Limited Resources

[Fox Lee]

Allo. I'm not much a min/maxer myself, but past experience on the D&D boards taught me that if you want advice about the game mechanics, you ask the CharOps board. If somebody on the CharDev or GM forums claimed that something was broken, I'd laugh and not worry about it. If somebody on the CharOps board said it was broken, I'd know it was time to pay attention.

So, I will shortly be running in a very resource-limited campaign world. That is to say, the only books in play are the Expanded Psionics Handbook, Complete Psionic, and Book of Nine Swords (and possibly the non-caster core classes). Psionics because I wanted to trim down to only one sort of "magic" for this campaign world, and I think the psionics system is by far the best "casting" system D&D contains, and Bo9S because the setting is the anime Bleach, so ridiculous wuxia sword-fu is pretty much mandated. Oh, and I will probably pinch the dragonmarks from Eberron too (minus racial requirements).

So, the Min/Max question would be, is there any crazy broken shit you can do with this combination that I, who hated the Wizard, Cleric and Druid so much that I completely kicked them out of the world, should worry about? Any powers or feats that are just too good? Any sick synergies I should have noticed by now?

Thanks in advance. Talen Lee is going to be one of my players, and I fear I can count on him to find whatever I've missed :\

[Bozwevial]

Hmm. You might want to watch out for Affinity Field+Bestow Power shenanigans, and don't let people play arcane swordsages. All I can think of from the top of my head.

[skydragonknight]

Allo. I'm not much a min/maxer myself, but past experience on the D&D boards taught me that if you want advice about the game mechanics, you ask the CharOps board. If somebody on the CharDev or GM forums claimed that something was broken, I'd laugh and not worry about it. If somebody on the CharOps board said it was broken, I'd know it was time to pay attention.

So, I will shortly be running in a very resource-limited campaign world. That is to say, the only books in play are the Expanded Psionics Handbook, Complete Psionic, and Book of Nine Swords (and possibly the non-caster core classes). Psionics because I wanted to trim down to only one sort of "magic" for this campaign world, and I think the psionics system is by far the best "casting" system D&D contains, and Bo9S because the setting is the anime Bleach, so ridiculous wuxia sword-fu is pretty much mandated. Oh, and I will probably pinch the dragonmarks from Eberron too (minus racial requirements).

So, the Min/Max question would be, is there any crazy broken shit you can do with this combination that I, who hated the Wizard, Cleric and Druid so much that I completely kicked them out of the world, should worry about? Any powers or feats that are just too good? Any sick synergies I should have noticed by now?

Thanks in advance. Talen Lee is going to be one of my players, and I fear I can count on him to find whatever I've missed :\

So Psionics is Kido?
Entangling Ectoplasm is an "Art of Binding" that is very useful at low levels as a debuff.
Not quite sure what Ego Whip is, but it's a very solid power that continues to be useful.

Any Soulbows in your party(AKA Quincy?)
Chad would be like a Soulfist instead of a Soulknife, with a lot of Crusader mixed in.

Ichigo is a probably some kind of Warblade.

[Bozwevial]

Allo. I'm not much a min/maxer myself, but past experience on the D&D boards taught me that if you want advice about the game mechanics, you ask the CharOps board. If somebody on the CharDev or GM forums claimed that something was broken, I'd laugh and not worry about it. If somebody on the CharOps board said it was broken, I'd know it was time to pay attention.

So, I will shortly be running in a very resource-limited campaign world. That is to say, the only books in play are the Expanded Psionics Handbook, Complete Psionic, and Book of Nine Swords (and possibly the non-caster core classes). Psionics because I wanted to trim down to only one sort of "magic" for this campaign world, and I think the psionics system is by far the best "casting" system D&D contains, and Bo9S because the setting is the anime Bleach, so ridiculous wuxia sword-fu is pretty much mandated. Oh, and I will probably pinch the dragonmarks from Eberron too (minus racial requirements).

