Advice: Psi Lvl 1&2

[not_me]

Creating a character for a new campaign, and if the first session was any indication, there will be plenty of action. So, I'm thinking of what powers to take for the first couple of levels of Psion. The character isn't seen as a front-line-type person, and will be a kineticist.

Level 1, the for-sure taking would be:

Mind Thrust
Entangle

The former scales well, the latter seems useful at higher levels as well.

For the second level, I'm thinking definitively Vigour.

That leaves 2 powers (one at first, one at 2nd) to choose -- and am looking for suggestions. With Mind Thrust, it seems like chosing another damage power would be somewhat superfluous (especially Energy Ray, given Energy Missile @ 3rd). If Matter Agitation was augmentable, it would be nice as a way to target spellcasters (a la Acid Arrow), but I fear would cease to be useful after a few levels. Not being a front-line person makes the AC/Combat powers a bit less useful. That seems to leave mainly utility ones: catfall, synesthete, call to mind... maybe telempathic projection and decceleration isn't bad either.

What's been good picks for others?

not_me

 

[Someone]

First, I´d go with Energy Ray instead of Mind Thrust; it´s far more reliable. For other powers, it´s difficult to say, but if you want general utility powers, I´d go with Defensive Precognition for the boost to saves, and Create Sound or Far Hand.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I'd definitely take inertial armour. +4 AC for 1hour/level and it scales brilliantly (+1 AC per 2pp). Best defensive spell you'll see in a long while (and even if you don't see yourself as a front rank guy you WILL come under attack, you WILL need that AC!

Mind Thrust is a fine attack spell, I'd go for energy ray too though.

a) sometimes you will want to hurt mindless creatures (undead/constructs/vermin)

b) sometimes you will want to achieve some kind of special effect (sonic ray to blast the iron door down. Yay!)

c) sometimes you will want to take advantage of a creatures vulnerability (eat cold ray, fire elemental!)

 

[Dinkeldog]

Skate is really popular at our table.

 

[Scion]

Personally, I would go for demoralize way before mind thrust

Area of effect power, puts a massive penalty on all who fail their save, and later on it will still be beneficial and boost your other powers somewhat (by making the opponents saves lower and making it harder for them to hit your buddies).

Deja vu can also be incredible. We just had a battle in my last game where the halfillithiad (that is what we think it is, but whatever) used his once per day mind blast and the bad guy failed his roll, then I used an augmented deja vu to make him skip his turn after it wore off as well. Poor guy

For attack powers (damage wise and vs people without a brain) you'll want to check with your dm and see how DR works vs crystal shard. It will be useful later on when your other energy powers are not and early on it does the same amount of damage as mindthrust anyway really (d6 no save but a to hit vs d10 save for none and not good against a host of problems).

If that doesnt work then matter agitation isnt a bad power, it just takes a long time to work. Later on you can have your psicrystal take the power over for you (and other interesting powers as well) and it can be used to start fires! Mainly it is good for doing a bit of damage here and there for a very low pp cost, although control flame can do the same thing in proper circumstances and has more utility use, ymmv.

 

[Kannik]

Oops... post later.

 

[not_me]

Thanks for the ideas.

I was thinking of taking Crystal Shard as well as a good backup power. I'm a bit wary of taking Energy Ray for the purely meta-reason of gaining an obviously superior power at level 3, and thus rarely ever using Energy Ray again.

Skate was one I looked at, but was considering taking the feat that allows +10 movement whenever focussed (if mobility about a battlefield becomes important). Which actually brings up another question I had for later on: not having fielded a blaster-type in a while, do you find line-effect spells (bolts) or cones more useful; the latter certainly covers more area, but is it hard to get into position to use effectively (and not hit allies) vs the bolt?

I may consider taking the shield-spell equivalent -- it lasts less time than the armour one but the character has access to armour/bonus already, but not shield bonus.

I just wish matter agitation had _some_ augmentation...

Amusingly, once the higher levels start to roll along, there becomes the opposite problem of having to _not_ take some powers...



not_me