The Complete Psionic introduces a number of new feats, powers, and prestige classes. One of them is the Ectopic Adept which focuses on manifesting Astral Constructs. Its a decent 5 level progression prestige class however it is completely dwarfed by the Constructor prestige class found in the Wizard online archives. That prestige class can be found here:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625b
My thing is, even though the Constructor is a 10 level prestige class you gain far more advantages and versatility choosing this one. A 5th level Ectopic Adept can create 2 Astral Constructs at one time, a 9th level Constructor can create 4 Astral Contructs by spending 6 additional power points when manifesting the power. A 2nd level Ectopic Adept gains rapid creation wich allows you to manifest astral construct as a standard action 1/day/level, a 10th level Constructor gains quickened contruction, which allows you to manifest the astral construct power as if Quickened Power were applied it. You must send your psionic focus but it doesnt cost any additional power points; it does however count against your quickened powers for the round.
In addition, as a 1st level Constructor you gain additional abilities to menus A,B, and C.
Dont get me wrong, I think Ectopic Adept is a good prestige class but with the Contructor out there, why even take this class? I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.
1. From what you say, it looks like they are from different sources. D&D is better about cross-referencing itself in 3.x, but not THAT good. So they just didn't think of it.
2. Psionics suck.
Dont get me wrong, I think Ectopic Adept is a good prestige class but with the Contructor out there, why even take this class? I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.
Well, I can't access Wizards right now (they seem to be having even worse problems than Paizo currently), but here's my thoughts on it:
It appears that that Constructor PrC was posted in mid-2004, and never made the transition to a hardcover book. This is probably because it is too good. Likely the designers of Complete Psionic saw it, rebalanced it, and gave it a flashier name. They may have over balanced in attempting to correct errors, but that's, well, par for the course.
I mean, look at the Scar Enforcer from Races of Destiny: Ten levels and then you get to be not counted as an elf or a human! And then there's the Urban Soul, from the same book: Completely useless in a dungeon, practically a paragon creature in the metropolis of choice.
In the end, it's a choice for the DM - and a responsibility on the player's part to inform the DM of the choice, if he's aware of it. Nothing irritates a DM faster than finding out that there was a more balanced version of a PrC/feat out there, and the player knew it, and knew that the DM didn't know, and didn't tell him. For an example, check out Johnathon Drain's second post here.
TK