Tactical Psionic Warrior help

[Cabral]

Expansion is nice - extra damge and all that. Also battle field control due to extra Reach.

It's nice, but doesn't really fit with this char.

Your two Precognition powers - Nice - But frankly not that great until you can quicken them effectivly. I'd only take theone that grants to hit bonus cause that gives you that tactical flexibility you want - as you can convert it to damage with PA

Hmm. Good point, Power Attack with a 2handed weapon effectively allows to convert some or all of the plus to hit power into a bonus to damage. Effectively givingyou both powers in one casting...

Strength of my Enemy - Sounds Great - But Effectivly Unless You plan on Hitting some one lots for low damage it's not that great. I'd drop it for a great sword weilder.

I'll probably switch this with Animal Affinity. Although the potential +8 strength (+4 to hit and +6 damage) -8 to your opponent is tempting, but that would be at the end of the fight ...

Force sheild is great defensivly.

Vampiric Blade aint all that great. It's useful But I think their better powers. It heals half of the base damage of the weapon which ani't all that much. Go for hostile empathic transfer instead.

When I know how the player feels on "flashy" powers I'll consider a replacement ...

Dimensional Slide is amazing.

That's what I thought 1 more level and he can manifest it as a move action ... but then again, he doesn't have to wait if I throw in Overchannel ... hmm. Choices Choices...

Feats
Drop expnad knowledge Energy Ray - Which while useful is a strength pick up a bow for ranged problems.
Instead pick up overchannel.

The extra manifester levels will count.
and with vigour and HEP you should be OK for HP

I gave him Energy Ray because it deals with 2 problems ... foes at a distant and monsters with DR or weakness to an energy type ...

use Hustle to Keep Focus if necissary - Deep Impact PA to tear into anything that bothers you.

That's a nice combo I hadn't considered

Thanks for the help.

 

[Cabral]

Alright still haven't heard back about "flashy" powers so revision is kind of limited...
Feats:
Psionic Body
Speed of Thought
Up the Walls
Psionic Meditation
Psionic Weapon
Expanded Knowledge (Mindlink*)
Expanded Knowledge (Energy Ray*)
Deep Impact
Combat Expertise
Power Attack
Overchannel

Powers:
Call Weaponry*
Precognition, Offensive*
Prescience, Offensive*
Dimension Swap*
Strength of my Enemy*
Prescience, Defensive* (though may add it back in)
Vampiric Blade
Dimension Slide*
Four from:
Hustle, Vigor*, Force Screen* (or Thicken Skin*), Biofeedback*, Animal Affinity*, and Body Adjustment*

*denotes augmentable powers.

I'm not sure how worried about spell points he should be since I use the vitalizing spell point option from Unearthed Arcana ... so getting low means penalties, but resting means more spell points...

 

[KarinsDad]

No Vigor? Vigor is fantastic. Take it right after Expansion. It lasts for 1 hour/level, so it's a great all-day buff at this level.

Last I saw, Vigor is a one minute per level power.

 

[Cabral]

Okay, I think I'll take one defensive power, I think I'll ditch the DR from biofeedback so that leaves, Thicken Skin, Force Shield, or Precognition, Defensive
Touch attacks ignore Thicken Skin and Force Screen (except against incopreal touch attacks)
When he loses his dex bonus, he also loses Force Screen and Precognition, Defensive
Precognition, Defensive also gives a bonus on all saves.
Precognition, Defensive and Force Screen have a duration of 1 min/lvl while Thicken Skin has a duration of 10 min/lvl

They're all first level so they cost a base of 1 power point
so let's compare power points spent (PP) to AC bonus provided by Thicken Skin (TS), Force Screen (FS), and Prescience, Defensive (PD)

PP    FS    PD    TS
1     +4    +1    +1
2     +4    +1    +1
3     +4    +1    +1
4     +4    +2    +2
5     +5    +2    +2
6     +5    +2    +2
7     +5    +3    +3
------------------------------------------------------
8     +5    +3    +3    | Current Character Level
------------------------------------------------------
9     +6    +3    +3
10    +6    +4    +4
11    +6    +4    +4
12    +6    +4    +4
13    +7    +5    +5
14    +7    +5    +5
15    +7    +5    +5
16    +7    +6    +6
17    +8    +6    +6
18    +8    +6    +6
19    +8    +7    +7
20    +8    +7    +7

Analysis ... Precognition, Defensive is better at later levels than Force Screen which is better early on. Thicken skin is good in combination with Extend Power but is otherwise weaker than the other two.

