help the new guy, really

[Minosis]

my last post went horribly awry. Let me be as specific as possible here. I want to play a psion, I am heavily leaning towards kineticist. My role will be artillary, hit 'em high hit 'em hard. I will be playing in Eberron, but having never in Eberron or a psion I am not sure exactly what powers would be best or feats for that matter.

So what 1st-4th level powers would people suggest and why?

What feats would you suggest and why?

what magic items should I seek out?

Hopefully this will illicit some better responses than my last post did

 

[Chimera]

So it turns out that we were exactly right about your question. Big surprise.

Anyway;

As I said, a Kineticist can give a GM fits. I have one in the game I run and it tends to make things very difficult for me, as he can deal some serious damage to a lot of enemies with Energy Missile, which as I said, is arguably overpowered for a 2nd level power.

The fun thing about Psions is that the energy type isn't fixed, like spells, but that you get to chose it every time. Thus a Psion can also give a GM fits in that he can easily change energy types to overcome resistances. It's like a free Energy Substitution feat.

I'd suggest;

1st
Energy Ray It's your basic 1st level damage spell. One target, close range.
Inertial Armor The psionic equivalient of Mage Armor.

My game's Kineticist has used Skate with great results. Psionic Grease is not bad if you like the spell. Force Screen is the psionic equivalent of Shield.

Force Screen and Inertial Armor together, just like Mage Armor and Shield, and you suddenly have AC 18+dex.

If you want to blow a feat (Expanded Knowledge), you can take something like Mind Link, which is exceptionally useful in a lot of circumstances.

2nd
Energy Missile No doubt about it. Up to five targets within a 15' spread. There is no better 2nd level damage power, spell or effect.
Body Equilibrium is useful in some games, but not all.
Ego Whip can be cool for dealing with Sorcerers and Bards, or the really low Cha types.
Energy Push Shove anyone into something or off a cliff? Cool.
Sense Link is great for keeping track of your scout.

3rd
Body Adjustment Heal yourself.
Energy Bolt, Energy Burst, Energy Cone Differing in form only.

Heck, lots of really good third level powers. But then, you have a bit of time before you get there, and you can take your time considering them.

Oh yeah, I wanted to add. The Kineticist in my game has the Enlarge Power Feat, which allows him to blow his focus in order to double his range. Take a serious look at the meta-psionic feats like this one. Expending your focus to suddenly extend that Energy Missile out to 260 feet (at 3rd level) in order to pound your enemies, then taking the time while they're closing to regain your focus. Hmmm...

 

[superkurt13]

Good suggestions so far. As for 4th level powers I would recommend:

Energy Ball: As a kineticist you have access to this and it take Energy Missile to the next level. Great because the range is longer than EM and it has a huge blast radius.

Dimension Door: As a manifester/caster, something your DM will typically throw at you are grapplers. Dimension door will be your best way to quickly escape a grapple, or any nasty situation.

Shadow Eft: A great summoning power, and you can have an eft as well as a construct on the field at the same.

Psionic Reformation: A great all around power. With it you can repick any previous power you have chosen. Don't like that choice you made back when you were a 3rd level? Change it! This is something that wizards dont even have access to (that I know of) and that can also benefit your party since you can cast on them as well.

 

[Enforcer]

Brief Quibble: Expanded Knowledge can only be taken for powers one level below your Max Power Level, and therefore can't be taken at level 1.

I'd recommend Human or Kalashtar for race: human for the feat and skills, kalashtar for the awesome power point bonus and free mindlink once/day.

Overchannel and Talented is a good combo for starting feats, and you can get both even if Kalashtar--bonus Psionic Feat for Psion 1.

And don't forget that while Psions have no armor proficiency, armor doesn't interfere with powers. Therefore, Leather Armor is a valid option.

 

[KarinsDad]

A good secondary attack power is Swarm of Crystals. It's nice for mooks and for opponents already damaged.

The fact that it has no saving throw and no spell resistance is extremely helpful. Rogues do not get to Improved Evasion their way out of this power. Plus, you can Empower it and/or Overchannel it to make it more potent.

However, if you are using Complete Psionics, they added the rule that bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage of powers can be lessened by Damage Reduction. If that is the rule in your game, the power is not as strong.


Entangling Ectoplasm is nice. Ranged Touch and unlike most other powers, you typically will only spend 1 or 3 PP on this. And at high level if you get Quickened Powers or Schism or some such, it is a nice low PP cost power to use then anytime you cannot think of a different low level power to use.


Mental Barrier is a good "oh shoot" type power when someone unexpectedly attacks you with a weapon. It works best if you tend to have other AC powers like Inertial Armor and Force Screen up a lot.


If you like to help out the party, powers like Time Hop allow you to take an extremely wounded, unconscious, confused, dominated, etc. PC and throw him into the future, thus removing him as a target on the field and also giving the rest of the PCs time to handle the encounter before having to heal or handle the PC who is out of sorts. This works better on seriously wounded allies than controlled allies, but either application can work, especially if the ally is a combatant type PC instead of a spell caster.

