How to Solve the Fighter/Psion...suggestions welcome!

[Malum]

Back to the original question in the post and I interpret the post as “how to balance the pc’s”?

I want to reiterate as in my initial post/response the manefesters/spellcasters can & will bypass the capabilities of other classes, that in and of itself is the main contributor to your campaign headache.

1) As for a solution its simple the fighter Psion will have his strong points and these points are only magnified by the lack of power/spellcasting from the others that you can’t change. The other two will have there strengths as well, they will have higher BAB’s, and will be better at fighting & have sneak damage, plus they have several times the skill points and access to a far greater skill selection than a fighter/Psion of equal level. Your campaign should involve many skill ck’s and initiative rolls these are the things to help create balance.

2) How to thwart a Psion? It’s easy force him to make concentration ck’s and spend precious melee rounds trying to regain his focus, as a Psion player I know this to be frustrating to no end! Having him do so is perfectly legit you wouldn’t be picking on him it’s as per rules and this will almost immediately make it closer to a balance than “fixing” the campaign encounters.
3) If he gets into melee he will be in trouble (low hit points low bab and unremarkable AC) the enemy will know or should know that he is a witch of some sort and he will then become the main focus of their undivided attention.
4) If he is standing back and blasting the enemy should simply treat him as a Wizard and focus on killing him or timing attacks “readied attacks” to mess up his concentration.

Oh and by the way an approximate 25 AC at 9th level isn’t something I would consider remarkable by any means. Fullplate (+8), Force screen +4 and precog defense +2 ? Especially considering when any enemy with an int above lets say 5 would certainly focus their attacks on the only caster/blaster in the party.

Don’t fret the enemies & the rules should create the balance you desire.

Malum

 

[Arabesu]

AC from Powers

It seems like the Elan is able to use multiple rounds to buff up before a fight in order maintain that high armor class and high hit points; if they were surprised and flat footed they would totally be hosed: AC19 max, no bonus hit points, and unable to use resilience/resistence.

Remember that both force screen and def precog both only last for 8 minutes. If they have to keep track of the time more carefully, they'll probably wait to throw these up until the last minute, which means that three rounds into the fight they'll finally be able to start actually doing some damage. They could use quickened forms to get them up more quickly, but if I recall these are horribly pp ineffecient and mean fewer pp left for hp and energy balls.

If they try to rush, ie to get multiple encounters into that 8 minute window, then they get what they deserve when they rush into a trap.

 

[irdeggman]

A psionic character can't spend more pp on a pwer than his manifestor level. In this case the PC can't use more than 8 pp on a given power.

Also - try touch attacks.

A Warlock might just ruin the PCs' day.

Noxious blast (nauseates on failed Fort save) - still takes eldritch blast damage. alright an 8th level Warlock can't access this one.

Use Devil's Sight and Hungry Darkness

An 8th level Warlock does 4d6 base damage with his blast as a ranged touch attack.

 

[KuKu]

I've been running a couple of D&D games set in the Judges Guild WIlderlands setting. Things have been fine...but just lately, one of my players has hit upon a character that seems to bust open the EL system for judging encounter diffciulty whilst at the same time causing resentment amongst my other players who see the player as being a munchkin.
The character in question is an Elan Fighter Psion (level 1 figher, level 8 psion). Endowed with a high armour class (currently around 25), shield proficiency, the psion power 'Vigor' (grants extra temporary hitpoints), the ability to absorb hitpoint damage by burning powerpoints and mass damage inflicting powers (like energy ball), my barbarian/rogue player and my ranger/rogue are feeling suitably hard done by. The combination seems unbelleivably unbalanced...possibly the worst I've seen in 3.5 rules. And I was just too shortsighted to head this player off at the beginning. I've got a true monster on my hands.
I need help. Hopefully someone can alert me to some balancing rule that I'm missing, or some means to solve the situation amicably. To be honest encounters which threaten the other PC's are usually of no danger to the armoured psion with seemingly infinite hitpoints. My game is soon going to resemble a bad joke.
Anyway, thanks for your time if you read this.

AC 25 is high for level 9 tank? It seems about average to me. Full plate +1 and a tower shield +1 can easily get anyone to 24. Why is the party always able to get the jump on the bad guys? That is likely the time vigor is going up along with other buffs. Why is the psion not running out of pp? Resiliance is expensive, buffs can be expensive, blasting every round is expensive. This character has low bab so is not going to be making many attacks and low hp so must rely on vigor and resiliance in combat. He has to burn 9 power points and at least one immediate action to get the same amount of average hit points as a fourth level barbarian + fourth level rogue. The other characters have more skills and different combat options than the kineticist. I would suggest grapples and touch attacks though. Stirges are mighty fun and this character probably doesnt have much placed in some stats.

