Mind Over Everything: A Pathfinder Psion Handbook
About this Guide
Written by: Squirrel Dude, thisisacat, Novawurmson
Contributors: Tulya, Creation Discussion thread on Giantitp.com
Why make this guide
There were already plenty of resources devoted to the topic during 3.5’s run, detailed in this wonderful guide by Saeomon (RIP). However, large swaths of those resources were eaten by the Wizard’s of The Coast website reformatting monster between 3.5e and 5e. Besides that, powers have changed multiple times between The Expanded Psionics Handbook and Ultimate Psionics.
Also this game called Pathfinder came out and had its own big batch of supplements that make the baseline environment very different from when that guide was written.
Ratings Guide
Incredible - When one option really is so good that it breaks the expected scale.
Great - This is an option you should consider heavily getting for any build
Good - An option useful for most builds and most characters
Average - An alright option, usually either situationally good or not that powerful at all times.
Bad - An option or effect you should find a way to duplicate more efficiently unless you need it for good, great , and fantastic abilities.
Terrible - Skip these options unless you absolutely must have them for power or fluff reasons
Books that will be drawn from for this guide
The goal will be to draw from all first-party Paizo material, and all books published by Dreamscarred Press. If your GM is open to using Psionics, they’ll generally be open to other Dreamscarred Press, and DSP often works to support previous content in later books. If there are differences between Psionics Unleashed and Ultimate Psionics, the version of rules presented in Ultimate Psionics will be used.
Table of Contents
3 - 5 Detect Surface Thoughts - A Psion Class Overview
7 - 9 Thinking Inside the Box - Races for Psions
10 - 11 Matter of the Mind - The Psion Class Chassis and Abilities
12 - 18 Subdivisions of the MInd - Psion Disciplines and Advanced Disciplines
19 Tools of the Mind: Class Skills
20 - 21 Mental Mutations: Archetypes
22 - 27 Bridging the Gap Synapse: Feats
29 - 30 Evolutions of the Mind: Prestige Classes
31 - 48 Revising Reality - Psionic Powers
49 - 50 Trappings of the Mind: Equipment
Detect Surface Thoughts - Psion Class Overview
The true cost of using psionics is always looking like a dork
What is a Psion
Psions are the premier psionic manifester, putting the full might of their minds behind their allies and against their enemies. Although they fill the role of wizards, as the iconic powerhouse for psionics, they play most similarly to sorcerers, oracles, and other spontaneous casters. Your power isn’t as infinite as the undisciplined sorcerers gifted arcane magic in their blood or the clerics who beg to gods for divine power, but you can claim your power as your own.
Why use Psionics
You play a Psion to bring the full potential of the psionic powers list to bear to crush your weak-minded enemies. Let’s talk about the reasons you would choose to use psionics over arcane or divine magic.
Augmentation - Augmentation allows a manifesters to change the duration, DC, range, and effect of powers by spending more power points when they manifest them. This means that 1st level powers have staying power that will last through an adventurer’s entire career.The downside is that, unlike with arcane or divine spells, many psionic powers’ effects do not automatically scale with level. The upside is that you can custom tailor every power you manifest to the situation at hand.
No fancy books or holy symbols and no flashy material, vocal, or somatic components required - Unless you need to direct a ray of energy at someone, or are manifesting a rare power that requires a gold expenditure, you don’t need to so much as wiggle a finger to manifest a power. In their place you have displays, which are usually much more subtle, and can be eliminated with a DC 15+power level concentration check. You are not a destroyed book, component pouch, or divine focus away from being useless, and you can manifest your powers much more surreptitiously.
Nova - “Nova” aka to “Supernova.” Meaning to burn brightly in a massive explosion of force and energy and then completely disappear. Psionicists burn brighter than anyone else. Psions lose out on the cheap metamagic of spellcasters, and get very few automatically scaling powers. In exchange they get multiple powers like schism that let them bend and break the action economy as augmentation let’s them push the limits of their power with every manifestation. GMs would be wise to force any psion to face multiple encounters a day.
Versatility - The Psion/Wilder power list is very diverse both in and out of combat. Psionic classes have very strong personal buffs, great blasting, and good area control to go along with good transportation and information gathering abilities, and even a couple of personal healing spells in a pinch. All of which can be freely augmented to made more powerful when you need them to be.
Active Energy Types - This is what makes psions such incredible blasters compared to a wizard or sorcerer. If a wizard has scorching ray prepared, and runs up against a fire elemental, he better hope that he has a way to change the energy type of that ray, probably through expensive metamagic, or scorching ray is going to be completely useless. The Psion takes a full round action to change his active energy type from fire to cold, and he suddenly goes from helpless to targeting a creature’s vulnerability.
Psion Ability Scores
Strength - One of your two dump stats. As a medium character you shouldn’t put more than 12 in here, and as a small character you won’t need more than 10. If you plan to wear armor, you don’t want to dump this too heavily. If you’re playing a gish psion then there are new 1st and 3rd party options that let you avoid strength.
Dexterity - Your most important stat after Int and tied with constitution. It boosts your AC, ranged attacks, and helps you go first. This nears blue if you’re playing a direct-damage/ray focused psion. You want a bonus to it, but races with a bonus to dexterity are easy to come by so you don’t need to invest too heavily into your point buy.
Constitution - This is the second or third most important stat for most classes in the game, Psions included. You only have a d6 hit dice, and your fortitude save is bad. 12 is the absolute minimum for this after racial modifiers..
Intelligence By far and away your most important ability score unless you’re a Gish psion. This determines your DCs, the number of extra power points you get every level, and skill points. Races with floating ability score bonuses put them here.
Wisdom - You have a good will save, but getting more points into that won’t hurt, and wisdom influences perception and sense motive. You’ll need a 13 so that you can get the feat psionic meditation. Don’t let this one drop to negatives
Charisma - Your second dump stat. Unless you are playing a telepath as a face or have some other reason for wanting to use your social skills, an 8 will be high enough. Use your skill points and powers to get around the low bonus.
A point buy should usually prioritize your ability scores in the following order
Manifester Psion - Int >>> Con or Dex > Wis > Str > Cha
Dex Gish Psion - Dex > Con > Int > Wis > Str > Cha
Strength Gish Psion - Str > Con > Int > Dex > Wis > Cha
Face Psion - Int >>> Con or Cha > Wis > Dex > Str
Example Stat Arrays
Before racial adjustment and assuming a bonus to Int. In order of Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
Point Buy | Manifester (16 Int) | Manifester (18 Int) | Face | Gish (Dex) | Gish (Str) |
15 | 9 12 14 16 13 7 | Don’t | 8 10 12 16 13 12 | 12 16 12 14 10 7 | 16 12 14 14 12 7 |
20 | 11 14 14 16 13 7 | 7 13 14 18 13 7 | 10 10 14 16 13 12 | 12 16 14 14 12 7 | 16 12 14 14 12 7 |
25 | 11 14 16 16 13 7 | 9 14 14 18 13 7 | 10 12 14 16 13 14 | 12 16 16 14 12 7 | 16 12 16 14 12 7 |
Personally, I don’t like buying an 18 before racial modifiers because I prefer to have more well rounded characters, but some people swear by it. I think it’s feasible with a 25 point buy, but would highly advise against it otherwise. It’s more feasible if your character is starting at high levels. Gish builds are going to struggle with less than a 20 point buy, and would be wise to look for ways to apply their dexterity to damage in place of strength to make themselves less MAD.
Roles the Psion Can Fill
In Combat
Area Control -. You don’t have the iconic effects that wizards get like grease, cloudkill, or black tentacles, but you can still get powers that will make you great at this.
Buffing - Psions are great at buffing themselves at the start of the day, but are only average when it comes to helping out their teammates. The shared buff feat is helpful, but isn’t enough. Egoists are incredible at buffing themselves and are better than average at buffing their allies due to their discipline abilities and powers, though.
Dealing Damage - Any psion can be a good direct damage dealers if that’s your thing. Kineticists are great at this; they’re some of the best direct damage dealers in Pathfinder.
Debuffing - You’re alright at this, but a massive amount of your debuffs are going to target the Will saving throw and a large amount are also mind-affecting. If you focus on debuffing enemies, you want to be able to target a variety of savings throws, and mind-affecting abilities scale poorly.
Summoning - Shapers are great at this, and psions who make the feat investment do it well. The feat investment is minor, but without it non-Shapers can’t do it at all
Tanking Damage - Psions are surprisingly sturdy, especially at early levels. Vigor and inertial armor start good and only get better once you augment them, and the share-pain + psicrystal combo makes psions very hard to put down. Unlike with spellcasting, you can wear armor without penalty to your manifesting. The d6 hit dice holds you back, but you’re much less squishy than Arcane casters. The unique abilities and powers Egoists get makes them average at this role.
Out of Combat
Healing - Psions can do a little bit when it comes to removing status effects, and Egoists can somewhat handle their personal healing, but that’s about it.. There are better things to be done with your abilities, and other characters who would be better at it.
Gathering Information - You get all of the knowledges as class skills and Int is your primary attribute. Psions are going to have lots of powers available to them to help here, with Seers specializing in this role.
Party Face - You have some powers to make you better at this, and the extra skills to invest in this area, but you don’t have the class skills or power access to be great at it. Telepaths get both of those, and that pushes them to good, but not great due to their low charisma.
Scouting and Espionage - Your generic psions is strong, especially with a psicrystal or some other proxy at their disposal. This is where Seers are great due to divination effects, and Telepaths are great with charm and compulsion powers.
Transportation - Nomads are unsurprisingly great at this, and will be proficient in extradimensional travel before other disciplines. Other classes will get there eventually, and will be able to handle most travel needs of the party.
