Psionics - Soulknife 20 vs. Soulknife / Dark Tempest?

[Silentman73]

So I'm doing my initial planning for when I can start my Soulknife in a few months (once I'm done running our group through Wrath of the Righteous). For those who have picked up Ultimate Psionics, it'd be interesting to hear thoughts on whether one should stick with the Soulknife for all 20 levels, or possibly go with a Soulknife 10/Dark Tempest 10 (using the Gifted Blade archetype to satisfy the 1st level manifester requirement for the PrC).

If you were going to use the Dark Tempest, what powers would work well so the implementation wouldn't just become "Fire off a power, then close for melee"?

Curious to hear thoughts.

[GhanjRho]

I would not go Gifted Blade 10/Dark Tempest 10. The Gifted Blade and the Dark Tempest are both methods of solving the problems with Psychic Strike; the problem is that they go about it in incompatible ways. Dark Tempest want's you to have the biggest Psychic Strike damage you can (every die is another +2 PP you don't have to spend)

Personally, I'd do a build of Soulknife3/Psychic Warrior3/Dark Tempest 10/Soulknife4. Run it as a DEX build TWFing with emulated wakizashi. Either put the Agile property on your Mind Blade or take the Deadly Agility feat from the Path of War releases. Grab the Soul Warrior feat and some method of maintaining a secondary psionic focus (either the Psicrystal Affinity or Deep Focus feat). Max Acrobatics for tumble checks. If the battle lasts four rounds or less, you have a power launching every round. At level 20 with the powerful strikes blade skill, that's 14pp powers for free. Then you have Power Critical (hence the wakizashi).