Inquisitor Barnes needs your help!

[River]

OK I'm playing in a new campaign, and I'm desperately trying to figure out how to make a character concept work.

Its sort of a non min/max idea in a min/max party. Min/max ideas that allow me to stay true to my concept are much appreciated.

The character is Inquisitor Barnes. Cleric1/Psion1 Initial feats in Psycho analysis and Psychic Inquisitor. Human.

Cleric domains are set at Nobility and Trickery <cleric of Hera for campaign reasons> This is to place him as a member of the clergy, it'll be pure psion from this point on unless someone has a suggestion....

Stats
Str 11
Dex 15
Con 14
int 11
Wis 12
Chr 17

I plan to get the "Cop powers" asap, object reading, remote viewing, and what-not.

Ok all that being said here's the rub. Given I've used my two starting feats for non combat things, and I'll be devoting a lot of powers to non-combat, what are the really effcient combat powers I could take?

I've played lots of just about everything else, but never a Psion, and I've never seen a successful one.

Any hints from experienced psions?

 

[Psychotic Jim]

I have personally had little experience with psions, but a lot of the general advice and tactics that you know for a spell-caster can transfer over to a psion, so here's a try:


What is your primary psionic discipline? If you ever intend to raise anymore as cleric, you will probably want to avoid offensive spells and other powers that affect your opponents because of Power Resistance being the exactly the same as spelll resistance unless you use the optional "Psionics is different from Magic" rule. Caster level checks vs. SR/PR would prove to be a pain if you multi-classed at all, so you might go with powers that boost and support your allies' combat abilities. Otherwise, do not worry about this. And also, since you look to be a non-melee character, so you probably want to have powers that let you be useful outside of melee range. If you have to go with damage-dealing powers, try long-range ones.

Lesser Metaphysical weapon is a good boosting power. It gives you +1 on a weapon for 1 hour per manifester level.

Spider Climb might be good if you want to stay out of reach.

Astral Construct I is the equivalent of Summon Monster I, except that you summon a customizable construct from the Astral Plane.

If you wanted to take more of a healing role without having to level up in cleric anymore you could take Empathic Transfer to absorb damage (including poison and temporrary ability damage) from others and then heal yourself iwth Lesser Body Adjustment, which lets you heal some minor damage or even temporary ability damage, something clerics don't get until they can cast Level 2 spells. These powers would be useful in the short run but not so useful in the long run since you could not gain any later versions of these powers as you only have an 11 Str.

For offensive or hindering powers, you mgiht want to get Demoralize or Disable, being Cha-based powers and thus the Save DCs will be highest since telepathy powers are based on Charisma.

Stomp is a good delaying tactic, such as if you need to make a path to escape, and not allowing any spell/power resistance rolls to resist.

Lastly, don't forget the automatic psionic attacks and defenses. And remember, Save DC modifiers and the max level you power you can use of a discipline use different attributes based on the discipline of the power chosen.