Important Concepts/Rules
Displays
Instead of verbal, somatic, or material components, psionics uses displays. Every power has a display, but not necessarily all the displays. There are 5 kinds: auditory, material, mental, olfactory, and visual. Know which display your power uses because it can allow for much more subtle application of powers. For example, auditory, mental and olfactory displays have options to make it so that the power’s manifestation can only be noticed by creatures within 20 ft of the manifester. That is a massive advantage compared to spells which require you to stand yelling and waving your arms, letting everyone know you just cast a spell.
If that’s not subtle enough, manifesters can make a DC 15+power level concentration check to eliminate the display from the power entirely. There isn’t any penalty to attempting to remove a display, even on a failure.
Metapsionics: Points vs. Spell Levels
Metapsionic feats virtually always require you to expend your psionic focus in order to use them. Compared to metamagic, this can make them a tad less useful to use in combat. You can’t throw out a quickened empowered fireball, and then immediately throw out an extended wall of force without additional feat investment, for example. In exchange, your metapsionics are almost always, effectively 1 power level cheaper after augmentation than metamagic. Empower power only costs 2 extra power points, compared to empower spell costing 2 spell levels. Maximize power only costs 4 extra power points. Lingering power doesn’t cost any extra power points. Manifesters will be able to use metapsionics on more power effects than arcane casters will, be able to use them sooner, and can use them more efficiently.
Because you’re using power points and not spell levels, your ability to use metapsionics is not tied to your highest power level known, but to your manifester level. If you’re an 11th level manifester, but for some reason only know 4th level powers (which cost 7 PP to manifest), you can spend 4 more points while manifesting that power on metapsionics.
Psionic-Magic Transparency
Now the assumed ruleset for psionics, this makes psionic detection powers much better. Detect psionics works on magic and detect magic works on psionics. Anti-magic field and dispel magic now counter psionic powers. Dispel psionics and null psionics field now counter magic spells Dead magic areas and planes are now also dead psionics areas and planes. Bonuses of the same type do not stack even if they are from both spells and powers. There are important areas where powers and spells do not cross over.
There’s more to it that all of that. Make sure you and your GM are familiar with the rules on how effects stack,
what order they are dispelled in, etc.
Independent Research
An expensive option, and one that probably isn’t worth it because it still counts against your powers known. It lets you create custom effects, though. However, it does let you gain powers that you normally wouldn’t have access to, or create your own powers.
Thinking Inside The Box - Races for Psions
Remember the ability score priorities. A bonus to intelligence, dexterity or constitution is desired, with intelligence being the most highly valued. A bonus to strength or charisma is a non-plus, with penalties to those ability scores being perfectly acceptable. Penalties to Intelligence are strictly not allowed, and penalties to constitution should only be accepted if you a get a bonus to dexterity or intelligence.
Psionic Races
Blue - Great all around. +2 Dex +2 Int is great. The penalty to strength isn’t problematic because you’re small size, and it comes with a host of other bonuses towards being a manifester. Lackluster favored class bonuses, unless you want to go all-in on mind-affecting abilities
Dromites - These guys and xeph make better wilders than they do psions.
Duergar - Better than dwarves or the other duergar solely because they get abilities that will directly improve your performance as a psion.
Elans - Unfortunately no longer an aberration (charm/dominate person actually scares you now), Elans still get a lot of built-in ways to use their power points to protect themselves. One of the best options available to you.
Forgeborn - Not a bad pick if you want to play a gishy psion, as you get bonuses to your two most important stats, and a penalty to charisma.
Half-Giants - Forgeborn are a better gish selection than these guys
Maenads - These guys would make better psychic warriors or barbarians in my opinion. They have a very eclectic set of abilities, and I can’t really see myself picking them over Elans, Blues, or even Tieflings. I’ve never been a big fan of these guys, though.
Ophiduans - Better than undine or vanara because they get the inbuilt bonuses to manifesting, but still not great.
Xephs - These guys and dromites make better wilders than they do psions.
General Races
Half-Elves - Half Elves are good, but the bonus feats they can get aren’t going to be as helpful as psionic talent or the floating one that humans have. Their alternate traits are nice, but there are better alternate traits out there. They may take the human favored class bonus. If you’re a gish psion, being able to get proficiency with an exotic weapon (like an elven curve blade) can be very helpful
Half-Orcs - An extra standard action before you fall unconscious is fantastic when you can cast spells or manifest powers. They also have an extensive set of alternate racial traits that will be more helpful to you than their base set. They may take the human favored class bonus.
Halflings - The +2 to dexterity is nice, and you don’t take a penalty to Intelligence, but there isn’t really anything here for you.
Humans - The +2 bonus to any stat, the bonus feat, and the extra skill point are great as always. They also come with a great alternate favored class bonus that grants an extra ½ power per level.
Elves - Most of their abilities are built around being an arcane spellcaster, which doesn’t help you here, and their alternate racial traits aren’t much help either. I really don’t like the Con penalty, but the bonuses to Int and Dex are really nice
Dwarves - Dwarves have nice racial features, and you take a penalty to dump stats. You could probably do worse, but you don’t gain any Int, and aren’t even small size.
Gnomes - As with halflings, but with a bonus to con and some eclectic abilities.
Featured Races
Aasimars - The base aasimar is average without a bonus to intelligence, dexterity, or constitution because Aasimar is simply an incredibly good race with a ton of good racial bonuses and no penalty to ability scores. If your GM would allow a Peri-Blooded variant, then they become great.
Catfolk - Bonus to Dex, but a penalty to Wisdom in exchange for a bonus to dump stat. Decent racial abilities, but not worth it. Skip
Dhampirs - Penalty to Con without a bonus to Int. Skip the normal Dhampir. If your DM will allows you to be a Vetala-Born, then they become good to great.
Drow - As with Dhampirs. Penalty to con without a bonus to Int, but without an option to make them better. Skip.
Fetchlings - Bonus to dex, but a penalty to wisdom in exchange for a bonus to charisma. There are simply better options out there.
Goblins - Penalties to both your dump stats, and a ton of dexterity, but if you want to play a goblin then you should probably play a Blue.
Hobgoblins - Bonuses to everything you care about except intelligence, and some pretty lackluster ability score bonuses. You could do worse. These guys make good to great gish psions.
Ifrits - Another of the many races with a bonus to charisma in exchange for a penalty to wisdom.
Kobolds - The penalty to strength is troublesome even if you are small size, and the penalty to con is a literal killer.
Orcs NO. Not even for your Gish build.
Oreads - No bonus to Int, and bonuses to stats you don’t really care about.
Ratfolk - Bonuses to stats that you care about, and penalties to stats you don’t. They unfortunately don’t have the good racial abilities to set them apart from other strong options.
Sylphs - Stats to the important stuff, good SLAs, and the outsider subtype set this race above elves in my opinion, but the penalty to constitution still keeps them slightly below the great options. A very good pick, though.
Tengus - Penalty to Con for a bonus to wisdom. Skip.
Tieflings - The best race that isn’t naturally psionic available for a Psion. Bonuses to Int and Dex, and a penalty to your Charisma. Great general racial abilities out of the box, and the option of trading out fiendish sorcery for a prehensile tail. Lots of options and bonuses here.
Undines - Penalty to a dump stat, and bonuses to stats you do care about is nice. The lack of a bonus to Int keeps this choice as average at best, even with its good racial traits.
Uncommon Races
Changelings - Changelings are not a good race for just about any class, and that includes psions.
Duergar - There’s some really good stuff here, but the other Duergar is probably going to make you a better Psion than this guy.
Gillmen - You’re either water dependent or vulnerable to fire. I can’t think of any build guide that recommends these guys. Trash garbage.
Gripplis - These guys make better ranged psywars than they do psions. You won’t lose much, but you won’t gain anything significant.
Kitsune - There are some cool racial traits here, but you’re not getting a bonus to Int, and you’re getting a bonus to one of your dump stats.
Merfolk - Use skate to get around their movement problems, and then put on a helmet for when people start throwing books at you.
Nagaji - SKIP
Samsarans - The bonus to Intelligence is great, but the bonus wisdom isn’t really worth the hit to constitution, and their class abilities are better for wizards or clerics who want to abuse the summoner and inquisitor spell lists. The worst pick of all races that get a bonus to intelligence.
Strix - Strix don’t get a bonus to intelligence, but they do get something that most psions can’t in class get much later than spellcasters without a feat or being a nomad: Flight.
Sulis - Leave this guy in the corner with the Orcs and Nagaji.
Svirfneblins - These guys get 8 different racial traits, and modifiers to 4 different ability scores, and somehow none of those things make you directly better or worse at being a psion. They do have spell resistance, which is a bad option for any class that doesn’t have reliable self-healing.
Vanaras - These guys are with like Undines in that they have good racial traits, a prehensile tail even, but not very good stats.
Vishkanyas - Oh look, another race with bonuses to dexterity and charisma and a penalty to wisdom.
Wayangs - Weird racial traits, but a bonus to intelligence, and bonuses to great skills. A good option.
Matter of the Mind - Class Abilities
True gods don’t let armor get in the way of them altering of the cosmos.
d6 Hit Dice & ½ BAB - Less problematic for you than it would be other characters because of your variety of very good personal buffs, but it’s still bad.
Saving Throws - A bad reflex save is something you can live with, and a good will save is important, but a bad fortitude save is trouble. You’ll need to find a way to boost it outside of the expected increases to saving throws to compensate.
2+Int Skills/Level - You only get 2+Int/level, but your intelligence should be good enough to make sure you get a pretty good assortment of tools.
Class Skills - Autohypnosis, Craft, Knowledge (all), Profession, Spellcraft. A more detailed breakdown of skills will follow after the Disciplines
Armor and Weapon proficiency - You get light armor, which you can wear without penalty to manifesting. Your weapons are limited to simple, but the options there will be more than adequate. Wearing armor also makes you a less obvious candidate for the guy who will turn the enemy’s brains into mush.
Talents - These are your 0th level spell equivalents, you have to expend your psionic focus, but there are some good options in there. Getting detect psionics for free is fantastic.
