Egoist Champion

[Rejusu]

So I've been looking at doing a Psionic adaptation of the Abjurant champion. Now I've seen the common approach to it is to change it to Psychokinesis but what about changing it to Psychometabolism instead? It seems to be a better fit than Psychokinesis (flavour wise) and mechanically too since a lot of defensive powers are psychometabolism and psychokinesis is more evocation than anything.

Now most of the class features are pretty easy to change over to psionics, the Extended Abjuration, Swift Abjuration, and Martial Arcanist features change over easily enough. Albeit swift psychometabolism is less useful since a good chunk of PM powers can already be manifested swiftly (though it does help Expansion). Arcane boost changes to burn PP instead of spell slots and gives a bonus equal to the level of power that could have been manifested.

The two things that I'm stuck over are:
1) Class skills
2) Abjurant Armour

Spellcraft gets swapped out for Psicraft easily enough. But really they should have Autohypnosis as well, but do I just add it on there or swap something else out for it? Maybe intimidate or Handle animal...

The second one is trickier because Abjurant Armour just doesn't make much sense in a Psionic adaptation. It's obviously designed to mitigate the AC loss from eschewing armour for the sake of avoiding Arcane Spell failure. But Psionics has no such problem with wearing armour. You can wander around in full plate for all the difference it makes to your manifesting.

Any suggestions fellow Playgrounders?

[Golden Ladybug]

Perhaps, your analogue for Abjurant Armor could lower the cost for Augmenting low level, defensive Psychometabolism powers? But the only thing that I can see from a quick glance at the Psion/Wilder Power List that boosts AC and is Psychometabolism is Thicken Skin. Maybe part of the ability would let you treat Inertial Armor and Force Screen as Psychometabolism Powers for the purpose of this ability?

Although, that feels suspiciously like cheating

There just isn't enough in the way of truly defensive but similar Psychometabolism Powers for the Abjurant Armor effect to apply to them all (unless I missed a bunch of them, that is)

[Rejusu]

Perhaps, your analogue for Abjurant Armor could lower the cost for Augmenting low level, defensive Psychometabolism powers? But the only thing that I can see from a quick glance at the Psion/Wilder Power List that boosts AC and is Psychometabolism is Thicken Skin. Maybe part of the ability would let you treat Inertial Armor and Force Screen as Psychometabolism Powers for the purpose of this ability?

Although, that feels suspiciously like cheating

There just isn't enough in the way of truly defensive but similar Psychometabolism Powers for the Abjurant Armor effect to apply to them all (unless I missed a bunch of them, that is)

Well this is part of the problem with Abjurant armour I mentioned. Design wise it's meant to supplement the AC you'd normally gain from wearing armour, something you can't really do as an Arcanist as you'd suffer an ASF chance. But there's nothing to stop a manifester wandering around in full-plate. What's really funny is that Mage Armour isn't even abjuration (despite it being suggested you use it in the abjurant armour description) and the artwork for the Abjurant Champion shows a fully armoured knight.

At any rate unless you're doing a build that doesn't use armour (like a Tashalatora PsyWarr) it's better just to wear armour than waste your PP on powers like inertial armour.

I'd like to find some ability to replace this with that keeps things reasonably balanced, but maybe it doesn't even need it. The class is already really good even without it. I mean martial arcanist alone is probably worth the 5 level dip, I mean that's what... 2 bonus feats? Two feats (well three if you count the prerequisite) just to get a BAB equal to your manifester level is probably worthwhile.

[Urpriest]

and the artwork for the Abjurant Champion shows a fully armoured knight.

This guy is a fully armored knight?

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Looks pretty lightly protected to me, certainly less than your average picture of a fighter.

[Rejusu]

This guy is a fully armored knight?

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Looks pretty lightly protected to me, certainly less than your average picture of a fighter.

Whoopsie, never mind. Got the image for Sanctified Mind mixed up with the one for Abjurant Champion in my head since I was looking at both recently. That looks like a chain shirt and a light steel shield to me so he's still suffering some ASF chance though.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I think you're mistaking Abjurations for Transmutations. Abjurant Champion doesn't benefit the greater portion of your buffs, so a psionic version likewise should not benefit the greater portion of your buffs. It's actually far more fitting for it to boost Psychokinesis powers rather than Psychometaoblism powers.

Abjurant Armor should benefit Inertial Armor and Force Screen, as it was originally intended to benefit Mage Armor and Shield, so not much change there.

Swift Abjuration is useful for Protection from Evil and Magic Circle spells, which are often used to counter either summoned creatures or charm/dominate effects. It's useful for Dispel Magic, though the caster level cap is a bit of a drawback. You can use it to activate Shield at the start of combat without sacrificing any attacks, or in addition to other buffs or a crowd control spell. Adapting it to Psychokinesis, it still allows you to activate Force Screen as a Swift Action, you can still use swift Dispel Psionics (without the hard caster level cap), and you can use it for powers like Energy Missile using sonic damage to target your opponents' weapons, shields, and armor.