So, the Min/Max question would be, is there any crazy broken shit you can do with this combination that I, who hated the Wizard, Cleric and Druid so much that I completely kicked them out of the world, should worry about? Any powers or feats that are just too good? Any sick synergies I should have noticed by now?

Thanks in advance. Talen Lee is going to be one of my players, and I fear I can count on him to find whatever I've missed :\

So Psionics is Kido?
Entangling Ectoplasm is an "Art of Binding" that is very useful at low levels as a debuff.
Not quite sure what Ego Whip is, but it's a very solid power that continues to be useful.

Any Soulbows in your party(AKA Quincy?)
Chad would be like a Soulfist instead of a Soulknife, with a lot of Crusader mixed in.

Ichigo is a probably some kind of Warblade.

I think he's running the campaign, skydragonknight...

Also, Fox Lee, were you planning on modifying the prestige classes from ToB to allow psionic classes entry?

[Stratovarius]

There's always the things like Syncronicity and Linked Power, both of which are quite dangerous. Anarchic Initiate needs to be tweaked for what happens with a Psion entry, which is currently all gain, no worries. That said, you'd need someone else to really fill you in on all of the quirks in those books.

[Fox Lee]

Hmm. You might want to watch out for Affinity Field+Bestow Power shenanigans, and don't let people play arcane swordsages. All I can think of from the top of my head.

Thanks for the heads-up. I'm'a go look up those powers and see what I think...

So Psionics is Kido?
Entangling Ectoplasm is an "Art of Binding" that is very useful at low levels as a debuff.
Not quite sure what Ego Whip is, but it's a very solid power that continues to be useful.

*nods* You've basically got the idea. I've chosen to be a bit vague about whether players want to theme their moves as kidou or zanjutsu (because I didn't want to force everybody to splash psionics to represent academy training), but broadly speaking, psionics is kidou techniques.

Any Soulbows in your party(AKA Quincy?)
Chad would be like a Soulfist instead of a Soulknife, with a lot of Crusader mixed in.

I've had the Soulknife nixed because I think it's kind of pussy, but there are feats which give the same core ability to a character (the unique weapon), and are easy to expand on. There probably won't be any Quincy showing up though, on account of they're supposed to be dead ;p

Ichigo is a probably some kind of Warblade.

Porbably so... it's more the Gotei 13 characters I need to worry about, though. Because the series' continuity is so heavy, and there's no way to interject at the moment without making the future very awkward, the setting is sort of alternative: the same background, the same coup that happened in the Soul Society arc, but minus Ichigo and his crew. So I am left with the task of statting up the captains and vice-captains who remain (hrm... maybe I should keep any broken tricks you find, and use them for captains :p).

I think he's running the campaign, skydragonknight...

Hmm? *lost*

Also, Fox Lee, were you planning on modifying the prestige classes from ToB to allow psionic classes entry?

Yeah, I was hoping to adapt the Jade Phoenix Mage to a psionic version, at the least. I wish B09S and XPH/CP had more interaction, though I understand why they don't. We're trying to work out a good metric for making the spell levels > damage trade into a PP > damage trade without making it broken.

[Bozwevial]

Yeah, fix Anarchic Initiate-it's designed for wilders and yet Knowledge (the planes) isn't a class skill, so barring stuff like Able Learner, you'd be able to get in at 14th level, maybe, with a wilder.

[Ubernoob]

I heavily suggest not using CP.  Allow the two soulknife classes, but nothing else in the book.  The book is terrible.

[Tshern]

Practiced manifester, uber, Practiced manifester!

[Bozwevial]

I heavily suggest not using CP.  Allow the two soulknife classes, but nothing else in the book.  The book is terrible.

+1. Especially do not use the "updated" powers from the XPH.

