Psionics help...

[Hanali]

I am running a campaign and it is one of my first to run.

Issue is the people in my campaign are cheese masters delux (Most players have been playing for 10 years plus and know how to min-max their characters).

Anyway one of the players is a psionic and is hell one wheels.

At 5th level he is doing 40 points of damage 6 times in a combat dropping most foes in a single "Mind Blast" with a DC of 19.

How do I contain this? I can up all the foes hit points but if the fights are balanced others will die. I can even cause a non-psion zone but then he is useless most of the time. Most do not have SR or even PR.

So what should I do that is fair or am I being ripped off by someone who knows more?

Thanks

 

[Turanil]

Mind blast? Use mindless creature... (undead, constructs, etc.)

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Sounds like he's exceeding the manifestation limit to me. The key limiter on a psion's power is that he can only spend as many PP on one power as he has levels. So if you have a 5th level Psion, he should be able to do 5d10 (will negates) for an average of 27.5 points of damage. The DC should be +2 over normal - in this case it means he would have to have an INT of 22 to get the DC 19 within the rules. He should have 35 PP if he has a 18 INT, a little more if its higher.

My guess is he's overspending, spending 7 or 8 points instead of his limit of 5 (there are ways to overchannel, but they cause damage to the Psion). That would give him an average damage of 38-42 points with a DC boosted by +3 or +4.

Double check his DC and the manifestation limit. They are your friends.