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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jessica" data-source="post: 6702457" data-attributes="member: 6796107">Another Point of View: Multiclassing and Hybrids[h=2]Multiclassing[/h]Multiclassing can be very profitable for you (and for any character, really). Since your power and paragon path selection is limited, you can get some really nice options this way that ‘pure’ Psions never do. These are your most important reasons for multiclassing:<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/" target="_blank">What to multiclass for</a>Powers: Serpent’s Cunning (Druid), daily attack powers (Wizard), Hide in Plain Sight (Rogue). The level 6 power Serpent's Cunning is by far the best utility power you can have. For the rest of the day, you get a +1 power bonus to all your attack rolls, a +2 power bonus to all Intelligence-based skill checks, and why not, training in a skill of your choice. Unless you’re a tiefling and have access to Secrets of Belial, this costs you two feats (multiclass Druid and Acolyte Power) and a utility power of level 6 or higher, but it’s definitely worth it.If you want better dailies, you can't go wrong with a powerswap from a Wizard either.If you're playing a Stealth build, Hide in Plain Sight is just about the best utility power there is.Paragon paths: Divine Oracle (Cleric), Malec-Keth Jannisary (Swordmage), Entrancing Mystic (Warlock), Flame of Hope (Invoker), Life Singer (Bard). As you can read in the paragon path and epic destiny section, these paths rival psionic paragon paths, and that’s saying something.Epic destinies: Avangion (arcane), Draconic Incarnation (arcane), Archmage (Wizard), Reincarnate Champion (primal), Sage of Ages (arcane). These epic destinies are all very much worth spending your multiclass on. More on them in the paragon path and epic destiny section.Additional power points: Awakened Potential, Vampirism (Vampire), Adept Dilettante (Half-Elf). There are three ways to get more power points through multiclassing. Awakened Potential gives you an extra daily power point (two at level 21). Vampirism qualifies you for the Psionic Vampire feat which lets you spend a surge for two power points, but comes at the cost of reducing your surge total to two. Half-Elves can qualify for Psionic Vampire by taking Adept Dilettante as their multiclass, leaving their surges intact.Weapons as implements (Swordmage). If for some reason you wish to use light/heavy blades as your implement, this is your multiclass. A reason might be that you desperately want to do cold damage, so you take a Frost Blade as your implement. Multiclass Sorcerer gives you the same benefit, but it doesn't bring much else to the table.Besides these reasons, if you see a utility or daily power you really like, powerswapping is always an option. However, I do not recommend powerswapping your at-wills for other augmentable at-will or encounter attack powers. You either lose an augmentable at-will and some power points, or trade for a Battlemind or Ardent at-will that you can only use once per encounter. Maybe you could trade one at-will power for a Wizard encounter power since they’re so awesome, but if that’s what you want you should just play a hybrid in my opinion.<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/" target="_blank">Adept Dilettante</a>Requires Half-Elf and a Vampire at-will power as your dilettante. By taking Adept Dilettante, you count as a Vampire and can take the Psionic Vampire feat. This gives you a healing surge when you hit with an augmented attack, and lets you spend a surge as a minor action to gain two power points until the end of your turn. Quite excellent, and certainly worth investing in if you want more power points.<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/" target="_blank">Awakened Potential</a>More power points is always a good idea, if you don’t have anything else you want to multiclass for.<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/" target="_blank">Bard</a>For the amazing Life singer paragon path. An extra heal per day, an additional skill and proficiency with wands is a nice bonus.<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/" target="_blank">Cleric</a>For the excellent Divine Oracle paragon path. Also important for aspiring radiant blasters so they can take the Morninglord paragon path (but for Wis-Psions Invoker is probably better). Proficiency with holy symbols is great (Symbol of Victory!), and a daily heal is better than Healer’s Lore. If your DM allows it, you can swap it for Battle Cleric’s Lore though, which gives you a free +2 shield bonus to AC (and scale armor proficiency, but you probably don’t need that, being Int-primary and all).<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/" target="_blank">Druid</a>So you can powerswap for Serpent’s Cunning, which is without a doubt the best utility power you could ever ask for. Apart from that, Nature training and totem proficiency are useful, and you get to choose between Wild Shape and a Beast Form at-will power that you can use once per encounter, Nature’s Growth which you can use once a day and a daily heal. I’d pick that last one.