New Psionics Balance

[Eltern]

My LGS sold out before I picked up a copy,
but looking through the feat list on the WotC site
Inertial Armor was missing, as a no-brainer psion feat in 3.0
was it removed or modified? ..thats a lot of NPC psionic halflings
that I will need to change.....

Inertial Armor was broken out of its mind Granted, I would love to have had some form of Inertial Armor again, but as it was it was too much. A psionic warrior who took Inertial Armor for each of his bonus feats had a VERY large amor class, even for everything he put into it.

 

[Plane Sailing]

A psionic warrior who took Inertial Armor for each of his bonus feats had a VERY large amor class, even for everything he put into it.

Inertial Armour didn't stack with itself...

 

[Caliban]

Inertial Armour didn't stack with itself...

But the "Improved Inertial Armor" feat on the WOTC website increased it's AC by +2, and you could take it multiple times.

Inertial Armor is now a power, not a feat. And you can augment it's AC by spending extra power points. It's basically a better version of Mage Armor. And Force Screen is a better version of Shield, since it can also increase it's AC by spending power points.

 

[Eltern]

But the "Improved Inertial Armor" feat on the WOTC website increased it's AC by +2, and you could take it multiple times.

Exactly.

 

[GodPhoenix]

I don't have the XPH (but I'm planning on getting it and playing a psionic character soon) and I'm not really following the debate on MetaPsi feats and "losing psionic focus" and psi meditation. Can someone explain how MetaPsi feats and psiFocus affect each other (and what psionic focus is)? Thanks!

 

[Spatula]

I'm waiting until I play with them more to make a final judgement, but my first impression are that they are little too good. Why play a sorcerer?

Because you get "free" scaling on a lot of powers. And the ability to change out poor spell choices. And you're a more flexible caster overall - although the sorcerer needs extra time to use metamagic on his spells, he can combine multiple metamagic effects on a single spell; can use metamagics, Spell Penetration, and Spell Focus simultaneously; and in fact always gets the benefits of Spell Penetration and Spell Focus.

The power flexibility thing is a wash, to me. Psionic equivalents of spells are better in some ways, worse in others. The duration of Psionic Dominate has already been brought up. Moment of Prescience is another - the magic version lasts 1 hour/lvl, the psionic version lasts 1 round/lvl. A lot of psionic powers can only be used on the psion, when the spell equivalent can be cast on others (Inertial Armor, Plane Shift, Animal Affinity).

 

[Spatula]

I don't have the XPH (but I'm planning on getting it and playing a psionic character soon) and I'm not really following the debate on MetaPsi feats and "losing psionic focus" and psi meditation. Can someone explain how MetaPsi feats and psiFocus affect each other (and what psionic focus is)? Thanks!

Psionic Focus is a "state" you can achieve with a full-round Concentration check (DC 20). Most psionic feats require that you are currently focused in order to use them (Speed of Thought) or that you "spend" your focus in order to use them (all psionic weapon, power penetration, all metapsionic feats). Once your focus is spent you need another full-round DC 20 Concentration check to get it back.

Psionic Meditation is a psionic feat that reduced the time to regain your focus from a full-round action to a move action.

 

[Plane Sailing]

But the "Improved Inertial Armor" feat on the WOTC website increased it's AC by +2, and you could take it multiple times. .

Ha Ha! I don't think I've seen a single spell on the WotC website that I'd let into my game, and it sounds like that goes for feats too. How whacked out is that?

Inertial Armor is now a power, not a feat. And you can augment it's AC by spending extra power points. It's basically a better version of Mage Armor. And Force Screen is a better version of Shield, since it can also increase it's AC by spending power points.

Yes, I'd heard about that. I really like the idea of augmentable inertial armour and force screen. It is almost like having higher spell level versions of mage armour and shield which don't have to be learned separately.

It might be interesting to compare the psion powers with the cleric spells - what are they? shield of faith and magic vestments? - that are low level spells which scale with caster level automatically.

Cheers

 

[Hardhead]

What I don't like is the fact that the Psychic Warrior doesn't get to use his cool Psionic combat feats anymore, which is the cornerstone of the class. I think Psionic Meditation is so important for them, it breaks the "FSBNBNR" rule (feats should be fine but not necessary). It's basically their Natural Spell. Every Psychic Warrior is going to need it. Even then, they still can't make full round attacks.

The general 3.0 consensus was that Psychic Warriors were a bit better than fighters. Though I haven't played them yet, at first glance I believe in 3.5 they're worse. Maybe even significantly so.

 

[James McMurray]

Only Psychic Warriors who get feats that require the expenditure of focus will want Psionic Meditation. It is completely possible to build a worthwhile psychic warrior without using any of those feats.