First Time Playing a Psion... HELP ME!!

[KarinsDad]

If you have pps to spare (unlikely, but possible if all you do most of the time is entangle) then Ego Whip can be used out of combat to help your "face man" win Diplomacy contests.

I suspect that any NPC attacked with Ego Whip will quickly become hostile, regardless of Diplomacy rolls.

 

[moritheil]

I suspect that any NPC attacked with Ego Whip will quickly become hostile, regardless of Diplomacy rolls.

Suppress displays and stand off as far as you can without being too obvious. Unless the NPCs know about psionics, they're not going to have proof that their sudden headaches have anything to do with you. If they do know, then they'll realize that someone is targeting them, but not who.

In a city, you can do this while mingling with the crowd, making it very hard to find the culprit.

 

[KarinsDad]

Suppress displays and stand off as far as you can without being too obvious. Unless the NPCs know about psionics, they're not going to have proof that their sudden headaches have anything to do with you. If they do know, then they'll realize that someone is targeting them, but not who.

In a city, you can do this while mingling with the crowd, making it very hard to find the culprit.

1) At third level, it is difficult to suppress displays.

2) Even if you suppress displays, you still concentrate on the power, it still provokes an Attack of Opportunity, and it is still noticable.

3) Not all interactions with NPCs, even in a city, will be out in a crowd. Many will be with merchants or others within the confines of a shop, store, tavern, etc.

4) And the most obvious reason is: If the NPC fails the save, he is Dazed. He'd have to be a moron to not figure out that he just got attacked. If the NPC makes the save, he is aware that he got attacked due to the "hostile force" being shaken off by his Will Save. Either way, he will know that he got attacked.


All in all, it is pretty obvious that an NPC got attacked when Ego Whip is used.

 

[moritheil]

All in all, it is pretty obvious that an NPC got attacked when Ego Whip is used.

But not by you.

 

[KarinsDad]

But not by you.

It's still silly.

Any NPC who gets attacked (and he should always know with Ego Whip unlike other powers like Charm Person) should be immediately suspect of anyone he is negotiating with.

So, tell us again how this benefits the "face man".

 

[Nyaricus]

With those rolls, I might recommend Ardent or Wilder instead... Although a telepath that focuses on social skills might work, too.

I was actually originally thinking Wilder, but with the absence of a full caster or manifester, I am going to go with Psion instead. Adent, while interesting, is a bit too confusing for me ATM, though I looked it over a bit at your (and others) suggestion.

However, I think that we have a lack of social skills in our group, and combined with the suggestions here, I am going to be playing a Telepath. I can control stuff and still fill a niche that I think is missing in our group.

Heck, I was thinking today before I even signed on of taking a level in rogue just to fill that gap; however Telepath is a seemless solution to that quandry, more or less

I'll have to look over those powers that people have submitted, but for the time being: any suggestions on feats I can take??

 

[KarinsDad]

There are a lot of good psionic feats.

My first suggestion is that you should not pick up too many feats which are non-psionic unless your PC is intending to get into a specific Prestige Class. For example, a Psion could take the Track feat (as opposed to taking a level of Ranger) in order to qualify for the (Illithid) Slayer PrC.

For Psionic feats, many of them are good.

Expanded Knowledge is a great feat for gaining powers from other disciplines or classes.

Extend Power is good for giving buff spells longer durations.

Empower Power is good for any power that relies on variable dice. For example: Energy powers, healing powers.

Psionic Meditation is good if the Psion has several different ways of using his Psionic Focus (such as Extend Power and Empower Power).


One feat that many people often recommend which I would recommend caution instead is Psionic Body. If the Psion wants seriously more hit points, taking a combatant class at first level combined with Improved Toughness is generally better in the long run. This also allows the Psion to wear armor and use better weapons which in turn allows the Psion to bypass having to take Inertial Armor. Course, this means giving up a level of Psion. Improved Toughness can also be taken as a 6th level feat instead.

