First time Psion user

[plaugebearer]

So I have played D&D for a while but this is going to be my first time playing a Psion and I was wanting some help. We are playing with D&D 3.5 All books made by Wizards of the Coast. While I was looking I could not find any real good items for a Race of Elan, Class of Psion. We are starting at level 15 with the WBL starting gold of 200k. I was hoping you guys could point me in the right direction.

[ryu]

What does your party look like? We can functionally hand you anything from essentially a god made manifest on paper to something holding back to make fighters feel useful. We need to know just what level of power to shoot for.

[plaugebearer]

We have a Half Celestial Monk so far but not sure what the other 3 are doing the other guys are way better at Min/Maxing than me. So was hoping for some help leaning towards like demi-god level not pure god.

[ryu]

Okay so using shenanigans to learn every spell and psionic power in the game and gaining unlimited PP and actions is out? What have the better min-maxers played in the past to give some idea of what they're likely to do this time?

[plaugebearer]

Wild Shape Druids, Batman, some dancing dervish thing that was super crazy.

[RavynsLand]

Just go telepath. I doubt there's much that they can do to seem potent next to a 15th-level psion no matter what you decide to do. You could specialize in ass-scratching and still be omega with 8th-level powers.

[ryu]

The simple answer in this case lies in looking for highly useful utility that only shows up on psion lists to fit into a pretty high power party without going full ham on it. Stuff like synchronicity, fission, astral seed, true mind switch and similar nonsense will all be good at high levels while still giving other people stuff to do. Also psi-crystal tricks. I'm a bit worried about the monk player though. Is he used to playing slightly lower OP than everyone else, or perhaps is familiar with the pitfalls of the class that mean some optimization is required?

[Rubik]

Just go telepath. I doubt there's much that they can do to seem potent next to a 15th-level psion no matter what you decide to do. You could specialize in ass-scratching and still be omega with 8th-level powers.

Given what you (the O.P.) just said about the group's makeup, I'd have to agree with RavynsLand. They sound like they tend to make very low powered characters, so just about anything you go for as a psion would be pretty powerful in comparison.

What kinds of things do you want to do with your character? In other words, what kind of "caster" do you want to be?

Also, what's a "plauge"? Is it a color, a la "rouge"?

[plaugebearer]

As far as the monk goes yes he knows the pitfalls and has built around those. But back to the Psion. What kind of Psi-Crystal tricks are we talking? Also I guess I should mention that this campaign we will not always be working together our characters have all been given the same task and do not know each other and have the option to help each other, ignore each other, or kill each other.

[Rubik]

As far as the monk goes yes he knows the pitfalls and has built around those. But back to the Psion. What kind of Psi-Crystal tricks are we talking? Also I guess I should mention that this campaign we will not always be working together our characters have all been given the same task and do not know each other and have the option to help each other, ignore each other, or kill each other.

Psicrystals are, in many ways, superior to familiars. For one, they're intelligent creatures that gain actual hit dice (rather than the virtual HD of familiars), so they gain feats, by RAW. They're also a lot tougher than familiars, due to being constructs (with attendant immunities) and to having hardness.

There are two low level powers, Vigor (gain 5 temp hp per power point spent) and Share Pain (willing target takes half of your damage). Share both with your psicrystal, so each of you gains a boatload of temp hp, while the psicrystal takes half of your damage. Every time you take damage, it's halved, and the remainder is eaten by your temp hp (essentially doubling the effectiveness of Vigor on your person). The psicrystal takes the rest of it (after it's reduced by 8 from the hardness), and that is also eaten by its temp hp.

Also, any buff power you've got can be shared with or manifested upon your psicrystal. One build, called, The Big Guy Is With Me, capitalizes on this by having the manifester stand back, manifesting Metamorphosis (the psionic version of Polymorph) on his psicrystal, then buffing it while it wreaks havoc.

There are others, but those are the basic ones.

[plaugebearer]

I have not been able to find this Big Guy is with Me build. Do you have a link to that or any other good Psion builds?