Li will be w third level character with levels in three different classes, which seems a bit scattered. Not a huge problem, but it makes it seem like he lacks focus.
- Li will be further delayed in Samurai levels.
- Li will not get any BAB increase. He'll be a 3rd level combat centric character with only a +1 BAB. Not a huge problem, I can deal with it, but he will be alittle weak in combat.


Really, I think this is the best option: Li keeps Inertial Armor, we have no retroactive changes, and Li's further development of mental prowess can be reflected by Psychic skills instead of Psychic Warrior levels.

 

[BSF]

I was thinking about it at lunch. I'm willing to give an Inertial Armor style psychic feat a try. We will leave it as an armor bonus so it doesn't stack with other types of armor. Let's give it a constant 2 subdual cost (essentially constant strain). It will be a seperate feat. I'll try to write it up tonight.

I'll leave it up to you if you want to triple class with Psi-War, Psychic & Samurai, or if you want to swap out the Psi-War for Psychic.

Though, if you decide to swap out, I would just as soon see you take Psychic as the 1st level class. It would drop your HP, but it really fits well with your background. As well, it positions you much better to multi-class since you get the bonus skills at 1st level. Don't worry about the Nagamaki proficiency, you would get that as a Samurai. We will consider the "Psychic Armor" to be your bonus Psychic feat and you will still have your bonus human feat to allocate as any feat you want. If you do that, then your 3rd level class could be Samurai, or Psychic and you would still get a BAB increase.

Give it some thought and see what path you like best.

 

[Macbeth]

Lets see how your version of Inertial Armor turns out. I like the idea of a constant 2 strain, I asumme by this you mean Li will effectively always have 2 Nonlethal damage as long as the Armor is "on." Makes sense, and makes Just swapping Pychic for Psychic Warrior much more appealing. I've already started working out his stats as Psychic Warrior 1/Samurai 1/Psychic 1, and I think I'll stat him out as Psychic 1/Samurai 2, compare them, and decide by Friday. I assume we've had enough down time that Li can jump right in at 3rd level, since everybody else leveled up.

Something of note: I think the first level Bonus Psychic feat for the psychic is ment to be a Psychic talent feat. Remember, to gain ranks in any Psyhic skill you need both the Psychic Ability feat (granted at first level by the Psychic) and one of the "Talent feats." If Li did convert, I would use his first level human feat to buy a Psychic talent feat anyway, since I want Li to be able to do more then just have his Inertial Armor.

If I do take the Psychic swap, I'll definately take Psychic as my first level: Tons of skill points, and from then on he can always buy ranks in Psychic skills as class skills. (I double checked the PHB, and, indeed, any skill that is a class skill for one of the character's classes is Always a class skill.)

 

[BSF]

To replace Inertial Armor ...

Preemptive Defense
Prerequisites: Psychic Ability, Wis 13+

Benefit: The Pyschic's mind subconsciously projects a protective field of force around the character by tapping into the base instincts for self-preservation. A character with Preemptive Defense receives a +4 armor bonus. The armor provided is composed of psychokinetc force and cannot be bypassed by incorporeal creatures. Preemptive Defense causes constant 2 point strain, but can be shutdown as a standard action. Subdual damage from strain is recovered normally if Preemptive Defense is inactive. Preemptive Defense does not incur any movement or armor penalties, nor does it stack with other armor bonuses.