Kickass ways to use psionics

[Jeph]

I may be in the minority, but i see nothing wrong with Psionics. In fact, the Unavoidable Strike, Fell Shot, and Deep Impact feets can make them almost broken.

I myself have made mant effective Psionic characters. Has anyone else?

Please post ways that you have used, will use, or think would work to make Psionic characters totally awesome.

I'd prefer if you just used the PsiHb and Wizards online supplement, ITCK isn't really that neccassary.

Post . . .

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Could you post your combos?

It's really hard to keep psions alive, but remember you can wear armor that has no ACP (MW studded leather, MW small shield, then get them enhanced).

 

[Chun-tzu]

Psychic Warriors should consider taking the Trigger Power feat and one level of Psion (Egoist), so they can gain access to Lesser Body Adjustment. With the Psychic Warrior's high Strength and Strength-boosting powers and items, this works out to a lot of free healing, and that's a heck of a bonus for a melee combatant. Throw in errata'd Vigor and Improved Vigor, and your Psychic Warrior can take more punishment than a Barbarian.

 

[demon_jr]

correct me if i am wrong, but i believe there is a a meta-psionic feat that doubles the duration of a psionic power for the cost of 2 extra power points.

if my calculations are correct, a 10th level psychic warrior can have this feat, along with the powers of Vigilance and Polymorph Self.

with this feat, the psychic warrior can have Polymorp Self active for 20 hours a day.

in addition, Vigilance can be active for 20 hours a day as well. the benefit of vigilance is that it allows you to not only see through mundane darkness, but magical darkness too, as well as other hindrances to sight.

have Vigilance up and get someone to cast Darkness on an item you are carrying. you can engage in melee with someone, while being able to see through the magical Darkness and causing your opponent to suffer the effects of having to fight in darkness.

i have never actually tried the above scenario, but i assume it could be valid, unless someone knows otherwise.

 

[Spatzimaus]

The Vigilance-Darkness combo works fine, AFAIK, except that when the darkness is magical, Vigilance only lets you see 10'. If you're a melee fighter and know exactly where your target is, this isn't as much of a problem, although it still becomes easy for an opponent to move away from you into the darkness where you can't find them.
It's still effective, just not quite as nice as you'd think.

Chun-Tzu: I think it was covered in the errata, or it might have been from a rules clarification on this board from before, but if your Psychic Warrior takes 1 level of Psion you'll only get a couple power points, because the number across the top of the bonus table is Psion level (i.e., the class level in Psion), not character level. Even with a really high STR that's not much.
Also, the self-healing isn't THAT useful, since those spells are full-round spells, so you'll only use them between fights; their healing ratio is also bad compared to divine heals. You're better off using Vigor or one of its upgrades (make sure you're using the errata'd version).

As to the original topic:
Psychic Warriors are a great class all-around. You've got almost as many Feats as a Fighter, spell usage, and the Psionic Feats include a LOT of great ones, like Deep Impact. Their spell selection is very limited, although they've got all the good defensive ones, and a lot of (1 hour/level)-duration spells. Your BAB hurts a bit, though.
So, it's hard to have a bad concept for a Psychic Warrior. You can play him just like a Fighter/Rogue and still come out ahead.

Psions, on the other hand, have some problems. (My main character is a multiclassed Psion, BTW.) It's tough to have an effective Psion character, IMHO, because the class requires you to specialize far more than other spellcasters do. Pick a specialty, pick a PrC (the web enhancement stuff has a few good ones), and run with it.

 

[Chun-tzu]

Chun-Tzu: I think it was covered in the errata, or it might have been from a rules clarification on this board from before, but if your Psychic Warrior takes 1 level of Psion you'll only get a couple power points, because the number across the top of the bonus table is Psion level (i.e., the class level in Psion), not character level. Even with a really high STR that's not much.

Um, okay. It's not about the power points, though.

