~Nerds13~'s page

Hello, all!

I'm curious as to whether the trait Psigifted can be used in conjunction with a psi-like ability.

For example, suppose I'm making a Duergar psion and I choose the Psigifted trait. Since Duergar receive racial psi-like abilities, can he choose one of these abilities and boost either's manifester level?

Further, if my Duergar also takes psionic levels and makes his psigifted power a known power, do both psi-power and psi-like ability manifest at the +1 level?

Since the SRD on psionic powers doesn't seem to differentiate between the two, I'm inclined to think RAW that they can be affected, but I'd like to hear what others have to say.

~Nerds13~

Greetings, all!

I'm about to DM a campaign whose primary arc consists of "luck/unluck" archetypes. The enemies will be unluck focused (black cats/mirror golems, etc) and the players' allies will be luck focused.

One of the allies I have imagined is a ladybug combat warrior. She is able to fly (due to the wings on her back, of course) and generally fights with a longsword. There are a few other things I'd like to implement:

• I'd like for her to be a balanced character, especially since I plan to use her as an allied NPC. I don't want to make her overbalanced as a monster, but actually something I could potentially use in other campaigns.
  
• While I understand "normal" beetles can't do this, I had this idea that this ladybug could detach her back shell (which protects her wings) and use it as a shield. This trade-off allows her to use her natural armor as well as a shield bonus of the same value in the front, but loses her NA (or a portion of it) in the back.
  
• Since she needs to fly, I don't want her bogged down by hundreds of pounds worth of gear or magic items. Is there a way to progress her as a character without resorting to DM handwaving? I am considering porting over "Vow of Poverty" from 3.5, but I'm looking for other options as well. Thanks, Lady-J! Automatic bonus progression should do wonders for this.
  
• This might be the hardest to implement. As currently she has little to offer in terms of ranged attacks, I'm trying to add the ability to cast Scorching Ray. It seems a bit horrendous to have this as an at-will ability, but I'd like her to be able to do it more than X/day. Maybe with some sort of breath weapon condition, like having to wait 1d4 rounds before doing it again.
  

The shield ability makes the most sense as an actual monster ability, so I'd like for it to stay there. However, the beam ability could come from either the monster or from various character progression.

Character progression can be done with class levels, especially since I plan on giving her classes as well (currently planning on fighter, with a dabble in rogue for free evasion). I've also thought about Qinggong monk, since they can use their ki pool for scorching ray, but that gives me lots of other benefits that I'm not looking for. The same thing happens when I look at dabbing into sorcerer/wizard/magus, although magus fits the bill best.

I also looked into psionics, which I'm wary of simply for not being Paizo material. The kineticist has a nice ability that could be used, but again, I get a lot of additional powers and things that I'm not really looking for.

In addition to the difficult stuff, I'm not sure of good values for fly speed, natural armor, and the like.

Any suggestions?

~Nerds13~