New to anima

[Zarcus]

Hi all. This will be my first time playing anima and I have look though the main book. I’m am thinking of playing a warrior mentalist that uses his mentalist side to boost and inhance is skill with a sword. Was wondering what advantages would be good to use and other ideas on how to make this work. Thanks in advance.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

Hi all. This will be my first time playing anima and I have look though the main book. I’m am thinking of playing a warrior mentalist that uses his mentalist side to boost and inhance is skill with a sword. Was wondering what advantages would be good to use and other ideas on how to make this work. Thanks in advance.

Certainly an entirely workable character build - can be very powerful, if a bit one-note.

Advantages:

Obviously, you need psychic powers, so at minimum Access to a Psychic Discipline (Physical Increase). Personally I think it's worth shelling out 2 points to get access to all of them, though.

Otherwise, you're going to be focusing heavily on sustained psychic abilities, most of which come from a single discipline, so both Amplify Psychic Power and Psychic Inclination are good.

Because you can't really afford to put much (if any) points in secondary abilities, Jack of All Trades is good just so you can maintain some versatility.

Use of Armour and Hard to Kill (from the GM's booklet) are both good ways of enhancing your purely physical durability.

Disadvantages:

Since you're not planning on actually using active psychic powers in combat much, all of the psychic disadvantages are actually viable for you. They can only be used to buy off psychic advantages, however (and technically this doesn't include Access, though most GMs will let you have that). I'd certainly consider taking Psychic Consumption, because it's a rare two-point disadvantage and hurts a lot less than any of the others.

Otherwise, since you're exceedingly unlikely to invest into multiple weapon types (it's a very bad deal for you, since it cuts into attack/defence DP and doesn't get you much), Exclusive Weapon is a pretty good deal.

Psychic Powers:

Your first question is whether you want to buy the Psychic Attack/Defence module. It's pricey at 100dp, but not crippling, and does make you more versatile and give you options to expand into other kinds of psychics if you later choose to. Since it's only a one-time cost and you'll be getting a lot of PP anyway, I recommend taking it.

Past that, every single point of Psychic DP goes into PP. Obviously, at 1st level (where you should have 15 available), you need to unlock Physical Increase and get at least 1 innate slot - beyond that, I'd put the rest into powering up Total Increase (by far your most important power) as much as possible - you probably do want to leave some free, but only so you can use them to Improve Innate Power the first time you use it then leave it up forever.

Other stuff:

Your DP spending is very tight. In my opinion, all of your Combat DP should go into Attack/Defence, all of your Psychic DP should go into PP (and buying Psychic Attack/Defence at first level), and... well, that's your lot. Hence why I recommend things like Jack of All Trades, so you can make the stuff you get automatically stretch as much as possible.

Don't neglect Ki. You get a fair 20 MK a level, and your ki reserves and accumulations will be fairly good thanks to your high physical attributes and willpower. In particular, buy Presence Extrusion and Aura Extension ASAP - you need them to use physical attacks against a lot of incorporeal/magical creatures.

Check whether your GM is using the Core Exxet Rules Changes (found here). If they aren't, try and get them too, they're better and they make things a fair bit easier for you.