Disciplines - These are important enough that they’ll be getting their own chapter. Unlike in 3.5, you are no longer required to specialize in one of the 6 disciplines, and can instead become a generalist. You also gain new discipline abilities related to each discipline’s speciality.
Psionic Powers - The reason you’re playing a psion. You get the best main list (Psion/Wilder), and access to a bunch of other great powers on the discipline lists.
Psionic Powers Known - This is the big limit that every spontaneous caster has to deal with, but psions aren’t casters, and they have a bit of a wrinkle. Unlike a sorcerer, bard, or most spontaneous casters can trade out spells as they level up, psions DO NOT get to trade out powers known as they level up until they can use the psychic reformation power. Unlike those other classes, psions can augment their powers so that the level 1 power they learned at level 1 can still be relevant nineteen levels later. Nevertheless, you must be very careful about what powers you pick as you level up.
Bonus Feats - Psions gain bonus feats at levels 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20. Your selection is fairly limited, but it’s limited to feats you would most likely want to take.
Subdivisions of the Mind - Psion Disciplines
(Important feedback on disciplines provided by Tulya)
Discipline powers will be covered in depth with the other psionic powers, but I’ll give the overall ratings for each set of powers here.
Generalist
This is not the generalist wizard, who gets good school powers but doesn’t get bonus spells per day, but can still learn anything. The generalist psion gets great discipline powers and discipline skills in exchange for losing free access to most of the best psionic powers available.
Discipline Skills - Use magic device is probably the best, though not the most commonly used, skill in the game. That you then get to make the choice of taking perception from the seer discipline skill list is also great.
Abilities - An incredible set of powers. The worst ability you gain is an extra 4 feats over 20 levels. If you gave these power to any other discipline they would be considered overpowered.
Bonus Feats - Just what you’re going to need, more feats. Quite a few of these are probably going to become expanded knowledge, but they’re still good to have on hand for other, more niche psionic feats.
Breach Power Resistance - Overcoming power or spell resistance resistance can be a bit of a pain, but with your intelligence modifier behind you, you will be able to blow through it.
Double Manifest - Obscenely, obscenely good. power. The split mind power gets a purple rating, and this is a better version of that power. It’s limited by being only once/day.
Expanded Mind - Add any power, of any level, from any class’s power list for the day. This is great, if a bit disappointing for a capstone ability.
Advanced Generalist Discipline: Erudite - The Erudite gives up five bonus feats for a mechanic that’s very unique for a manifester or caster with a powers/spells known limit. It’s probably worth playing around with for that reason, but the limit of the ability to the Psion/Wilder list holds it back.
Bonus Feats -> Daily Power’s Known - This is a weird ability, but can be a very good one. You lose out on 5 bonus feats, and in return basically get 5 expanded knowledge feats that you can change the power selection of every day. The problem is that you can’t take anything off the disciplines’ power lists, which is what you’d normally be doing with those expanded knowledge feats. I’d probably rather have the bonus feats, but this ability gets better as your access to power stones increases.
Powers - The downside to taking the generalist is that you lose native access to all of the great powers on the individual discipline list. This is why the generalist is rated as good instead of great. You’ll be spending a large amount of your bonus feats on expanded knowledge, and larger portions of your WPL on items to shore up your power selection. This discipline will lose most of its luster from levels 7 to 14 when other disciplines are getting the powers representative of their specialization before the greater versions of those powers appear on the main power list, if they ever do.
Egoist (Psychometabolism)
Transmogrifiers: More than meets the eye.
On the outside, the egoist might would appear to be focused purely on buffing themselves, and to some degree that is true. However, the powers that they get also offer tremendous utility to a party, and their shared effect ability allows them to also provide in-combat utility by buffing their teammates. The best stuff is frontloaded so egoists should consider taking a prestige class and gaining more class abilities and manifester levels elsewhere.
Discipline Skills - Acrobatics is a good skill to have, and heal will be useful at lower levels when healing will be a little pricey. You still won’t be great at them, but they’re commonly used enough used to be helpful.
Abilities - The Egoist will get their good powers early, but lose a bit of steam later on. This seems like a prime candidate for prestige classing or multiclassing out of, as you get all the best stuff by level 8.
Metabolic Healing - Fast healing every time you manifest a power is great, and will add up very quickly as you increase in level. The one downside is that it’s tied to the level of a power manifested and not the power points expended. That’s not enough to keep it from being great, though.
Shared Effect - There is a massive number of personal only powers that your allies would love to have, and this lets you give it to them. It counts as an augmentation, so there’s a cap to what powers you can do, but it still makes you much more versatile at buffing your party mates. There’s a reason “personal” range spells can’t be made into potions.
Resilient body - Critical hits, especially once people start piling effects like bleeding and daze onto them can get very gross. Being able to ignore one of those per day is nice. It’s only a 1/day ability, and you’ll still be taking damage, though.
Infused Form - The DR 5/- is nice, but everyone is going to be overpowering that by this point. Adapt Body is also nice, but the duration of the manifested power will already last 20 hours without metapsionics to extend it.
Advanced Egoist Discipline: Transmogrifist - This is a great discipline to focus on if you plan to be focusing purely on self-buffing or playing as a gish. However, you trade out shared effect, so you lose in-combat utility, so manifesting-focused psions should probably steer clear.
Shared Effect -> Empowered Alteration - A better power for Egoists who wish to focus purely on self buffing. It’s a free empowering that applies to even fixed numeric effects to the buffs and powers you’ll be manifesting on yourself constantly. However, expending psionic focus is less appealing when you aren’t buffing teammates to protect you.
Infused Form -> Infused Body - Probably overall a better power than Infused Form, and it will give you a lot of healing when combined with Metabolic healing. The resurrection ability is gravy, but at this level death is already cheap enough that this isn’t something most players will care about.
Powers - For gish psions, the Egoist disciplines is the best choice available. It has great, versatile buffs and healing options to keep you powerful and in the fight. For psions not looking to wade into melee combat, it’s still a great discipline. There’s some decent healing options available, and most of the powers are very versatile for use in and out of combat. There’s not an outright terrible power on the entire list.
Kineticist (Psychokinesis)
I think, therefore you are not.
If you want to deal damage, counter ranged attacks and counter other magical and psionic threats, this is a good discipline to focus in. Otherwise you can safely skip most of the discipline’s powers. Lackluster discipline skills, abilities, and a power list focused on direct damage is not a good combination.
Discipline Skills - Disable Device should probably be handled by someone else, and there are better social skills than intimidate.
Abilities - The Kineticist’s powers start out pretty weak, but get better at level 12. Until you get to that point, you’ll be jealous of what toys the other disciplines get.
Active Energy Type - Not spelled out as a power specifically, but a very nice toy. Unlike every other psion, when you manifest an energy power, you can choose something other than your active energy type. Awesome. Eventually other psions will grab a surge stone, and this is going to lose some of it’s luster.
Telekinetic Hurl - A sling with worse range, and that doesn’t add your strength to the damage. It gets better over time, but by the time it does decent damage, you will probably be better off manifesting a cheap power with a better range and hits with touch attack.
Kinetic Aura - A nice, if modest, persistent buff. Depending on how you look at it, this is either great for saving you money on ring of protection, or annoying because it doesn’t stack with the standard defensive buff item.
Energetic Recharge - The vast majority of abilities that require you to take damage are pretty bad because they require you to take damage. This is not one of those abilities, allowing you to convert and thus ignore massive amounts of damage into power points. It’s usefulness is limited as a 1/day ability.
Energy Immunity - This is a nice boost, but energy adaptation is now providing 30 energy resistance against everything. It’s hardly a capstone ability.
Advanced Kineticist Discipline: Unseen Hand - You lose two good abilities, and gain two abilities that are bad. This won’t make you even a remotely better user of telekinetic force until level 20.
Energetic Recharge -> Kinetic Aura - Blech. No-save prone is usually great. Except that you can’t designate the ability to ignore your allies, it’s once per day, and a range of 30-ft. is terrible.
Energy Immunity -> Permanent Telekinesis - This is only at most saving you 7 points per manifestation of Telekinetic Maneuver. A piddly-dink capstone.
Powers - It’s a weird selection. You get quite a few great damage dealing powers, and also quite a few powers that deal with wind manipulation. There’s a disappointingly low amount of powers that deal with the object manipulation side of psychokinetics. In their place seems to be quite a few powers built around countering psionic attacks like null psionics field. Most psions could probably grab energy missile, and control body with expanded knowledge and be set for their careers..
Nomad (Psychoportation)
Reality is a prison. Release yourself
The Nomad is probably the worst discipline, but that doesn’t make it a bad one. When you want the discipline’s powers, you’ll really want the discipline’s powers, but otherwise you can ignore most of them. It’s powers scale better the later the game gets, and as extraplanar threats and travel become more or less standard parts of any adventuring day.
Discipline Skills - Most of these are skills you won’t be very good at, and probably won’t invest more than one rank into. Fly is good to have considering your specialization, though.
Discipline Abilities - The selection is impressive, especially in the early going. All of the powers you’ll be able to use on a regular basis, at least once every adventuring day.
Nomad’s Step - Teleportation is great, especially if you can find some way (like sharing vision with a psicrystal) to see around walls or other barriers that can limit this power’s usefulness. It’s a supernatural ability, so there are no attacks of opportunity.
Inconstant Position - The per day limit makes this power less great than it could be, but that limit relaxes fairly quickly relatively quickly, and the ability only becomes better the more effectively you can play. The less often you expect to be hit, the more often you can use it.
Accelerated Activity - I don’t care if this is once per day, this is fantastic. Getting two turns of actions in a single round would open up a massive number of plays for any character, let alone a character that has access to psionic powers.
