Recommended powers and feats for 6th level psion

[Al'Kelhar]

I've never played a psionic character before, and I'm looking at designing a 6th level psion (kineticist).

What powers do you recommend I take? The build I'm looking for should a good mix of offence, defence, and useful. I'm currently working on the following list:

1st level : call to mind, entangling ectoplasm, force screen, defensive precognition, skate
2nd level: animal affinity (expanded knowledge), specified energy adaptation, energy missile, forced sense link, psionic suggestion (expanded knowledge) - plus 1
3rd level: dispel psionics, energy cone, energy wall, touchsight

(Ive included call to mind, as the character's supposed to be an arrogant know-it-all, and has 6 knowledge skills, so it should come in handy).

And feats? I've taken two Expanded Knowledge feats (at 5th and 6th level), one for animal affinity and one for psionic suggestion. Is this a waste? I'm also thinking Empower Power and Overchannel, maybe Talented as well?

Any assistance gratefully received.

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

 

[Nightfall]

Too bad our resident psionist, Psion, isn't here to take your call.

 

[Al'Kelhar]

Too bad our resident psionist, Psion, isn't here to take your call.

I am expecting a crank call from Thanee, however, now that I've turned to the Dark PSide.

 

[Particle_Man]

I would recommend using one of those Expanded Knowledge feats to take Astral Construct. Kineticists even get a minor boost with them (menu B, I think).

 

[Nifft]

Most of your powers are good choices. There are some I'd drop.

- Psi Suggestion: It's a fun power at 3rd level, but the save DC can't be raised via augmentation. So it slowly becomes useless.
- Animal Affinity: You won't have time to use this buff on yourself, and you can't share the love by buffing the Fighter.
- Defensive Precognition: Force Screen is better, and with their short duration, you won't have time to use both.

+ Astral Construct is great, especially since so many of your combat powers will have trouble penetrating both SR (PR) and the wide array of outsider energy resistances. Well, except Sonic. But never mind that... Astral Construct is great.
+ Control Object looks fun.
+ Psi Identify doesn't cost 100 GP per item.


Overchannel is fantastic when used with Astral Construct. Talented helps here, too.

I'm always a fan of Up the Walls + Speed of Thought + Psionic Body. You're more maneuverable and more survivable. Don't forget that Expanded Knowledge is a [Psionic] feat (so you gain +2 hp per EK, if you take Psionic Body).

Let's see, that's six feats right off the bat.

1: Up the Walls, Speed of Thought, Psionic Body (1st level, Human bonus, Psion bonus)
3: Overchannel
5: Expanded Knowledge (Astral Construct)
6: Talented

You'll have +12 hit points, too, which is like getting +4 Con. Sweet!

Cheers, -- N

 

[EyeontheMountain]

1st level : call to mind, entangling ectoplasm, force screen, defensive precognition, skate
2nd level: animal affinity (expanded knowledge), specified energy adaptation, energy missile, forced sense link, psionic suggestion (expanded knowledge) - plus 1
3rd level: dispel psionics, energy cone, energy wall, touchsight

(Ive included call to mind, as the character's supposed to be an arrogant know-it-all, and has 6 knowledge skills, so it should come in handy).

And feats? I've taken two Expanded Knowledge feats (at 5th and 6th level), one for animal affinity and one for psionic suggestion. Is this a waste? I'm also thinking Empower Power and Overchannel, maybe Talented as well?

Any assistance gratefully received.

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

Hmm, I would not take three energy powers. Two should be enough, and if one of them is Energy Missle, one should be enough. Animal affinity is nice, to be sure and very versatile. Too bad you cannot use it on others (though I may be wrong) As for Sugestion, I would take aStral Construct instead. One ofthsoe guys is always useful, and at 6th level,you will ahve enough versatility for himto do some good work. I would check to see if the DM uses the ComPsi nerf of only one in existance at a time.

Overchannel is good, but if you go that route, i woud take the other half ofthe pair as soon as possible (I forget the name though, it cuts down damage on lower level powers, specifically Energy Missile.)

