Help with a Psion build, please.

[Bigger Club]

Okay so new campaign is coming up and I thought I would try out a psion since I have never played. We are starting at 4th or 5th level the GM has yet to make up his mind about that. 20 point buy.

Here is what I have been thinking so far. Human, middle age(Story reasons) I am going with the 4th level for this.

Base abilities:

Str 10
Dex 11
Con 13
Int 18
Wis 13
Cha 7

After modifiers:

Str 9
Dex 10
Con 12
Int 22
Wis 14
Cha 8

Now I want to play a blaster because it's fun so kineticist seems to be the choice, for getting around the big problem of having suitable energy
for every foe.

Discipline talent's from first level, I was thinking Energy ray and Far hand.

I have 9 known powers with maxium of 4 of those 2nd level. My thought's so far.

1st:
Call to mind: +4 on those knowledge checks to regonize enemies on clues will come in handy. Also I will most likely get a good number of my skill points in knowledge skills so it should be useful.

Inertial Armor: If someone gets past the melee folks or uses ranged weaponry it's nice not to be a sitting duck.

Precognition, Defensive: Insight bonus is not that common so it will probably stack with anything I will get and with augmentation possible it can give pretty nice saves the bonus to AC is just icing on the cake.

Mind Thrust: Does great damage to one foe even if it's all or nothing but if it's do or die moment anyways you could have chosen worse also Display is only auditory so that's a nice bonus.

Vigor: Temporary hitpoints are always nice and with 5 per power point it's a damn fine move to make before the big battle. The duration 1 min./level does hinder it's usefulness but still one of the best one's available.

2nd:

Energy missile: One of the best damage powers available when you do not need area of effect.

Mental Disruption: If I happen to mess up badly enough to get surounded this can save my bacon.

Inflict Pain: A nice debuff especially against foes that do not get full BAB.

Detect Hostile intent: Can be really helpfull out of combat also in combat if we happen to attack the local thief's guild this will be a life saver.

Now Feats are where I am having real problems:

I get 3 freely chosen feats and 1 bonus feat from the Psion class.

Some that I have been thinking are, Overchannel, Talented, Psicrystal affinity, Psicrystal containment, Psionic meditation and Empower power.

At later levels I thought Twin power and Quicken power would make a pretty damn nice Nova combo with basically 3 powers in one turn.

Then there is what equipment to get with my 6000 gold. Totally clueless about this, apart from the basic ability booster, cloak of resistance and so on.

Well that is what I got so far any and all advice and help is apriciated. I tried to get the all relevant info but if I missed something feel free to ask.

PS. Almost forgot Magic-psionic transparancy is in effect.

[LazarX]

Bigger Club wrote:

Here is what I have been thinking so far. Human, middle age(Story reasons) I am going with the 4th level for this.

The story being "I wanted that age modifier for my Int and Wisdom."?

[Bigger Club]

LazarX wrote:

Bigger Club wrote:

Here is what I have been thinking so far. Human, middle age(Story reasons) I am going with the 4th level for this.

The story being "I wanted that age modifier for my Int and Wisdom."?

If that would be the reason why stop at middle age. If you want to know it's because the age of a child he has. Not gona dispute that I did use the effect to my benefit, but that's not the reason. And mentioned because that is one thing I do not want to change.

[meatrace]

Yeah you have the power feats covered. I would look into Psionic Endowment as well. Blasting is great, but sometimes you'll want to apply an effect.

Your first level powers are fine (though Empty Mind is REALLY good), but your second level power choice seems questionable. Inflict Pain and Detect Hostile Intent aren't particularly good. Mental disruption is also iffy compared to--->I'd pick Energy Stun, it's an AoE that can stun if they fail their save. Just choose electricity as the energy type to boost the DC by 2, making it more likely to stun someone.

For single targets I'd still rely on Ego Whip. For me it's just one of those "too good to pass up" powers.

For gear, with 6k, I think a +2 int item, +1 cloak of resistance, and maybe a handy haversack. If you can rely on that you might be able to dump your str a bit more, but w/e.

[Bigger Club]

meatrace wrote:

Yeah you have the power feats covered. I would look into Psionic Endowment as well. Blasting is great, but sometimes you'll want to apply an effect.

Your first level powers are fine (though Empty Mind is REALLY good), but your second level power choice seems questionable. Inflict Pain and Detect Hostile Intent aren't particularly good. Mental disruption is also iffy compared to--->I'd pick Energy Stun, it's an AoE that can stun if they fail their save. Just choose electricity as the energy type to boost the DC by 2, making it more likely to stun someone.

For single targets I'd still rely on Ego Whip. For me it's just one of those "too good to pass up" powers.

For gear, with 6k, I think a +2 int item, +1 cloak of resistance, and maybe a handy haversack. If you can rely on that you might be able to dump your str a bit more, but w/e.

Psionic Endowement: Eventually most likely, altough with meta feats coming up I will probably go trough psionic focus like candy. At 5th level there is two feats coming up so will likely pick it up then.

Epty mind: That Manifesting Time 1 immediate action really does make it tempting, but then again good save already and decent wisdom and with cloak of resistance and possible boost from Precognition, Defensive do I need even bigger Will save bonus?

Energy stun: Oh this looks real nice, probably will drop Inflict pain for this.

Ego Whip: How did I manage to miss this, it's marvelous definatly taking this one.

Some great advice there thank you.

[meatrace]

You may not need it NOW, but when your will save doesn't scale enough you'll want it. It's like Iron Will but doesn't take a feat slot...and is augmentable. Failing will saves is super super bad, and precognition doesn't last all day. Just sayin.

At later levels there are some awesome non-blasty powers. Wall of Ectoplasm is freaking phenomenal. You can put a hemisphere around a creature and crowd control them without them getting a save.

Oh, almost forgot, Crystal Shard is also a very decent one for 1st level. It's only single target, but it has no SR, so it's good for a situation when you just can't seem to roll SR.

[Bigger Club]

meatrace wrote:

You may not need it NOW, but when your will save doesn't scale enough you'll want it. It's like Iron Will but doesn't take a feat slot...and is augmentable. Failing will saves is super super bad, and precognition doesn't last all day. Just sayin.

At later levels there are some awesome non-blasty powers. Wall of Ectoplasm is freaking phenomenal. You can put a hemisphere around a creature and crowd control them without them getting a save.

Oh, almost forgot, Crystal Shard is also a very decent one for 1st level. It's only single target, but it has no SR, so it's good for a situation when you just can't seem to roll SR.

Hmm, Yeah I see your point but I would reckon Psychic Reformation can take care of that since it's only 4th level power so access to that is as early as 7th level.

Crystal Shard is nice and hitting with ranged touch should not be a problem even with just low BAB at later levels when SR becomes more usually encountered problem. Probably will change mind thrust to it and replace later with Empty mind unless I find some other 1st levle powers to be of lesser use at that time.