Abjurant Champion does not benefit your Transmutation buffs, so a psionic version should not benefit your Psychometabolism buffs.

[Rejusu]

I think you're mistaking Abjurations for Transmutations. Abjurant Champion doesn't benefit the greater portion of your buffs, so a psionic version likewise should not benefit the greater portion of your buffs. It's actually far more fitting for it to boost Psychokinesis powers rather than Psychometaoblism powers.

Abjurant Armor should benefit Inertial Armor and Force Screen, as it was originally intended to benefit Mage Armor and Shield, so not much change there.

Swift Abjuration is useful for Protection from Evil and Magic Circle spells, which are often used to counter either summoned creatures or charm/dominate effects. It's useful for Dispel Magic, though the caster level cap is a bit of a drawback. You can use it to activate Shield at the start of combat without sacrificing any attacks, or in addition to other buffs or a crowd control spell. Adapting it to Psychokinesis, it still allows you to activate Force Screen as a Swift Action, you can still use swift Dispel Psionics (without the hard caster level cap), and you can use it for powers like Energy Missile using sonic damage to target your opponents' weapons, shields, and armor.

Abjurant Champion does not benefit your Transmutation buffs, so a psionic version should not benefit your Psychometabolism buffs.

I'm not mistaking Abjurations for Transmutations, in terms of psionics abjuration just doesn't exist.

The problem (as I've pointed out several times) is that abjuration doesn't have an equivalent psionics discipline, just like psychoportation doesn't have an equivalent magic school. Quite a few of the Abjuration equivalent spells go into Psychokinesis but there's plenty that don't. The psionic equivalent of "resist energy", an abjuration spell, is "energy adaptation, specified" which is a psychometabolism power. Nondetection (Abjuration) is Escape Detection (Clairsentience).

Abjuration as a magic school was just a big catch-all for "protective spells" which could have easily been slotted into other schools. The Psionic disciplines which came later are much more well defined from a design perspective and as such there just wasn't a place for Abjuration. As such the psionic equivalent Abjuration school spells just got chopped up and distributed across the psionic disciplines.

Secondly you may argue that Psychokinesis is the "best fit" because it has inertial armour and force screen. Except the problem is that these powers don't benefit Psionic users in the same way they benefit Arcanists. From a design perspective it's intention was to make up for the AC a martial spellcaster loses due to having to contend with arcane spell failure.

Except as I've pointed out a few times in this thread now this is a non-issue for manifesters due to the lack of an ASF equivalent. You can manifest just as easily in full plate as you can naked. My argument is that psychometabolism provides a better fit as a good chunk of the defensive powers that are actually useful are psychometabolism as opposed to psychokinesis.

The other issue is that Psychokinesis is actually the equivalent of the Evocation school which means that if:
"Abjurant Champion does not benefit your Transmutation buffs, so a psionic version should not benefit your Psychometabolism buffs."
Is true then likewise the fact that Abjurant Champion doesn't benefit your evocation spells, a psionic version should not benefit your psychokinesis powers.

Again it all comes back to the issue that there's no Abjuration equivalent in psionics. In terms of the classes design intent (a gish) giving it benefits to blasting abilities doesn't mesh well with that. It seems much more appropriate to benefit the discipline that offers the most buffing capability, and that happens to be Psychometabolism.

Really the main problem is the fact they stated that it could potentially be adapted to Psionics at all. Then again the writer of the class didn't even realise mage armour is conjuration, so it says a lot about their ability to fact check.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

With regards to wearing armor vs Inertial Armor, keep in mind that even magical armor does not resize to fit bigger or smaller creatures. If you use Polymorph or Metamorphosis to take the form of a bigger, stronger creature (Cave/War Troll), any medium-size armor you're wearing will meld into your form and become nonfunctional, whereas you will continue to benefit from a protective spell.

Assuming you go something like Ranger 1/ Psion 6/ Slayer 1/ (Abjurant) Champion 5, you'll have a manifester level of 13 with Practiced Manifester. Your augmented Inertial Armor will grant a +10 armor bonus, with an extra +5 for Abjurant Champion. That's the equivalent of +7 Full Plate with no max Dex bonus, and it doesn't meld into your form when you use Metamorphosis.

It's true that Abjurant Champion doesn't benefit your Evocation spells, but keep in mind that Evocation is a far weaker school than Transmutation. Furthermore, a gish is often better off buffing than blasting, so making it work on the psionic equivalent of evocations is more in line with how powerful it should be, rather than making it work with psionic transmutations. Finally, the Extended Abjuration ability should not apply to the majority of your combat buffs. Extending all of your evocations for free isn't of much benefit, so again making it apply to psychokinesis powers instead of psychometabolism powers is more in line with how powerful/useful that class feature should be.

