Alright, I'm not going to sugarcoat this, here's the situation.
I'm currently playing a Dreamscarred Press Psychic Warrior 6 with the Interceptor Path. To the non-psionic readers that means I'm the party tank with speed built-in. My human hit die is D8, I have my own buff psionic powers like biofeedback (DR 2/-), force screen (shield, +4 to AC), and vigor (temp hp, like false life). My AC is usually 17 with a breastplate or maximized inertial armor (mage armor), or 21 full-out. I use burst (think expeditous retreat) to get to the enemy at the front line fast, and hit hard with a two-handed sword, getting a free expansion (enlarge person) when I hit on that first attack. (See how easy I made it for the non-psionics to understand?) But I have a major problem.
My Psychic Warrior needs 1-3 rounds to buff himself up. With the DR, temp hp, and invisible shield, he's a decent tank with 84 hp. But by then, it's been 3 rounds after the ambush has started and the point fighter (currently a Swashbuckler 6) is screaming she's on her last hit point. Our GM, of course, finds ambushes the primary means of battle in our storyline. It's inevitable that our party is going to get ambushed, and I have a choice of going into battle without the 30 temp hit points, without the damage reduction, without the additional +4 to AC - or listening to the Swashbuckler start swearing about my lack of masculinity as she's taking the brunt of the damage from the bandits and/or monsters. The buffs I can do as a Psychic Warrior are all min./level, so there's not much I can do except wait for actual combat, which is going to be a full-out assault ambush by our GM.
I've already taken the Combat Manifestation feat to manifest my buff powers in combat, do I need the Extend Power feat as well? Extend Power would double the time length of min/level for my buffs, but I would lose my psionic focus each time (losing all of my Psychic Warrior bonuses until I re-focus for a full round). I'm at a loss here to think how to get time to buff without using the Swashbuckler as a tank, which she is not. (And lets me know about it, each time.)
The mundane answer would be to "suck it up", and get heavy armor and a heavy shield to carry around 100% of the day. Yes, my Psychic Warrior has a STR of 18. As an alternative, I do have dimension swap, which lets you "instantly swap positions between your current position and that of a designated ally in range", which makes the tank the meatshield getting beat up, but the Swashbuckler's already taken heavy damage for multiple rounds at that point.
What can I do to get that buff time, or should I start handing the Swashbuckler all the magical defense items and buff amulets we come across?
(I'm asking for generalized advice here, not just Dreamscarred Press players. Think of a pure fighter with similar problems buffing from another player or magic items, and you have my situation.)
Well, what you're saying is there are a bunch of minute-per-level buffs you'd like up. Not unreasonable. At 6th level, you've got a reasonable amount of time to buff up and do some exploring. Sure, you're not going to be ready for every fight, and if you're ever ambushed you won't be ready, but it's not so bad.
inertial armor is already hour-per-level, so that's a non-issue.
You might consider Stealth, and retreating to buff when you've found someone you want to fight. Or other scouting techniques.
Really, there isn't a simple mechanical fix for you. Min/lvl buffs are what they are, no matter the class. They're balanced with the expectation that you won't have them up all the time.
I know this isn't what you're hoping to hear, but hopefully it helps somewhat.
What's your build?
A 3-round buff suite is not a good idea in terms of time, the resources of the other party, or your own power points. Do this when you get the drop on the enemy. Other times, figure out what your default buff is.
With an optimized party, the battle is over in 3 rounds. Points that don't help you win are wasted.
A good battlefield control wizard can slow the enemy for a couple rounds, bat at level 6, they probably can't hold everybody back.
Know what do your powers do and what do they not do. When it comes down to them, all of them are defenses.
Force Screen helps basic AC and Incorporeal AC.
Biofeedback helps against weapon damage.
Vigor helps against attacks that do HP damage.
