Convince me about psionics.

[TheWordSlinger]

@ that challenge...thingy. I got that you can manifest it twinned AND split ray'd (it is effect:ray), with overchannel), shoot your psicrystal with maximized energy missle to boost the damage soak, then shoot off 8 rays as a standard action for 69 damage apiece. It's pretty good, and the little thing that makes it cool is that once energy's absorbed, it doesn't go away. I'm not sure if twin works because it might fall under stacking similar magical effects overlap, but that's still 276 damage per round as a standard action that takes no resources of yours.

Now, if you could get, say, something that makes it explode at the end of the ray, I'm sure I saw some sort of meta-something feat somewhere... that'd rule.

Not bad (although Twinned power doesn't work, since the effects overlap, but you can still get 8 rays a round; see below).

Overchannel + Split Psionic Ray + Chained Power + psicrystal + shared metamorphosis + schism (to bypass immunity to the [mind-affecting] tag) = 8 rays per round. Charge it up each morning with a sonic energy wall, and that's 45 sonic damage x 8 = 360 damage per round. Add on Greater Psionic Shot + Aligned Attack + a greater chasuble of fell power for an additional 7d6 points of damage.

It's build resource-intensive, but every feat and power up there will be extremely useful in other contexts, and you can always psychic reformation them in and out as needed (meaning you're not stuck with those choices for any longer than you wish to be).

Well done, however.

See what I mean about a little imagination going a long way?

I think I'm in love. Lycanthromancer, will you marry me?

[Lycanthromancer]

Hmm. Is your avatar indicative of your gender?

If not...Maybe?

[Achiever_Type]

CPsi ruling says you get 1 construct at a time unless you pick a PrC to allow you 2.  Astral construct is one of those powers that was retarded at its release, since splatbook material at the time let you make a fighter/melee type that could match them on *one* aspect, and they could readily do it all.  ToB helps, but constructs are still great.  Also see Psionic dispell magic.  Great a low-mid levels.  Really great.

On a general rant, you hear a lot of people talking about the power of wizards and psions, but I say to you, what happens when enemies are smart?  You become the swiss cheese.  I recently played under a DM who pulled zero punches.  My wizard had everything in the book thrown at him, utterly, and him alone first.  Why?  He was a god damned wizard, and the biggest threat.  Invisible power-attackers with falchions ambush the party.  Who gets ambushed?  Me.  

In this kind of world, you see how wizards are truly limited.  You have to expend a great deal of your resources keeping yourself alive, unless your DM was stupid enough to give you abrupt jaunt(assume they aren't, if they are smart enough to tactically focus on you).  With being busy living, you loose a lot of your mega-ultimate-super power, and really the game balances out better.  Shocking, but the wizard did eventually die to being repeatedly targeted in almost every fight, picked a Psion next.

They are much worse.  They have almost none of the "stop hitting me" abilities a wizard does, and I'm surprised he's lasted as long as he has.  As for utility, I think they have a good bit.  Not quite as much help to other PC's as a wizard or cleric, but in their own way, they are immensely useful.  A great 5th player slot.  And indeed, every once in a while their blasting powers are great.  Laying down a cone that hits a group of 12 for 50+ damage each with a dc 26 reflex save for half at level 9 is a fight-ender.  Don't mock the power of a well placed blast, but don't forget they are only part of the equation.  That's one of the big tricks to Psions.

[Bozwevial]

Complete Psionic is the worst splatbook ever. Of all time.

[PhaedrusXY]

Bah, Abrupt Jaunt is good, but not as uber as you're making it out to be. You can't use it at all if you're flat-footed, and it's only once per round.

I do like the fact that your DM played the enemies as intelligent. They should be worried about the guy with the pointy hat carrying the stick around. That's one advantage that psions can have. They can wear full plate and carry a tower shield if they want, and it won't affect their manifesting. This is more useful for making people think that you're a BSF rather than for the AC bonus, but that is nice too.

[Achiever_Type]

Yeah, aside from not being flat footed, it's beautiful.  Dodge out of AoE spells, full attacks, undead popping out of flooors/ceilings/walls (or high level casters) etc.  It really is a outstanding class feature. 

That being said, it's redundant on a lot of wizard abilities that say, "no, doesn't work" assuming you aren't flat footed.  Surprise round seems to be the biggest threat to one.  I suppose that adds to the saying, "blah blah blah wizard is great, but not with a knife in the back."

