[3.5] The Psychic Warrior Handbook

[Optimator]

Cool guide.  A lot of work was put into it and it shows.

[zugschef]

back from vacation...

thanks for your responses! i'll try to add your suggestions and correct the mistakes. =)

[ZeroSpace]

If I might make a request, could someone please make a 'How Link Power works... for Dummies' post. Mostly, I'm just a little uncertain on the total PP cost with Link Power.

[awaken DM golem]

Sure ...

1st power is a normal power, -fested normally, nothing unusual here.
Have psi focus.
Have Linked Power metapsi feat.
1st power total powerpoint cost is less than your normal max powerpoint per -festing number.
Example: You are 5th level Psion. You could -fest a 5pp power. Instead, you -fest a 4pp power

Blow psi focus on linked.
Pick 2nd power.
2nd power has to get maximum pp of your normal max minus the amount you put into the 1st power.
Example: ... continuing the Psion 5 ; in this case, you have 1pp left over, which would only allow a 1pp power of whatever sort.
Re-pick 2nd power, if you had trouble with the math (wink)

Result:
1st power goes off as normal
2nd power goes off the next round, as per the text of Linked metapsi

Meta-Result:
you spend one action IN combat , to achieve 2 manifestings
PsyWar buffs faster this way, as does any other Psi class.



**


CO-board trickery of Linked:
Erudite has a Unique power limit. Linked gets around that.
The cost of the Linked metapsi is the power manifested (check).
But it's just a cost added to the first power, not a real second power.
The second power is tied into the Linked metapsi description.
Bingo = it's a work around. Powerstones are the obvious other work around.

Psionic Artificer also has a trick, best described as like a specific PrC
that's for normal Artificers. I'm blanking on it at the moment.

[zugschef]

back from vacation...

thanks for your responses! i'll try to add your suggestions and correct the mistakes. =)

it took me almost 2 months, but well... it's finally done.^^

linked power is great. for the same cost, you save an action. some DMs might even ban it, since it interferes with action economy.

[awaken DM golem]

Linked can also be described as super-Quicken,
except that the "quicken" is an actual power that goes off this round,
and the quickened-"power" goes off the next round with a 1pp or more penalty.

[zugschef]

Linked can also be described as super-Quicken,
except that the "quicken" is an actual power that goes off this round,
and the quickened-"power" goes off the next round with a 1pp or more penalty.

this is just nitpicking, but i wouldn't call it super-quicken, because "quicken" means you need a swift action to use this spell/power/feat/whatever, which is still an action, whereas "linked power" actually saves you an action. from this standpoint these two options are completely different.

[awaken DM golem]

Yeah ... I see your point.


You could do Linked with an Immediate or a Swift, taking that slot; many possibilities here.
You could do Linked with a Move action power ... not much to choose from.
No reason to do Linked with the regular Standard, unless you're under the ML limit by a bunch.

[Midnight_v]

Really cool stuff, and a great guide. Bravo. 

[zugschef]

Really cool stuff, and a great guide. Bravo. 

thank you! =)

that's why i like this forum so much better than giantitp...

[awaken DM golem]

"We" like the effort, and the accuracy.

No Monks are better than PsyWars, on these boards.

[ZeroSpace]

Sorry DMgolem, but that didn't make much sense. I've got an idea about how it works, so I'm gonna put it out to get a yay or nay.

Main power is, say, Expansion. No augments, so 1pp. Linked power is Bite of the wolf, also un-uagmented, so also 1pp. The cost to manifest seperately is 2pp, over 2 actions. With Link Power, I pay the whole thing up front. But the 'whole thing', is this just 2pp (Exp. + BotW), 4pp(as above, +2 pp augment cost of 2 1pp powers), or some other non-euclidian number?

[zugschef]

Sorry DMgolem, but that didn't make much sense. I've got an idea about how it works, so I'm gonna put it out to get a yay or nay.