If you put up a defense that the enemy doesn't care about, then you've wasted a round. Against most foes you have put up three different ways to keep them from taking your hit points. The fighter doesn't have that. Hit points are a resource. Only the last one counts. As a tank, your job is to bleed in place of your allies. If you're buffing, you aren't helping absorb damage and you aren't helping kill bad guys, your secondary mission.
Thanks for all the replies.
master_marshmallow, my PW tank is STR18/DEX13/CON13/INT10/WIS15/CHA0 (Don't forget, WIS is important to a PW, not INT. I do take a hit for my Intimidate checks, but I can live with low CHA.) Derrick Winters, we're not using the duel rules, but thanks for the reach weapon advice. I had not thought of the PW Maneuver that way.
Philo Pharynx hit the nail on the head - I need to prioritize. I can forget force screen, because with hidden ambush/overwhelming monster conditions hitting our flat-footed AC or doing AC 38 attacks, AC doesn't matter as much. Hit points do matter, so vigor is my most important self-buff. If I do get the Extend Power feat, I can buff myself with biofeedback for double the min/lvl, which might last a single level through a dungeon crawl. biofeedback doesn't get "used up" like vigor might with a single multi-attack.
So I'm still buffing a single round with vigor when the arrows hit from concealment or the monster lands in front of our party. Then I either get a free expansion on my first hit or acquire a reach weapon to strike from 10 ft away. If I'm rear guard (again), then dimension swap lets me grab the Swashbuckler from the front line and replace her with me.
In case you were wondering, we do have a "blaster" Kineticist 7 and a Cleric 7 in our party, in addition to our Psychic Warrior 6 and Swashbuckler 6. The Cleric is usually rolling out the Bless-Magic Circle Against Evil-Prayer buffs in those "3 rounds". After which she complains all she is doing is Channel Energy for the PW and the Swashbuckler for the rest of the fight. The Kineticist plays the energy wall/energy bolt "guess what the weakness is" game with the Monster of the Day. With the Combat Manifestation feat, I can manifest a new set of temporary hit points with vigor in the middle of battle.
Time to look for a Ring of Regeneration for the Swashbuckler...
It sounds like your party is expecting you to be the tank, but your class choices aren't really tank oriented.
The interceptor path is mainly a skirmisher build.
What I would do is self-buff with inertial armor (extended) and augment that as much as possible with whatever power points you have.
This will give you a decent AC for 12 hours a day, so you'll be quasi-ready for combat most of the time.
Until you get to the point where you are comfortable being self-buffed a good amount of time, or have some magical/psionic items that assist with ambushes, I'd splurge on some armor.
You need to develop two schemes of buffing.
1. Is when you have the control of battle in your hands, when you have the luxury of buffing up and THEN starting the fight. In this case, you can guild the lily as much as you think you can afford to spend power on.
2. The other scenario is when battle FINDS YOU. This is when you keep your buffing time down to ONE round plus a swift. And this is the framework you should be developing your powers and equipment around.
Quintain & Moonrunner, thanks for the replies.
Quintrain, I agree with the Extend Power on Inertial Armor. This is my first attempt at playing a Psychic Warrior, and yes, I'm getting teased about being "only" a D8 instead of D10 or D12. For game reasons I couldn't choose Half-Giant or Forgeborn, so I'm doing the best I can. Things like the Psionic Body feat help with hit points.
Moonrunner, scenario #2 is turning into 100% of the time. But I think I have a system for that now - see the above on priorities.
And yes, my PW had armor, but it turns out efreeti on the Plane of Fire #1 like taking humans as slaves, and #2 they sell confiscated weapons and armor in the City of Brass faster than a Massachusetts gun buy-back program...
My PW is saving up for some MW breastplate again, or even heavy armor. In the meantime, Inertial Armor (max power points spent) is doing the job.
You need levels, or effective ML to up your Power Point spending, since a lot of your powers can be manifested as swift actions even without quicken.
Remember to take hustle and with all of it combined you can manifest three powers in one turn.
