"Aura Party" in Play

[Nifft]

Nifft, you serious? I'm dying to play a divine mind; they look quite solid to me. Certainly the NPC I created for my game can hold his own. And not in a sexy way, either.

I'm serious. The auras are super-weak thanks to their range and the time it takes to change them, and you've got practically nothing else -- the psionic powers they get are weak, thanks to their lame manifester; they're more vulnerable to a dispel than a Psychic Warrior, but more dependent on their powers than a Ranger or Paladin would be on his spells.

His auras are about as strong as what a Bard could give you, but the Bard gets full spellcaster level, decent spells starting at level 2, and very reasonable skill points. And he shares the same BAB with the Bard.

His class abilities at levels 4, 6, 10, 13 and 20 are okay; all the rest are basically "your auras suck slightly less". If you just give him 30 ft. auras which he can change as a Swift action, he's still weak, but it's more obvious why.

So let's review:
- Knows fewer powers than a Wilder
- Zero bonus feats
- Worse mantle selection than an Ardent
- Same BAB as a Psychic Warrior
- Worse power selection than a Psychic Warrior, since it's from a list designed for a pure caster; proportionally fewer high-level powers than a Psychic Warrior, too.
- Needs to waste a feat to get full manifester level (Practiced Manifester), so really he has negative one bonus feat
- Conflicting stat bonuses (Str, Dex & Con for melee; Charisma to saves; Wisdom to manifesting)

If his auras were all that, it could be excusable, but they're just not. A hybrid Ardent / DMind could be cool.

-- N

 

[Jdvn1]

Good highjack, yeah, my TWF Bard/rogue always had a whip at his disposal... yet archery proved to be more effective (but swinging on your whip over chasms or other things is so much more fun than casting fly!).

Well, as he's singing, he could assist the Druid in tripping everyone, or trip everyone instead of the Druid and the Druid would be freed up to do something else.

If he was built to be a good tripper, of course.

 

[Darklone]

So let's review:
- Knows fewer powers than a Wilder
- Zero bonus feats
- Worse mantle selection than an Ardent
- Same BAB as a Psychic Warrior
- Worse power selection than a Psychic Warrior, since it's from a list designed for a pure caster; proportionally fewer high-level powers than a Psychic Warrior, too.
- Needs to waste a feat to get full manifester level (Practiced Manifester), so really he has negative one bonus feat
- Conflicting stat bonuses (Str, Dex & Con for melee; Charisma to saves; Wisdom to manifesting)

Practised Manifester works for the Divine Mind? I am not sure about that...

Your analysis looks fine, Nifft, but at higher levels the auras get better, he can use several at once and the aura changing gets faster...

 

[blargney the second]

My girlfriend's about to start playing a Divine Mind in our game. I think the Divine Mind is a class that reads poorly but plays well; she's getting pretty excited about playing her! Would anybody be interested in a DMind thread like hong's Notes on a Swordsage in Play?
-blarg

Edit: ps - in the interest of full disclosure, this is a gestalt game and she's playing a Divine Mind/Wilder.

 

[Nifft]

Practised Manifester works for the Divine Mind? I am not sure about that...

Your analysis looks fine, Nifft, but at higher levels the auras get better, he can use several at once and the aura changing gets faster...

Dragon Shamans can do the double aura thing too, if you allow feats from Dragon Magic, starting at 12th level.

Dragonfire Adepts can take three feats and have double Draconic auras (not as strong as the ones Dragon Shamans get, but their Breath Effects are really good).

Bards can cast haste.

The thing is, the Divine Mind's auras get good right when melee becomes bad.

- - -

Why do you think Practiced Manifester would not work for a Divine Mind? His manifester level is explicitly four behind his hit dice. Practiced Manifester raises your manifester level by four, up to a maximujm of your hit dice.

It merely raises your manifestation ability from "worthless" up to "poor". :\

-- N

 

[Darklone]

PManifester: I don't like the idea of a class that starts with as you said it "a negative bonus feat"... e.g. that needs a feat.

 

[Nifft]

PManifester: I don't like the idea of a class that starts with as you said it "a negative bonus feat"... e.g. that needs a feat.

Druid is similar in that one regard... but it seems to compensate somehow.

-- N

 

[Darklone]

Druid is similar in that one regard... but it seems to compensate somehow.

It might sound strange, but one of the most effective druids I've ever seen did not have Natural Spell

 

[Patlin]

Would anybody be interested in a DMind thread like hong's Notes on a Swordsage in Play?

That's similar to what I had in mind for this thread, though I was concentrating on the party dynamic as a whole to a greater extent than the individual classes. I'm interested in effective alternatives to a 'balanced' party, but I'm hoping to get usefull notes on the individual characters as well.

 

[satori01]

Compare a Divine Mind to a Dragon Shaman, and I think the 2 classes stack up well together, and both have similiar M.A.D. problems. The bonus powers of the Mantles is an often overlooked advantage of the Divine Mind...more due I think to the scattered layout of Complete Psionic than anything else.