Rapid Movement - Getting an extra move action, even if it is limited to movement is fantastic because it frees up your other move action to be anything else. It’s very good, especially when you consider the discipline ability you get before it. It’s still a little underwhelming for a capstone ability, though.
Advanced Nomad Discipline: Jaunting - I’m really torn on this subdiscipline, but I don’t think I can recommend it over the base Nomad unless you can reasonably expect to be playing at 20th level. Accelerated activity is too strong of an ability to give up.
Accelerated Activity -> Evacuate - Accelerated activity is incredible, but Evacuate is a really strong ability. Immediate action (Su) teleportation lets you do a lot of very silly things. It would be more of a fight if Evacuate was more than 1/day.
Rapid Movement -> Far Strider - It is better than Rapid movement, allowing you to teleport up to 110 ft. as a free action. It counts as your 5 foot step, but that’s hardly a penalty.
Powers - The Nomad list is a bunch of mediocre or situationally good options, with a couple of great options. There is enough travel/transportation powers outside of discipline most psions to be pacified. The dimensional swap and reposition powers are the real gems here. The more you expect to be dealing with planar travel, extraplanar beings, and summoned/called creatures, the better discipline becomes.
Seer (Clairsentience)
I know what you did last summer.
Players not into gathering information or scouting with psionics need not apply, thought that would be a shame because psions are very good scouts and scryers. Unfortunately for psions who realize that knowing is half the battle and become seers, they get saddled with lackluster discipline abilities.
Discipline Skills - Diplomacy and Perception are two of the best skills in the game. If you’re wondering why you get Diplomacy, it’s for its gather information ability. Considering your charisma, perception is the real gem here.
Discipline Abilities - The Seer’s discipline abilities are average at best. The Insight advanced discipline has better options available to you.
Recovered Information - It’s not nothing, but most clairsentience powers you’ll want to use early on don’t have saving throws, so it’s pretty close to nothing. It’s average if you plan to do a massive amount of remote viewing.
Alter the Waves - It’s an increasing +3 insight bonus that can be used on “any one die roll.” A 1/day +3 to anything, including damage is usually great, but insight bonuses are very commonly the bonus provided by psionic powers, so you might have trouble stacking this.
Seeing the Connections - This is a neat power, but it comes a bit late for the identification bonus to be of much help. The ability to flip the tables on someone scrying against you is nice, but it does allow a save, and shouldn’t be used as a replacement for proper defenses against divination.
Perpetual Foresight - This is a bad power if you can’t maintain multiple psionic focuses, but becomes great if you can. Second chance is a more efficient way to get rerolls, and fate of one doesn’t expend your psionic focus. Perpetual Foresight has larger applications than either of those powers, and doesn’t require you to take the second reroll or to expend power points, so it’s much better used out of combat than the two powers.
Advanced Seer Discipline: Insight - I’d recommend that every Seer bridge into the Insight discipline. Insightful steps is worlds apart from Recovered Information in most games and situations, and alter probability will become useful once you have the ability to maintain multiple psionic focuses simultaneously.
Recovered Information -> Insightful Steps - Unlike recovered information, this ability actually does something. Not only do you get to ignore all difficult terrain as long as you’re maintaining a psionic focus, but you can grant that to allies as an immediate action by expending your psionic focus.
Alter Waves - > Alter Probability - This is basically a 1/day version of the witch class’s misfortune hex. The saving throw scales over time, but expending your psionic focus for the chance to force a reroll is rough.
Powers - If you want to know the answers to all the questions, and you presumably do because you’re a seer, then this is the best option available to you. Power levels 1 and 3 are pretty weak, but everything else has something good or great for you. If you’re not interested in playing detective or scout then there won’t be much here for you.
Shaper (Metacreativity)
Bringing you ectoplasmic toys and puppies like a psionic Santa Claus
The discipline skills are the only thing that’s going to let you down here. Metacreativity gets two great sets of discipline abilities with the constructor advanced discipline, and a great power list. In my experience you’ll need to be creative to get the most out of item creation and summoning powers, but that’s only because the ceiling is so high.
Discipline Skills - These skills are all over the place. UMD is incredible, but Bluff and Disguise are two skills that somewhat overlap, and you won’t really be good at either.
Abilities - The Shaper’s powers make them directly better at what they are doing, or give them more options and ways to use their powers. They are a very nice boon for your psion.
Summoner’s Call - Starting out with a very strong ability, an extra round of duration for summoned creatures is pretty solid, but an extra ability is fantastic.
Ectoplasmic Protection - Concealment is good, by the level you get this it should last you an entire combat. Unfortunately you can’t break up the rounds, so you’ll have to wait for later levels to use it more than 1 time per day.
Maestro of Ectoplasm - A standard action 1/day power with 3 different, effective ways to help a situation. It’s not going to be the equivalent to powers you could manifest at this level, but it doesn’t cost power points, either.
Astral Ally - One of your astral constructs is now permanent. You can still have other constructs out, too. Just a nice way to save power points by letting you create a very powerful construct without worrying that it will just be leaving in 20 rounds.
Advanced Discipline: Constructor - For shapers looking to focus on creating constructs, this is going to end up being the better option. The bonus feats are nice, as is the ability to summon astral swarms. Most shapers won’t gain or lose much only because the base discipline is so good.
Ectoplasmic Protection -> Improved Constructs - This is a bit of a lateral move. You lose out on a good personal buff in exchange for some good construct feats that you’ll probably already be taking. The feats are usable all day compared to the concealment, so I’d say they’re slightly better in the long run.
Maestro of Ectoplasm -> Maestro of Constructs - You lose out on ectoplasmic sheen, and gain a better version of the summoning constructs power and the ability to summon astral swarms. Swarms have their place as annoyances, but you can’t modify them to make them more useful as the game goes on.
Powers - There is not a single “bad” power on the metacreativity power list. All of it is good or at least useful with some minor planning or need. You are the only psion to get easy access to summoning, you get creation before arcane casters, and you can create what is effectively a phylactery and the demiplane to hide it in.
Telepath (Telepathy)
‘I’d like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony’… whether they want to or not
The ability to control minds is probably what people first imagine when they think of psionic powers. Telepaths are the choice for players who want to do that. Good discipline skills for manipulating others, good discipline abilities, and a power list filled with both save-or-die effects and ways to break the action economy. Just be prepared to be really annoyed by the undead, constructs, paladins and other folks who ignore your charms and compulsions.
Discipline Skills - All the face skills you will want are here, minus intimidate. Diplomacy is the gem, but Sense Motive and Bluff can also serve important roles, and they synergize well with the discipline’s focus on charms and compulsions.
Abilities - The standout here is telepathy, but that power isn’t going to to always reach its potential. Like with the Egoist, the best discipline abilities here are early in the class’s lifespan, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to look at branching out into a prestige class of some kind.
Mental Intrusion - A nice, basically free boost to the DC of your powers is good considering that most telepathy powers are negated entirely by successful saving throws. It’s unfortunate that it doesn’t stack, though.
Telepathy - I want to rate this power very highly, but it’s not always going to be useful. If you play with a bunch of rowdy, uncoordinated characters who just like to kick doors down, then having completely silent communication isn’t going to be helpful. This power could be enough to make you play a Telepath in a mid to high level game that requires even a small amount of espionage or investigation, though.
Last Respite - This is mostly useful as a way to avoid having to go through the trouble of paying for a resurrection or raise dead, but only if you can solve the problem within the time limit. By level 14, death has mostly become a revolving door. This is probably an ability that will be more powerful in the hands of the BBEG than a player character.
Guarded Thoughts - A +10 bonus against some of the worst effects to fail save against is fantastic, but simultaneously slightly underwhelming as a capstone ability.
Advanced Telepath Discipline: Mindbender - Most telepaths could transition into this advanced discipline without much concern.Your signature powers are going to be charm and compulsion effects, so being able to make them better isn’t much of a loss. Overall the mindbender comes out on top.
Mental Intrusion -> Impose Will - I like Mental Intrusion, but I like this even more. The ability to spend 1 more point on a charm or compulsion power is nice, but getting a mindlink to your target is great. One of the biggest problems with mind controlling subjects is keeping track of them, and this effectively solves that problem.
Last Respite -> Enthrall - I like this better than last respite. It’s basically a freely scaling in save DC Mind Control. It’s going to be a bit underwhelming at 14th level because so many thing will be immune to mind-affecting powers, though.
Powers - Telepaths get a power list with some big peaks and valleys. Mind control, schism, and empathic connection are all excellent, but they also gets powers like metaconcert that are only going to be useful when there are other psionic characters in the party or in the game. You are also going to have a glut of mind-affecting abilities that are going to be completely worthless in certain encounters. The peaks are so high that it’s still a good list, but the valleys are going to be extremely frustrating.
Conduit (Athanatism)
thisisacat would like to speak with you now.
This discipline, added in Psionics Augmented: Seventh Path is heavily focused on interacting with undead, incorporeal beings, and the ethereal plane. It has a number of worthwhile buffs and information-gathering powers. Much of its power depends on the campaign and how willing you are to use some rather cheesy options. While the powers are somewhat lacking, the discipline abilities are generally strong.
Discipline Skills - Perception is widely regarded as one of of the best skills in the game. Bluff and Sense Motive give you the ability to play face if you want. You are unlikely to have the stats to be the main face for your party, but perception is always useful.
Discipline Abilities - The conduit has a strong set of abilities that help to compensate for its narrow powers, including two powerful combat abilities.
Spirit Affinity - Negative Energy Affinity is a decent feat, allowing you to throw out nearly irresistible damage at any living creature, but where it really shines is when you have party members who are healed by negative energy. The real gem of this ability is the ability to change a power known daily. This makes the situational powers of this discipline far more palatable.
Poltergeist Aura - This is a very powerful aura. Without a save, it slows down enemies, prevents attacks of opportunity, and applies a hefty penalty to their attack rolls. The swift action stagger is just gravy. This ability synergizes very well with Athanatism's defensive buffs.