<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/" target="_blank">Invoker</a>For the amazing Flame of Hope paragon path, or possibly for Morninglord if you want to be a radiant blaster. If your Wisdom is high enough you can actually use your bonus at-will power, which in case of Hand of Radiance is pretty good with Morninglord. Lastly, training in Religion and rod proficiency is a nice bonus.<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/" target="_blank">Rogue</a>For Stealth builds only. But what a great multiclass this is for them! Twilight Adept gives you automatic Stealth training and grants you access to the Cunning Sneak benefit once per encounter for easier hiding. The class is also chock full with utility powers like Hide in Plain Sight that help you hide even without any cover or concealment whatsoever.<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/" target="_blank">Shaman</a>Either for an encounter heal with Mending Spirit, or for a conjuration so you can use Tome Expertise for easy combat advantage. Nature training and totem proficiency is cool, and if your Wisdom is high enough you also get an additional encounter power out of it. Don’t forget to either start every combat with your spirit already in play or to take the Sudden Call feat, because otherwise you have to waste a standard action to summon your companion to the battlefield.<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/" target="_blank">Swordmage</a>For the Malec-Keth Jannisary paragon path, which you use to add an elemental keyword to all your powers at level 16. Being able to use light and heavy blades as implements can also be what you’re after. You take Blade Initiate because having 13 Con is difficult, and a daily encounter long AC bonus if you’re holding a sword is preferable over Swordbond, even if the other multiclass feat comes with Endurance or Athletics training.<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/" target="_blank">Vampire</a>This feat qualifies you for the, frankly quite excellent, Psionic Vampire feat. It gives you an additional healing surge if you hit with an augmented power, and lets you spend a surge as a minor action to gain two power points until the end of your turn. But the cost is high: Vampirism reduces your surge total to only two and burdens you with radiant vulnerability, so the risk is generally not worth it (although regeneration equal to your Charisma when you're bloodied is nice). Only take this if you absolutely have to have more power points.<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/" target="_blank">Warlock</a>For the Entrancing Mystic paragon path, which is fun if you’re into charm powers. You also get a skill training, rod and wand proficiency and a bonus encounter power out of it. Qualifying for Warlock’s Curse is unlikely since you need 13 Con for that.<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/" target="_blank">Wizard</a>For a cool arcane Epic Destiny, wand and tome proficiency and a nice encounter attack (Wizard) or daily utility (Witch) power. But you really take this multiclass for the daily powerswaps, because Wizard dailies are just bonkers.[h=2]Hybrids[/h]When you build a hybrid for power reasons, you need to make sure the sum is greater than the parts. To get you started, here’s a link to <a href="http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/22358617/Miscibility_Table:_A_Hybrids_Handbook?pg=1" target="_blank">Mommy_was_an_Orc’s Hybrid handbook</a>. It outlines some of the basics behind building a good hybrid.<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/" target="_blank">Things to watch out for</a>Weapons and implements: if one class uses weapon powers and the other uses implements, you run all sorts of risks. A mix of melee and ranged attacks means you provoke easily. If the implement isn’t slotless (holy symbol or ki focus), you can’t hold a two-handed weapon or a shield. You’re also generally stuck with Versatile Expertise as your expertise feat, which doesn’t bring any extras to the table.You can get around this by either picking a hybrid class that can use weapons as implements (Swordmage, Sorcerer, Monk) or using a staff as your weapon. That last one is a pretty horrible weapon, but at least you won’t provoke opportunity attacks anymore thanks to Staff Expertise (which also increases your melee range!).Attributes: if you pick a hybrid that uses Intelligence as a dumpstat, you run the risk of needing too many stats to actually function. That’s doubly true if that hybrid doesn’t use Wisdom or Charisma as a primary stat, which means you lose out on important riders for your Psion powers. Also beware of hybrid classes that use Dexterity as their main stat. This will tank your Fortitude and Will defenses, making you much more vulnerable.Beside these basics, you have to remember that you’re a psionic class. If you’re hybriding with a nonpsionic class, that means a loss of Psion at-will powers and power points. The psionic-nonpsionic hybrid rules are a mess and don’t interact well with the online character builder, but I’ll attempt to explain them here.