StreamOfTheSky
Adventurer
I agree, they're great for soaking damage (and immunities!), which I guess is *part* of the Fighter's purpose. But they really shouldn't be even in the same league for damage/offense with a good fighter. The size can help a lot, but a Fighter can use reach weapons and enlarge person, so that seems a minimal advantage. I will say that IME (and by basic reasoning), the power of summoned creatures varies based on how high- or low-powered the game is. If you have 36 point buy and a little above the suggested treasure per level, the summons will be pretty pathetic. If you had to roll 3d6 for your scores...the summons still have the same stats as in the high powered game, but now all of a sudden those stats actually look really good. The last game I ran was a very high powered gestalt game -- extra bonus feat, 34 point buy, 3/4 HD hp (on top of first one maxed)...And holy cow were summoned critters absolutely worthless other than 1 round speed bumps!
As for Vigor...it's nice IF you frequently get to prep for combats. Many times that might not be the case, and then you are using combat actions. And if you have prep time before a combat often, you'd be much better off playing a self-buff cleric if you really wanted to optimize. I think the reason Vigor is a "steal" for the PP invested has more to do with how absolutely godawful the other healing options seem to be in psionics. And true, while it can prevent damage as opposed to using healing to cure it...it can also be wasted PP if it's not used. And if you don't "waste" enough PP, you might end up getting hammered into your actual hp pool anyway. And with a d4 HD, that means you're either blowing a lot of PP just in case, or putting in a fair amount and fighting cautiously and from away...like any squishy caster. *Shrug* I tend to conserve resources too much (maybe that's why I haven't done well with psionic characters), I'd actually prefer if Vigor healed 5 hp per PP, rather than giving temp hp.
As for Vigor...it's nice IF you frequently get to prep for combats. Many times that might not be the case, and then you are using combat actions. And if you have prep time before a combat often, you'd be much better off playing a self-buff cleric if you really wanted to optimize. I think the reason Vigor is a "steal" for the PP invested has more to do with how absolutely godawful the other healing options seem to be in psionics. And true, while it can prevent damage as opposed to using healing to cure it...it can also be wasted PP if it's not used. And if you don't "waste" enough PP, you might end up getting hammered into your actual hp pool anyway. And with a d4 HD, that means you're either blowing a lot of PP just in case, or putting in a fair amount and fighting cautiously and from away...like any squishy caster. *Shrug* I tend to conserve resources too much (maybe that's why I haven't done well with psionic characters), I'd actually prefer if Vigor healed 5 hp per PP, rather than giving temp hp.