Hand of the Grave - This ability is effectively a no-save, just die effect. While it requires a touch attack, a Conduit has a number of options to keep them safe during this, ranging from high AC to possession to incorporeality. This will kill nearly any opponent without even trying.
Straddling Both Worlds - Incorporeality is a powerful defense, especially against more monstrous opponents. However, by this point, a conduit has many other ways of acquiring the status, reducing the utility of this ability. Still, the free ghost touch is still nice. This ability falls somewhat short as a capstone after the earlier strong showing.
Powers - While rather flexible, the conduit list has a lot of horribly situational powers. The strong powers are amazing, but there aren't very many of them. In addition, many of the strongest powers are somewhat awkward from a roleplaying perspective. If you're alright with playing a creepy character who uses a few more generalist powers, this is fine, but it could cause some complications otherwise.
Tools of the Mind: Class Skills
Universal Psion Class Skills
Autohypnosis* - You’ll put at least 4 points into this skill for the psionic meditation feat.
Craft - It’s an Int based skill, so you can probably get some use out of it.
Knowledge (Arcana)** - Dragons and magical beasts are the big gets here.
Knowledge (Dungeoneering) - Aberrations tend to be pretty common. There’s always at least 1 ooze in a dungeon.
Knowledge (Engineering) - You’re not an architect.
Knowledge (Geography) - Bring a map and a compass
Knowledge (History) - Go to a library. Read a book.
Knowledge (Local) - Humanoids. The more your GM sends them at you, the more helpful this will be.
Knowledge (Martial) - Path of War only, this knowledge is helpful for identifying what kind of fighting styles enemies might have. Also notable if you want to grab Martial Training for a Stance or Boost.
Knowledge (Nature) - There are a ton of creatures here that you’ll want to identify.
Knowledge (Nobility) - Look at the face printed on your gold coins.
Knowledge (Planes) - Useful when you plan on venturing outside the normal planes or binding Efreeti.
Knowledge (Psionics)* - Not useful unless you plan on facing lots of psionic monsters.
Knowledge (Religion) - Undead and divine interference are very common and very diverse. Know what you’re fighting
Profession - I’ve never found a use for this skill past 3rd level. Just go punch a baby and take his lollipop, and you’ll probably make more even after posting bail than if you use the skill.
Spellcraft** - You’re an Int-based full manifester, you’re going to be expected to max this out. It now also identifies psionic powers and items. It’s a prerequisite for some metapsionic feats as well.
Other Skills
Acrobatics (Egoist) - Acrobatics is a good skill for getting around the battlefield or outside of it.
Bluff (Shaper, Telepath, Conduit) - This is an opposed roll, so max it out or ignore it completely.
Climb (Nomad) - You’re only going to put on point into this to get the class skill bonus, if that much.
Diplomacy (Seer, Telepath) - It’s not mind control, but it will make your life much less dangerous if you invest in it. The Cha-based characters will be better at it, though.
Disable Device (Kineticist) - Your party will probably need someone to do this, and you could be good at it, depending on how much you invest into dexterity.
Disguise (Shaper) - Disguise often takes a lot of preparation and scouting to pay off. Just use acrobatics to jump the fence, bluff to lie to the guard, diplomacy to get a ticket, or buy a paper bag to put over your head.
Escape Artist - How you’ll get out of grapples with your bad BAB.
Fly (Nomad) - You’ll need it eventually, but shouldn’t need to put more than 10 ranks into it.
Heal (Egoist) - Heal is only situationally useful. The situation being that the character with stabilize falls unconscious.
Intimidate (Kineticist) - Most psions want to be of small stature so that they’re harder to hit and hit more easily.That’s counterproductive to intimidate other creatures.
Perception (Seer, Conduit) - The most rolled skill in the entire game, and it’s often an opposed roll against stealth and sometimes slight of hand. Max this out.
Perform (Dance) - You’ll want to put two ranks into this if you’re going to be using the dervish dance feat to apply your dexterity to damage as gish psion.
Sense Motive (Telepath, Conduit) - Perception for social encounters. It’s always annoying when the BBEG or their lackey is able to deceive the party into wasting their time or helping him. Also useful in gaining information
Stealth - You don’t get any powers like invisibility, like arcane casters do, so you’d be wise to max this skill out if you plan on playing a sneaky character. A psicrystal will be better at this than you for a while, though.
Survival (Nomad) - You only need 1 member of the party to have this, if you even need that much.
Swim (Nomad) - You’re only going to put on point into this to get the class skill bonus, if that much.
Use Magic Device** (Generalist, Shaper) - An incredible skill for characters with powers known limits. The DCs on this skill are high so you need to max it out if you’re going to use it.
Arcane Mind - You give up some of the flavor of being a psion in exchange for getting some wizard power and flavor, as well as a few other abilities that make you slightly better at your job. Not a very good powergaming archetype, but it definitely gives you some options if you want to play a psion trying to fit in a more magical work.
Arcane Trappings - You give up your psionic displays, which are good, gain verbal and somatic components, which suck, and can’t wear armor without having to deal with arcane spell failure anymore. The spell failure won’t be as bad for you as it would be if you were a magic user.
Mysterious Magic - Most of the time the city guard won’t have ranks in the skills required to identify your powers, and the wizard is going to pass it on a ten regardless. This might be fun for an NPC to have in a game, but it won’t be useful. It’s free, though.
Strange Synergy - You get a free, but piddly bonus to overcome spell or power resistance.
Mystic Bond - You get a familiar instead of a free floating feat. I personally think that psicrystals are generally better than familiars, and this forces you into having one. You still keep the ability to take psicrystal containment, though.
Bombardier - Your schtick is that you turn crystals into bombs and then throw them at people. In exchange for your entire discipline power list.
Additional Class Skills
Scribe Scroll - It’s a required feat for making the power stones you use, but it’s also one of the better crafting feats for psions, so it’s nice to get it for free.
Exploding Stone - The entire reason you’re playing a Bombardier. You give up your entire discipline power list, and discipline abilities in exchange for throwing alchemical weapons bombs that deal your Int+1d6*Level/2 damage in whatever your active energy type is. This would be better if alchemical weapons weren’t pretty bad in Pathfinder, psychokinesis wasn’t an available discipline, and psions weren’t already more than capable of dealing damage.
Talents** - Ultimate Psionics doesn’t make mention of discipline talents outside of the table. As a GM I’d be fine with giving you an extra crappy talent for free, but other GMs might ask you to trade something out.
Dual Disciple - A very good option for any manifester who thinks he can get everything he needs out of just two disciplines.
Secondary Discipline - Power access is one of the psions biggest problems, and this takes a step to helping relieve that weakness by letting you select a second discipline power list to choose powers from, but it comes at a hefty price. You cast powers from disciplines from other than your chosen two at -1 manifester level and lose all your discipline class skills. Choose wisely.
Secondary Discipline Ability - There are quite a few disciplines that are better than feats, especially considering you're relatively slim selection. The egoist, transmogrifist, telepath, mindbender,insight, shaper and constructor are all good candidates for disciplines to draw secondary abilities from.
Mindwright - Ask your GM before taking Mindwright, and discuss possible side effects. Crafting is a very hard thing for most GMs to deal with properly. Left unchecked, it will break a campaign’s economy. If they don’t implement crafting, or there isn’t significant downtime, then players are left with tons of dead feats.
Class Skills - You of course get UMD, but you also “get” craft and profession, which you already had. Most psion disciplines are going to do better.
Bonus Feats - You get the Generalist’s bonus feats, but now they must all be crafting feats. There simply aren’t that many standout crafting feats for psions.
Trained Artisan - Crafting checks, especially of magical or psionic items, can have rather large DCs. Getting something to pump up your skill check is helpful.
Efficient Artisan - Crafting is already an efficient way to get equipment by design. This only makes it even more so.
Psionic Identification - With a high spellcraft skill, and the ability to get a free bonus to identification with detect psionics, you weren’t going to have problems anyway.
Greater Ectoplasmic Creation - Ps and SLAs are cool, but less so when you get them 5 levels after you could have had the actual power or spell.
Psionic Infusion - This is a tricky one to rate. It theoretically lets you bypass the enhancement limit on magical or psionic for a single item or weapon, and can be done more than one time per day. However, it’s going to be every expensive in terms of power points (a +3 enhancement will cost 36 power points), and it only lasts for 1 minute. Your most common uses of this will be for situational +1 enhancement abilities. That’s just not worth it in my book.
Hounforge (From the Seventh Path) - This is a pretty weak archetype that sees you trade your discipline for a gimped eidolon.
Dollmaker - While this ability doesn't cost anything, it is also nearly useless. The only point of this ability is to allow you to make your spirit doll without needing more than one rank in Craft.
Spiritforged Companion - While an eidolon is usually powerful, the Hounforge has a set of limitations that greatly weaken it. First and foremost, the eidolon operates at half the psion's level. This means that past the earliest levels, it will be all but useless in combat. Second, it is limited to the host form, preventing it from taking powerful evolutions like pounce. Finally, the bond powers are far weaker than the similar powers possessed by the summoner. All-in-all, this is much weaker than a discipline.
Spirit Doll - This generally just acts as a point of weakness for the Hounforge. It does allow touch powers to be manifested at range on the eidolon, but it's still not much.
Ascendent Psion (Elan Only) - This is less of an archetype and more of an alternative discipline. The discipline focuses on providing access to all of the iconic psionic abilities. It’s all about telepathy and disguising teh character’s true nature. It’s weaknesses are that it doesn’t bring anything remarkable to the table.
Skills - Perception is obviously fantastic, but Disguise isn’t quite so great. It synergizes with the level 8 ability at least.
Talents - Far hand, missive, and telekinetic punch are solid pick ups.
Ascendent Powers: Effectively the discipline power list. Control body and mind control are the biggest gains here. All but one power is at least solid, and it’s a nice diverse list.