Main power is, say, Expansion. No augments, so 1pp. Linked power is Bite of the wolf, also un-uagmented, so also 1pp. The cost to manifest seperately is 2pp, over 2 actions. With Link Power, I pay the whole thing up front. But the 'whole thing', is this just 2pp (Exp. + BotW), 4pp(as above, +2 pp augment cost of 2 1pp powers), or some other non-euclidian number?

actually i don't quite understand why you don't understand how linked power works; the RAW are pretty clear on this. nevermind...

in order to stick to your example:
you expend your psionic focus and manifest expansion with bite of the wolf linked to it. you do not pay 1 powerpoint, you pay 2 powerpoints in this round. 1 for expansion plus 1 for bite of the wolf. expansion is manifested this round as normal and bite of the wolf is automatically manifested in the next. to use this you must be at least level 2 or use overchannel because in this example expansion actually costs 2 powerpoints -- bite of the wolf's cost is simply added to expansion's. thus, if you would like to link inertial barrier (7 powerpoints) to expansion, expansion would cost you 8 powerpoints.

[zugschef]

[...]You missed a couple psychic warrior powers from the Expanded Psionics Handbook, in particular Dimension Slide (PWR 3) and Inertial Barrier (PWR 4).[...]

inertial barrer made me think of something: the original king of smack build had biofeedback listed as one of its core powers (i know that cpsi hasn't yet been released when the king of smack was first posted). i actually wonder why. to become useful this power costs way to many powerpoints, since it's hard to sustain with only 1 min/lvl duration and augmenting it costs a lot, which means that manifesting it in dire need as an immediate action makes no sense, because the cap is much too low (the maximum is dr 8/-- without the use of overchannel or quori shards).

level 1 powers by the way, are at least as crowded as the level 4 powers, which simply makes inertial barrier superior, and it's really not like that inertial barrier is a must-have.

or did i miss something?

[awaken DM golem]

Sorry DMgolem, but that didn't make much sense.

 or some other non-euclidian number?

... don't worry, this happens ALL the time.
(which I don't have enough of, at this exact moment)

[Jasuhn]

Can a psychic warrior use whirlwind attack better than a fighter?  I know it's 6 feats taken up, but when you can get huge, and make your weapon heal you, and use say stand still or knock down to keep foes at bay with a reach weapon you can make an attack against everyone 4 to 6 squares out from you.  With a spiked chain or similar you can hit everyone in 6 squares.  That could be a lot of tripping/sundering/disarming/what ever your dm says is an attack usable with whirlwind attack (and knock down just generically does) shenanigans or just the ability to do use AoOs for crowd control and whirlwind to do steady damage to multiple opponents.  Or is that a bad route for Psychic warriors?

[zugschef]

Can a psychic warrior use whirlwind attack better than a fighter?  I know it's 6 feats taken up, but when you can get huge, and make your weapon heal you, and use say stand still or knock down to keep foes at bay with a reach weapon you can make an attack against everyone 4 to 6 squares out from you.  With a spiked chain or similar you can hit everyone in 6 squares.  That could be a lot of tripping/sundering/disarming/what ever your dm says is an attack usable with whirlwind attack (and knock down just generically does) shenanigans or just the ability to do use AoOs for crowd control and whirlwind to do steady damage to multiple opponents.  Or is that a bad route for Psychic warriors?

it costs way too many feats... while the effect is great if you fight a whole lot of critters, you seriously hamper yourself because you miss so many other feats.

by the way, i was sure that whirlwind attack works only with adjacent foes, the phb and srd disagree though. curious...

anyhow, the prerequisites kill this feat: 13 int, 13 dex and 4 feats. nevertheless, i think i'll recolor it to orange.

thanks for bringig this to my attention.

[awaken DM golem]

Ok, I'll try it again.

The example in CPsi use Psi Charm.
Lets say you did: Charm Linked Charm.
1st round Charm goes off ; 2nd round Linked Charm goes off.
You still get your full normal complement of actions in round 2.
It might cost a little less or a little more, than Twinned, depending on augmenting.
Charm Twinned Charm , basically does the same thing.
Except the 2nd Charm goes off the same round, and the metapsi costs more.
In this example, Linked is almost the exact same as Twinned.

Sticking with this example, but changing 1 little bit ...
Empty Mind Linked Charm, changes the action economy.
You come out ahead, minus the blown focus.
Expand the general concept from there.

[Torvon]

Thanks for the awesome guide. You put lots of effort into it, great job!

[zugschef]

Thanks for the awesome guide. You put lots of effort into it, great job!

thank you. =)

i'm still trying to improve this baby, btw. so more input is always welcome.