Psionics vs Arcana

[gwyllgi]

okay my DM is playing a Homebrewish D&D game in which everything i mythic.
I am playing as a Half sharakim half illumian prince. in his world all the areas are equal to a real world area, greyhawk takes place in "western europe" faerun is all smashed into a "eastern europe" rokugan is japan so on and so forth.

anyway my character is from a place equivalent to the fertile crescent.

anyway i have this prestige class i made from 2 base classes and im turning it into a base class. this class is based on using fire either as a arcane caster or as a psion uses powers.

mind you the point of it is that he can learn any spell/power with a fire or light descriptor or has a fire effect, like a elemental spell where you choose the damage. i need to know which is better psionics or arcana what are their positives and negatives if both can use the and powers and spells?

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Arcane- cast a reliable number of spells per day at a variety of power levels. Application of metamagic bumps into higher spells slots.

Psionics- cast a varied number of powers per day, where you adjust quanity (number) for quality (Power level). Application of metapsionics requires using more power points.

If you have many power points and are at a high enough level (Because your level caps the number of PP you can apply to any one power at any one time) than I think Psionics is a better way to go for the versatility IMO.

 

[marcielle]

Since there are a lot of psionics/arcane overlap, ask your DM if you are allowed to duplicate any arcane spell with a sufficient psicraft check so long as it is thematically viable for your discipline. If so, go Psion. Constant access to ALL you spells without horrendous amount of planning/book keeping? Yes pls.
Also, thats the thing about wizards. Sure you are POTENTIALLY more versatile than any other class in exchange for nothing more than a reasonable sum of GP but IS YOUR DM NICE? Unless there's a magic mart, he can insist you simply CAN'T find the spell you want cos its too obscure or something. Psions have a slightly different fluff in that they literally MAKE UP their new powers from scratch. You can get any power you can pay for NO BUTS. You can learn all the fire spells you desire anytime you want, no fuss. As long as you make your psicraft check, that is.

That said. If your DM IS nice, the wizard really does deserve ALL of it's hype. Wether it is problem solving or simply making things wish they never existed, few things beat a wizard at anything. Note that Arcane version of wish is LITERALLY more powerful than the psionic version. Also, there is a lot more support and splat books for wizards. With enough searching you can literall DO EVERYTHING. Not anything, EVERYTHING.

That said, a wizard's versatility is wasted on blasting, if that's what you're going for, so I'd have to recommend Psion->Pyrokineticist. Note that since Psionics can generally change elemental constituent of a power at will, you can theoretically be a PHOTOkineticist and shoot lasers(light AND heat) everywhere. Shaper constructs can be refluffed into Green Lantern like solid light instead of ectoplasm but I can't fit fire in there.

TL;DR - If you want to go blazing blaster, then Psion Psychokineticist->Pyrokineticist is the way to go.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Another suggestion (Disclaimer: I've not actually ever played either of these classes, don't know if they do well what they are built to do) might be to look at Complete Divine's Shugenja or Complete Arcane's Wu Jen. Both are Asian-flavored base classes with a heavy element style focus. If you're looking to select many fire and light spells, these classes are designed to select along elemental lines. You might be able to build what you're trying to build with these guys.
The Shugenja is a divine caster, does not need to prepare spells ahead of time, can cast any spell from his list like a sorcerer can.

 

[Eldritch_Lord]

Also, thats the thing about wizards. Sure you are POTENTIALLY more versatile than any other class in exchange for nothing more than a reasonable sum of GP but IS YOUR DM NICE? Unless there's a magic mart, he can insist you simply CAN'T find the spell you want cos its too obscure or something. Psions have a slightly different fluff in that they literally MAKE UP their new powers from scratch. You can get any power you can pay for NO BUTS. You can learn all the fire spells you desire anytime you want, no fuss. As long as you make your psicraft check, that is.

Note that wizards don't really need extra spells from magic marts, they can get along just fine with their free spells from leveling (2 or 4 with Collegiate Wizard). The reason wizards are so good is that they're already quite powerful with only the spells they get for free, and then every time they find a scroll or an enemy's spellbook or anything else they become even more powerful.

TL;DR - If you want to go blazing blaster, then Psion Psychokineticist->Pyrokineticist is the way to go.

Strongly disagree on the pyrokineticist. It doesn't advance manifesting, it's more martially-oriented anyway, and is in general a weak PrC. Either go straight kineticist or head into Anarchic Initiate for the pseudo-wild surge abilities.

 

[marcielle]

Strongly disagree on the pyrokineticist. It doesn't advance manifesting, it's more martially-oriented anyway, and is in general a weak PrC. Either go straight kineticist or head into Anarchic Initiate for the pseudo-wild surge abilities.

Oops, sorry. Never actually read up on the Pyro. He said he wanted fire so that was the first thing that came to mind . Anyway, wizards still need a source to learn magic from(Technically they can research their own but with no cost mentioned and no guidelines, I doubt a DM who won't allow a magic mart would tolerate it). Psions have power creation guidelines so it's at the very least more DM friendly. Mind you, this is ONLY in case of a stingy DM.

Still, like I said the sheer versatility of a wizard is generally wasted on blasting(When I think of fire spells, I think of blasting). Psions can technically use more than 30 8/9th level powers a day while wizards usually get 4 even if they abuse rope trick /rest. So if you wanna spam fireballs into hordes of enemies Psion is better. However, it should be noted that if your enemies are mostly humans, wizards will reap a ton of profit from the fact that you will eventually come across a spellcaster with a spellbook/scrolls.

Summary
Wizards: +ULTIMATE VERSATILITY -Can't use the good stuff all the time
Psions - +Spam strongest powers all day -Pigeonhole'd into a role

 

[gwyllgi]

my DM says it will just be simpler for me to make a epic Psychoactive armor that uses Fire and Light spells like a sorcerer would.

this is good because im going to try to be a graft and symbiont covered, psion, lesser air genasi.

 

[Dandu]

TL;DR - If you want to go blazing blaster, then Psion Psychokineticist->Pyrokineticist is the way to go.

tl;dr - no.

 

[marcielle]

tl;dr - no.

Sorry

 

[gwyllgi]

whats so special about saying symbionts?