[3.5] First time Psionics, Dm allowing almost anything

[Jthw]

I'll just get to the point since I don't use forums like this often and suck at openings.

This is my first time making a psionic character and this is a perfect time for me because in this campaign my DM said he is allowing practically anything. Like anything in books and the only thing we even need to ask for is if it's homebrew. I've wanted to play a psionic for a while now but the problem is that I don't know how to build one at all. All I really get is that it needs to be high high HIGH int. I have already looked at a couple Psionic guides but they usually don't put into account that everything is allowed.

Other information for build is that it's starting at level 1 and its going to be a very hard campaign, like power gaming is a requirement to survive apparently, but I don't want to go to some cheesy cheese like punpun. If I am forgetting something tell me and I'll get the answer. Thanks in advance.

[cakellene]

Which psionic class interests you, or what exactly do you character to be able to do?

[Jthw]

If there is any classes that are particularly good at an introduction to psionics then that would be the best otherwise probably just regular psion would be nice. I particularly like shaper but I am flexible.

[Red Fel]

Which psionic class interests you, or what exactly do you character to be able to do?

This, very much. Psionics are a wonderfully diverse system; you can play a sorcerous Psion, like being a spellcaster but without components; you can be one of the melee-centric Psionic classes and do melee better than melee does melee; or you can be the wizard-esque and cheese-worthy Erudite, take the Spell-to-Power variant, and just win at everything forever with cheese.

Here's my advice.

• Don't overdo it. First off, if this is your DM's first time allowing Psionics, and you go over the top, you can be sure it will be the last time your DM allows Psionics. If it's not the first time, he will have more experience than you do, and he'll cut you off before you do anything embarassing.
• Plan ahead. Psionics, like most spellcasting systems, is hard. Do lots of reading. Be prepared. Have powers available for every situation.
• Remember the ML rule. You cannot spend more power points on a power than your Manifester Level. This is one of the fundamental aspects of Psionics. (That, and "ML is God. I will maximize ML.")

[Werephilosopher]

Here's a guide I always use when I build psions. It examines a large amount of content, including online ACFs and psionic adaptations of magical prestige classes.

It's important to note that you don't necessarily need a high Int score- psychic warriors rely on Wisdom, and wilders use Charisma, for example. However, since this is your first time with psionics, I would recommend going with the psion, which does need Int.

Are you practiced playing spellcasters? If so, an erudite may be a good choice for you. It works similar to wizards, and can be built to compete in high-op games, especially if you use the spell-to-power variant.

[Jthw]

This isn't the DM's first time with psionics but he hasn't used it all to much on his own. I am not worried about being overpowered because he specifically said that if we die its essentially our fault for not power gaming enough. He is purposely making a hard campaign. If I don't try to overdo it this character won't last very long.

Werephilosopher I have looked at that guide but it does kinda confuse me in the since of making one guide for psion when there are 6 branches kinda gets confusing.

[Red Fel]

This isn't the DM's first time with psionics but he hasn't used it all to much on his own. I am not worried about being overpowered because he specifically said that if we die its essentially our fault for not power gaming enough. He is purposely making a hard campaign. If I don't try to overdo it this character won't last very long.

Werephilosopher I have looked at that guide but it does kinda confuse me in the since of making one guide for psion when there are 6 branches kinda gets confusing.

Okay. Consider it this way: Do you usually play casters (e.g. Wizard, Cleric, Druid), non-casters (e.g. Fighter, Rogue), or hybrids (e.g. Ranger, Paladin)? One of the best ways to transition into Psionics is using a chassis similar to the one to which you are accustomed. So start with what you know. What's your usual poison?

[Zanthy1]

If there is any classes that are particularly good at an introduction to psionics then that would be the best otherwise probably just regular psion would be nice. I particularly like shaper but I am flexible.

I personally find psychic warrior really cool, a fighting type with some abilities to boost you when needed. And not to complex for beginners

[Jthw]

Okay. Consider it this way: Do you usually play casters (e.g. Wizard, Cleric, Druid), non-casters (e.g. Fighter, Rogue), or hybrids (e.g. Ranger, Paladin)? One of the best ways to transition into Psionics is using a chassis similar to the one to which you are accustomed. So start with what you know. What's your usual poison?

