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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 1756264" data-attributes="member: 3146">Sure. I only said that about half of the options you listed didn't help. Stuff like displacement does help although the duration is low enough that it will very rarely be cast before combat begins.Actually, I think it's intentional. Everything that would otherwise be a large humanoid is a giant. Things that would otherwise be winged humanoids (like avariel) are monstrous humanoids. That's what those categories are for.They help with improved grab creatures. Natural attacks aren't really very helpful to a wizard. Even if he were allowed to use all of his natural attacks inside the grapple (which he's not), a 14 strength (unusually high) wizard 6 would still only do an average of 3 points of damage to the wyvern in the previous example. The natural armor helps a little bit. The natural weapons don't.But that really only works until your first initiative. As soon as you cast a glitterdust, scorching ray, or fireball, the gig is up and they know you're some kind of arcane caster.My point was that they can be seen through rather easily without magic. The sequence goes like this. Mr Hat of Disguise walks into the dungeon appearing to wear fullplate. The orc makes a spot check and sees that Mr. Hat of disguise is moving at 30 instead of 20. He makes a will save. (At DC 11, his odds are pretty good even as a MM orc). He also makes a listen check and hears that Mr. Hat of Disguise's fullplate isn't making any noise. He makes another will save. The orc's commander throws a javalin at Mr. Hat of Disguise. It seems to go right through the plume on his helmet as if it weren't there or goes right through the fullplate and slices into unprotected flesh without the tearing sound you would expect from metal striking metal. The orc makes another will save. All a character needs to do to see through the most effective disguises is to have a pair of eyes, a pair of ears, and minimal expererience with weapons and armor (proficiency certainly qualifies). A more subtle disguise (appearing to be wearing leather armor and a black cloak with a rapier at his hip for instance) will be harder to see through (since leather armor doesn't normally hinder speed or make noise and mage armor provides similar protection) but won't deter grapples nearly as effectively--rogues are nearly as good as wizards when selecting grapple targets.Only if you do it poorly and in the wrong situations. Then again, fireballs, scorching rays, magic missiles, and charges are inferior combat options if you do them at the wrong place or time.But that's not what happens with smart grapplers.Well, we've established that psions have nearly the staying power of sorcerors, the flexibility and feats of wizards, and can blast out their damage over a shorter time frame than either class if they go balls to the wall and put everything on the line. They're less vulnerable to grapple--probably the most glaring weakness of sorcerors and wizards--than any other class except the druid and fighters and monks designed with grappling in mind.I don't think there's really much room to question the conclusion of the topic: psions are simply better blasters than sorcerors or wizards. The only areas in which they fall behind wizards are party buffing and battlefield control spells.</blockquote>

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