Real World Experience with XPH Psions?

[Nail]

Heh, heh.

"no choice but to heighten his spells..."

Psions = No choice. Poor psion.

 

[The Souljourner]

Heh, heh.

"no choice but to heighten his spells..."

Psions = No choice. Poor psion.

Try telling a player with a 9th level wizard that in order to get 9d6 out of his fireball, that he has to heighten it to 5th level, otherwise it'll only do 5d6.... think he'll be happy? I thought not.

Given that heighten is a metamagic feat I've *never* seen used... I think that mandatory heighten in order to scale is definitely a drawback.

-The Souljourner

 

[cotton]

There is one psion in my group. He is a Thri-kreen Kineticist/Monk. The powers he chose, such as Inertial Armor (+AC) and Energy Missile (ranged attack) complement his monk abilities very well.

Oh, monks are houserule'd in our game to not have multiclass restrictions, which is why this combo happens to be viable.

 

[Spatula]

I am also preparing to DM using Psionics for the first time. I was looking at Augmenting Powers and treating them as "meta-magic" spells -- i.e. increasing the manifesting time to 1 full round, instead of standard action.

Does this go too far in hampering Psionic characters? I may just play them as is, but let the players know that house rules are likely to be added, if needed.

Yes, that goes too far. The psion already has a "full-round" manifesting time built-in when he uses metapsionics (manifester power w/metapsionic feat as standard action, regain focus as move action), providing an obvious parallel with sorcerers using metamagic. The psion's powers do not scale in effect with level (aside from a handful of exceptions) as spells do, so the psion needs to be able to augment them in order to keep up with the spellcasters. If augmenting his powers eats up an extra move action, then the psion is forced to choose between manifesting powers as a lower-level character (effectively) or being a sitting duck and never using metapsionics (since he can't spare the extra action to regain focus).

 

[Nail]

Try telling a player with a 9th level wizard that in order to get 9d6 out of his fireball, that he has to heighten it to 5th level, otherwise it'll only do 5d6.... think he'll be happy? I thought not.

"Say, wizard: I'm ruling that from now on you have to take the heighten spell feat. I'm also going to require you to memorize fireball as a 5th level, heightened spell in order to get that 9d6 damage....so you'll have to know beforehand how much damage you'd like to do.

"I'm also going to require you to to take the feat Energy Substitution four times, one for cold, sonic, fire, and lightning, and I'm going to require you to use it. You have to select beforehand, when you memorize the spell, what energy type you'll want to use in some undisclosed battle in the future.

"Finally, I'm going to require you to take the Still Spell, Silent Spell, and Eschew Materials feats, and use them all at all times.

"Hey: no worries! That's only 8 feats you are required to take!

"Why am I doing this? So you can be as limited as the psion, of course! What do you mean, you can't cast your spells spontaneously? What's the problem? Surely there must be a feat for that....."[/QUOTE]

 

[The Souljourner]

Nail, given the option of getting all those feats for free and using them for free, but then being required to use heighten to get scaling benefits... I would honestly choose not to get those benefits and instead get automatic scaling.

But that's not why we're here. I just wanted to see what people's experiences were in actual games, since I know that can differ a lot from just looking at stuff on paper.

-The Souljourner

 

[Henry]

Yeah, no kidding. Does it really get much use amongst characters that take it? It seemed to me, on reflection, that by the time your Concentration skill got high enough to be generally using the feat every other round, the +2d6 isn't that big a deal any longer ... I'm not sure I want to burn my character's two first-level feats on that.

Well, for those who plan to use it, Point Blank Shot is not a waste regardless. And besides, the main use by the person using it is as his "shotgun blast" at the start of any hostile encounter. After he uses it, he either uses his crossbow normally, or drops it in favor of spells or powers. Later, he takes two minutes and takes "20" to regain his focus, and he readies it for the next encounter. (The rules don't say you can or can't take 20 on regaining Focus, but I couldn't see why not; it's either that, or watch him make 20 to 30 rolls to regain his focus with a lame Concentration skill, so I just let him take the 20 if there's downtime after a combat.)

 

[Christian]

Yeah, that's kinda what I figured. I think I'll probably go another direction-that's too limited a role for spending two feats ...

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

It seems to me that the various feats like Psionic Shot, Psionic Weapon, Wounding Strike, and Deep Impact are far better for Psychic Warriors than for Psions.

As a Psion, Psionic shot might be made to do some work in the low levels--spend feats on Point Blank Shot and Psychic Shot, get Precise Shot at 3rd level and open up battles with an Energy Ray and drop psionic focus for an extra 2d6 damage on it. Not too shabby. Compared to using Psionic focus for Empower Power, it's a good deal right up until 12th level. (At that point, 12d6 from a maximally augmented energy ray or crystal shard +2d6 psionic shot yields 14d6 damage while a maximally augmented, empowered energy ray or crystal shard will yield about 15d6 points of damage). Even at those levels, however, it might provide a good way to conserve power points. Regaining Psionic Focus with psychic meditation and firing off a reduced power psionic shot will often be a good way to contribute to battles that are in hand.

Still, it seems much more like a strategy for a psychic warrior focussed on archery to employ. A multiclassed PsyWar/Fighter/Order of the Bow Initiate might even be able to make Ranged Precision effective with the extra 2d6 from Psionic Shot or 4d6 from Greater Psionic Shot. (Especially with the piercing ranged weapon ability). I'm not too certain about that myself though.

Well, for those who plan to use it, Point Blank Shot is not a waste regardless. And besides, the main use by the person using it is as his "shotgun blast" at the start of any hostile encounter. After he uses it, he either uses his crossbow normally, or drops it in favor of spells or powers. Later, he takes two minutes and takes "20" to regain his focus, and he readies it for the next encounter. (The rules don't say you can or can't take 20 on regaining Focus, but I couldn't see why not; it's either that, or watch him make 20 to 30 rolls to regain his focus with a lame Concentration skill, so I just let him take the 20 if there's downtime after a combat.)

 

[Shadowdweller]

On Scaling: Look, it's just been my experience that it's easier...or at least simpler...to get higher save DCs for Psionic Powers than for spells. I still contend that it's not merely a matter of a few 1 for 1 increase powers or the Overchannel feat, but YMMV.