4th & Dragon : Dungeons and Dragons...and stuff

Hey guys! I doubt you remember me, but I used to prowl the boards over at 3rded.org when it was up, under the alias of nunchuckgun.
But if you do remember, you may recall a lengthy game of capture the flag I DM’d last year.
I had my players split up in two rooms and they took turns working as a cohesive team to attempt to assassinate the opposing teams king and steal their royal symbol of office. It was a hit, and now one of my players is running his own version of the game, and I get to play (for joy!!).

From what we’ve been told, we’re on two teams of 3, playing an objective based game and in the DM’s words “… you’ll fight for control of areas on the battleground.”
This leads me to think we’ll be playing something King of the Hill inspired, but I know this guy, he’s wily, and that means tricks.

This king of the hill will probably take place in some sort of maze, just because thats the smart way to handle characters who like to fly or teleport to visible points of power on an outdoor KotH.

This brings us to what I need to do for this game, assist the the team strategy, and build my character:

-Books: All 3.5 books are allowed with the exception of Unearthed Arcana.  3.0 and lower are not allowed, no exceptions.

-Level: You will be building level 12 characters

-Abilities: 25 point buyoff as per DMG rules.

-Hit Points: At first level, take max and at every level afterword, take average (half)

-Race: ONLY PHB races are allowed.  You can talk to me about this if you have something specific in mind, but I will almost definitely say no.

-Classes: Almost everything is allowed, with the exception of Frenzied Berserker.

-Feats/Spells/Powers/Stuff: Anything is allowed with the exception of action point feats, since the game won’t be using action points.

-Psionics: All 3.5 psionics is allowed.  If you are using psionics, keep in mind that I am using the “Psionics is the same” option.

-Pregame preparing: Any buffs, spells or whatever have to be done IN game, which means you cannot “prebuff” yourself with anything.  If you can use psionic focus, you are considered already focused.  You can preload a crossbow, but you have to specify what is currently loaded in it or I will assume it wasn’t preloaded with a bolt.

-Pregame rolls: Anything that you have to make rolls for pre-game (besides HP, which I’ve detailed above), you must take average (half) for, and you should probably talk to me about it, as I can’t think of anything off-hand that does.

My character concept is a psion, and I’m leaning towards telepath. I figure this gives me an edge over any fighter type builds, because of my mind affecting abilities (including the probably super fun Mind Switch), and I can toss objects or people around, while still maintaining versatility because of how the psion power point system leaves me with all my options all the time!

Obvious feat choices include overchannel and talented, and I’m sure you guys may have some suggestions that’ll increase my survivability. I’m also not familiar with Complete Mage, although I do have access to it, so if there is something amazing in it, let me know.

Thanks in advance for any advice, and hey! Hello again all you guys! I missed this stuff!

Don’t bother with talented at this point, you’re level 12. You shouldn’t waste your psionic focus on something so trivial as 1d8 points of damage, when it’s such an important resource. Not to mention it isn’t usable on powers higher than level 3. If you want overchannel, that’s fine, but I don’t recommend it, other feats will be more useful.

You’re required to use PhB races but with psionics? I recommend human as your race then, the feat will come in handy more than the other races abilities.

I would actually recommend a shaper over a telepath.

Psion 7/Ecotpic Adept 5 would be a good way to go methinks.

Boost construct feat (which does stack with ectopic form feats) would be great. You only lose one level of manifesting, so you’ll be manifesting as a level 11 psion, so you still have level 6 powers. You can have 6th level astral constructs (2 at a time), and can use them to distract, occupy, or just beat in your foes. If it’s a maze, they can block off paths and the like. A good form to use would be Anathemic Carapace. Manifest it as a standard action due to your class feature, and it can act the round it appears. Next round, if you want, you can use it as a bomb. Plus, if it gets destroyed, BOOM. Emerald Gyre wouldn’t be bad either, since it can grapple quite well. Depending on the rules, your constructs could even hold areas for you, by ordering them to defend the spot and attack enemies on sight. Other powers like Concealing Amorpha (greater), inertial armor (don’t go without!), and Inconstant Location (a personal favorite) will definately help keep you alive while your constructs wreak havoc and wear them down. If you want a save or die effect, you could take crystallize, which would be great against casters because it forces a fortitude save.