<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/" target="_blank">Hybrid power point rules</a>At level 1, you get only one Psion at-will no matter what. You can then choose to either get 2 power points or a level 1 encounter power from your hybrid class.At level 3, you get what you didn’t choose at level 1. If you chose an encounter power at level 1, you can now upgrade your single Psion at-will power to a level 3 power. If you chose power points at level 1, you’re stuck with your level 1 power until level 13 (not that that’s bad, since level 1 Psion at-wills are excellent). A bug in the online character builder does allow you to switch your level 1 Psion power for a level 3 power while also choosing a level 3 encounter power from your hybrid class.At level 7, you can choose either a second Psion at-will power or an additional encounter power from your hybrid class.From level 13 onwards, you can mix and match with Psion at-will powers and nonpsionic encounter powers. The only rule is that you need to have at least one Psion at-will power and one nonpsionic encounter power.The number of power points you get depends on the number and tier of your Psion at-will powers. You get 2 power points for every heroic Psion at-will you have, 4 for every paragon, and 6 for every epic. Since the most Psion at-wills you’ll ever have is 2, that means only 2-4 power points in heroic, 2-8 power points in paragon, and 2-12 power points in epic. Getting a psionic theme and paragon path is even more important in these cases, since the additional power points are invaluable if you regularly want to augment your powers.Right, so now that we’ve got that out of the way, what interesting hybrid builds can you make with the Psion? To know that, you need to know the advantages and disadvantages of the Psion as a hybrid.<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/" target="_blank">The Psion as a hybrid</a>Advantages:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">No important class features. Some hybrid classes need you to spend your Hybrid Talent on essential class features. Not this one. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">One more at-will power. Most classes have only two at-wills. A Psion hybrid has three, which gives you a greater chance of having just the right power for the situation. It does come at the cost of an encounter power though. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Intelligence primary means a good bonus to AC. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Not dependant on a secondary score. Some powers get a lot better with good Wis or Cha, but it’s not like you can’t function without either stat. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">You can get the benefits from two different classes (see the multiclass section). For example: Druid for Serpent's Cunning, Invoker for Flame of Hope (especially nice if you multiclass with a leader), Wizard for the awesome daily powers and Arcane Mastery in epic, which also combos nicely with the Demiurge epic destiny so you can spend multiple action points and Flame of Hope for the action point benefit. </li> </ul>Disadvantages:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Psionic class. Overall, you have fewer powers at your disposal, which in most cases is exactly the reason you want to play a hybrid. You also have fewer power points, which means you will quickly be resorting to unaugmented at-will powers. Sure, you can hybrid with an Ardent or a Battlemind to circumvent this, but that’s a bad idea for reasons described below. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cloth armor only. Unless you hybrid with a Wizard, this means you will probably spend your Hybrid Talent on Hybrid Armor Proficiency (or something similar in case of hybrid Swordmage or Avenger). If your DM allows it, you can circumvent the armor problem by taking Divine Healer as your multiclass feat and getting Battle Cleric's Lore for scale armor proficiency and a +2 shield bonus. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Controller hit points. With only 2 additional hit points per level, you really don’t want to hybrid with a melee class, let alone a defender. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Almost exclusively ranged powers, which again means you don’t hybrid well with melee classes. There are a couple of good at-will close bursts and and blasts at paragon tier though, so not all is lost. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">No slotless implements, which means you may be juggling weapons and implements around.</li> </ul>Okay, so preferably no melee or defender hybrids, and no classes that are Dex-primary. Here’s a list of builds that I think work well as a Psion hybrid.<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/" target="_blank">Psion hybrids</a>[h=3]Psion as a Leader[/h]<a href="http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/29221005/Thought_Switch_%28OA_generator%29.