Any advice for a first time Psychic Warrior?

[Hammerhead]

One interesting trick is combining Graft Weapon with Claws of the Vampire. It can give the best of the armed and unarmed psychic warrior styles.

However, the most important consideration is tactical. You have to get into situations in which you can actually use your powers. Especially at lower levels, you won't have the durations and PP to maintain your buffs all day. So you have to set things up to gain the chance to use your buffing powers before the fight starts.

 

[jollyninja]

Soulknife with monk levels? Does it become a Soulkama?

it says in the description that the weapon can look like whatever the wielder wants it to. it just has the stats of a shortsword. that would look pretty sweet.

 

[Dark Psion]

Here's a link to the revised Prestige classes from the Psi Handbook.

http://www.montecook.com/arch_stuff14.html

 

[shadowthorn]

My take on the psy war:

I agree with Garmorn in that you must decide the path your Psy War will follow. I used the Psychic Warrior to create a Jedi-type character, and played him to 8th level:

Race: Human, for the extra feat & skill points. This class is heavily feat-based, IMHO.

Abilities: Put high score in Dex, followed by Str & Con; make Int 14 and Wis 13 for the feats; dump Cha.

Skills: Balance, Climb, Jump, Autohypnosis, Tumble (max them all)

Feats: (not necessarily in order) Dodge, Mobility, Speed of Thought, Mental Leap, Weapon Focus: Longsword, Spring Attack, Craft Dorje (for Animal Affinity); consider Expertise & Whirlwind Attack as well

Powers:
0: Burst, Catfall, Far Punch
1: Combat Precognition, Lesser Metaphysical Weapon, Vigor
2: Combat Prescience, Animal Affinity (not exactly Jedi-like with its animal manifestations, but emulates their force-boosting powers quite well)

I pursued acquiring Boots of Striding & Springing and a mithril shirt, which I later had enchanted. The char was mobile, very hard to hit, and could boost his stats to equal a fighter's attack & damage with the Dorje of Animal Affinity. His jumping ability is off the chart even without the Boots, and he maneuvers through threatened areas (thanks to Tumble & Mobility) with nary a scratch.

Be careful. It is very easy to overkill a psychic warrior.

Have fun!

 

[Latency]

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

Thanks!!

I would like to thank all the people who posted I am also looking at playing my first PsiWar character and this has been loads of help.

 

[Zhure]

- Skate is a PsyWar power but isn't listed in the power listing as such.

There is really only one branch of PsyWar's: Tanks. All the stuff about being nimble, or a melee guy or an archer (they make really good archers) is great, but the thing a PsyWar does better than any other class is take a beating.

A 10th level PsyWar 22 STR half-orc with Claws of the Vampire, Expansion, Animal Affinity to STR (Effective STR 32 on a good roll), Displacement, Improved Biofeedback and Inertial Barrier is:
- displaced for a 50% miss chance (and as he is concealed, is immune to sneak attack)
- When he finally does get hit, the Inertial Barrier acts like Stoneskin without a material component (plus hedges out gas attacks for 2d4 rounds).
- Any damage that leaks through or bypasses his Inertial Barrier gets converted to Subdual damage... the first 22 points of each attack.

Every Claws attack he makes does 1d8+11 damage, which heals him a like amount (Bruce Cordell said the original intent was for only the base 1d8 to heal the user), maybe more if he's specialized in unarmed attacks. Each 1d8 of healing will also heal him for 1d8 of subdual damage. With Ambi/TWF this can be up to 3 attacks per round at 10th level, for effectively 6d8 of healing per round (3d8 normal, 3d8 subdual). Heaven help you when this character gets Polymorph Self.

Assuming he can't hit, the PsyWar can probably use Fell Shot/Unavoidable Strike/Deep Impact (whichever type of PsyWar he is) to make a touch attack. The prerequisites for each of these feats can be used to add an additional 1d4 of non-elemental damage. If someone's that hard to hit then the extra 1d4 is probably important to deal against him.

The real bane of PsyWar's is Dispel Magic/Negate Psionics. A ring of counterspelling (maybe 2, heh, heh) is probably the best investment you can make until you get ahold of Ablating.

Vigilance is one of the best PsyWar powers. AFAIK, it's the only way to see through Deeper Darkness and the like, save for Blindsight.

Hope that helps,
Greg

 

[garyh]

Thanks for all the help, everyone!!

I've got the concept narrowed to an armed melee character as either a human speedster or dwarven tank, probably. Which one I go with depends on how I roll for my stats and the party composition (5 players in the group, including my PsyWar, a Psion of undecided discipline, a rogue, and two unknowns).

Any more advice out there?

 

[Zhure]

Advice for Psychic Warriors

Thought Shield

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, Thought Shield would be it. The long-term benefits of Thought Shield have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your hit points. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your hit points until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 levels, you'll look back at character sheets of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really gamed. You are not as detailed as you imagine.

Don't worry about the illithids. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tyrsday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's characters. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old character sheets. Throw away your old spell books.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your levels. The most interesting characters I know didn't know at 12th level what they wanted to do with their characters. Some of the most interesting 18th leveled characters I know still don't.

Get plenty of experience. Be kind to your cohorts. You'll miss them when they're gone.

But trust me on the Thought Shield.

[abridged cuz the joke was running short]

 

[Roland Delacroix]

One of my players was looking at playing a mobility Psi Warrior but decided to do a Cleric instead. His plan was to take Up the Walls, Psionic Charge and Speed of Thought. Later with Boots of S&S, Tumble, and maybe Spring Attack, he could basically ignore terrain. Charge attacks are really nice but often is negated by terrain/enemies.

Plan your powers and feats, at least the upper level ones. You may have to sacrifice (in a point buy game) a few points in CON to get access to Shield of Prudence.

You have alot of feats, and really nice Psionic ones too. A fighter can typically excell in 2-3 paths with maybe another sub-path for fun. Psi Warriors gan generally do 2 feat paths, but all the psi feats are fun Work on feat synergys to make up.

Ablating. Laugh when the buffed up Cleric gets dispelled into second-rate Warrior.

Get all the psi defenses first, starting from the cheapest up. Your typical response to psi combat should be: "I break its face with my greataxe"

 

[Hatchling Dragon]

I read the title of this thread and immediately thought of:

"Think before you act!"

Hatchling Dragon