Psychic Warrior vs. Fighter

[ruleslawyer]

So.... With a starting wis of 12 and no level-based increases you're restricting yourself to 2nd level powers except when wearing a wis-buff item? Seems PW suffers a bit fromthe multiple prime stat problems.

My point was that there's a big difference between gaining benefits from a high stat and multiple stat dependency. Benefiting from a high Wisdom is not the same as needing one to compete, which, as I noted, the psywarr does not.

Sure, a high Wis is great for granting extra PP, but that's a benefit of the high stat, not a weakness. As I said, there is a stat array out there that's better for the fighter than the psywarr, but it's easy to make a stat array that doesn't penalize the psywarr for stat dependency. The same is NOT true for a monk, for example, who needs high stats across the board to be effective.

The fact is that the typical situation that deprives you of the benefits of your wis-boosting item (a null psionics field or AMF) is also going to deprive you of the ability to use psionic powers anyway. Likewise, a foe is hardly likely to target a dispel at your buff item; why would he do that when he could dispel your psionic buffs instead? Finally, it's easy to get a Wis-boost item that can't be sundered.

As Ridley's Cohort said, it's really the same issue that applies to the paladin and ranger. A high Wisdom is NICE, but it's not NECESSARY for an effective build.

 

[ruleslawyer]

oops...

 

[Teslacoil1138]

The thing is, a lot of the powers can be made as swift actions, so the psychic warrior doesn't necessarily have to spend rounds buffing himself. He can buff WHILE SMASHING . Also, an augmented expansion lasts 1 hour/level, so he can manifest it at dawn and be 2 size categories larger for all of his waking moments if he really wanted.

The ONLY thing a warrior has the edge on is a 4th attack, which the PsyWar doesn't have with his 3/4 BAB. Though the 4th attack is not very likely to hit, especially when using power attack.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Teslacoil1138: While I admit that's impressive, you're talking about a guy who has to spend four rounds of combat buffing to achieve all of that.

Actually not, since at 16th level, it is no problem at all to Quicken that augmented expansion. Note that this single buff causes the PW to outshine the fighter you built. Teslacoil was just gilding the lily...

 

[Spatula]

If he takes a turn, he can manifest immovability (DR 15/-) as well as an augmented offensive prescience (+7 insight to damage, swift action).

Nitpick: No, he can't. Augmenting prescience to a swift action costs 6 PP, which means at most he could only augment the damage bonus to +5 (1 PP base + 9 PP damage augment x3 + 6 PP swift augment = 16 PP, the max that the character can spend on one power).

Also, an augmented expansion lasts 1 hour/level,

I'm pretty sure that's incorrect.

 

[Teslacoil1138]

I'm pretty sure that's incorrect.

Oops, yeah that should be 10 minutes/level, so 160 minutes or 2 hours at level 16, not too bad at all. So technically he *could* spend all his waking hours 2 size categories bigger...

 

[Scion]

If the psychic warrior is burning pp to hustle, spending that action to gain focus, and tossing the focus for a quickened power then he isnt useing focus for any of his other feats.

This hypothetical psychic warrior is burning through pp's like crazy.

18 wisdom = 32 pp
16th level = 79 pp
= 111

3 points for hustle, 16 points for a power to buff up with (min 7 technically) means putting up about 5 powers a day before being burned out completely. So he'll be ok for about one battle that day.

Along with needing a pile of feats and powers known to work along with a non-necissary item worth 1/7 of his total wealth (+6 wis item, basing from starting 12). Doesnt sound incredibly overpowered. Doesnt even sound like a great plan Over the course of a few rounds the psychic warrior is growing stronger and stronger, if the enemy has a bit of sense they might make a tactical retreat for about a minute. Uh oh..lol

 

[Scion]

Oops, yeah that should be 10 minutes/level, so 160 minutes or 2 hours at level 16, not too bad at all. So technically he *could* spend all his waking hours 2 size categories bigger...

Extend would be nice too

 

[Spatula]

If the psychic warrior is burning pp to hustle, spending that action to gain focus, and tossing the focus for a quickened power then he isnt useing focus for any of his other feats.

Note that this is actually impossible. A psychic warrior can't manifest a quickened power and manifest hustle in the same round.

 

[Scion]

True, for some reason I had thought it used an immediate action and therefore could be used at odd times

So that makes that combo even more precarious and unuseable.