Anyone play a PSI-warrior?

[KnowTheToe]

I created a new PC to throw at Monte's meat ginder RttToEE and had made a psi warrior because the concept sounds cool. When I was done making him, I thought he sucked. I began to wonder why and then compared him to a Cleric.

They both use the same BAB and HP, both have spell like abilities, but at 5th level the cleric can cast a min of 5/4/3/2 spells for lvls 0-3 where a PSI warrior can cast a max of 8 points worth of powers not including 7 zero level powers and only has access to 3 zero lvl powers, 3 first lvl powers and 1 second level power. Why play a psi-warrior?

 

[sfgiants]

I assume you are talking about the psychic warrior.

3 reasons to play a psychic warrior

1) bonus feats, and lots of them
2) access to psychic feats. Don't underestimate the value of these.
3) psychic skills. Some very nifty ones...

 

[KnowTheToe]

I know the PSi-warrior has some cool feats available, but they all require a certain number of power points to use which cuts down on the amount of powers you can manifest or they require you to have a minumum reserve of power points or you lose the ability of the feat. Sucks, sucks.

 

[KnowTheToe]

Some of the skills are excellent, but the 2+ int bonus skill points per level really neutralize this benefit. Although I used an INT 14 and played human so it was not too bad.

 

[ForceUser]

A well-made psychic warrior is a monster on the battlefield, but they require heavy number crunching and pairing up of synergistic skills, feats, and powers to make it happen. In my friend's last campaign my roomie played a psychic warrior and he was scary nasty. Made the fighter in the group look like a chump.

 

[HellHound]

Psi-Warriors also make for EXCELLENT mobility warriors. The psionic feats have a great selection of improved mobility powers, paired with Tumble as a class skill. This doesn't make for a killer, but it makes for a very stylish anime-style character.

 

[Destil]

Psy-Warriors start fairly weak, but quickly get stronger. The reserve power points won't be a huge issue after around 5th level, since most basic feats only require 1-3pp, and things like speed of though scale based on how many points you do have. Overall the class is very flexible and has some very good powers:

Deep Impact (or fell shot / unavoidable strike). These alone almost make the class. Power attacking with a touch attack is great.

Bio-feedback can more than double the effect of healing, Inertial Barrier is one of the best buffs in the rules, Shield of Prudence and Displacement provide a lot of protection. Verve (and the rest of the Vigor chain) rocks (check the errata- these scale). And round it all out with energy barrier.

There's a number of useful 'utility' powers, like Adamant Grasp: +10 to grapple checks, so you won't need to worry about huge creatures with improved grab that can chew up clerics and fighters nearly as much. Graft Weapon lets you use touch range powers through your melee weapon. Telekinesis, Polymorph Self, Dimension Door...

They can have better mobility than a monk. Speed of though, up the walls, psionic charge, mental leap, and dimension door as a power.

If you want to use a reach weapon Stand Still is great, it keeps opponents from closing into melee or getting away.

All in all it's a very well rounded and flexible class. It takes a little while for them to make up for their limitations, but by mid levels a psy-warrior can be quite the powerhouse.

 

[BMF]

I think psion/fighter combos do the trick better than psychic warriors.

Also, I've learned from watching other people play with psionics (haven't played them in 3e myself yet) that you can really maximize your power if you take a lot of those crystals that store points, and make a lot of gems that store powers.

 

[Tyberious Funk]

I played a Psychic Warrior... up until about level 15 when he died a few months back. I though he was a pretty cool character, but mainly because of the interesting background, history and personality I had created (which could probably have fitted any class). I think the Pros and Cons of the class will really depend on the type of campaign you play. Some random thoughts on the matter:

* My character was a convertee from 2ed where he was just a plain fighter. Consequently, he began his psi warrior career at an accelerated level. I never had to start out first level with the very lame selection of power points and 0 level powers. By the time I started, I already had a small body of powers and some PSPs. I imagine creating a new psi warrior is rather tough. A bit like a monk I suppose.

* Yes, the comparison with the cleric is tough... but then the cleric is a pretty powerful class. Despite the same BAB and HD, though, a PsiWarrior is more likely to have a higher Str and Con, whereas the cleric is more likely to divert higher scores to Wis and Cha for spells and undead bashing. The Str and Con of a PsiWarrior help for both power-use *and* combat. Consequently, I found the PsiWarrior was a stronger straight combatant than a cleric. However, we play in a high-magic campaign, and Tomes are not uncommon and so this advantage was dimished as such (eg, our party cleric has both Gauntlets of Str and a Belt of Con, overcoming his physical shortcommings).

* The Psi feats can be very useful. Yes, some of them have a cost, but then with crystals you can really boost your available PSPs. Our party Psion spent quite a bit of time and resources in gathering a good selection of crystals... if my PsiWarrior had done the same, he could of used some of the gnarly feats more often.

* Depending on the flavour of the campaign you play in, being psionic might have certain benefits. In our game, psionics is treated fairly similarly to magic. In a different game, where psionics is less common and treated quite different to magic (either arcane or divine), your PsiWarrior is going to be more of a novelty and more useful.

Down sides I found to being a PsiWarrior were generally the selection of powers available. Getting to the levels where you have 4th, 5th and 6th level powers is all very well, but on many occasions I didn't have the requisite stats. A slightly more expanded selection of powers would be nice (no need to go overboard or anything), and more high level powers using STR, CON and maybe DEX as the base stat rather than INT, WIS or CON.

 

[Capellan]

I created a new PC to throw at Monte's meat ginder RttToEE and had made a psi warrior because the concept sounds cool. When I was done making him, I thought he sucked. I began to wonder why and then compared him to a Cleric.

Don't compare him to a Cleric - compare him to a Fighter/Cleric with the same total levels. It's a more accurate comparison. Psychic Warriors are self-buffing fighter types, much more than they are anything else.

We have one in arwink's Copperheads game, and he seems pretty cool. It'll be interesting to see what he is like when he has a few more levels under his belt.

Oh, and they also make excellent archer twinks.