Best Psionic Discipline to Fulfill Two Criteria

[saucercrab]

Which psionic discipline would be the best for:
A. Having the most useful powers that can't/don't need to be augmented; &
B. Having the most useful powers that a cleric could use.
?

In relation to why, there's a semi-official FR PrC for psionic clerics that adds a discipline's powers to the cleric's spell list, but those powers can't be augmented.

 

[Bacris]

Hooray for Auppenser!

What role does your cleric play? And what sort of group make-up do you have?

Egoist or Seer is probably your best bet.

 

[saucercrab]

(Yes, hooray for Auppenser. I'm playing, or starting to play an arcane gish in FR, yet I keep coming up with psionic character builds I wanna' try.)

It's not for an existing character, but just a build I'm tinkering with, perhaps as a back-up character. The tentative build would result in (at 20th level):
Cloistered cleric 3/psion 3/psychic theurge 10/monastic servant of Auppenser 4. Role in the party would be leaning toward mystic theurge, but with psion powers instead (duh! ); would have him/her as artillery & party buffer more than a self-buffing melee monster.

Would clairsentience really be all that useful? Clerics already have a slew of divination spells, & a cloistered cleric has just a few more. As for psychometabolism, aren't most of the good powers needing to be augmented to be useful?

From some brief skimming I did, psychoportation looked pretty good, since clerics seem to lack in the spells-o'-movement category.

 

[Bacris]

Well, take a look at some of the psychometabolism powers that don't need augmentation:

Metamorphosis (and Greater)
Hustle
Fission
Fusion

Those are some of the nicest powers out there

 

[Nifft]

Telepathy has:
- Schism (!!!)
- Suggestion
- Psychic Surgery

Psychoportation has already been mentioned. It's full of good stuff.

Cheers, -- N

 

[saucercrab]

So it look's like psychometabolism, psychoportation or telepathy? Boosting body, boosting movement or boosting mind? All three which cleric spells aren't exactly renowned for (& so would be useful).

Well, since that's cut the choices in half (at least), now I just need to go over their higher-level powers & see which has more & better ones.

Thanks, both.

 

[saucercrab]

Bacris,
You're familiar with the PrC, yes?

How do you think the ability for it to choose one discipline should work? I'm of the mind that the character would only gain the powers listed soley on the discipline lists (so, only about 15-20 powers), not all powers in the discipline (so none that are on the psion/wilder list).

 

[Bacris]

Here's the problem with Monastic Servant of Auppenser - the vague term "discipline" which is used for two things...

This line in it "The powers from that discipline" to me means that ALL powers of a discipline, not just the pseudo-subclass-discipline list. So for psychometabolism, you'd get metamorphosis, an egoist-only power, and body equilibrium, a psion/wilder power, as both are of the "psychometabolism" discipline.

I'd ask the DM which is the true interpretation - the subclass specific list, or the whole discipline. Either way, for the role you're talking about, I'd probably say Seer or Nomad over Egoist, because Egoist is a self-buffer, not a party buffer / artillery.

 

[saucercrab]

This line in it "The powers from that discipline" to me means that ALL powers of a discipline, not just the pseudo-subclass-discipline list. So for psychometabolism, you'd get metamorphosis, an egoist-only power, and body equilibrium, a psion/wilder power, as both are of the "psychometabolism" discipline.

The last sentence of the ability ("If a monastic servant is or becomes a psion, she must choose the same discipline.") implies (to me), that only the powers on the specific discipline list would be gained; when a psion normally chooses his discipline, he gains access to those powers on the specific list. Makes it akin to granting another domain, but with a few more spells in lieu of a domain power.

YMMV.

(And if I ever did play the character & the DM allowed the PrC, he'd most likely go along with me. I'm the rules-lawyer/power-gamer in the group, so if I think something's too powerful, then he's liable to agree with me.)

 

[Bacris]

In that case, I'd still go Nomad or Seer for your group dynamic If you were more interested in being a cleric-tank, go Egoist.