Vigor also often handles many of the low hit point issues as well. Only take Psionic Body for extra hit points (if you want extra hit points) if the vast majority of the feats that the PC is going to take are Psionic ones. Otherwise, if the PC is going to roughly split Psionic and normal feats up, Improved Toughness might be the way to go.

 

[wildstarsreach]

I was actually originally thinking Wilder, but with the absence of a full caster or manifester, I am going to go with Psion instead. Adent, while interesting, is a bit too confusing for me ATM, though I looked it over a bit at your (and others) suggestion.

However, I think that we have a lack of social skills in our group, and combined with the suggestions here, I am going to be playing a Telepath. I can control stuff and still fill a niche that I think is missing in our group.

Heck, I was thinking today before I even signed on of taking a level in rogue just to fill that gap; however Telepath is a seemless solution to that quandry, more or less

I'll have to look over those powers that people have submitted, but for the time being: any suggestions on feats I can take??

Psionic Meditation if you have that 13 wisdom to get your psionic focus as a move action instead of full round action.

Psicrystal Affiniti to have your psicrystal with psicrystal containment to have a 2nd focus available without having to work at getting focused.

Empower is great in that for 2 PP's you get 50% more damage and it is one of the cheapest augments.

Split Twin Ray is great when you have another Metapsionic feat. This also gets you for 2 PP's a second ray/bolt/ect that doubles the damage.

 

[Bacris]

One feat that many people often recommend which I would recommend caution instead is Psionic Body. If the Psion wants seriously more hit points, taking a combatant class at first level combined with Improved Toughness is generally better in the long run. This also allows the Psion to wear armor and use better weapons which in turn allows the Psion to bypass having to take Inertial Armor. Course, this means giving up a level of Psion. Improved Toughness can also be taken as a 6th level feat instead.

I'd have to respectfully disagree with multiclassing instead of psionic body. I have an egoist at the moment with Psionic Body and the bonus 12 hit points he has at level 7 are very much worth the feat

Now, later on in levels, it may be worthwhile to swap it for Improved Toughness using Psychic Reformation (which is available at 7th level, right around when Improved Toughness is available...), but for psions or psychic warriors with their bonus psionic feats, I've personally found it to be a higher gain than Improved Toughness. Although bear in mind that Metapsionic / Item Creation feats don't count toward it, so if you're going to pick those, you don't get the benefit... but if you're using a lot of feats like Psicrystal Affinity, Psionic Meditation, Expanded Knowledge, or the like, that's an extra +2 HP for each one, including Psionic Body itself.

 

[KarinsDad]

I'd have to respectfully disagree with multiclassing instead of psionic body. I have an egoist at the moment with Psionic Body and the bonus 12 hit points he has at level 7 are very much worth the feat

Your PC took all Psionic feats and is also human (unless you have something strange going on).

That's somewhat unusual for a Psion and it is definitely worthwhile in your case.

Now, later on in levels, it may be worthwhile to swap it for Improved Toughness using Psychic Reformation (which is available at 7th level, right around when Improved Toughness is available...), but for psions or psychic warriors with their bonus psionic feats, I've personally found it to be a higher gain than Improved Toughness. Although bear in mind that Metapsionic / Item Creation feats don't count toward it, so if you're going to pick those, you don't get the benefit... but if you're using a lot of feats like Psicrystal Affinity, Psionic Meditation, Expanded Knowledge, or the like, that's an extra +2 HP for each one, including Psionic Body itself.

That's why I said it depends on how many psionic feats the PC is taking. Certain builds force the Psion to expand out into other types of feats where Psionic Body results in 6 to 12 hit points and that's it.

A non-human Psion who takes a 10 level PrC will get at most 9 psionic feats by level 20. That's 18 extra hit points and that's assuming that every single feat is psionic and not metamagic and not something else.

The reason I point out multiclassing is that it is an option that works great for gish builds (especially Ranger for Slayer prerequisite) and certain PrC choices.