Nail said:
...and he has a magic item enhances his skill. It's cheap, and so the Psion in question automatically makes every concentration roll he needs to. Heck, he's been doing that since level 12.
which means that he has even more resources spent for this goal. I am unsure what lengths people have to go to before something can be done. There are definately times when some people simply call for too much sacrifice for not enough gain.
Nail said:
You are simply wrong, Scion.
Not if you use the powers and feats as written. But if you are changing them somehow then it is beyond the scope of my arguements.
Nail said:
He's not immobile (Telekinetic Sphere).
'nearly immobile' != 'immobile'.
Spending a standard action to move 30' which is also limited to the size of the space you are trying to move through I think makes the 'nearly immobile' comment very appropriate.
If you move in a round then you dont get any other abilities most of the time, if your foe goes through a door (or portal smaller than the size of the sphere) then they are out of your reach
Nail said:
And since the sphere completely protects him he actually has more PP to spend!
he is protected from 'charge!' type creatures. Quite often stoneskin alone is good enough to seriously impact the amount of damage coming in and it is much easier to cast and it doesnt have any of the other drawbacks.
Or even iron body. If you plan ahead for it all spells you plan on casting can have no somatic component (+1 spell level = +2 pp, but without the focus problem and the added benefit of being useful in other situations where somatic might be a problem). DR 15/adamantine, immune to blindness, critical hits, ability score damage, deafness, disease, drowning, electricity, poison, stunning, and all spells or attacks that affect your physiology or respiration, because you have no physiology or respiration while this spell is in effect. You take only half damage from acid and fire of all kinds.
While it isnt 'you cant attack me unless you have a way to bypass/get rid of a force effect' it is an incredible protection spell which is much easier to use and more applicable to many situations. It is also the same level as the power in question.
Single spell with much more lenient problem areas (or at least easier to bypass) than the power.
Nail said:
Finally, the feat Burrowing Power is amazingly helpful
for this one particular combo that he has come up with it is nice. so long as none of the enemies have any of the number of things which could hamper/destroy this combo and he has spent the other resources to make it work and everything else.
Normally this feat does very little. You normally have to be able to see your target and most barriers that will matter arent exactly transparent. For other effects you are fireing blind
Nail said:
....since the Psion uses the sphere every encounter.
How is a feat that's used every encounter "usually not helpful"?
Considering the cost and the problematic nature of even useing the sphere in the first place I would have to say that this is a campaign specific issue.
If you always fight in very wide open areas with opponenets that cannot dispel/disentegrate/dim door/teleport/move behind obstacles/move a decent amount/use concealment/or anything else which would negate or limit its usefulness and the psion has the necissary resources spent to be able to reliably bypass the barrier and the psion has psychic meditation (otherwise only one power every other round at best, more resources spent to make this work reliably) and the psion limits himself to one level lower than his highest power level known (burrow requires 2pp to fuel) and who knows what else then yes, it could be helpful all of the time.
But then, I would have to say that is a very forgiving and nonstandard campaign and shouldnt be used in a balance discussion. Much like one shouldnt change fireball for the basic rules just because the campaign you are in every creature takes 4x damage from fire. Houserules may be needed to balance things for a particular campaign.
I just dont see how this is useful more than some of the time, and even then it takes at least a round to set up and is easily disruptable by low level spells.
If your high level encounters cant deal with high levels spells or powers then that is the campaigns deal. Even given basic considerations this combo is almost impossible to use.