 

[KarinsDad]

Hopefully this will illicit some better responses than my last post did

It helps more if you give a lot of details on what you want. You were fairly sketchy the last time around.


What are the capabilities of the other PCs? You may or may not want to double up. You may also want to fill in some gaps.

Also, what out of combat (i.e. more roleplaying or other) type of roles do you envision for your PC? Some powers can help with that as well.

 

[Cedric]

Hopefully this will illicit some better responses than my last post did

For what it's worth...EVERYTIME I am CERTAIN I provided all the information I needed to get good, solid answers, the first three posts point out something obvious I should have included.

 

[wildstarsreach]

my last post went horribly awry. Let me be as specific as possible here. I want to play a psion, I am heavily leaning towards kineticist. My role will be artillary, hit 'em high hit 'em hard. I will be playing in Eberron, but having never in Eberron or a psion I am not sure exactly what powers would be best or feats for that matter.

So what 1st-4th level powers would people suggest and why?

What feats would you suggest and why?

what magic items should I seek out?

Hopefully this will illicit some better responses than my last post did

Hopefully my response will be of help. I'm an unabashed power gamer and personally look at the advantages as I'm going along.

I personall prefer a telepath and Kalashtar if possible but if you are going to play a kineticist, choose the energy powers you can because you get with each power, 4 different energy types.

1st
Entangling Ectoplasm, stops enemies from possibly overwhelming your front line.
Psionic charm if you are a telepath, takes care of all charm spells through 9th level equivalents.
Mind thrust, does d10 damage per level if the will save is failed.
Force Screen, +4 or more Deflection bonus
Inertial Armor, +4 or more Armor Bonus
Vigor, +5 hp/PP temporary that will save your characters life
Energy ray.

2nd
Ego whip, dangerous at mid levels as charisma is usually a waste stat for most characters. Even those whose class is charisma dependant, this can easily reduce their effectiveness.
Concussion blast, does force damage and hits like magic missile.
Stygian Ray, negative levels can be game winning on the right target.
Swarm of Crystals, an additional type of damage.
Tongues, great for communicating.

3rd
Body adjustment, your own healing.
Body Purification, restores your ability damage yourself.
Energy Bolt.
Energy Burst.
Psionic Blast, mind flayer staple.
Time Hop, great get away in case they penetrate the front lines.
Empathic Transfer, Hostile if you like getting into melee and like telepaths.
Solicict Psicrystal, concentration powers can maintained by your psicrystal.

4th
Dimension door, great escape power or end run manuever.
Energy Adaptation, best defense power in that it gives you 5 different energy types at once and it scales for free unlike many psionic which you pay for to get additional augments.
Freedom of movement, great against grappling or pinning.
Energy Flash if you like being on the front lines.
Psychic Reformation, Great to maximize character potential.

Feats:
Psionic Meditation, Gains you psychic focus as a move action instead of full round action.
Psicrystal Affinity, gets you a psicrystal familiar.
Psicrystal Containment, stores an extra focus in case you need it.
Empower, probably one of the best feats in that it costs you 2 PP and your psi focus for 50% more damage.
Split Psionic Ray, the best in that it costs 2 PP and your psi focus, as long as you have another metapsionic feat, you get twice the damage.
Psionic Body if you are going with a lot of psionic feats for extra hit points.
Greater and standard Psionic Shot. Good if you are going to be missile weapons.
Point Blank and Precise Shots for ranged touch attacks into melee situations to avoid the upto -8 on the attack.
Expanded Knowledge, great to get powers that you don't have access too.

Magic Items:
Look for most that are applicable to AC and special defenses. I treat them as a mage but are not limited to that since there isn't an armor penalty for manifesting powers.

Here's a link for a discussion I started a while back about some things that I think might need to be implemented.

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=170754

 

[irdeggman]

Be a Kalashtar - +1 pp/character level in addition to other benefits.

 

[KarinsDad]

Psionic charm if you are a telepath, takes care of all charm spells through 9th level equivalents.

Not so good in combat since Charm gets the save at +5 if the target is threatened or attacked.

Not bad out of combat due to it's duration, but Dominate is a lot stronger.

Concussion blast, does force damage and hits like magic missile.

This is an extremely expensive Magic Missile.

11 PP at 11th level to do the same amount of damage that a 9th level Wizard does with a 1st level spell. Against a same level Fighter, you'd probably have to hit him 6 or so times with this (6 rounds 66 PP ~105 hit points) to take him down compared to hitting him twice with an Energy Ray (2 rounds 22 PP ~99 hit points).

Sure, it can have limited utility in that it can do nonlethal damage or it can damage objects, and it is autohit (if the opponent does not have spell resistance), but it is very pricey for the damage it does. It's hard to use it as a "knock out" power, but it can bust up a lock.

Solicict Psicrystal, concentration powers can maintained by your psicrystal.

Very few powers are concentration. So, unless you are doing the Control Body trick, this is almost a worthless power. And, many powers that are concentration have ways to increase their duration. For example, an extra one PP will take Psionic Dominate from concentration to one hour.


The rest of your suggestions are right on target (although I would suggest Psionic Meditation before ever taking Psicrystal Containment).