I have played a good amount of arcane castors (wizards and bards, mostly) but not much divine (played paladin a few times.) The main reason I want to be psionic is because the power point system seems really nice instead of the spellcasting system which has weird tier setup for how difficult the spell is determines the level of spell it is. For psionics its i have this number i can use up for the day, spellcasting its o no im out of 1st level spells but i have 6 almost useless 0th level spells or something like that.

I personally find psychic warrior really cool, a fighting type with some abilities to boost you when needed. And not to complex for beginners

I don't really want to do melee fighting because the party has too much of that and i've been playing too much melee fighting lately and just got done with a bow fighter that kinda got old.

Also this DM usually doesn't allow psionics mostly because he finds no need for it since there is spellcasting already. I ask to be a psion and he says "ok you are a wizard" and hands me players handbook. But for this campaign he is completely fine with psionics.

[The-Mage-King]

Hm... Given what you've said, I'd suggest an Elan Psion. Pick the discipline you like, and go with it.

Vigor is a good power, as an aside.

[Squirrel_Dude]

Yeah, from what you're saying, I would say that a standard psion is going to be the best pick for you. Elan, Synad, and Human are all solid options for you. It's a fun class, and don't forget that you can wear armor without penalty to your manifesting.

[Jthw]

Yeah, from what you're saying, I would say that a standard psion is going to be the best pick for you. Elan, Synad, and Human are all solid options for you. It's a fun class, and don't forget that you can wear armor without penalty to your manifesting.

Yea I think I am going to go standard psion and choose discipline off of what the party needs when everyone chooses what they want. Although I didn't know about the armor part, I think that will be fun to play with.

[Fouredged Sword]

Note, Psion is like wizards in that there are no real class features past 1st level besides a few feats. Consider a nice PRC like Crystal Master. You loose a manifester level, but you can pick up some nice abilities like bonuses to int and con, and large bonuses to saves and defense.

[Squirrel_Dude]

If I remember correctly, the feats can be traded out for ACFs. There are some standouts on that list, too, telepathy being one of them. But yes, like wizards and sorcerers, looking for a PrC is probably a good idea. Unlike wizards and sorcerers, there aren't as many awesome prestige classes for you to play with.

[Mithril Leaf]

If I remember correctly, the feats can be traded out for ACFs. There are some standouts on that list, too, telepathy being one of them. But yes, like wizards and sorcerers, looking for a PrC is probably a good idea. Unlike wizards and sorcerers, there aren't as many awesome prestige classes for you to play with.

You've basically got Constructor and Anarchic Initiate for reasonable ones and Thrallherd for insanity. Not a ton beyond that which is very good though though, mainly only decent. If we're talking allowing Hyperconscious and DSP stuff, you could go Ghostbreaker which is the Psion's Abjurant Champion.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

What level are you starting at, and what level do you expect to reach?
Obligatory Psion Handbook link.

Definitely start with two flaws for two extra feats (more here).

I'd recommend making a Warforged Psion (Shaper) with the Personal Construct ACF. You can use Psionic Minor Creation to cover yourself in Black Lotus Extract, which you'll be immune to. You can get a psicrystal and keep Share Pain active on it, you'll take half damage from all sources and the psicrystal's Hardness 8 will reduce every instance of damage it takes from Share Pain by that much, regardless of the original attack's damage type. Keep the psicrystal in a compartment on your person so opponents never have line of sight/effect to it and cannot target it directly or hit it with area effects. Give your psicrystal a Healing Belt (MIC) and it can use that to heal you during combat when needed. You can share beneficial powers with a psicrystal such as Vigor and Psionic Repair Damage.

If possible get Soulforged Body (it's like Hidden Talent in XPH but for Incarnum), and pick one of the psionic soulmelds at the bottom of the page. If you cannot get Soulforged Body, then you'll need any incarnum feat that gives you one point of essentia, such as Midnight Dodge. At 6th level, take Midnight Augmentation from Magic of Incarnum and use it to invest two essentia into Bestow Power, which reduces its augmentation cost by two. That makes it so every one extra powerpoint spent allows you to bestow two additional powerpoints, so you can spend five powerpoints on it to give yourself six powerpoints. This allows you to recharge your powerpoint pool to the max after casting long-duration buffs and possibly in between encounters if you have time.

In the later levels pick up Persistent Power, it's in the 3.0 Psionics Handbook but RAW any 3.0 material that wasn't reprinted is still valid for use. It's identical to the d20 Modern version of the feat. That can make personal-range buffs last all day, and you can use the above Bestow Power trick to refill your powerpoints afterward.

