Making an interesting Psychic Warrior.

[Chronos Flame]

Hey. My gaming group is starting a new game and we are all starting at level five. I expect this game, like our last, to go into the late levels. I have decided to finally play a psychic warrior I have been thinking about for a while. I wanted to know if anyone had any tip for me as this is my first psywar.
My goal isn't really to powerbuild him exactly, as the choices I've made so far are far from optimizing. I would like help in making him do what he does well. So far I have this...
Human level 5 psywar. I am taking the illithid heritage feats (and on that I won't budge). I have all 4 tentacles and that is about as far as I plan on progressing in the tree other than getting extraction. What are good powers, feats, and items for the future? Right now I am considering lion's charge, claws of the beast, and bite of the wolf. I plan on doing a charging/grappling type build. Also, I don't plan on multiclassing in anything that will stunt my psionics.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

One of the best powers for a PsyWar to have is Expansion. Making no claims to powergaming or anything like that, I've played single- or multi-classed PsyWars who were excellent contributors to combat with that power.

Depending on the PC, I'd equip him with a polearm of some kind, and take feats from the Power Attack (Cleave/Greatcleave) and Combat Expertise (Combat Reflexes/Deft Opportunist/Stand Still/Hold the Line) Feat trees- usually more of the latter than the former. As a result, the PC can often control a wide swath of the battlefield.

Depending on race, I've had Powerful Build racial ability or its lesser cousin, the Monkey Grip feat.

A multiclassed Githzerai Monk/PsyWar had an outrageous AC and so many AoOs that things simply didn't get past him easily. Some of the Anthro Animals have similar Dex bonuses to a Githzerai...and have high Str bonuses as well.

 

[Chronos Flame]

Yeah I am definately taking expansion. I forgot to mention that. I do plan on staying human though. The race and the illithid feats are somewhat important to the character. I did think about monk but monastic training and tashalatora may be unavailable. Not to mention the character will likely be chaotic, or neutral at most.

The polearm might be a good idea if I decide against the claws and the like though.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'm sure you'll see a lot of Claw builds- they seem to be pretty popular.

Another combo you'll see- especially if the campaign uses Hyperconscious and Dragon#341- is Soulknife/PsyWars. Couple that weapon with the PsyWar's feats & powers and it gets nasty, fast.

 

[Chronos Flame]

We have neither the book mentioned or the magazine...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hyperconscious is worth buying. Its written by the same guy who wrote the XPH, and has some really good stuff in it. Most people who compare it to CompPsi find Hyperconscious to be superior. Among other things, there is a PrCl that grants the PC a mindblade- without taking any Soulknife levels, as I recall- and another one that fuses elements of the PsyWar and Soulknife, another PrCl that is a psionic monk, and ectoplasm.

As for the mag, its not crucial, but again, its take on mindblade feats is better than CompPsi's- much more efficient, much more depth & breadth- and also has a Practiced Spellcaster type feat for the Soulknife. But if you don't go in that direction, it isn't crucial.

 

[Chronos Flame]

I will see what I can do about getting the book, but I doubt I will have anything in it for this campaign sadly. For now I am just trying to plan a few powers/feats/items. I will probably not multiclass unless I go slayer, which I am leaning against. The BAB isn't worth the loss of bonus feats and mediocre abilities.

 

[Herobizkit]

Go looksee:

The Mind's Eye: Psychic Weapon Master - Prestige Class (v.3.5)
The Mind's Eye: Ballisteer (Prestige Class)
Expanding Your Mind: New Psychic Warrior Feats, Powers, and Ranged Weapon Enhancements

 

[BENINHB]

A few point of BaB become less important when using natural attacks because you a less dependent on it for iterative attacks.

I agree that a pole arm would be good. It will let you threaten with reach and you still get 4 tentacles and Bite of the Wolf against adjacent foes. This is even better with Expansion because you will have even greater reach and the damage of all your attacks increases with size.

At lvl 5 you get 3 1st level power and 2 second level powers.

For your build i would go with Bite of the Wolf, Expansion and Vigor for for the first level powers.

Grip of Iron is cool but very specific. i think these 3 powers will serve you better

For second level i would take Hustle or Psionic Lions Change and then either Animal Affinity, Strength of my Enemy or Painful Strike.

Psionic Lion's Charge with all those tentacles and a bite will be nasty but Hustle has more utility and will still set you up for those full attacks. It comes down to personal preference really.

For the other 3, Animal Affinity to boost your STR will give +2 to your Hit and damage with all your tentacles and Bite as well as +2 on Grapples.

Strength of my Enemy will be really nasty when used with your tentacles, you drain there STR and add it to yours making beating your grapples ridiculous.

Painful Strike is a power i usually gloss over without a second look but with 5 natural attacks it gets pretty good, it lets you add 1d6 of non lethal damage to your natural attacks, thats an extra 5d6 on a successful full attack and 99% of the time Unconscious = Dead anyways. Sometime knocking someone out with out killing them can even be advantageous.

 

[Chronos Flame]

Wow BENINHB. Thats actually a lot like what I think I settled on. I ended up going soulbound weapon (I am still deciding on if I should go greatsword or polearm.) The greatsword consideration is only because then my tentacles and sword will have the same reach when I use expansion.

Because of this I took 4 1st level powers and 1 2nd. I went with bite, vigor, call weapon (cuz I had to), and expansion. I took lion's charge as my 2nd level power. I plan to take either strength of my enemies or inertial armor next level. I'm not sure how important AC will be... (I plan to go light-no armor to keep my speed)

Also, if I go with low armor in a couple levels I could in theory use empathetic transfer hostile to deal with the damage.