 

[Malum]

AC 25 is high for level 9 tank?

that was my question as well it would seem unremarkable in my campaigns maybe even painful. By 9th level a good melee combatant can EASILY roll well into the 30's on his first strike and has a reasonable chance to do so on follow up strikes, 2 of these and your mighty Psion is likely down for the count considering his 1d4 hit points / level.

Malum

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

A low number of encounters to day strongly favors classes with powerful expendable resources. Of the Core classes Wizards are the worst -- hard to touch a savvy Wizard who has his highest spellslots to burn. But Sorcerors, Clerics, and Druids will inevitably become unbalanced as well if the DM encourages them to optimize tactics for the sprint over the marathon.

Psions and Psionic Warriors are even worst in this respect-- a 9th level Psion can cast the equivalent of ~9 5th level spells, which should be sufficient to waltz through 1-2 combats per day without breaking a sweat.

 

[KarinsDad]

2) How to thwart a Psion? It’s easy force him to make concentration ck’s and spend precious melee rounds trying to regain his focus, as a Psion player I know this to be frustrating to no end! Having him do so is perfectly legit you wouldn’t be picking on him it’s as per rules and this will almost immediately make it closer to a balance than “fixing” the campaign encounters.

This is basically inaccurate for any psion that takes reasonable ranks in Concentration, takes the Psionic Meditation feat (practically a must take), and/or takes 5 foot steps away from combat to manifest.

3) If he gets into melee he will be in trouble (low hit points low bab and unremarkable AC) the enemy will know or should know that he is a witch of some sort and he will then become the main focus of their undivided attention.

This too can be inaccurate. I ran a Psion for 9 levels who constantly went into combat. It's all dependent on which powers and feats the Psion takes.

Psions can easily and quickly boost their hit points, their to hits, their AC. The bane of a Psion is to hit him in a surprise round, or to hit him with Dispel Magic.

AC 25 is high for level 9 tank?

that was my question as well it would seem unremarkable in my campaigns maybe even painful. By 9th level a good melee combatant can EASILY roll well into the 30's on his first strike and has a reasonable chance to do so on follow up strikes, 2 of these and your mighty Psion is likely down for the count considering his 1d4 hit points / level.

It never happened in our game. Course, my psion had a high CON and typically higher than 25 (at level 9) AC and rarely fought without a minor Vigor up.

But, you are forgetting Resilience for an Elan Psion. If he happens to get in a tight situation like that, one of those successful attacks (especially a critical) will probably do zero damage. Sure, it sucks up PP, but it is better to be low on PP than to be unconscious or dead.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Thanks to both of you....I'm feeling pretty dumb right about now: I guess the majority of my problems come from the fact that I tend to run only one or two encounters per session....although this is mainly during wilderness travel (which takes up A LOT of my game time). I suppose the spotlight will fall logically given enough time.

As Ridleys Cohort points out, this is really the problem. If the ftr/psion in the party was replaced by a straight psion or wizard or druid you would be finding them dwarfing the other players capabilities in only one or two encounters per day.

More encounters per day is the best solution, especialy if there are encounters that look more serious than they are (encouraging the psion to use his buffs too early) or encounters which will retreat and regroup.

Cheers

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Elans may be immune to the effects of mind affecting abilities targeted at them, but they are NOT immune to the ramifications of such magics used on their allies.

It truly sucks to be on the recieving end of all those nifty tactics and abilities your party uses to beat their enemies...

 

[kigmatzomat]

As a DM, I understand the dislike of running multiple encounters. It can be time consuming and turns the game session into a dice fest. The solution is tactics and strategy.

All sentients in the D&D universe are aware of magic's existence, much as people today know about firearms. Specific details are hazy but "zot-zot-you're-dead" is a well understood notion. It's also a hard to miss fact that magic has a duration and very few casters will be able to long-lasting magic or a lot of magic.

Strategy and tactics should take that into account. Ambushes can bleed casters of healing spells. Feints can cause buffs and protective spells to be used when you have no intention of entering combat. Harassment can prevent casters from sleeping, cutting their spell recovery down.

Opponents with access to illusion spells should use them at distance. I like illusions of big flying monsters outside of true sight range. A dozen archers with rapid shot and a +6BAB could easily provide a believable arrow barrage from 40 low level archers (~36 arrows landing on/around the party).

Using a few of these tactics will result in more "encounters" per day without significantly increasing the number of NPCs you need to manage or the total time spent in combat but it will begin bleeding your casters' reserves and making the non-casters' contributions much more important.