can this strategy be stopped?

[Nellisir]

Forcecage, for one. Anything that restrains or confines him, and isn't affected by SR. Also, I think he'd be affected by grappling. Being grappled isn't an effect, it's a condition.

 

[superkurt13]

Think about this spell in action though. A psion has just manifested this power. A warrior comes over and swings at his head with his sword. The psion doesn't get a scratch, doesn't get knocked back, doesn't even flinch. Now if a sword to the head doesn't do anything are you telling me that if said fighter lays down in sword and instead grabs the psion he will be able to just throw him down to the ground and pin him? We established earlier that a wall can fall on top of this guy and it wouldn't crush him, so how could one person do what a few tons of stone could not?

 

[IcyCool]

We established earlier that a wall can fall on top of this guy and it wouldn't crush him, so how could one person do what a few tons of stone could not?

He wouldn't suffer damage from the wall falling on him, to be sure. But he would be pinned beneath the rubble just the same. It's not like this spell makes the Psion the equivalent of the Juggernaught. He can't walk through walls, break manacles, or push someone out of his way any more than he could without the power.

Even if he is invuln tot eh damage, he is still held under a multi-ton block of stone/iron.

 

[Jack Simth]

It can be stopped, easy.

He can't do it that way; he can't get constant coverage from the spell.

You see, Timeless body also prevents helpful effects ... which Timeless Body, in and of itself, is. As the TB doesn't expire until the END of his turn, he can't manifest it again on his turn (well, he can, it just won't affect him, and will expire when he doesn't expect it to).

Okay, he can maybe ready an action to manifest it after it expires.... but then there's a forced gap where he isn't protected, and he's subject to concentration checks from things like damage due to a readied action to disrupt spellcasting, continual damage, casting defensively, and what have you.

 

[cmanos]

bing, we have a winner

 

[Jack Simth]

The fun part, of course, is that, even with the readied action scenerio, he's very quickly got a problem, pass or no pass on the concentration check:

If he passes the concentration check, he still takes the damage, and he can't fix it.

If he fails the concentration check (Likely - by the time he can Extend a Timeless body (19th), he's facing 19d6 damage from a fully augmented power (17d6*1.5, empowered), while having a concentration modifier of.... what, +40? Average damage from 19d6 is 66.5 (17d6*1.5 averages about 89.25) - little chance of keeping it), he still takes the damage, and is subject to more until his turn comes up again (which, as he's changed initiative by readying an action, means EVERYONE can target him).

 

[KarinsDad]

It can be stopped, easy.

He can't do it that way; he can't get constant coverage from the spell.

You see, Timeless body also prevents helpful effects ... which Timeless Body, in and of itself, is. As the TB doesn't expire until the END of his turn, he can't manifest it again on his turn (well, he can, it just won't affect him, and will expire when he doesn't expect it to).

Okay, he can maybe ready an action to manifest it after it expires.... but then there's a forced gap where he isn't protected, and he's subject to concentration checks from things like damage due to a readied action to disrupt spellcasting, continual damage, casting defensively, and what have you.

He doesn't need to Ready an action. As stated by the OP, round one he casts ETB, round two he does something else, round three he casts ETB, round four he does something else.

The only window is just before (in this example) the odd rounds (starting with round three since unless the NPCs are aware of his tactic, it would be a bit of DM metagaming for the DM to ready actions against him in round one). However, his opponents would be wasting readied actions just before the even rounds on him. They could only sneak in with readied actions on odd rounds and quite frankly, if they are sitting around readying a lot, they are not really fighting. He could easily manifest powers on the even rounds which do battlefield control, etc. and pretty much mop up the combat. Sure, every once in a while, an opponent might disrupt this tactic on the even rounds with a Readied Action. But, that will only happen if the Psion does not take charge of the situation, especially in round two.

Also, some other powers can really limit what happens to him in the tiny window immediately before his odd rounds. For example, a multi-round Intellect Fortress cast first in round one will not help him while he is protected by Timeless Body, but it will protect him in the tiny "ready" windows. A 20th level Psion could put this up for 14 rounds. 24 rounds if he could expend two psionic focuses in round one (one for Extend Intellect Fortress, one for Extend Timeless Body).

Plus, most Psions I have seen played have had multiple buffs up a lot of the time. So, in the tiny windows, his buffs will come back up.


But, there are some minor downsides to Timeless Body as well. For example, Body Equilibrium will not work, Psionic Darkvision will not work (if the party moves around with Darkvision from spells and powers, it will be interesting the first time the PC tries the tactic and he suddenly cannot see in a cavern or some such), Schism will not work, Boost will not work, etc. Any of the psion's buffs will not work. So, any attack by the Psion will often have a lowered DC (if his intellect is boosted) or will do less damage (for a melee attack if his strength is boosted) or will have a lesser chance to hit (for any attack that uses Dex with an attack roll), etc. And, without buffs, he can probably be more easily grappled as well.

If his Intelligence is boosted, he will lose some PP when EBT drops it and maybe not get them back (depending on how the DM rules this, I'm not sure if there is an official rule about ability loss and PP).

And, he will have to use up his Psionic Focus every other round in order to maintain the EBT defense. He can only use his Speed of Thought, Psionic Dodge, Up the Walls feat or other must be psionically focused feat every other round.


All in all, Extend Timeless Body is a pretty cool high level tactic which would force opponents to get real creative to get around it (e.g. Readied Actions, AMF, grappling, etc.). And, most opponents seeing it for the first time should not be experts at defeating it. For example, if an NPC Readied Action fails on round two, why would he try another Readied Action on round three?

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Teleport away every time he cast it. When he's out of PPs you'll just be down a few level 5 teleports.

 

[RigaMortus2]

Teleport away every time he cast it. When he's out of PPs you'll just be down a few level 5 teleports.

Unless you run out of teleport attempts before he runs out of pp...

 

[Jack Simth]

He doesn't need to Ready an action. As stated by the OP, round one he casts ETB, round two he does something else, round three he casts ETB, round four he does something else.

He can't manifest it in round 3. It explicitly doesn't expire until the END of his turn ... after he's taken his standard and move actions. While it's up, it prevents such things as itself from affecting him (he's invulnerable to them) so he can't layer another one on. If he finds a way to manifest it after his turn ends (such as with a readied action) then he can put another one up ... but there must, of necessity, be that window where he isn't covered. Sure, it takes a readied action to take it down.... but anyone can do that, and they at least have a chance. He might be doing other things in the meanwhile, true, but so can his opponents; he's putting up walls? Okay, so you can't deal damage to him at the moment... but you can buff, wall things up, get into position, climb onto the mobile statue's back to keep him from going anywhere, Dimensional Lock the area, ready to counterspell with a Greater Dispel Magic or something so he can't put it back up, take out his allies, Summon helpers, Resilient Sphere yourself (really fun to Resilient Sphere yourself, cast Mislead, cast a Silent Quickened Dimension Door, and start zapping away with Silenced stuff that doesn't give away your location.....) or whatever. Or you can stick your tongue out at him, and play mirror. See who runs out of power points first. And who remembered to pack the most dorjories and Powerstones..... and... gee... pity you've been worn down by all those other encounters where you've pulled this trick, and I've been sitting here waiting at basically full power points....