I think I'll give him Precognition, Defensive

Now that leaves three from Vigor, Body Adjustment, Hustle, and Animal Affinity.
I like the Hustle options, so that's in. Now Vigor and Body Adjustment or just one plus Animal Affinity.

There's no cleric, but there is an Artificer with a wand of cure light wounds. Vigor and Body Adjustment both reduce the need for the wand to be used on this character ... I think I'll take Vigor and not Body Adjustment since the character concept is more of not getting hit than regenerating the wounds afterwards. So Annimal Affinity is in too.

I think the finalized powers are:Call Weaponry*
Precognition, Offensive*
Prescience, Offensive*
Dimension Swap*
Strength of my Enemy*
Precognition, Defensive*
Vampiric Blade
Dimension Slide*
Hustle
Vigor*
Animal Affinity*

*denotes augmentable powers.

Any final thoughts?

 

[KarinsDad]

Alright still haven't heard back about "flashy" powers so revision is kind of limited...
Feats:
Speed of Thought
Psionic Meditation
Psionic Weapon
Expanded Knowledge (Energy Ray*)
Deep Impact
Combat Expertise
Power Attack
Overchannel

Put back Psionic Body. Although Vigor could handle this for you and then some, you do not have the PP to do high powered Vigors all day.

I would replace Deep Impact with Greater Psionic Weapon. With a Greatsword, you can do 6D6 + 1.5 Strength + Magic in damage, about every other round (due to Psionic Meditation).

If you use Deep Impact, you will be doing 2D6 + 1.5 Strength + Magic + 2 * Power Attack instead of Greater Psionic Weapon. To gain 4D6 of damage on average, you would have to be at -7 to hit. Granted, it's a touch attack, but you would not even get to the average same damage until 10th level. That's all nice and well, but it lowers your additional attacks in a full round attack (i.e. if you are at -7 for your first attack against touch AC, you are also at -7 for the rest of your attacks against normal AC). So, you tend to hit more often on the first attack (for similar damage) and hardly ever hit on the subsequent attacks.

The character can take Deep Impact at high level and REALLY do some damage with it. But, for low to mid level, the other combo averages more damage and you can still take Power Attack with it.

Get rid of Combat Expertise. Your powers can give you a good AC boost without taking it also from BAB which you need.

Overchannel is questionable. You have few PP.

I'd consider dropping Energy Ray. You don't have the PP to zap with it often enough.

Take Expanded Knowledge Entangling Ectoplasm. This is so hard for opponents to avoid and it affects just about every creature for 1 or 3 PP.

Get some normal Fighter feats.

I think the finalized powers are:Call Weaponry*
Precognition, Offensive*
Prescience, Offensive*
Dimension Swap*
Strength of my Enemy*
Precognition, Defensive*
Vampiric Blade
Dimension Slide*
Hustle
Vigor*
Animal Affinity*

*denotes augmentable powers.

Any final thoughts?

Yes.

I would drop Precognition Offense and replace it with Force Screen. Using a two handed weapon (like a Greatsword) is pretty sweet if you can have your Shield bonus as well for 1 PP. The little bit that Precognition Offense could add to Power Attack is offset by using a bigger weapon all of the time.

I would drop Dimension Swap (which is neat, but rarely will come up in game) since you already have Dimension Slide and you'll have few PP.

I would drop Hustle. It costs 3 PP and that is pricey for what you get. Mostly it gets you a full round attack after moving and your secondary attacks are just not that effective like your primary attacks.

Psychic Warriors get so few PP that you have to maximize your powers with low PP ones (like Force Screen and Entangling Ectoplasm).

