Up the Walls and Psionic Charge: good uses?

[Elric]

I designed an 8th level psychic warrior recently who has the feats Speed of Thought, Psionic Charge and Up the Walls. I think I was inspired by The Matrix. However, I am not sure what these feats are good for. They don't seem very useful in general, especially for a character with a high tumble skill. Has anyone found good uses for these feats? They seem so cool that they must be good for something.

With Burst, he can run up a 100 ft tower... If there are a bunch of obstacles (like crates), he can still charge around them. Help appreciated!

 

[Blockader7]

Speed Of Thought adds 10ft to your character's base speed each time this feat is taken as long as you have the reserve power points. This means if taken once you'll have a base speed of 40 ft insteand of 30ft. Speed can be important when trying to get out of combat and running away. If enough are taken you won't need a horse for long distance travel.
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Psionic Charge you can change directions up to 90 degrees a number of times equal to your dex modifier. So if it's +3 you can change directions 3 times. This will be of benefit during a charge since in a charge if you change directions once you lose the momentum and won't do as much damage as when you first started.

Up the walls can be sueful for a number of situations. Such as climbing out of traps, or getting over some traps, reaching opponents that can spider climb and the like, or help you to get behind an opponent in a confined place so you can have an ally in front and you in back, or vice versa depending on how things work out which means one of you will be getting an AOO.

 

[drnuncheon]

Up the walls can be sueful for a number of situations. Such as climbing out of traps, or getting over some traps, reaching opponents that can spider climb and the like, or help you to get behind an opponent in a confined place so you can have an ally in front and you in back, or vice versa depending on how things work out which means one of you will be getting an AOO.

In conjunction with Spring Attack, you can use it to get the "higher ground" modifier.

Some DMs might give you surprise bonuses to attacks if they come from unexpected places.

J

 

[Spatzimaus]

First, you need to add the final Feat to the chain: Run on Air, from the Mind's Eye.

Anyhoo, I play a Psychic Warrior who has Speed of Thought and Psionic Charge. I didn't bother with Up the Walls since I can Dimension Door. It's a very useful combo, because in the simplest terms it lets me say "I want to go THERE" and not worry about the exact path. Since I use the Glaive-Combat Reflexes-Stand Still combo, that's a really useful ability to have.

In general, I've found that it only works well if your DM uses a detailed map and miniatures and spends the time to add environmental things like rubble or other obstructions. If he takes a more generic approach to combat ("They're about 50 feet away from you.") then it's not very useful.

 

[DM_Matt]

Won;t really high jump and tumble scores, along with mental leap, make Up the Walls a lot less useful?

 

[Cyrik Skylark]

Funny thing, I'm actually playing one of these - Speed of Thought, Psionic Charge, Up the Walls. Next, add in Boots of Springing and Striding - if they stack with Speed of Thought (not sure there), you'll have a base speed of 80. Now, you don't need to worry about getting anywhere. Throw in maxed-out tumble, maxed-out jump, and you can duplicate D-door without the need to actually have the power.

It's not really that useful in combat, though - I think I've actually used it once, and then only because I wasn't remembering to use my Tumble. I've never used Psionic Charge, either. It's more of a utility ability than anything else - don't need to worry about rope or anything like it, as long as the drop off is less than 4x movement.

Now, if you add in the Spring Attack chain... you've suddenly got some options. You become the expert of charging in, plinking them for a piddly amount of damage, and getting out. You could also be a useful utility person - run in, give potion, run out. Or, run in, grab nearly dead party member, run out. Just don't expect to be a tank. More like a guerilla fighter. Maybe multiclass later, get some levels of rogue for sneak attack purposes...

Also, as others have suggested, try seeing whether your DM would grant you attack/damage bonuses for the fact that you're doing something extremely unexpected, as well as striking from higher ground and all that stuff. Might not work, but could be worth a shot.

 

[the Jester]

Angelfire, one of the pcs in my campaign, uses Up the Walls all the time to get at enemies on ledges, to run up or down otherwise dangerous slopes, etc. You can check out my Agents of Chaos story hour for examples if you're interested- they're in there somewhere.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

I have a psychic warrior with the Up The Walls chain, the Spring Attack chain, and Dimension Door as a power. He basically goes wherever he wants to. I don't really think the powers overlap that much. You move normally if that will get you by, and dimension door if you really need to.

I don't get a chance to play the guy much, but I did use dimension door once to grab the wizard and 'port him out of danger when he got low on hp.