High level psion advice?

[NewJeffCT]

Well, related to my post on races with a CHA bonus, the high level party is on the verge of level 18 and one of the main villains they will be facing is a halfling psion. (non standard Golden halfling with a +2 to INT and DEX and -2 to STR and favored class of psion)

In teaming with the sorcerer & evil cleric, he will likely be a level or 2 higher than the party.

I was thinking of having the psion manifest Schism, and then continually manifest advanced Astral Constructs with his "main" mind and spamming the battlefield with them and then using his 2nd mind for defensive purposes (i.e. Intellect Fortress, Dimension Door, etc) , while the sorcerer bombards the party with Area of Effect spells that the constructs can ignore.

Any other ideas? I would prefer to keep it fairly simple in terms of PrCs and the like as well.

Thanks

 

[Alzrius]

Even the strongest astral construct is only CR 10, which your PCs won't have too hard of a time with.

Why not instead have the psion manifest an astral juggernaut? That'll likely be much more effective against them.

A few things need to be noted that aren't in the monster listing, however. Creating this monster requires manifesting the astral juggernaut power, which isn't up on The Grand OGL Wiki yet. To summarize, it's a 9th-level metacreativity power, manifesting the power takes 1 full round, it lasts 1 round/level, and it requires 17 pp and 500 XP. Finally, it can be augmented - for each additional power point spent, the astral juggernaut gains 1 additional Hit Die.

Also, check out The Practical Enchanter, a FREE book from Distant Horizons Games. Appendix A has a revised list of menu abilities for astral constructs (and juggernauts), and there are some interesting new choices there, like Sentient. (The book will likely provide some cool new spells for your sorcerer, too.)

 

[NewJeffCT]

Even the strongest astral construct is only CR 10, which your PCs won't have too hard of a time with.

Why not instead have the psion manifest an astral juggernaut? That'll likely be much more effective against them.

A few things need to be noted that aren't in the monster listing, however. Creating this monster requires manifesting the astral juggernaut power, which isn't up on The Grand OGL Wiki yet. To summarize, it's a 9th-level metacreativity power, manifesting the power takes 1 full round, it lasts 1 round/level, and it requires 17 pp and 500 XP. Finally, it can be augmented - for each additional power point spent, the astral juggernaut gains 1 additional Hit Die.

Also, check out The Practical Enchanter, a FREE book from Distant Horizons Games. Appendix A has a revised list of menu abilities for astral constructs (and juggernauts), and there are some interesting new choices there, like Sentient. (The book will likely provide some cool new spells for your sorcerer, too.)

Is the Juggernaut from Complete Psionic or the Expanded Psionics Handbook? I would prefer to stick with official books, if possible, but the juggernaut is certainly an idea.

With constructs being immune to critical hits and various forms of magic, they can at least last longer on the battlefield than other types of minions and can do things like grapple spellcasters, provide cover for allies, etc.

 

[Alzrius]

The astral juggernaut is from Untapped Potential: New Horizons in Psionics, by Dreamscarred Press. The link above is to where the book's OGC is being reprinted in The Grand OGL Wiki.

I can understand wanting to stick to just "first-party" materials. That said, if you're going to use psionics in your game, you owe it to yourself to check out Dreamscarred's work. Nobody does 3.5 psionics better than them. Nobody.

 

[cooperflood]

Schism is a solid idea, but I would actually have the Psion do all the damage. Maintaining Two or Three Maxamize, Empowered Overchanneled Energy Currents (Including Favorite Energy) at the same time while spamming a situational defensive abilites and various battlefield control stuff with your lower mind can be pretty effective.

The Cleric and Sorcerer can then be in charge of controling the battlefield by using some walls and summons. Both could summon an Elemental Monolith as their opener. Then maintain it while dropping walls and debuffs.

All Three characters are obviously going to need the feat Extraodinary Concentration from ComAdv.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Schism is a solid idea, but I would actually have the Psion do all the damage. Maintaining Two or Three Maxamize, Empowered Overchanneled Energy Currents (Including Favorite Energy) at the same time while spamming a situational defensive abilites and various battlefield control stuff with your lower mind can be pretty effective.

The Cleric and Sorcerer can then be in charge of controling the battlefield by using some walls and summons. Both could summon an Elemental Monolith as their opener. Then maintain it while dropping walls and debuffs.

All Three characters are obviously going to need the feat Extraodinary Concentration from ComAdv.

Thanks - good ideas. The psion could also put up a wall of ectoplasm or similar as well. Since it's a one-time showdown encounter, he won't be worried about burning out his power points - but, neither will the PCs.

And, last I checked, non-epic psions can only apply 1 metamagic feat to a power, unless they take the right chain of feats for their psicrystal and can apply a 2nd to a power.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Is Favorite Energy a feat somewhere? Thanks

 

[Thanee]

Psion NPCs are pretty much broken (at high levels).

If you give them full Psi Points, they are ridiculous, thanks to their ability to spam high-level powers for the whole combat (i.e. Temporal Acceleration + stuff every round in addition to the regular 9th-level power + the 6th-level Schism extra power).

Hopefully the PCs have means to completely disable him (i.e. Antimagic Field + Grapple), otherwise Psion NPC = TPK (unless you do not play him to full potential, of course, which is probably the best way to handle that; reduce PP or don't take the extra action powers).

Bye
Thanee

 

[NewJeffCT]

well, if the party is at level 18 or so and the psion is level 19/20, I'm not sure it will be a TPK... especially since the party has their own psion, plus a cleric and a sorcerer.

 

[Bungus]

Psion NPCs are pretty much broken (at high levels).

If you give them full Psi Points, they are ridiculous, thanks to their ability to spam high-level powers for the whole combat (i.e. Temporal Acceleration + stuff every round in addition to the regular 9th-level power + the 6th-level Schism extra power).

Hopefully the PCs have means to completely disable him (i.e. Antimagic Field + Grapple), otherwise Psion NPC = TPK (unless you do not play him to full potential, of course, which is probably the best way to handle that; reduce PP or don't take the extra action powers).

Bye
Thanee

I was thinking about using a psion down the road for my campaign as well. Can't a sorcerer also spam a battlefield with high level spells for an entire combat as well? I mean, using Arcane Spellsurge and Greater Arcane Fusion and you have 2 spells going off as a swift action and then a metamagicked spell for your standard action.