[PhaedrusXY]

Yeah, aside from not being flat footed, it's beautiful.  Dodge out of AoE spells

10 feet isn't that far. It won't get you out of them, a lot of times.

full attacks, undead popping out of flooors/ceilings/walls (or high level casters) etc.  It really is a outstanding class feature. 

That being said, it's redundant on a lot of wizard abilities that say, "no, doesn't work" assuming you aren't flat footed.  Surprise round seems to be the biggest threat to one.  I suppose that adds to the saying, "blah blah blah wizard is great, but not with a knife in the back."

If you're being attacked by multiple enemies, or even one enemy with multiple attacks, you only get to dodge one of them, though. That's why it's good, but not broken as hell to the point that every sane DM should ban it, which is pretty much what your first post implied.

[Omen of Peace]

I do like the fact that your DM played the enemies as intelligent. They should be worried about the guy with the pointy hat carrying the stick around.

But if "intelligent" enemies start doing that, wizards will wear Hats of Disguise to look like warriors (or clerics) and tanks will wear Hats of Disguise to look like wizards.

Another argument : creatures generally die after a hostile encounter with a powerful (i.e. well-played) wizard. So they don't live to talk about it (Speak with/Raise Dead aside)... and wizards are not that feared.

[PhaedrusXY]

I do like the fact that your DM played the enemies as intelligent. They should be worried about the guy with the pointy hat carrying the stick around.

But if "intelligent" enemies start doing that, wizards will wear Hats of Disguise to look like warriors (or clerics) and tanks will wear Hats of Disguise to look like wizards.

I've seen that (and done it ).

Another argument : creatures generally die after a hostile encounter with a powerful (i.e. well-played) wizard. So they don't live to talk about it (Speak with/Raise Dead aside)... and wizards are not that feared.

Nah, the bad guys have wizards on their side too (their masters ). So that argument doesn't work.

[Achiever_Type]

Disguise is moot when you cast a spell.  Components:  V, S, M.  It's obvious unless you can use skill tricks to disguise what you are doing.  Soon as the first spell drops, they all v-line at you.  Also, in the campaign we were running (RHoD) there was no stop-off and buy items times.  You either grind that bitch, or you loose.

Abrupt jaunt saves you from a full attack.  It's also ACTION ECONOMY friendly.  I caps that cause. . .yeah.  When you're level 3 and the murderous barbarian orc charges you with his great axe, that immediate action is the only thing that will save you.  I won't let abrupt jaunt be underscored it its power, its something that you take, always, if its applicable to your build.  That means its really f-ing good.

And sure, high level wizards have far less to fear with 24 hour a day buffs ranging all over the spectrum of defenses.  Congratulations, you can blow a 9-th+ X level spell slot and auto win like every other caster.  But I'm talking levels 1-13.  Surviving that stretch with a good DM who comes right at you . . . is not a trivial matter.  I think the number one problem with arcane caster power level is timid DM's, who are unwilling to batter their spell casters as they should be.  If its got a int score of 9+, it knows where the largest danger is when spells fly.  Or before, if its in the know. 

[TheWordSlinger]

Hmm. Is your avatar indicative of your gender?

If not...Maybe?

No, I am a male princess.

[Lycanthromancer]

Hmm. Is your avatar indicative of your gender?

If not...Maybe?

No, I am a male princess.

And I'm a queen. *
*Disclaimer:
I'm not nearly as queer as that makes me sound.

As for other tricks, who wants to get a 120' cone antimagic field that you can turn on and off at will, and that doesn't affect you at all? At level 9? Overchannel metamorphosis, with the Metamorphic Transfer feat. Gotta love beholders. Of course, you can also get a nice at-will hold person effect at level 7, since cloakers get moan as an (Ex) ability.

And unlike with polymorph, metamorphosis isn't restricted to one size category larger or smaller (seriously, go look at alter self; polymorph gets that restriction). It's also not restricted by the various polymorph/alter self erratas that have plagued us from time immemorial.

As for other stuff, touchsight is in some ways better than blindsense, and can even do things that true seeing can't do (combine with Burrowing Power to 'see' through walls, for instance; good for finding traps!).

Detect hostile intent is better than detect evil, because you KNOW it's an us-vs-them deal, and you're fully justified in a retaliatory strike; not all evil creatures are out to get you, but hostile creatures are.

Catfall allows you to stand from prone as a swift action if you're tripped or knocked down.

Dispel psionics scales twice as fast as its magical counterpart (though it really should have been errata'ed by now).

Temporal acceleration may hit you with fear when you're done, but it's available a full 6 levels before time hop, and you always know how long you'll be able to use it for; it's not a gamble (granted, this means that Maximize and Empower don't work on it, but I think it's a decent trade-off).