The biggest benefit of this type of character is your extra actions. You can do a lot more with each turn than many other character types can, which is a great help in this type of contest.

A power called Touchsight will allow you to basically, not let anything sneak up on you. 3rd level power, gives you a psionic equivalent of blindsight without actually being blindsight. For 11 power points, you’ll have it out to 120 feet for 11 minutes.

The reason I figured talented was a good feat was because those 3rd and lower level powers can be augmented for much greater effect. Energy Bolt normally does 5d6, if I fully augment and overchannel that, I do 17d6, and the DC is increased by 6 and I dont take that 3d8 damage. Just a thought.

I’ve always been kind of interested in the shapers, I’ll take a look at what you’ve suggested. In the meantime, everyone should feel free to throw out more suggestions!

Talented is awesome, actually, especially for Astral Construct. Link is crazy, go take it!

Will think of more useful comments later.

Sorry, I’m not seeing how you get 17d6 with energy bolt....

Assuming you go straight psion at no manifester level loss, you’d be at ML 14 with overchannel. 9+5=14, not 17.

+2 manifester level isn’t bad, it just isn’t AMAZING for 2 feats, especially since you can only use that combo with your psionic focus without taking the damage.

Linklegacy77 - 05 December 2007 10:42 AM

Sorry, I’m not seeing how you get 17d6 with energy bolt....

Assuming you go straight psion at no manifester level loss, you’d be at ML 14 with overchannel. 9+5=14, not 17.

+2 manifester level isn’t bad, it just isn’t AMAZING for 2 feats, especially since you can only use that combo with your psionic focus without taking the damage.

For some reason I thought I could spend ML + 3 power points on a single power, my bad. But yeah, Getting a level 7 construct for no damage rather than a level 6 for none, or a level 7 for 3d8 is far preferable. And it’s not like getting psionic focus is DIFFICULT. And with Psionic Meditiation, it only takes a move action.

Here’s the feat list for the shaper as it stands, including requirements to get into ES, and bonus feats.

H – Skill Focus: Sculpting
P1 – Ectopic Form – Anathemic Carapace
1 - Overchannel
3 - Talented
P5 - Boost Construct
6 - Extend Power
ES 2 – Ectopic Form – Emerald Gyre
9 -
ES 4 – Ectopic Form – Alabaster Aerial
12 -

If you take talented, psionic meditation is a MUST.

Use inconstant location to teleport once per round as a swift action to replace your movement. Manifest powers (including astral construct thanks to your ES class) as a standard action, and recover your psionic focus as a move.

You might also want to consider taking Armor Proficiency (Light) and grabbing some magical armor, since you don’t take any power failure chance from wearing armor.

You may want to consider taking Expanded Knowledge for a power you couldn’t otherwise access. Some ideas might be Fate Link, Psionic Revivify (if your DM gives you more xp than exact for level 12. Find out. If so, you can be really bitchy to your enemies by teleporting over, and then ressurecting your buddy to full health and life instantaneously with no repercussions to him), Mend Wounds (healing abilities never hurts), Ethereal Abduction (get rid of those pesky fighters for a while, and various other powers.

Quicken power might be very useful.

Detain ectoplasm might be a useful power to take. When one of your astral constructs (other than the Anathemic Carapce) is about to die, you could dismiss it with this power (after it attacks of course) and thus gain a bonus to your manifester level by 1 on your next metacreativity power. This would be very situational of course.

I’m tuning up a version of the Astral Legion Psicrown, one that has a manifester level of 11 so it’s more affordable. Would I be able to overchannel that because I have the feat, even though it’s an item?

The DM apparantly has made some sort of system for resurrection, based on “points per team” or something odd that we dont have all the details about yet, so I’m unsure about resurrection powers atm. We have a cleric on the team in any event.

Just thought I’d mention it, it’s a very powerful power to have in a group if you have the xp to spare.

Yeah totally, I’m waiting for more info about that before I go with that. I really liked the idea of the Mind Switch power, but even Expanded Knowledge won’t be able to get me that.