Get Overchannel and go Psion 5/ Anarchic Initiate 10/ Paragnostic Apostle 5. At level 8 you'll get Wild Surge from Anarchic Initiate, so it will meet its own prerequisite and you won't need Overchannel any more. At 8th level take Psychic Reformation for your new power known and immediately manifest it to replace Overchannel, plus any other feats, powers, and skills you want to replace, including Psychic Reformation itself. Consider replacing Overchannel with Quick Recovery from Lords of Madness, which will allow you to spend a move action to make a Will save (DC 10 + Anarchic Initiate level + your Cha modifier) to remove the Dazed effect of Psychic Enervation, so it only costs you a move action instead of an entire round, plus that's useful to gain another save against similar conditions inflicted by opponents.

Note that Anarchic Initiate gives you Wild Surge as the Wilder class feature; look at the last sentence of that: "In all cases, the wild surge effectively pays the extra power point cost that is normally required to augment the power; only the unaugmented power point cost is subtracted from the wilder’s power point reserve." That implies that if you're 8th level and use Wild Surge +1 for a manifester level of 9 when manifesting Energy Ray for 9d6 damage, you'll only pay its unaugmented cost of 1 powerpoint due to the Wild Surge. It's most likely intended to only pay that one point that your +1 Wild Surge allowed you to add, so you would pay 8 powerpoints for that, but definitely check with your DM on that to see which way he goes with it. If that pays the entire augmentation cost for a power, you won't even need Midnight Augmentation for Bestow Power, but be ready to gain it via Psychic Reformation if he changes his mind on Wild Surge.

[Red Fel]

I'm going to echo the Psion sentiment. It's a simple system that's easy to get around if you have a background in arcane casting. Remember the rule about manifester levels, take some metamagic feats, and consider the various ACFs. (The Telepath ACF is a particular favorite of mine.)

As others have mentioned, Human, Elan, or Synad are all excellent choices for a Psion. Alternatively, go with a Warforged, and take the Psiforged Body feat, and then go with something truly nasty like a Shaper, and make everything out of poison (to which you are immune) forever. Also, Psionic Repair Damage. As an aside, being a Psiforged will boost your Con and give you several immunities, which is great when your class has a low Fort save. It penalizes Cha and Wis, but you'll be fine with a focus on Int and Con.

Even though you're not going StP Erudite cheese, there is still some cheese to be had - for example, there's all sorts of nasty hijinks you can pull off with Synchronicity, Linked Power and Schism.

Even if you don't want to get quite that cheesy, there are some standard Psion tricks. For example, with Psicrystal Affinity, you can manifest Vigor and Share Pain, and share them with your Psicrystal. This basically reduces all damage you take by half, boom.

If you do decide to go for the Telepath, I strongly advise both the Telepathy ACF and the Mindsight feat. If you want to be extra mean, dive into Thrallherd, and get a grotesquely overpowered version of Leadership. (Short version: You now play three characters, plus an army of expendables, instead of just the one.) For bonus points, take a race that's inconspicuous, such as a Tibbit or Sparrow Hengeyokai. Remember that powers require no components, which means that a terrifying psychic kitty with the Telepath ACF can comfortably wreck havoc on the battlefield mostly unnoticed.

[Raendyn]

Note that Anarchic Initiate gives you Wild Surge as the Wilder class feature; look at the last sentence of that: "In all cases, the wild surge effectively pays the extra power point cost that is normally required to augment the power; only the unaugmented power point cost is subtracted from the wilder’s power point reserve." That implies that if you're 8th level and use Wild Surge +1 for a manifester level of 9 when manifesting Energy Ray for 9d6 damage, you'll only pay its unaugmented cost of 1 powerpoint due to the Wild Surge. It's most likely intended to only pay that one point that your +1 Wild Surge allowed you to add, so you would pay 8 powerpoints for that, but definitely check with your DM on that to see which way he goes with it. If that pays the entire augmentation cost for a power, you won't even need Midnight Augmentation for Bestow Power, but be ready to gain it via Psychic Reformation if he changes his mind on Wild Surge.

It definitely doesn't go like this bro, "un-augmented" refers to the feature. A few lines before your quote it mentions that with ML3 and a +1 wild surge you pay 3pp to cast a 4d10 mind thrust.