[Rejusu]

With regards to wearing armor vs Inertial Armor, keep in mind that even magical armor does not resize to fit bigger or smaller creatures. If you use Polymorph or Metamorphosis to take the form of a bigger, stronger creature (Cave/War Troll), any medium-size armor you're wearing will meld into your form and become nonfunctional, whereas you will continue to benefit from a protective spell.

Except the problem with that line of reasoning is that metamorphosis is psychometabolism. Which means to get it as a Psion you're going to have to go Egoist and lose out on the Psychokinesis discipline powers (which are the ones being buffed) or drop a feat on expanded knowledge. It's easier to get as a psychic warrior or ardent as it can be picked up via a mantle but psychic warriors have barely any psychokinesis powers that would benefit from a buff to psychokinesis.

Plus this is a rather situational example anyway. And it's not as if you need the armour bonus from a power much either as most forms you'll be changing into will provide DR or natural armour (or both). Secondly you could simply manifest expansion on yourself first (which changes the size of your equipment) and then metamorphose into a form that can utilise it. Want to keep your armour and weapon as a troll? Expand to large and then shift.

Assuming you go something like Ranger 1/ Psion 6/ Slayer 1/ (Abjurant) Champion 5, you'll have a manifester level of 13 with Practiced Manifester. Your augmented Inertial Armor will grant a +10 armor bonus, with an extra +5 for Abjurant Champion. That's the equivalent of +7 Full Plate with no max Dex bonus, and it doesn't meld into your form when you use Metamorphosis.

It's true that Abjurant Champion doesn't benefit your Evocation spells, but keep in mind that Evocation is a far weaker school than Transmutation. Furthermore, a gish is often better off buffing than blasting, so making it work on the psionic equivalent of evocations is more in line with how powerful it should be, rather than making it work with psionic transmutations. Finally, the Extended Abjuration ability should not apply to the majority of your combat buffs. Extending all of your evocations for free isn't of much benefit, so again making it apply to psychokinesis powers instead of psychometabolism powers is more in line with how powerful/useful that class feature should be.

I'll concede that you may have a point about the power of the class. Psychokinesis probably puts it more in line with how it should be power wise, but I still maintain that psychometabolism is more in line with the classes intended purpose.

It's worth noting though that while extending all your evocations for free isn't much benefit the real benefit is being able to quicken them for free. Being able to use an augmented blast with your swift action then smack with your standard/full round action (or blast again) is pretty powerful. Especially since because you don't have to pay the quickening cost you can augment the powers damage to your full cap.

And it's also worth noting that being able to quicken most of your combat buffs for free isn't that much of a benefit. If you look at a lot of the Psychometabolism buffs they mostly have a swift action manifesting time already. Things like psionic lions charge, hustle, claws of the beast, are all swift actions already. Being able to extend them is only of benefit to some of them too. Of the three above lions charge and hustle have instantaneous durations and claws of the beast has a duration measured in HOURS per level which is not only enough for one combat, but by the time you'd have enough BAB for Abj Champ is almost enough to last nearly the entire day.

Obviously there are some powers for which it's very beneficial (like expansion) but I wouldn't say that it helps all your combat buffs or even applies to the majority of them.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I think it would be more in line with what's standard for psionic abilities for an adapted Swift Abjuration class feature to require you to expend your psionic focus. That would mitigate the swift blasting problem, while keeping it in line power-wise with other psionic abilities (Personal Construct, Quicken Power).

There are plenty of 1 minute/level duration buffs (Biofeedback, Animal Affinity) which would probably last through at least one extra encounter if Extended. Plus you would be able to use a Swift Vigor every round, which while somewhat in line with the Minor Shapeshift reserve feat, it's actually ten times better when augmented and combined/shared with Share Pain: Psicrystal. Again, using all your buffs as a swift action is considerably better for this type of character than being able to blast as a swift action. Making it also spend your psionic focus would greatly mitigate abuse in this case, but it's still going to extend far more offensive buffs than the number of spells that would have benefited from it.

IMO Kineticist is actually better than Egoist for a gish. You can use Control Body targeting yourself, then Solicit Psycrystal, and your psicrystal can spend its action every round causing your body to full attack using your own Int bonus for the power's effects. Meanwhile your rounds are free to take purely mental actions, such as manifesting powers and regaining your psionic focus. Due to Control Body making you Int-SAD, you don't even need Metamorphosis or most other Egoist-specific powers. It also gives you access to gems like Fiery Discorporation, Energy Missile, Inertial Barrier, etc., powers which are more in line with abjurations than transmutations (considering Energy Missile's ideal use is destroying opponents' weapons, spell component pouches, and holy symbols).

Protective magic, whether you're using Greater Luminous Armor + Shield or Inertial Armor + Force Screen, is going to give you a higher AC at most levels than what you would get from manufactured armor and shields. That it saves you from jumping through hoops to maintain your AC when Polymorphed or similar is just icing on the cake. Don't disregard the benefit of these buffs just because you can still wear armor without suffering arcane spell failure. Abjurant Champion by design boosts your primary armor bonus and shield bonus buffs, so when adapted to a psionic version it should do the same.