Hide Mind - This is useful in a setting where psions are hunted, but is otherwise unremarkable. There are far worse things to be noted as than psionic or magical.
Assume LIkeness - Disguise Self at will. You’ll need to invest in disguise to really get something out of this, but it’s still a great get at level 8.
Telekinetic Force - Telekinetic force is a good power. It’s not such a good PsiLA because it’s saving throw will be Cha based. It’s also only a 3rd level power, and you can already spam that all day if necessary.
Ascension - You become incorporeal and gain the ability to manifest Telekinetic force as a PsiLA an unlimited number of times per day. Incorporeal is a good defensive buff in terms of damage, but not at level 20 and not when your charisma will most likely be terrible. You can already spam Telekinetic Force
Bridging the Gap Synapse: Feats
Ultimate Psionics (Ratings for feats from Ultimate Psionics provided by Novawurmson)
Access Psionic Talent [Psionic] - I mean, if you can really find five talents you want to take, this is a lot of bang for your buck - problem is, you’re rarely going to need that many talents.
Advanced Constructs [Psionic] - The higher level Might and Reach menu options are stellar.
Body Fuel [Psionic] - Ability burn is very, very difficult to get rid of. It’s not worth tanking all three physical ability scores to recover a little PP.
Boost Construct [Psionic] - You will always be able to find another menu option you’d like for your constructs.
Combat Manifestation [Psionic] - Being able to cast in
Deep Focus [Psionic] - Gain a second psionic focus. Getting either this or Psicrystal Containment is basically a requirement by mid-to-high levels - the choice comes down to whether you like Psionic Body or Psicrystal Affinity better.
Dispelling Static [Psionic] - When you dispel an opponent, they lose psionic focus and take a penalty on saves vs. your powers on their next turn. Dispeling in combat is a niche tactic, but this gives it some oomph.
Expanded Knowledge [Psionic] - The value of this feat depends entirely on the power you select with it, but due to the way your specialization removes powerful options from your arsenal, you’re going to want to take this feat at least a few times. With the sheer amount of PP you will eventually accumulate, your two primary goals eventually become 1) Finding quicker ways of turning that PP into useful effects and 2) Acquiring new, varied, and more useful effects for that PP. This helps with the latter. Discipline powers of disciplines other than the one you chose (astral construct, energy missile, metamorphosis, etc.) and the powers of other classes are a good place to start.
Extra Power Known [Psionic] - Expanded Knowledge’s cousin. You can get another power off your list, but it can be your highest level known. Situationally useful, especially if your GM is lenient about retraining.
Fast Step [Psionic] - Nomad only. Nomad’s step as a move instead of standard action, taking that ability from “rarely useful” to “preferred mode of transportation.” At level 10, you can move 55ft. as a move action; at 20, you can move 105ft. as a move action.
Favored Energy [Psionic] - Bonus damage. If you want to blast, this is a requirement; even if you don’t want to specialize in it, it’s nice to be able to blast effectively if it becomes necessary.
Improved Metamorphosis [Psionic] - A bonus menu option when using any metamorphosis power. You will basically always be able to find another menu option you want.
Improved Psi-Like Ability [Psionic, Racial] - Use your racial psi-like ability an additional 2 times per day. Duergar and ophiduan can make use of this.
Improved Psicrystal [Psionic] - The psicrystal options generally aren’t worth a second feat.
Master’s Refuge [Psionic] - Thrallherd only. When you die, your mind transfers to one of your thralls.
Master’s Voice [Psionic] - Thrallherd only. Permanent mindlink with your thralls - if you really want this, consider playing a collective class.
Metapsionic Mastery [Psionic] - One power of your choice can benefit from multiple metapsionic feats, burning extra PP instead of spending psionic focus. It’s a little too heavily restricted to make a priority in most builds. (SD)* I really like this for blasting focused manifesters though, who are going to have a pet power.
Mind Over Body - Allows you to recover ability burn at a faster rate. Almost all ways of gaining ability burn are self-inflicted. Stop choosing things that give you a horrible condition, and you won’t have to worry about recovering from it.
Open Minded - +1 skill per level. You should be pumping Intelligence, so you’ll probably have the skills you need.
Overchannel [Psionic] - Become a mini-wilder, sacrificing HP to increase your manifester level. Now, you will need to spend more PP to get any real effect out of this, but at mid-to-high levels, you’ll have the HP and PP to burn to make this an option you’ll use a couple times per combat. Amazing if someone in your group has highly efficient healing, like a vitalist or battle medic tactician.
Persistent Focus [Psionic] - Your are always treated as maintaining psionic focus for a single ability.
Power Channeler [Psionic] - Turns you into a mini-magus - great if you’re multi/prestige classing, bad for a single-classed psion.
Power Penetration/Greater [Psionic] - Spell/power resistance (remember, they’re one and the same in the default magic/psionics transparency) is generally a nuisance, not a serious issue. It’s campaign-dependant - if you’re constantly fighting red dragons, drow, or something else with spell resistance, knock this up a couple colors.
Power Perfection [Psionic] - It’s Spell Perfection, for psionics. Metapsionic/metamagic cost reduction is ridiculously good, and this feat is no exception.
Power Specialization/Greater [Psionic] - Add a touch of damage to your rays. Power spec is interesting because of the “key ability bonus” option - at level 4, you could easily have a +7 bonus to your primary stat (18+2 (race)+4 (animal affinity)), giving you an odd nova option.
Psicrystal Affinity [Psionic] - A psionic familiar. Gets really interesting with Psicrystal containment. Psicrystals are really fantastic party scouts, and are rather durable for familiars.
Psicrystal Containment [Psionic] - Gain a second psionic focus. Getting either this or Psionic Body/Deep Focus is a priority, especially at high levels.
Psionic Body [Psionic] - A solid boost to your HP; you already get a bunch of bonus psionic feats, you can get at least one more by playing a psionic race (Wild Talent->Psionic Talent), and you can generally get away with selecting nothing but psionic feats for your whole career. It’s Toughness+ if you’re going all psionic feats anyway.
Psionic Endowment/Greater [Psionic] - Expend focus to increase the save DC of a power by 1. If you have nothing to do with your psionic focus, this is better than nothing.
Psionic Meditation [Psionic] - Recover psionic focus as a move action. At mid-to-high levels, your ideal turn will go: Standard action - power, Swift action - quickened power, move action - recover psionic focus.
Psionic Talent [Psionic] - Bonus PP. Interesting at level 1, but it drastically loses steam after that. Play a psionic race if you want a large amount of bonus PP.
Ready Response [Psionic] - Getting more actions is a useful endeavour, and going first often means winning.
Swift Shapeshifter/Master of All Forms [Psionic] [Psionic] - Metamorphosis as a move/swift action all day, every day. Pretty fancy.
Talented [Psionic] - A solid boost to overchanneling. There are plenty of 1st through 3rd level powers that maintain relevance from level 1 to 20; if you like Overchannel, consider this upgrade.
Unlocked Talent - Extra Power Known and Expanded Knowledge are basically always strictly better for you than this. Classes that aren’t full manifesters with the best power list in the game use this to faintly mimic your powers
Up the Walls [Psionic] - This is a fun little feat for low-level psions, but it quickly loses its usefulness as better mobility and exploration powers become available.
Metapsionic Feats (**Feats rated by Novawurmson)
Burning Power [Metapsionic] - Extremely limited in what you can apply it to, and because it’s tied to power level, most you’re every going to get out of this power is an extra 18 damage, at level 19.
Burrowing Power [Metapsionic] - Ignore translucent barriers of any kind by shooting right through them.
Chain Power [Metapsionic] - The kineticist can probably get a lot out of this power . Imagine energy missile jumping around between all of the enemies that were hit with it, for example. The problem is that by paying power points to use the feat, you’re capping you potential to augment the damage, as well.
Concussive Power [Metapsionic] - If you find yourself using the sonic energy type, this can be really good. -2 to everything is a good debuff. No saving throw here, unlike sickening.
Dazing Power [Metapsionic] - This is not dazing spell becuase dazing power is a mind-affecting effect. No dazing zombies or vampires. It only costs 2 PP to add onto a spell, though.
Delay Power [Metapsionic] - A way to manipulate the action economy in your favor, but only if you have time to prepare within 5 rounds of the target showing up.
Echoing Power [Metapsionic] - This is helpful in terms of power point preservation. The wording is vague, and ask your GM how it interacts with augmentation on the first or second manifestation.
Ectoplasmic Power [Metapsionic] - Unless you plan on dealing with ghosts or other incorporeal creatures a lot, you can safely ignore this.
Empower Power [Metapsionic] - The best way to increase the damage of a power, especially when so many points already have you pay 2 points for a damage dice.
**Endowed Mind [Metapsionic] - It’s basically “heighten” for psionics - you can pay PP to increase the save DC of a power. Some powers don’t have an innate +2 PP= +1 save DC augment; this will give it to them. Obviously, do not take unless you already have a power that needs it.
Enlarge Power [Metapsionic] - Double the effective range of a power with no PP cost.
Explosive Power [Metapsionic] - Energy ray and crystal shard are powers you’ll be using often, and this works well with them. It’s best used when you can manifest it for free, and it will eat up PP if you target multiple creatures.
Extend Power [Metapsionic] - The more you plan to use self buffs, the more you’re going to use this.
Flaring Power [Metapsionic] - Dazzled is a crappy effect to expend your psionic focus for.
Focused Power [Metapsionic] - You expend your psionic focus to increase the chance your target will fail a save by 10%. Useful if you rely heavily on save-or-die or save-or-suck powers, but you ideally won’t be relying on those.
Hustle Power [Metapsionic] - You save a couple of points to be able to manifest a power for an action that is more useful than your swift action, in addition to manifesting as a standard action. Unless you don’t think you’ll be able to get quicken power, this isn’t great.