[Rubik]

You loose a manifester level

Fly free, my pretties! Fly!

- - - Updated - - -

Personal Construct ACF.

I don't like that ACF. If Complete Psionic is allowed (and apparently everything is allowed), Linked Power is an extremely superior option, aside from costing 1 power point for whatever power you Link Astral Construct to (which can be Synchronicity for plenty of fun stuff). And even that isn't too bad, considering that you can use cost reducers (such as the Metapower feat, also in CPsi) to actually increase the number of pp you can spend on your Astral Construct. Or you can create a psionic version of the arcanist gloves (from the MIC) using Craft Universal Item and Animal Affinity to add +2 to your manifester level on your manifestations of Astral Construct for a mere 500 gp in the base price.

Also, a chronocharm of the uncaring archmage from MIC can be used to toss out astral constructs as a standard action 1/day for 500 gp. Ludicrously inexpensive, I think. Adding on additional uses is a mere 750 gp each (add them onto other chronocharms via the stacking rules, also in the MIC). You keep your feat (and your psionic focus) and can choose your construct's menu abilities on the fly, rather than being locked into your Personal Construct. Sure, it costs your swift action, but that's worth more than just saving a feat, right?

All in all, there are better options for a shaper than the Personal Construct ACF.

[Squirrel_Dude]

Oh, another random tip to go along with "don't forget about armor," don't forget that you don't always wave your arms, speak in tongues, and pull out a burned frog's leg, when you manifest your powers like wizards do. Your powers will display that you have manifested them in a number of 5 specific ways (auditory, material, mentally, olfactory, visually). Know the different ways that your powers manifest and use that to your advantage.

E.G. Dominate Psionic has a Mental display. Within 15 ft. of the target or of the manifester, at your selection, people will hear chimes in their head.

Compare that sound to the scene sorcerer or wizard makes and you're practically silent when you mind control an entire room.

[Rebel7284]

All sources open?

Kalashtar is your race. Power Link Shards is your quest.

Free stacking +2 augmentation 3 times a day is silly good. You can have shards = your hit dice.

At manifester level 10, you can have 3 powers a day be augmented to 30PP spend. Add Anarchic Initiate for more fun.

Know your action multipliers. Hustle, Synchronicity, Anticipatory Strike, Temporal Acceleration, Schism, and Linked Power feat all help you do more with your turn.

Do note that with Psions, it's very easy to go nova and spend all your power points in one or two encounters. Know when this is appropriate and when to hold back. Of course this varies based on DM's encounter style.

[Rubik]

Do note that with Psions, it's very easy to go nova and spend all your power points in one or two encounters. Know when this is appropriate and when to hold back. Of course this varies based on DM's encounter style.

This is one reason I like shapers (and to a similar but different extent, telepaths). Shapers in particular have a lot of very useful powers that are extremely cheap. Look at Psionic Minor Creation, for instance. It's just as useful at level 20 as it is at level 1 (if not more so, due to volume scaling), and it costs 1 pp regardless of level. Also look at things like Entangling Ectoplasm and the utility potential in low level astral constructs. In the case of telepaths, their best powers (Psionic Charm and Psionic Dominate) do cost more at higher levels, but they can gain you long-term allies and minions when they work, which saves lots of pp later on.

If you decide that you want to play around with the Astral Construct power but want something other than the 3.5 constructor as your PrC, look at the Durable Construct feat from Hyperconscious. 10 minute constructs for no additional cost? Yay!

[PsyBomb]

About Cheonocharms, if I remember correctly the item description explicitly allows you to wear one of each at the same time. Most are at least somewhat useful to Psions, with Uncaring Archmage and Horizon Walker being major standouts.

[Mithril Leaf]

Another tidbit if Dragon Magazine is on the table is dropping a single level in wizard, taking Precocious Apprentice and then going for a Mind Mage build. If you are in absolute love with aged Gouda, technically a starting wizard can afford between 3 and 7 reincarnations by selling his spellbook. If DCFS is going to be on the table, be a grey fire elf as your base race, otherwise go human. Spend a feat on the good old Faerie Mystery Initiate.

[Rubik]

About Cheonocharms chronocharms, if I remember correctly the item description explicitly allows you to wear one of each at the same time. Most are at least somewhat useful to Psions, with Uncaring Archmage and Horizon Walker being major standouts.

Then add multiples onto the same chronocharm. It ends up being pretty much identical in function.