Psychic Vampire Psionic Power

[kramis]

So, does anyone have any bright ideas on a good (fair) way to apply the psionic power "Psychic Vampire" to attacking wizards, Clerics, and sorcerers when using the "Psionics are the same" rules?

PP to spell level conversion isn't so bad, but deciding which spells to take (who decides) and which levels (higher or lower first, and who decides or is it random) seems a mess.

 

[durath]

Even if you are using the "psionics are the same" rule IMHO this power is pretty cut and dry.

PsiHB page 95-last paragraph:Against psionic beings who have no power points, your touch instead deals 1 point of temporary Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma damage(your choice). You gain 1 power point from this drain. You have the same effect on non-psionic opponents.

That last line pretty much sums it up. You might not be able to steal a spell b ut you could make it so that they no longer have the requisite ability score to even cast spells.

 

[kramis]

useless power

A 5th level power that drains 1 point of an ability score if you make a touch attack? That's pretty much worthless, less than worthless. All of the power descriptions assume "psionics are different" so the part of the spell you quoted doesn't apply. Look under Negate Psionics, or Detect Psionics. Unless psions are running rampant in your world, who would EVER take a 5th level power slot for this unless it worked on other spell casters?

 

[zorlag]

Psychic Vampire

Actually this is a decent power, since it lasts for many rounds - you can keep stealing points every round, draining opponent of his statistics and replacing your point pool at the same time. If you have iterative attacks, it's even better. Best use of this power is to incapacitate multiple opponents, then throw extended (xwhatever) and drain each opponent like this: 1 int - 1 cha - 1 wis and repeating this sequence as long as the opponent is alive. When he croaks, you move to another victim.

Z.

 

[Dr_Rictus]

It's also pretty handy against animals, since they come with an INT of only 2. Doesn't take much damage to that to knock them out.

But, really, the main use against non-psionic opponents is not as an attack spell, but the fact that you can make a profit on the power points you put into it. Hard to see how you could call that "useless."

Especially if you happen to have a bag of tricks.

 

[kramis]

1 pp per round

I hardly think gaining 1 PP per attack for a 9 PP cost spell that doesn't do much to change the battle is worth while. You have to hit 10 times to gain 1 PP.

 

[Rowenstin]

...but you can use it when the battle is over.

 

[Dr_Rictus]

Indeed. Having to hit 10 times is not the issue (especially when you get 2 attacks per round, which generally happens shortly after you gain access to the power) since the only time you'd use it against non-psionic opponents with nontrivial intelligence is after you've already incapacitated them.

Now, having them fail at least 10 saving throws, that's an issue. So, for usage to siphon points from captives, you want to go after the cannon fodder (low saves, not that much lower Int, Wis, and Cha) and against creature types with a slow save schedule in Fortitude.

 

[kramis]

Captured victims

Now that I can see ... using it on captured opponents, although this seems much more suited to a really evil bad guy. Puts you in his torture chair and slowly drains you until you tell me what he wants to know. Of course if he's that high level a psion he could probably just mind probe or dominate anyway. So maybe it's just a refill thing afterall.

My character is a little too "Good" to refill himself from capture foes this way.

Are there any Magic Spells that are similar in nature to this power?

 

[Dr_Rictus]

I think it's somewhat a matter of taste. Some of the effects described for having a 0 ability score are awfully unpleasant, but if you avoid that it's not clear you're not just making the target really groggy for maybe a week or two. I'd certainly be willing to do that to anybody I was willing to kill in the first place.

Mind you, I haven't tried to spring the bag of tricks idea on my party's druid yet! I don't think that would go over too well.

I don't know of any spells that are similar to this, offhand.