Good questions, I'll answer as best I can. Probably some of this is due to my quick summary of the situation, we'll see.
Scion said:
Why did the mage use such a sucky spell? If it was 3 on 1 he could easily have readied his action to disrupt anything that the psion tried to manifest first of all, or he could've used, say, a simple enervation (possibly empowered/maximized/quickend with a rod) practically would've ended the encounter right there, or even disentegrate (nonelemental damage, much higher damage on a failed save and about the same damage on a successful one, possible crit chance). He also had access to 8th level spells so maybe he could've even mazed the psion again after he was blasted by the other two people he was with.
Enervation could have worked well, true, although it would not have stopped Astral Constructs from appearing (maybe they would be slightly smaller), and it would have taken a good roll to get rid of Temporal Acceleration.
The other high-end spells which the wizard had available were: Otto's Irresistable Dance (not close enough); Power Word Blind (probably should have used this); Mage's Sword; Limited Wish. He went for damage because he figured with the cleric and rogue also attacking, they would drop him fast.
In retrospect, taking Disintegrate might have been good; with the spells at hand, I think Power Word Blind would have been the best option. He was going to use that next after the psion's hit point total was lower; getting greedy, I guess.
Scion said:
The rogue did nothing at all? Now, I havent played many high level rogues, but I assume they can do more than fire a few arrows, especially given that the people apparently had at least a round to prepare. Still though, +3 bow, +1 point blank shot, +6 dex, +12 BAB, +1 weapon focus, +1 haste (this is all pretty conservative as I dont know what buffs the enemies had put up, but these are basic) = +24. Even vs ac 30 two hits are pretty likely, and if he had gone invis while the people were mazed then the first one would be sneak attack also (for +8d6 damage) this would have also possibly ended the fight right there.
The rogue was doing some stuff while the psion was mazed (helping deal with the other PC, who ran off). There was no buffs, but the numbers are about right. I did not roll great, which is why there was only one hit per round (with sneak attack damage). This psion has a high Con and the feat that grants extra HP, so has around 132 HP, plus a Contingency Body Adjustment. Still, two more hits would have probably done it.
He had a potion of greater invis, and with no way to know when the psion was coming out, drinking it before he emerged would be a waste. If the psion had stayed in one more round, he would have had a ready action to drink it, but the psion got out a bit too fast.
In retrospect, the rogue could have been slightly more effective, but not a whole lot moreso.
Scion said:
The cleric tried a greater dispel (assuming).
Yes.
Scion said:
Now, did he get the psion in the radius as well? if so then that could be by by to the inertial armor. Personally if I was the cleric I probably would've popped up an antimagic field and waded up to the psion. Heavy armor vs no armor, Medium BAB vs Low BAB, d8hd vs d4hd, along with immunity to just about anything the psion could do.
This is a failing on my part -- I didn't think of setting the area of the Dispel just right and should have. So yes, one mistake on my part here. The cleric did not have Antimagic Field ready, which was a deliberate choice on my part (it was used against the psion recently and I didn't want to overload that tactic).
Scion said:
But then, I dont get why the cleric didnt do something 'before' the psion got to go anyway. The psion had just been hit by a 16d6 lightning bolt, very unlikely to make his save (but possible) probably has energy resistance 10+ (why not, everyone does at these levels, though not usually to lightning, still, benefit of the doubt). So, half damage - 10 = 18 damage. For some reason this wasnt empowered (npc gear is low so that is likely the reason) so this isnt much damage if the save was successful and the psion had some defense up. If the save was failed and the psion had no defenses then 56 damage means the psion would need at least a 14 con to survive (not hard, in fact I would expect it to be at least 16 from items).
I skipped the part where the cleric dropped a Dimensional Lock so the psion couldn't teleport away (which the PCs tend to do a lot). Sorry for omitting that detail. By the time he got another action, he had a construct in his face and a dead wizard next to him.
As above, the psion has 132 HP. He failed his save and took 50ish damage from the bolt.
Scion said:
Next we have a hit from the rogue, nonsneak attack (is this a real rogue?). We'll say this does 12 damage or so (d8 +3 enhancement +1 point blank +3 str +d6 fire +poison?). Now we are up to 30 damage total even if things are going really well for the psion. If he had been half dead from the ealier part of the fight then he is already dead now.
The rogue actually got a sneak attack in the first attack, doing 30ish points as I recall.
Scion said:
So, I am not sure what this example is trying to show. One character basically has nothing thrown against him and takes down 3 guys who mostly just stand there and take it without doing anything.
The way I see it, the psion killed one character per action for three rounds. He had Constructs (instantly summoned via Temporal Acceleration) for low AC characters, Maximized area effect Fortitude save spells to deal with rogues, and a Construct with Blindsight to deal with invisibility.
Yes, the NPCs were weaker because their gear was at NPC levels -- but three of them should have a much better shot vs one character.
The fight was a relatively spontaneous one, so there were minimal buff spells in place (only 1 hour per level ones). I don't think most buff spells would have made a difference -- what stops a Construct from hitting?
I do agree that the psion's tactics were spot-on, and I don't want to minimize that, but I do feel that his killing capacity was higher than other characters of equivalent level. Also, note that his equipment played little to no role in this fight.
EDIT: I think the ideal tactic would be: Wizard does Power Word, Blind; Cleric does Dimensional Anchor; Rogue full attacks, all sneak attacks. This puts the psion on the defensive -- he might even try to teleport away, not knowing of the Dimensional Anchor, and blow a key action.