I would put back Biofeedback. 2 DR is huge and for 1 PP, it can be the same as 2 or 3 PP worth of Vigor in a combat.

Do you really lose your weapons so often that Call Weaponry is helpful?

I'd take Thicken Skin, just because of how long it lasts. 1 PP for 80 minutes at your current level.

I'd put back Vampiric Blade. It's pricey, but healing an average of 3.5 points of damage per successful hit is nice. In our current campaign, an NPC Dragon who polymorphs into a Human and uses a Sword fights for a real long time with her Ring of Vampiric Regeneration 25% (granted, it is 25% of all damage versus 50% of just weapon damage). Either that or take Empathic Transfer Hostile for big healing once you are seriously damaged.

Take Darkvision.


The real problem with Psychic Warriors (just like Psions) is getting all of their buffs up before combat.

 

[Cabral]

Put back Psionic Body. Although Vigor could handle this for you and then some, you do not have the PP to do high powered Vigors all day.

I would replace Deep Impact with Greater Psionic Weapon. With a Greatsword, you can do 6D6 + 1.5 Strength + Magic in damage, about every other round (due to Psionic Meditation).

<SNiP>

Get rid of Combat Expertise. Your powers can give you a good AC boost without taking it also from BAB which you need.

Overchannel is questionable. You have few PP.

I'd consider dropping Energy Ray. You don't have the PP to zap with it often enough.

Take Expanded Knowledge Entangling Ectoplasm. This is so hard for opponents to avoid and it affects just about every creature for 1 or 3 PP.

Get some normal Fighter feats.

I'll Probably swap Deep Impact for Greater Psionic Weapon
Entangling Ectoplasm is pretty snifty ... I might switch it.
However, combat expertise fits the charcter fairly well, I'll have a talk with him and see what he thinks
Overchannel was also to give him options he wouldn't otherwise have, such as paying 9pp for Dimensionslide as a move action.

Speaking of Power Points, he has 31. Since I use the vitalizing spell points option, which boost other classes' power in relation to the psionic ones, I'm thinking of giving all psionic classes a +10% or +20% boost in power points from all sources except high stats.

Random side note: a human psionic warrior who wanted to focus on powers to the exclusion of all else (taking psionic talent at every opportunity) would have 63 power points at 8th level and 279 power points at 20th level ... not counting bonus power points for a high wisdom.

Yes.

I would drop Precognition Offense and replace it with Force Screen. Using a two handed weapon (like a Greatsword) is pretty sweet if you can have your Shield bonus as well for 1 PP. The little bit that Precognition Offense could add to Power Attack is offset by using a bigger weapon all of the time.

I would drop Dimension Swap (which is neat, but rarely will come up in game) since you already have Dimension Slide and you'll have few PP.

I was thinking it Dimension swap would have to primary uses:
1) Trade places with caster who's getting beaten on; and
2) Let the fighter with mobility charge the monster with reach and swap places then let him charge again (Actually this works even if the monster doesn't have reach)
Currently he doesn't like the supernatural powers so this and dimension slide might be going out.

I would drop Hustle. It costs 3 PP and that is pricey for what you get. Mostly it gets you a full round attack after moving and your secondary attacks are just not that effective like your primary attacks.

Using it to psionicly refocus is pretty nice, whether before a full attack or before a double move (for speed of thought)

Psychic Warriors get so few PP that you have to maximize your powers with low PP ones (like Force Screen and Entangling Ectoplasm).

I would put back Biofeedback. 2 DR is huge and for 1 PP, it can be the same as 2 or 3 PP worth of Vigor in a combat.

I just realized I didn't mention something about the campaign options: Armor as DR. This character is in +2 mithral full plate for +6 AC and 4/- DR ... His total AC is 20 (+6 Armor, +1 Natural (amulet), +3 Dex)

In general, I think the bonus to AC is going to be better than the boost to DR

Do you really lose your weapons so often that Call Weaponry is helpful?

No, but he specificly asked for the ability to summon any weapon. Actually, the second sentence he said about his character when I asked him what he wanted to play, right after a human fighter with a greatsword. So this is one ability that's not budging.