Lingering Power [Metapsionic] - Turns your standard blasting effect into a temporary battlefield control spell.
Malleable Power [Metapsionic] - I guess if there is some really important object you want to avoid hitting, this could be useful. Otherwise, selective power is going to be more than enough.
Maximize Power [Metapsionic] - You’ll get more out of empower power on average, but there are times when you don’t want to know exactly how much damage you’ll be dealing.
Merciful Power [Metapsionic] - If your character wants to deal nonlethal damage, for whatever reason, this is fantastic. If you’re not into that, then you can obviously skip it.
Network Power [Metapsionic] - You don’t have the class feature prerequisite.
Opportunity Power [Metapsionic] - I love this for melee gish psions, who are going to have the weapon out that lets them act on AOOs. Most manifesters won’t get the AOOs and won’t want to be in melee in the first place.
Persistent Power [Metapsionic] - If you are going to live on area of effect blasts, or save-or-die powers, then you must take this. If you don’t find yourself using them that often, it’s still a very good pick.
Piercing Power [Metapsionic] - You should be looking to avoid powers that are affected by power resistance. Getting a 25% increase in odds to get through it isn’t terrible, though.
**Quicken Power [Metapsionic] - Once you hit higher levels, you can bend the action economy over your knee and spank it like a naughty puppy with this. The power of the psion is the power to nova, and this is one of the key parts of your ability to nova. (SD) You increase the cost of a power by only 6 points, the equivalent of just 3 spell levels. Spellcasters pay 4 levels.
Redirect Power [Metapsionic] - I prefer this to piercing power. It’s not as helpful at targeting the BBEG, but it’s better for dealing with a group of characters as it lets you double up on spells.
Rime Power [Metapsionic] - If you find yourself using a lot of cold energy, this can be a solid pick. The large advantage psionics have is the ability to use lots of energy types, so you should be able to use it pretty consistently.
Selective Power [Metapsionic] - There are a lot of powers that you’re going to want to use this with, especially the bursts that are centered on your characters. You can’t get it until level 10, and clever placement can solve a lot of those problems, though.
Shared Power [Metapsionic] - There are a ton of personal range spells that your allies would love to have. Forcing you to expend your psionic focus, pay 2 more power points, and hit on a touch attack within 30 ft is still really pricey. The touch attack part is what really sours me because it adds risk to buffing, which you’re doing specifically because it’s so reliable.
Sickening Power [Metapsionic] - This is good with powers that automatically hit, or only save for half damage. Just swap to sonic energy and use concussive power, saving the power points and ignoring the saving throw.
Split Psionic Ray [Metapsionic] - A great feat for characters who like to blast with rays. Other psions won’t need it obviously.
Thundering Power [Metapsionic] - Deafened is a lackluster debuff.
Toppling Power [Metapsionic] - If you’re a blaster looking for a way to add more debuffs or control to your blasts, this can be a great pick. If you’re already doing battlefield control, adding a relatively easy way to make people prone is still good.
Twin Power [Metapsionic] - Persistent power is better than this for save-or-die powers, and you can empower an effect to get more damage. Both are cheaper than twin power.
Unconditional Power [Metapsionic] - 8 power points is too steep price to pay. At level 9, you’re manifesting a 1st level power, and at level 17, you’re manifesting a 5th level power. I doubt whatever power you’re manifesting is going to save you.
Widen Power [Metapsionic] - Most areas of effect are already going to be large enough to get the most out of them. You certainly shouldn’t need to pay 4 points to double the area of effect.
Item Creation
Craft Cognizance Crystal [Item Creation] - You’re taking a feat purely for the creation of less effective pearls of power.
Craft Crystalline Focus [Item Creation] - You aren’t a soul knife or an aegis.
Scribe Tattoo [Item Creation] - Psionic tattoos are strictly better than potions. Psionic tattoos are also standard action to activate, but they don’t require you to draw them out of your inventory. Psionic tattoos also don’t have the limitation that you can’t make them with personal only powers. Use them to give vigor to the Paladin, or touchsight to the druid.
Core Rulebook Feats
Combat
Combat Expertise & Maneuver Feats - You don’t have the spare feats for all of these, and you can’t wait 11 levels to get the greater versions.
Critical Focus & Critical Feats - You don’t have the BAB for it.
Defensive Combat Training - This will double the bonus you’d be getting from BAB to your CMD, which you will probably want to boost. Take it if you’re a melee gish, or have the feats to spare as a manifester.
Deadly Aim - Ranged power attack.
Dodge/Mobility/Spring Attack - This is a large feat chain that doesn’t get you all that much. You’ll need some of these feats if you’re going to be an elocator.
Power Attack - The key feat for two-handed weapon gish psions. You’ll need to wait until level 3 to get it, and it will scale very slowly now. It’s still a low feat investment fighting style, though.
Point-Blank Shot - The key feat for archery gish psions. You’ll need to wait until level 3 to get it though. One of the better fighting style for Gish psions as it lets them stay out of melee.
Precise Shot/Improved Precise Shot - You’ll probably end up taking precise shot because your BAB will keep you from qualifying for any other feats. Don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s good, though. You can’t take improved precise shot without multiclassing to get a higher BAB and you have psionic powers to that produce superior effects.
Rapid Shot/Manyshot - Rapid shot should be your first archery feat after point-blank shot. Many shot won’t come until after level 10, but you’re going to need to find ways to get as many attacks with archery as possible.
Weapon Finesse - The key feat for rapier, scimitar, or elven curve blade wielding gish psions. If you have an easy way to get dexterity to damage, this route become good. Otherwise, it’s a pretty bad combat style.
Two-Weapon Fighting - The key feat for two-weapon fighting gish psions. Probably the worst style to go.
Improved/Greater Two-Weapon Fighting - You don’t have the BAB to reasonably get these feats in time for them to be relevant.
Vital Strike/Improved Vital Strike/Greater Vital Strike - The BAB requirement keeps it out of reach until after you’ll have in class ways to increase damage or attacks per round.
General
Armor Proficiency Medium/Heavy - You’ll get more out of inertial armor and other defensive buffs, until you get to impossibly expensive magical heavy armor. If you’re going to get armor proficiency feats, go all the way to heavy.
Great Fortitude/Iron Will/Lightning Reflexes - Fort saves are the save most directly related to outright dying, and you have a bad one. Getting a boost to it wouldn’t be a bad thing. You already have a good will save, and reflex saves aren’t exceptionally important, though.
Improved Great Fortitude/Iron Will/Lightning Reflexes - Psions can already access powers that grant them rerolls, and they can manifest those more than once/day.
Improved Initiative - As a manifester you’re going to want to go first so that you can immediately reshape a battlefield to your advantage.
Leadership - A feat universally acknowledged as overpowered. Recognize that it exists, and then don’t take it.
Martial/Exotic Weapon Proficiency - Unless you can get this for free in some way, even gish psions should avoid it.
Skill Focus (X) & the +2/+2 skill feats - There are very few times you would want to take skill focus, or deceitful/stealthy and other +2/+2 skill feats. Only consider taking it on skills that require opposed checks that you make consistently (perception, stealth, bluff), or have exceptionally high DCs (spellcraft when crafting, use magic device), and only when you have feats to spare.
Toughness - You’ll want this less than other d6 hd classes, due to your good self buffs and access to psionic body. Still a good feat for gish types, though.
Item Creation
Psionics Unleashed/Ultimate Psionics modifies a large number of Core Rulebook crafting feats to allow you to make psionic items with them.
Craft Staff - Now let’s you create psi-crowns. Psi-crowns are not nearly as good as staffs because they take up an equipment slot, and staffs aren’t that good to begin with. If you happen to be using Spheres of Power, this gets a lot better because rather than being rubbish multi-scrolls, Staves now become the mage’s answer to Magic Weapons. As such, any sphere casters in your party will be begging for them.
Craft Wand - Now let’s you create dorjes. If you have a couple of pet powers that you expect to use daily, especially without augmentation or at a low manifester level, this can be a good way to save power points each day. Examples would be control sound, detect psionics, inertial armor, or share pain.
Craft Wondrous Arms and Armor - Create psionic weapons and armor. Better for a gish who has the feats to spare, or when in a party with a large number of martial characters.
Craft Wondrous Item - Now let’s you create universal items. Universal items aren’t useful as psionic replacements for cloaks of resistance or belts of physical perfection, so it’s not quite as strong a feat for manifesters as it would be a spellcaster.
Scribe Scroll - Now lets you create power stones. Only let’s you save a little on power point expenditure until you get psionic reformation, at which point it becomes a great way to have niche powers in your back pocket for when you need them.
Other Paizo Feats
Combat
Clustered Shots (Ultimate Combat) - You won’t have enough attacks to fully take advantage of this, and it will come online a bit late.
Dervish Dance (Inner Sea World Guide) - How most 1-handed weapon gish psions will get dexterity to damage. Requires you use a scimitar, which you don’t have proficiency in though.
Furious Focus (Advanced Player’s Guide) - Not as good for you as it might be for other power attack characters because you’ll only be getting a +1 bonus most of the time you’re using it.
Piranha Strike (Sargava The Lost Colony) - Power attack for finesse weapons.
Snap Shot/Improved Snap Shot (Ultimate Combat) - You won’t really want to be in melee, but this will make you much less vulnerable there.
General
Godless Healing (Inner Sea World Guide) - Good from levels 1-3. Terrible after that.
Strong Comeback (Ultimate Combat) - Psions, especially seers, get a lot of ways to give themselves rerolls. If you plan on relying on those abilities a lot, this might be a decent bonus.
Path of War/Path of War Expanded Feats
Deadly Agility - The best way to get dexterity to damage if your GM will let you take it. Half Elves should use elven curve blades if they get the opportunity to grab this feat.
