Any advice for a first time Psychic Warrior?

[garyh]

I'll be starting in a new campaign soon, and as this will be my first campaign where Psionics are allowed, I thought I'd take the Psychic Warrior class, as I've always thought that it looked pretty darn cool. Here's were I stand:

Race: I'm thinking either Human, Half-Orc, or Dwarf - the typical warrior-type races.
Campaign World: Homebrew... the DM's said there's nothing too out of the ordinary, other than Psionics being allowed.
Stats: Dunno yet. We're having a rolling (4d6 drop low, re-roll any 1's, the generous side of standard) and character creation session Monday evening.
Available Resources: Pretty much any book or PrC if we can explain the character reasoning.

So, since this is my first Psionic character, any character build advice?

Thanks!!

 

[Garmorn]

Make sure that you have a "style" in mind before you start.

I have found three basic styles for PW's. The first is the regular melee type. Here you want strength as your highest stat. Take such powers as Biofeedback to change damage to subual damage and Lesser Metaphysical Weapon. For feats take Power Attack, Psionic Weapon for extra damage and as soon as possible Deep Impact for the ablity to by pass armor and make power attacks aganist heavely armored foes.

The second style is a monk type and here you can use the various bite/claw type powers to improve your unarmed attacks.

The third is a archer type where Dex will be important. Again you can gain the ablity to add damage to your attacks and by pass armor.

I would recomned two other things. Decide ahead of time the diciplines you want so you can have the right stats for them. Second get the down load for the improved Prc on Monte's site and buy ITCK because of the improved powers in them.

 

[jollyninja]

they are pretty much like a bard in that if you focus on one thing and get as good at that thing as you can, you will be a great part of the party. if you do not focus, you will often feel less then useful.

by taking speed of thought repeatedly you can be quite the speed demon. inertial armor combined with a 2 or 3 level monk multiclass can be scary. i allways liked that multiclass as a route to the prc that lets you create your weapon with your mind. that's just me though.

 

[Benben]

Second get the down load for the improved Prc on Monte's site and buy ITCK because of the improved powers in them.

I'll second the purchasing of If Thoughts Could Kill. I think the Chrysalis power is as important to psychic warriors as magic missile is to wizards.

 

[Hakkenshi]

Soulknife with monk levels? Does it become a Soulkama?

 

[ForceUser]

Yeah, you really want to plan a psi-warrior well in advance. Choose your powers and feats carefully, and make sure they are not only complementary, but synergistic. We have found this class to be stunningly powerful if well-crafted, but lackluster if poorly conceived. As others stated, choose a method of combat: armed, unarmed, or ranged. Choose a method of movement: slow and armored or quick and light.

I suggest carefully reading the power and psionic feat list. Polymorph self turns a psi-warrior into a melee god. The psi-warrior in our weekly game trucks out more melee damage than any class I've yet seen - upwards of one hundred points of damage per round. Our fighter can't touch this; our bladesinger doesn't come close. He turns into a stone giant, expands to a greater height, and wades into combat unarmed and two-fisted, healing himself with every blow. He's a monster.

 

[Knightcrawler]

Psychic Warriors

Hmmm lets see Psychic Warriors. As everyone has been saying, you definitely need some sort of plan to where your character is going. Check out some of the power trees to see what you eventually want to be able to get.

I've always focused on psychometabolic powers (STR), but again your going to have to decide if you want a melee weapon boost or to use natural weapons.

I would sit down before the character creation session and just play with the class. See what you can come up with. Think of it as a sorcerer with different spells if that helps.

Knightcrawler

 

[Vymair]

Having played a Psi-Warrior (this was actually the character my account is named for) to 7th level (before he was disintegrated by a Beholder), I can honestly say the class is a blast to play.

I am also the DM in the game with the Stone Giant Polymorphing monstrosity (and yes, they met stone giants long ago).

I agree with all of the comments about planning. Psi-Warrior definitely require a plan due to the way psionic powers/feats are based off of varying stats. This makes the way you place your starting abilities very important. In addition, make sure to decide your weapon of choice and take weapon focus so that when the weapon specialization option pops up at 6th level you can capitalize (one time oppty that you definitely want to take advantage of).

Vymair (my Psi-Warrior) put a 13 in Wis to open the Speed of Thought, Psychic Charge, Up the Walls line but Almion (the polymorphing monstrosity mentioned above) tanked all his mental stats and focused exclusively on the physical. The characters are completely different but both were very effective...

 

[garyh]

I'm leaning towards the armed melee route. As for the sub-type of that, if I go Human or Half-Orc, I'll go with the light armor and speed route (Speed of Thought and Spring Attack look quite synergistic, for example), and if I go Dwarf he'd be more of a tank in heavy armor.

I've got to go through the powers list carefully and look at what powers I want and work back from there for stats, and find feats and powers that work well together, it looks like. STR-based will likely be the majority, but I'll have to be careful, there are some good Con, Dex, and even Wis powers, too.

 

[garyh]

BUMP!!

Good advice so far!! Anything else, all ye experienced psionics players?