Minor creation available at level 1? Whoo! Plant-products for everyone! Seriously, you can create everything from poisons to antidotes to cloth to (temporary) building materials to flammable pine pitch to food to beer to valuable amber; if you want it, you can approximate it with this power.

Linked Power, schism, hustle, solicit psicrystal, temporal acceleration (with or without Delay Power), and fission all allow you to make awesome use of action economy; you can do far more things during a round than most characters can dream of. You don't even have to burn power points during your extra actions, either; maneuvering into position, using items, escaping from pursuit - psions tend to be much better than wizards at getting lots of actions early in the game, and they do so in ways that are relatively non-broken.

Psionic contingencies are flat-out better than their arcane counterparts; you can have more than one at a time, and you can use augmented low-level powers that are just as strong as high-level ones, because they still count as their original level regardless of augmentation.

And so on.

[rubberduck]

i already posted this in the dirty trick handbook but it kinda... belongs here

manifest:
flayer larva Complete Psionic
agument it so that you get 9 of them

then
manifest:
metaconzert Expanden Psionics

[rubberduck]

Psionic contingencies are flat-out better than their arcane counterparts; you can have more than one at a time, and you can use augmented low-level powers that are just as strong as high-level ones, because they still count as their original level regardless of augmentation.

hmm?
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/contingencyPsionic.htm#

You can use only one psionic contingency companion power at a time; if a second is manifested, the first one (if still active) is dismissed.

[Lycanthromancer]

Psionic contingencies are flat-out better than their arcane counterparts; you can have more than one at a time, and you can use augmented low-level powers that are just as strong as high-level ones, because they still count as their original level regardless of augmentation.

hmm?
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/contingencyPsionic.htm#

You can use only one psionic contingency companion power at a time; if a second is manifested, the first one (if still active) is dismissed.

Nope.

Read a bit closer what it actually says:

"You can use only one psionic contingency companion power at a time; if a second is manifested, the first one (if still active) is dismissed."

Note it says you can have only one companion power. You can have as many contingencies as you want, but you can only have one accompanying power active at once (instantaneous powers only last for an instant, and so you can activate as many of those in sequence as you want).

Thus, if the companion power has a duration, if you activate another contingency that you have readied while the companion power for another contingency is active, the first is dismissed and the second takes effect.

It's subtle, but definite.

[rubberduck]

ah i see...
sometimes some wordings are quite confusing. maybe cause im not a native speaker.

sometimes it kinda written like the wierd language that is spoken by .. you know lawyers 

[PhaedrusXY]

I'm not sure I buy that argument. It also says: "The psionic contingency power and the companion power are manifest at the same time." So if you manifest another psionic contingency, you also manifest another companion power. If you already had another active "psionic contingency companion power", it is dismissed.

I could see that effectively working out to say that you can only have one Contingency. I'm not sure why they changed the wording from the spell, though, which is much more clear about that. I'd guess that most DMs would just assume that the psionic power was poorly rewritten, and go with only allowing a single contingency, much in the same way that most DMs have psicrystals work pretty much exactly like familiars as far as what happens to them if they die, if they can have feats, what their BAB is, etc. The perceived spirit of the rules is more important than the RAW in real games.

[rubberduck]

yeah thats kinda what i understood in the first place...

[Endless Twilight]

I would also like to point out Telepath psions as a class with unique options compared to anything Vancian casters have. For starters, Cloud Mind-will save or treat as invisibility and then some-you can freely manipulate the environment, and as long as you don't do anything to directly affect the target, you've got a free reign to do whatever you like while being utterly undetectable to the target in question. Better part? No display of any sort-your target won't have a clue what you're up to until you're suddenly not there anymore.

Also, take a look at some other powers-False Sensory Input, Attraction/Aversion, Sense Link, Mind Probe... Beguilers are, perhaps, strictly better at enchanting-but Telepaths don't need to actually reach out and enchant anyone. They can simply arrange for people to do what the telepath wants by changing what appears to be reality. The Telepath has so many more *options* for manipulation compared to Beguilers and Wizards, and have potent offense abilities besides-Crisis of Life, Crisis of Breath, Mind Seed... I'd take a Telepath over a Beguiler any day of the week.

[woodenbandman]

Now, I have to say, I totally forgot about telepaths. Thank you for finding a unique thing in psionics that i can love.

I have to say though, I still think that psionics is too weak. I've heard rumors of a power revision/expansion. Where can I find this?