Also, the self-healing isn't THAT useful, since those spells are full-round spells, so you'll only use them between fights; their healing ratio is also bad compared to divine heals. You're better off using Vigor or one of its upgrades (make sure you're using the errata'd version).

YMMV, but for a combat character, I can't imagine any other first level spell/psi-power I'd rather have unlimited use of than healing (even if it's primarily between fights). If your party has more than enough healing to go around, then it's hardly necessary, but I think most parties need as much healing power as they can get.

You're right, it's not all that powerful, but it's plenty useful in my book.

 

[green slime]

1 level of Paladin is worthwhile for a Telepath.

You get the Charisma mod bonus to all saves, armour use, and the ability to patch a minor wound.

As the Telepath should have a maxed out Charisma, the bonus to all saves will be enormous.

Grab leadership (of course) for some faithful bodyguards, and charm your way to the presidency/empirial crown.

Of course, whether your DM is happy to have a LG paladin/telepath coercing/tricking innocents with charm, dominate, Bluff, and Intimidate, is another matter entirely...

 

[Spatzimaus]

YMMV, but for a combat character, I can't imagine any other first level spell/psi-power I'd rather have unlimited use of than healing (even if it's primarily between fights).

It's not a question of whether it's useful. It's a question of whether it's useful enough to lose a level of Psychic Warrior (with their own spell progression, higher HP and BAB, 1/3 of a Feat...) On the other hand, being a Psion gives a psicrystal.

Let's say I have an 11th-level Psychic Warrior. That gives me a grand total of 40 power points. So, if I use my ENTIRE power pool, I can heal 140 hit points. With a CON of 16, at that level I'd have 86 HP, so between fights I can heal myself almost two times over, IF I blow all my power points on that. If I use half of my power points for other things, I can only heal 70 HP.
I didn't even include enhancement bonuses to CON from an item or Animal Affinity. Let's say +4, bringing my total HP up to 108.

(Actually, my character is a Ranger 1/Monk 1/Psychic Warrior 7/Diamond Warrior 6, but who's counting? She casts as an 11th-level Psychic Warrior, and that's what we're discussing here.)

The biggest problem is that the healing ratio is only 3.5:1. With the really small power pool of a PsyWarrior, this is crippling. At this point I'm not even looking at between-fight healing, I'm talking about day-off healing, where you wait until the next day to heal yourself. A Psychic Warrior who saves all of his points up for self-healing is just an underpowered Fighter/Rogue.

Now, the alternative:
Vigor ((3*level, max 18) temporary HP for 1 power point) or its upgrades can be REALLY powerful. Since they only take 1 action to cast, they become really useful to cast during combat with a haste action.
Inertial Barrier (DR 10/+5, (10*level max 150) points absorbed for 7 pp) is even more efficient.
The point is, throw on those, a Displacement, a couple Animal Affinities, and maybe a Polymorph Self, and you're far better off than if you saved your power points for the self-healing.
That's not even including Deep Impact (5 points per use) or Psionic Weapon (1 per).

 

[Chun-tzu]

The biggest problem is that the healing ratio is only 3.5:1. With the really small power pool of a PsyWarrior, this is crippling.

Um, did you forget the part where I've been saying from the very beginning that what's cool is Trigger Power: Lesser Body Adjustment? As in, zero power point cost (if your Strength is high enough to make the check)?

 

[Spatzimaus]

I didn't miss it. Trigger Power gives you a STR check, DC 13. Even with a STR of 20, you'll still fail 35% of the time, which brings the HP ratio up to 10:1, and that's STILL less than the ratio of Vigor or Inertial Barrier.

The other problem is, Trigger Power also has two Feat prerequisites: Inner Strength and Talented, both of which bite for Psiwarriors. So, you're spending three Feats and a level of your main class to get self-only healing ability that can't really be used during combat, and that's inferior in amount to the more specialized powers Psychic Warriors already get.

You're better off buying a Wand of Cure Light Wounds and using Use Magic Device.