Level 6 Psychic Warrior Help

[Eldariel]

Alright, I'm DMing a game for my little brother and some of his friends. Now, as you might imagine, just starting out with D&D, they aren't the most impressive optimizers ever. My little brother decided that he wants to play a Psychic Warrior, to which I had no objections. However, then I realized how little I truly know about Psy Wars.

They're starting at level 6 and I'm not really restricting material (of course, this just means I'm the one scouring through all the splatbooks and such). So far, here's where I'm at:

Draconic Maenad (LA buyoff - the race was his choice, so I allowed it) on 32pb:
Str 14 +2 racial +1 level
Dex 13
Con 14 +2 racial
Int 13
Wis 16
Cha 8 +2 racial

Feats:
Power Attack
Combat Expertise
Improved Trip
Overchannel
Talented
Linked Power


Initially he was fighting with his natural weapons, but he stated he found it underpowered, and wanted to try a "claymore" (I offered him a Greatsword for that) instead. His powers I can't remember right off the bat (I don't have the sheet here with me right now), but I think they are:

-Expansion
-Offensive Prescience
-Bite of the Wolf
-Dimensional Hop
-Hustle
and something. He's got 22 PP at the present.


Anyways, in addition to the optimality of the build, I'd (or rather, he would) need help with some instructions on how to use his power points. Probably one round of linked buffs at the beginning of the combat, but I don't think he can afford to augment Expansion yet, for example (but don't know, never having played a Psy War myself). Since they have no idea how many encounters they've got daily, how much would you spend as a Psy War per combat? Also, suggestions on equipment would be awesome - at the present, he's just got a Full Plate, Mw. Greatsword, some Str bonus belt, a Healing Belt and such, leaving his AC a bit lacking. Are there any psionic items I'm not aware of that would kick ass for him?

The two remaining party members are:
-Feral (toned down - dropped the stat bonuses a bit and made the NA bonus +2 instead of +6) Wood Elf Totemist/Warblade/Swordsage focused on natural attacks (melds Girallon Arms and Sphinx Claws every day) and boosts, along with damage increasing stances (Punishing Stance, Giant Killing Style).
-Strongheart Halfling Factotum focused on UMD, ranged combat (Str 5 (8-2 racial-1 age) with other stats being good - uses Longbow with the Int to Damage when not in the mood for Wands or Arcane Dilletante) and overall, support (he'll need to expand his Wand selection though - presently he just has a Wand of Grease) with Nymph's Kiss and a bunch of Font of Inspirations.


Oh yeah, and since I like the open skill system, but dislike the low amount of skills characters can learn, I gave every character 4 extra skills per level (with 16 extra on one). I don't think it's very relevant for the Psy War, but it's there if someone asks (so he gets 7 skills/level, not 3).

[ninjarabbit]

With expansion and improved trip you're going to want a reach weapon with the ability to make trip attacks, so either a spiked chain or a guisarme if you don't want to burn the feat.

[woodenbandman]

How are these guys doing with these mega-characters? Did you make them? Those are some rather solid builds there.

That Psychic warrior looks good, but Why oh why does he only have 14 strength? Or are those posted before adjustments? Anyway, he looks alright, Expansion is really the best power there is. If he gets some strongarm(?) bracers, he'll be swinging a 6d6 greatsword, which is rather respectable.

[Eldariel]

Those are before adjustments and items. His actual Str is 19 right now (20 in 2 levels) and he has the Maenad Burst-ability that adds 2 more to it. And yes, I'm helping them with the builds; mostly it goes like this:
They: "I wanna play X!"
Me: "Hmm, ok, these races/classes would fit the bill, which one?"
They: "That sounds cool! I'll be that!"
Me: "Ok, and what kind of combat style and skills?"
They: "I wanna fight with Y and be able to do Z, Å, Ä and Ö."
Me: "Are you sure you want Y? A would probably be much better."
They: "Ok!"
Me: "Alright, now come here and we'll build the character. Let's see, you'll want this and this and that..."
They: "Yawn, when do we kill the bad guys?!"

So yea, I mostly do the builds with them telling what the build should be able to do (with the exception of one player who's played more and who I trust enough to not fuck anything up too severely - he still consults me for ideas and such, but mostly does his own building).


With regards to the weapon, he sorta wanted to use a sword, but I'll ask if he'd want to switch to a Guisarme. Still, with Expansion and Improved Trip, he can easily trip in the 10' area around him even without it, so not getting it wouldn't be the end of the world. But yea, I'll try to convince him to use it. One thing I was wondering was if Talented and Overchannel are really worth it yet? I mean, yea, he can nova with them, but with only 22 PPs (only one full use of them for 9 PP takes 40% of his daily reserves), that seems to pretty much leave him dry for the rest of the day.

He wanted to be able to do "one big hit", so I was thinking of giving him Psionic Weapon and going for Deep Impact once he qualifies (over Shock Trooper for the Psionic flavour and the opportunity to use it a bit into the close-quarters combat), but the only feats I could really think of to take out are Talented and Overchannel. Meh.


The one thing I'm worried right now is the lack of magical muscle for the party. I mean, the Factotum has some skills and even spells, but mostly the party has very little in means of killing supertough physical monsters (other than outtoughing them - when testing them out, the Totemist/Warblade/SS almost managed to take out a Huge Earth Elemental alone). Are there any Psychic Warrior-powers that could be used to attack saves, particularly Will? I couldn't really find any.

[awaken DM golem]

Looks to me like:

Feral - Frontliner with various tactics
PsyWar - Co-frontliner for 1 combat w/ Bite+O.P Overchannel, to bailout Feral
PsyWar - Trip barrier for backliner for 2 combats, no bite/o.p.
PsyWar - Hustle Linked Dimension Hop , to bailout backliner during 1 combat
Factotum - Backliner fires away with whatever

Likely, the PsyWar runs out of powerpoints, so these tactics are relative positions
during any given combat. If 4 encounters, then 22/4 pp per encounter. Careful !!

[Eldariel]

I was thinking of suggesting "Exhalation of the Bronze Dragon" for his next-level power to give them something other than the Factotum's Dilletante-spells that targets the Will-save (although over the next two levels, with the Dilletante-ability improving to 3 spells with max level being 3, this problem will surely be somewhat alleviated), although Hostile Empathic Transfer does look somewhat promising too. Also, spending 5.5 PP per encounter seems risky as they really have no idea how many encounters they're going to have to deal with daily.

Are there some psionic items the Psy War could attain to increase his longetivity á la what Arcane casters do with Wands et al? I mean, are there some cheap Dorjes that are actually worth it? Some "PP reserve"-items that could be used if there's a need to go on longer?