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<blockquote data-quote="Kalendraf" data-source="post: 1548042" data-attributes="member: 3433">One immediate problem I see is that it's very easy to make a well-armored spellcaster.&nbsp; Since psionics is unaffected by armor, you can essentially have the benefits of a good AC (usually reserved for non-spellcasting classes or cleric) in combination with the firepower of a wizard or sorcerer.&nbsp; Even a psion, who has no armor proficiency can wear armors and shields with an AC penalty of 0 and suffer no ill effects.&nbsp; So for example, you could find your Psion wearing +2 studded leather and a +2 buckler and never needing to spend any powers or points on things like Force Screen or Inertial Armor.&nbsp; I recently went thru the exercise of making up some premade 3rd level psionic characters and even the Psion had an AC of 20 before applying any powers.The Wilder can be deadly with a power like Mind Thrust.&nbsp; A 3rd level Wilder could deal up to 50 points of damage for a mere 3 power points each round.&nbsp; With an 18 charisma, they can do that 6 times (assuming an elan or maenad for example) before exhasting their power pool.&nbsp; Of course, they do risk the psychic enervation and that will likely hit it before being able to do this 6 times, but the potential for wreaking havoc is still there.&nbsp; I suspect that an NPC wilder with Mind Thrust can easily lead to multiple PC deaths, especially if they target characters with weak will saves like rogues.&nbsp; I think it would be interesting to set up this encounter (3rd level wilder vs. party of four 5th level characters) and see how often it results in a party fatality.&nbsp; By the EL calculator, that shouldn't be a very likely occurance as it's just an EL3 encounter for a 5th level party.&nbsp; But I strongly suspect the wilder will take out 1 or more characters in several of the test runs.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Kalendraf, post: 1548042, member: 3433"] One immediate problem I see is that it's very easy to make a well-armored spellcaster. Since psionics is unaffected by armor, you can essentially have the benefits of a good AC (usually reserved for non-spellcasting classes or cleric) in combination with the firepower of a wizard or sorcerer. Even a psion, who has no armor proficiency can wear armors and shields with an AC penalty of 0 and suffer no ill effects. So for example, you could find your Psion wearing +2 studded leather and a +2 buckler and never needing to spend any powers or points on things like Force Screen or Inertial Armor. I recently went thru the exercise of making up some premade 3rd level psionic characters and even the Psion had an AC of 20 before applying any powers. The Wilder can be deadly with a power like Mind Thrust. A 3rd level Wilder could deal up to 50 points of damage for a mere 3 power points each round. With an 18 charisma, they can do that 6 times (assuming an elan or maenad for example) before exhasting their power pool. Of course, they do risk the psychic enervation and that will likely hit it before being able to do this 6 times, but the potential for wreaking havoc is still there. I suspect that an NPC wilder with Mind Thrust can easily lead to multiple PC deaths, especially if they target characters with weak will saves like rogues. I think it would be interesting to set up this encounter (3rd level wilder vs. party of four 5th level characters) and see how often it results in a party fatality. By the EL calculator, that shouldn't be a very likely occurance as it's just an EL3 encounter for a 5th level party. But I strongly suspect the wilder will take out 1 or more characters in several of the test runs. [/QUOTE]

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