[skydragonknight]

Porbably so... it's more the Gotei 13 characters I need to worry about, though. Because the series' continuity is so heavy, and there's no way to interject at the moment without making the future very awkward, the setting is sort of alternative: the same background, the same coup that happened in the Soul Society arc, but minus Ichigo and his crew. So I am left with the task of statting up the captains and vice-captains who remain (hrm... maybe I should keep any broken tricks you find, and use them for captains ).

Aizen is a Thrallherd(max level, and at least 5 levels of Telepath) and Ichimaro Gin and Tosen are his Thralls. Ichimaru is the higher level one, since Tosen lost to Kenpachi and Ichimaru is never seen losing.

[amalcon]

Be careful around any power with an XP cost.  There are lots of nasty tricks with Fusion, Fission, Psychic Reformation, really anything with an XP cost has some abuse associated with it.

There's also the Synchronicity/Linked Power/Metapower/Psychic Meditation trick that lets you turn your swift and move actions into an extra standard action for 1pp.  Could be nasty to use two strikes in the same round.  In such a limited environment, it doesn't sound pleasant.  Actually, better to ban linked power outright.  It's just a bad idea.

[Tazendra]

I'd not allow the Spell to Power Erudite. May not be an issue, as your game world doesn't have spells for Erudites to convert, but its still a bit broken.

I've also played a Thrallherd, and it is quite powerful. You may want to talk with anyone who wants to play one beforehand to discuss how total the control over the Thrall's behavior is. If you allow a PC Thrallherd to treat Thralls as disposable Slaves, it can be extremely powerful.

I also suggest you take a look at Untapped Potential, from Dreamscarred Press. Very nice fluff, and some good crunch. The material adds a lot of variety and is not overpowered.

[Stratovarius]

I have to second (third?) that recommendation for UTP, it's a lot better in flavour and design than CPsi in all but a few aspects.

[pfooti]

Yeah, fix Anarchic Initiate-it's designed for wilders and yet Knowledge (the planes) isn't a class skill, so barring stuff like Able Learner, you'd be able to get in at 14th level, maybe, with a wilder.

Actually, I think Anarchic Initiate is GREAT for a psion, heh. The prereqs should probably be Knowledge (planes) 8 ranks OR Wild Surge +1 and Knowledge (planes) 4 ranks, or just Volatile Mind.

The other thing you should consider with AI is the difference between the table and the text. If you look at the chaotic surge ability's table, it looks like a Zero-Sum thing: there's 25% chance for each of: No effect, -50% damage, +50% damage, and double damage. That ends up evening out to, on average, normal damage (with no effect meaning just that, no effect at all, the power fizzles). The text that describes it is different, and is actually contradictory, calling the "double damage" entry "maximized", which it demonstrably isn't (double damage, on average, is a little more than Max damage - consider double average damage of 2d6: 14). I've always believed the text description was mistaken, added in by an editor who didn't understand the point of the class at the last minute.

Anyway, Anarchic Initiate, when you use the text, is Awesome. It has a very positive expected effect on your blasting (which, when you compare to say, Wild Mage, is surprising), and is really easy to get into as a psion. Even Wilders benefit, although not as much. When you use the table version, AI is just a clever little class that you probably don't want to take unless you're a psion wanting to get some Wild Surges and a slightly better BAB, because the chaotic surge ability is too much of a gamble with no payoff.

[Tazendra]

My problem with it is that Psions get huge benefits without big drawbacks, and get even more bang out of it than Wilders. Its a shame that a prestige class designed for Wilders works better for Psions.

[Stratovarius]

My problem with it is that Psions get huge benefits without big drawbacks, and get even more bang out of it than Wilders. Its a shame that a prestige class designed for Wilders works better for Psions.

They could have at least made Wild Surge an actual prereq to the class that limited entry to wilders, rather than have it be always better for a Psion entry. But, like much of CPsi, poorly thought out, poorly implemented material.

[pfooti]

Personally, I can't recommend dreamscarred press enough. Awesome stuff, Untapped Potential is a better sourcebook for psionics than complete psionic was, and it was written by board regulars, no less.