A good psion?

[Aryes]

Has anyone come up with a psion of any type (egoist etc...) that is on par with a party of the equal level. I've been running one now to 4th level and am seriously left wanting as far as being even helpful in combat, and being that about half of my powers leave everyone in a 5' radius slimy ... I'm not so helpful in non-combat situations either. Has anyone made a good psion of ANY type that is useful in and out of combat?

 

[Roland Delacroix]

A good psion.....Uses ITCK

I made a great Telepath. Let me clarify, i made a telepath that didn't do ANYTHING for 4 games (against undead) before unraveling the whole plot on the 5th game by reading the right (or wrong in the DMs opinion) mind. Telepaths are the only good Psion IF they are in the right game. IE; few undead, constructs, slimes, etc.

Savants make decent, if not good, melee Psions, especially if they multi-class to get armor profs, weapon profs, and a BAB up to the point they can make 3 attacks eventually. They can compensate for thier low BAB with an Empowered Animal Affinity crystal and low HP with a very high Constitution.

Of course ANY psion becomes very playable with Bruce Cordells fixes in If Thoughts Could Kill (ITCK). They all get more PP, stats dependency is less of a problem, and there are a slew of 'new' powers, really some arcane ones converted. If you play a psion, you must get this IMO. BTW it was written by Bruce Cordell, the guy who wrote the PsiHB so I can't see any DM you would want to play with not allowing it.

Everyone agrees that displays as written suck, eratta has them only lasting during casting just like a mage. And every DM ive read here allows players to customize displays.

Psi combat still blows, everyone agrees about that. Some house fixes are adding a Mental Attack Bonus, but most people just take the Resculpt Mind feat and forget about it.

 

[Psifon]

We have a guy in our group who is doing pretty well with his 3rd level psion. He has the type that uses the metacreative powers. He keeps summoning up creatures in combat, so we always have a bunch of little meat shields running around. It is not very sexy, but he is quite effective. He will either plug holes in our battle lines or put his "gremlins" behind enemy lines to provide flanking bonuses.

It is always good to have cannon fodder to absorb attacks. Also he uses daze to great effect (or am I thinking of his sorcerer character...?)

 

[Galfridus]

There's a savant in my campaign who was doing quite well even before we applied the ITCK changes. I allowed custom displays, but if I hadn't it just would have annoying, not less powerful.

His high CON gives him decent hit points, and he wears a chain shirt because he doesn't really care about the to hit penalty for not being proficient. He's used several powers to good effect: Mind Blast, Control Body, Concussion, Lesser Body Adjustment. He's as effective as anyone else in the group, and has put an abrupt end to more than one encounter with Mind Blast and Control Body.

I would definitely suggest the ITCK variant psion: it's balanced and a great improvement.

 

[Gaiden]

What is the ITCK variant and where can I find it?

 

[Bob5th]

Call me stupid if you want but where can I get this ITCK?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

ITCK

Get it from MonteCook.com. I STRONGLY suggest buying it ($5, requires credit card), but I wouldn't use all those spell-to-power conversions.

 

[Archer]

Con psions and str psions can be really tough. There are ton of things you can do to a grafted weapon. Just graft a feeder weapon and you are set for life. You'll have a replenishing supply of PSPs and do 100 damage on good hits. Duodimensional a x4 crit weapon for a 17-20 crit range and you are doing astronomic damage.

 

[Dark Psion]

Ahh Young Psions seeking knowledge, Ok here goes;

If you want ITCK and can't wait for the latest news on the next Malhavoc projects,
(Think Masters of the Wild or Sword and Fist)
Go to;
http://www.montecook.com/
or their psionic boards here
http://pub58.ezboard.com/fokayyourturnfrm18

Bruce Cordell's site is here
http://www.geocities.com/laotse9000/

If you want powers, Prestige classes, and feats go to RPGCosmos
http://www.rpgcosmos.com/

If you need even more powers try the Burnt world of Athas
http://www.athas.org/

If you need enemies, try The Illithid Empire
http://www.geocities.com/wizbane75/IllithidEmpireCampaign/IECIndex.html

If you want to fix psionic combat try Time Waster's site
http://www.geocities.com/zyxabc2001au/pdf.htm

And of course last, but not least Wizard's psionic boards
http://boards.wizards.com/rpg-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=123&DaysPrune=20
And the Mind's Eye psionic section at Wizards
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article1.asp?x=dnd/psi/welcome,3

 

[Archer]

Man, that ECL calculator on RPG Cosmos is crazy. It says you can have a large creature with a 10' reach, +18 str and +10 con and 60' darkvision for only +3 ECL. You could have a rocking psion with those stats. (or any fighter class) You can have +40 cha as a 0.0 ECL creature if you give up your extra feat and extra skill point per level as a human.

The concept of posting new psionic powers and people voting on their balance it pretty neat though.