I'd take Thicken Skin, just because of how long it lasts. 1 PP for 80 minutes at your current level.

I don't think that would stack with the amulet of natural armor he's wearing (I had forgotten about it until I looked up his AC just now)

I'd put back Vampiric Blade. It's pricey, but healing an average of 3.5 points of damage per successful hit is nice. In our current campaign, an NPC Dragon who polymorphs into a Human and uses a Sword fights for a real long time with her Ring of Vampiric Regeneration 25% (granted, it is 25% of all damage versus 50% of just weapon damage). Either that or take Empathic Transfer Hostile for big healing once you are seriously damaged.

Take Darkvision.


The real problem with Psychic Warriors (just like Psions) is getting all of their buffs up before combat.

I was actually thinking of taking Elfsight since he was supposed to have been raised by elves.

I never really like vampiric blade, or Hostile Empathic Transfer ... too shadow knight/anti-paladin, in my opinion. I'll see what he thinks though. Who knows, he may love the idea

 

[Scion]

the guy is level 8 now, which really starts cutting into the benefit of psionic weapon and the like, especially with a low pp score like psychic warriors have.

I would definately check out call item though, it is a very interesting power that he might like.

Call Item

overchannel is a great option for a psychic warrior as well. You dont have to pay the extra points, it can simply be used to increase duration and increased difficulty in having buffs dispelled. To go along with it a Skin of the Troll would be excellent. It would help out the other party members in that he doesnt suck up as much healing and it can help use the feat more often.

I am not really sure how vitalizing works under the unearthed arcana system, I do not have that book, but assuming that it simply gives more in exchange for extra penalties. Maybe the psionic classes could get some small chance to simply use no pp each time a power is used along with the same sort of penalty. Interesting twist.. perhaps. Plus, one could make a feat which would increase this chance slightly (say, starts at 10%, increase by 5% with a feat, maybe a special material armor which increases armor check penalty and makes it heavier but increases the chance as well).


I would suggest changing the duration on call weaponry though. As is it just isnt terribly useful. Likely it should be able to be knocked up to 1 hour/level much like metaphysical weapon. Especially given his severe lack of pp.


As there wont be a lot of different psionic feats chosen it may very well be that taking improved toughness will be better than psionic body. Psionic body has a lot more restrictions to it, one of which restricts your feat choices, which can be a pretty big hit. It depends on the character build overall though.

animal affinity kindof sucks a lot.. especially with the psychic warriors small pp pool again. Unless it is really hard to get stat boosting items this is likely not a good way to go, and even then there will be better powers in a few levels.

I would probably bend the rules a little as well and allow him to pick up precognition. It seems like it would fit the character as described pretty well and it is just a fun power.

Hope that helps a little

 

[Cabral]

I'm thinking of making a magic (psionic, if you prefer) item that holds a single spell/power. You can use it all you want, as long as you pay for it. I may add a usage fee. (It's a magic ATM machine!)

Thanks for the link Psionic Potpourri, I'd forgotten to check there

If he needs HP, I'll suggest Psionic body (+12 hp now) or improved toughness (+8 hp now, +20 at level 20) or both, depending on how bad he's hurting and what his future plans are .

Call Item is pretty snifty and he may actually like that as well as Call Armor.

Retrograde Chain is a nifty feat, but probably not for this character.

For the Vitalizing option, basicly, everyone casts like psions do (though the daily lists mean that their "powers known" vary from day to day). Read about the Spell Points system here.
The vitalizing part means casting is tiring. If you use up more than half your spell points, you are fatigued; more than 3/4ths you are exhausted. If you rest, you regain a portion of your spell points. Read about the Vitalizing Variant here.

There are still some issues that I have t work out ... like paladins and rangers who have few spell points but whose spells are often intended to be cast in conjuntion with physical exertion ... I use all my spell points to cast longstrider ... I'm exhausted? This spell sucks! In addition, the vitalizing option is self balancing, I think for most casters, but only hurts psionics casters. I need to figure out how to fix it.