&post_num=1#521612765" target="_blank">Thoughtswitch</a>, a Psion|Lazylord. This build strives to be a leader instead of a controller by combining the awesomeness of Forced Opportunity with the many perks of the Lazylord. You grant two free move actions, boost attack rolls, damage and initiative, and double the amount of attacks made by the party. All in round 1, every encounter. If that somehow isn’t enough, you still have your Psion dailies as back-up to exert control over the encounter. Comes fully online at level 17.You can also go with a Psion|Shaman. Shamans are Wis-primary and Int-secondary, so the stats overlap nicely with the Psion's. The spirit companion also gives you access to easy combat advantage with Tome Expertise. You can put that to good use with the Controlling Advantage and Cyclone Spirit feats, meaning you add two squares to all forced movement effects if the target is next to your spirit (add Orb Expertise and a Forceful Implement for two more squares, and Unseen Dread to add the slide to all your powers). In the power department you get access to the excellent Spirit Infusion power, which is devastating thanks to your high Intelligence. For the rest of the build you can choose to use only lazy Shaman powers or to actively use both hybrids. Comes online at level 1.If neither of those catch your interest, there's also Psion|Cleric and Psion|Bard. The stats line up for the most part (especially Blunder is great on a Psion), and both classes have an amazing paragon path for attacks against Will. This also opens up multiclass Druid for Serpent's Cunning for another +1 to Intelligence attacks, so you'll never miss again. Both come online at level 1.[h=3]Psion with Polearm Momentum[/h]<a href="http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/28259653/The_Untouchable_Mindblade:_a_PsionSwordmage_Polearm_Momentum_build" target="_blank">The Untouchable Mindblade</a>, a Psion|Swordmage. This build breaks the rules I just outlined above by hybriding with a melee defender, but it compensates for that by laying the smack down with Polearm Momentum. The feat is really excellent in a Psion’s hands since you have so many forced movement powers, and hybriding with Swordmage is the best way to gain implement proficiency with a Polearm. The build has its shortcomings (mostly in the defense department), but seeing Psychic Anomaly and Kinetic Buffer in action with Polearm Momentum is worth it. Comes online at level 4. Could also work as a Psion|Wizard or Psion|Artificer. The latter version uses a Farbond Glaive for the artificer attacks.If you think/can convince your DM that you can use an Alfsair Spear for your attacks, you can build this as a Psion|Shaman as well (also see Psion as a Leader above). [h=3]Psion with Immediate Action Attacks[/h]Psion|Artificer or Psion|Swordmage. One thing a Psion has a dearth of is immediate action attack powers. Both the Artificer and the Swordmage have a couple of really, really nice immediate encounter powers and are both Intelligence primary.Swordmage gives you not only Dimensional Vortex and Surprising Transposition, it solves the weapon/implement problem by itself and has a very nice Hybrid Talent that actually lets you act as an off-defender if you want. Artificer requires a hoop to jump through because the immediate action powers are all ranged weapon powers. The easiest way to solve this is by getting ki focus proficiency (Elemental Initiate theme works best). After that, you're a hybrid that not only has Int primary and Wis secondary for both classes, you also have great leader powers that set up your allies (Slick Concoction) or just destroy encounters (Punishing Eye).Both come online at level 1.[h=3]Psion with a Mix of Melee and Ranged Powers[/h]<a href="http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/27752477/MwaOs_In-Play_Build_Bizaare&post_num=7#498291521" target="_blank">Psion|Avenger</a>. Yes, another melee hybrid. But Avenger is one of the few melee classes that actually has great synergy with a Psion. Avengers also wear cloth, have a great Hybrid Talent for boosting AC, have access to Unarmored Agility to pump AC to ridiculous heights, have holy symbol (slotless implement) proficiency, and are Int-secondary. You can switch between melee and range with easy, and if you wear Shimmering Armor your ranged attacks won’t even provoke. Comes online at level 1. [h=3]Psion with Consistent Power Point Recovery[/h]Psion|Warlock. You hybrid with a Warlock because want an easy way to regain your power points, which the Psionic Scorn feat (DSCS) lets you do. Take the Sorcerer-King pact, spend your Hybrid Talent feat on getting your pact boon and spend another feat on Psionic Scorn. Now every time a target Cursed by you drops to zero HP, you regain a power point. With only 2 power points during levels 1-6, you're going to need it. But if you apply your Curse judiciously (Twofold Curse helps immensely here), you can be spamming augmented Disheartens and Betrayals all day long. Betrayal actually helps you trigger Psionic Scorn faster, so Entrancing Mystic is a good paragon path for you. Comes online at level 2, 1 if you're Human.[h=3]Psion|Controller Hybrids[/h]Psion|Wizard (Int/Cha) or Psion|Invoker (Int/Wis). Nothing too special here, but the dailies of both classes are serious improvements of the ones on the Psion’s power list. Give Psion at-wills priority over the other class’ encounter powers so you have enough power points, and just profit from the other’s daily powers. Saves you a multiclass feat too if you’re interested in either class’ paragon paths or epic destinies. Be aware that a full-class Wizard or Invoker works just as well as (if not better than) these hybrids. Comes online at level 1.</blockquote>

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