A few thoughts, maybe more when I get home and can look stuff up.

 

[Al'Kelhar]

Thanks for all the good suggestions (if you'll pardon the pun). Some further context might help. The character is a grey elf (no bonus human feat, but then +2 Int comes in really handy for a psion, and also means he gets just as many skill points as a human!). The campaign is Red Hand of Doom, so:
(a) not many outsiders, so multiple energy resistances and PR/SR shouldn't be an issue;
(b) the character only has to "work" until 10th level, so inability to augment powers to increase DCs sky-high also shouldn't be an issue.

I'd really like to retain psionic suggestion, cos' it's just so fun. I think with a base Int of 20+ and animal affinity boosting Int, a Will save DC of 19+ should be pretty good against most weak-willed creatures encountered up 'til 10th level.

The character has Wis 10, so those feats requiring Wis 13 are out, sorry. The survival issue is why the character took skate and defensive precognition. My group traditionally fights running battles with the bad guys of 10+ rounds. We don't work to the 3-6 round combat paradigm - hence, the spellcasters will often have time during momentary lulls in combat (i.e. while the fighters are dispatching the last of the previous wave of bad guys and you're waiting for the next wave to appear) to cast defensive spells. I also like the idea of throwing up an energy wall to give my character some time to cast a few of the 1 minute/level defences.

I thought I needed a good 3rd-level offensive power, so chose energy cone - but I will take energy ball at 7th level, and can't swap it out for another power (unlike a sorcerer), so it does seem to be a bit of waste. Any suggestions for a different 3rd-level offensive power?

Can someone explain why augmenting animal affinity by 5 PPs (for a total cost of 8 PPs) allows you to increase two abilities by +4, whereas manifesting it twice only costs 6 PPs? Why wouldn't you just manifest it twice? Presumably this is to cater for the "I only have one round to prepare myself" issue?

Currently, I'm going the whole "let's get as many powers as we can" route, and thinking the following feats:

1st - Boost Construct, Empower Power
3rd - Expanded Knowledge (astral construct)
5th - Expanded Knowledge (psionic suggestion)
6th - Expanded Knowledge (animal affinity)
9th - Overchannel
10th - Talented

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

 

[Nifft]

Empower won't be optimal until 10th level or so, and you'll need vigor to pull it off well. Basically, you'll want to Overchannel to pay for the Empower, and you can't use your Psi Focus for both at the same time. I'd move Empower back to 9th or 10th level.

Overchannel is fantastic (particularly when combined with astral construct and Talented), even at low levels. I'd keep that.

With your race taking a Con penalty, and all your feats being [Psionic], I really highly recommend Psionic Body.

Spend some gold on a Headband of Intellect. Better than animal affinity because you get bonus power points!


1/ Psionic Body, Boost Construct
3/ EK(astral construct)
5/ EK(suggestion)
6/ Overchannel
9/ Talented
10/ Empower Power

Cheers, -- N

 

[Al'Kelhar]

Astral Construct?

Thanks Nifft!

You and many others seem fairly supportive of astral construct. My reading of it is that the constructs created aren't particularly lethal, and on the other hand, aren't particularly useful outside of combat. Even with Boost Construct allowing selection of an additional special ability for them. I appreciate that as constructs they have various immunities, and they're not subject to things which hedge out summoned creatures, but compared to the possible benefits of animal affinity, I'm still not sold. Is there something I'm missing?

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

 

[Bacris]

Having played a kineticist, I'd probably suggest not worrying about multiple energy powers. I pretty much only used energy missile & energy ray (since rays can crit...). While I had energy ball & cone, I never used them. Energy Missile not having the problem of hitting groupmates was too good for the others to really be worthwhile.

Astral Construct is very good in combat & trap finding situations... but outside those, yeah, not so much.

Animal Affinity - remember this is an enhancement bonus, so if you have a headband of intellect, it won't stack. That's why it's not very good.... that and the duration.