Martial Training I through VI - You’ll need to put ranks into knowledge(martial) to get these feats in time because your BAB won’t keep up. You don’t quite have the feats to spare, but this could be a good way to gain maneuvers without getting up any manifester levels. If you are looking at this, Sleeping Goddess is most likely your best bet.
Psionic Traits
This section will cover the Psionic traits presented in Ultimate Psionics. For coverage of more generic Pathfinder character traits check out either Dragonamedrake‘s Tips and Traits, or The One Hawk‘s more recent Optimizing Your Backstory.
Clairsentient Talent - Detect Psionics is automatically a psionic talent for you.
Mental Discipline - Autohypnosis is already a class skill for you, but you won’t have a very high wisdom, so the +1 might be helpful.
Metacreative Talent - An average of 1.5 damage is nothing, even if it is for free.
Perceptive Talent - Oddly the “perceptive” trait doesn’t grant you a bonus to perception. Is does grant a slight bonus to initiative, though.
Psigifted - This probably best used on a damage dealing power, a power you would want to boost the save DC of, or one that you augment consistently like astral construct, and would scale well later into the game. It’s limited by only allowing 1st level powers or knacks, though.
Psionic Item Familiarity - UMD is a skill with high DCs, and not every psion gets it as a class skill. You’ll want to boost your bonus as high as possible.
Psionic Knack - Most psions won’t need this, but it’s an absolute must have for anyone considering multiclassing, being a dual disciple, or taking levels in any of the prestige classes.
Psionic Monster Familiarity - A situational bonus to a situational knowledge.
Psionic Power Focus - I’m struggling to find a 1st level power for which this will be useful at all.
Psionic Theory - A situational bonus to skill you’ll already be good at.
Psychokinetic Talent - Far hand is a nice utility power to be able to call upon on the fly, especially if it’s not on your discipline’s power list.
Psychoportive Talent - There is a ton of really mean things that you can do with this. BBEG charged you? Wait for him to attack and then *poof* you’re 5 ft away from him and his movement is gone.
Telepathic Talent - You already have a pretty good will save, but these are the worst powers to fail a will save against.
Evolution of the Mind: Prestige Classes
Adaptive Warrior - A good option for gish psions. You gain a d10 hd, full bab, and better fort and reflex saves, and lots of abilities that will make you directly better at combat. Giving up two manifester levels and not getting any bonuses to manifesting makes this a very bad choice for manifester psions, but it’s a fantastic choice for gish psions.
Awakened Blade (Path of War) - Warder is the most obvious combination here, considering the intelligence synergy. The biggest problem you’re going to face is serious action economy problems until level 11 when you get hypercognitive focus. You’ll be losing 3 to 5 manifester levels with multiclassing depending on your entry, but maneuvers and full BAB are still good enough to keep this as a very good gish prestige class.
Body Snatcher - 6 Level prestige classes are pretty rare. You ultimately give up 2 manifester levels to get true mind switch one level ahead of time. If you want to go all-in on switching bodies, or playing some kind of spy character, this is an good option, but otherwise it won’t do much for you.
Cerebremancer - This has the same issues and advantages of the mystic theurge. It takes a long time to get into the prestige class, building towards it sucks at early levels, but you get a ton of spells and powers to cast and manifest per day. Cerebremancer probably comes out on top because psionics provides lots of ways to tilt the action economy, letting them take better advantage of their glut of power and spells. This gets to being good at later levels, but it’s a rough road to the top.
Dark Tempest - This is more for soul knives than it is for psions. You’d need to multiclass to get into it, but you won’t lose any manifester levels while you’re taking it. Not a bad option for a gish build if you’re willing to multiclass and lose manifester levels while doing so because you’ll gain both mindblade and manifester progression as you advance.
Elocater - Take three (or two if a nomad) mediocre feats, and give up 3 manifester levels. In exchange you get fold space as a (Su) power, the ability to just float along the ground, hefty discounts to the psychoport and planar travel powers, and the nomad’s accelerated activity ability as a capstone. A good prestige class for gish psions, and you won’t be giving up 9th level powers. Manifesting-focused Psions should probably avoid this one, though.
Metaforge - You’re not a soulknife or an aegis.
Metamind - 3 manifester levels is hefty price to pay, but in exchange you’ll be getting a massive number of bonus power points, even before you get font of power. Taking this prestige class effectively bars any kind of multiclassing or being a dual disciple, or you’ll be forgoing 9th level powers without the psionic knack trait. The prerequisites are pretty generous, so you can get a capstone equivalent power at level 15.
Metamorph - Egoists focusing on metamorphosis should love this prestige class. You don’t lose any manifesting levels in your metamorphosis powers, you get free manifestations of metamorphosis, your manifestations of metamorphosis get better, faster, and eventually become permanent. You also gain a d8 hit dice, ¾ BAB progression and a better fort save. A fantastic prestige class for a gish character, and a great choice for your normal egoist.
Mystic Archer - You give up all your manifester levels. Skip.
Phrenic Slayer - Getting into the prestige class is tricky. You need to have fought a psionic monster, and you better hope you’ll be seeing that monster monster type often because you need to make it your primary favored enemy type. This is a great prestige class for gish psions, and even an average one for psions who get lackluster discipline abilities after level 10.
Psicrystal Imprinter - Not a bad option for the mindwright archetyped psions, considering that craft feats start to lose their luster pretty quickly. You lose a bit of your crafting ability, and gain some bonuses for your psicrystal. I’d say it’s wash, overall.
Psychic Fist - There are better gish archetypes, but this could be interesting with a multiclass build using the stalker from Path of War.
Psion Uncarnate - The manifester level cost is too large to recommend taking all 10 levels of this. 6 level is the sweet spot. At that point, it’s a relatively good return of abilities gained for the two lost manifester levels. Almost no GM considers going to 3.5’s epic levels in Pathfinder, so 10 levels in this is a terrible idea.
Pryokineticist - You give up all your manifester levels. Skip.
Sighted Seeker - A prestige class for non-manifesters to gain manifesting.
Soul Archer - You’re not a soul knife.
Telekinetic Weaponmaster - Bonuses to reach, and what is essentially a free dancing weapon are the big gets here. The prerequisites are also extremely light. A decent secondary prestige class for gish psions who have already multiclassed. Manifester psions need not apply.
Thrallherd - Leadership is the best feat, and arguably the best effect in the in the entire game because adding more characters to the party is the best way to increase party power. Thrallherd effectively gives you leadership twice in addition to more bonuses for telepathy powers. A powerful and thematic prestige class for telepaths and mindbenders.
War Mind - A prestige class for non-manifesters to gain manifesting.
Revising Reality - Psionic Powers
Discipline Powers
Egoist (Psychometabolism)
Level 1
Corrosive Aura - The duration is really bad at low levels, there are better damage spells, and you risk hurting allies
Metamorphosis, Minor - A great power that you get 2 levels before very psion, which means you get to augment it more than any other psion. The utility of this power is going to make you keep this around for a long time.
Natural Healing - Just straight healing. Egoists will already be healing every time they manifest a power.
Thicken Skin - A good defensive buff because it will stack with other armor bonuses if you have any, and your own natural armor bonuses.
Level 2
Animal Affinity - All of the boosts that druids like to use wrapped up into a single power. It’s ability score bonus doesn't stack with the metamorphosis line of powers’ ability boosts, but the metamorphosis line is more versatile than that.
Chameleon - A flat +10 bonus to a skill is nice, but it’s not one you’re probably looking to be particularly good at.
Empathic Transfer - Why you want a high con. This can be a good way to help absorb damage for the squishier folks in the party. The augmentation gives very good value per point, but be careful not to kill yourself.
Resist Toxin - This shouldn’t eat up powers known slot.
Level 3
Ectoplasmic Form - Psionic gaseous form. A good get out of jail free card to play if you’re ever trapped.
Expose Weakness - Your rogue will love you, but there are better options available to you at this level.
Hustle - Trading 5 power points and a swift action for a free move action will only become a better deal as you level up. It’s a free move action before a full-attack, or a free move action after a full-round manifesting time power.
Metamorphosis - This power is good, but you start to run into the issue here where the enhancement bonuses aren’t going to stack. Too much utility to ignore here, though.
Physical Acceleration - Psionic haste, but limited to only your person. For a gish psion, this is fantastic, and if you stay in egoist long enough to get the Shared Effect discipline ability then this is great for any psion.
Level 4
Psychic Drain - If you plan to facing lots of psionic characters or monsters this can be good, otherwise, it’s not going to be helpful.
Hidden Body - While the potential for hiding your wimpy meatsack inside of the BSF and manifesting is at least humorous, that’s an expensive augmentation. This probably has a use in a game where you’ll need to be doing some smuggling of persons, though.
Resist Death - Good if you expect to see lots of shades, vampires, and other creatures that like to apply negative levels Skip it otherwise.
Level 5
Psionic Revivify - Bring your friend back from the dead without having to worry about the annoyance of removing negative levels with magic or paying the 5,000 Gold death toll.
Psychofeedback - The ability damage is going to be a pain to remove between every fight for what equates to a relatively minor bonus to an ability score.
Restore Extremity - I can’t remember the last time a GM actually had a player lose a body part.
Level 6
Cleanse Spirit - The wording of the power is weird, implying that it was written for a system where experience is still a river. Still, getting rid ability damage is good.
Metamorphosis, Major - The metamorphosis line is still good for utility, but at this point the enhancement bonuses aren’t going to stack with the belt of physical might you might already have. The attacks and abilities are still great.
Level 7
Fission - Cheat death AND break the action economy at the same time.
Level 8
Fusion - Pull out your psicrystal or the wizard’s. Fuse. Become a construct and enjoy all of those immunities.
Level 9
Metamorphosis, True - As with Metamorphosis Major, the enhancement bonuses aren’t going to stack with gear you’ll already have
Regenerative Aura - Fast Healing 25 is a great effect to put on your friends, except when you’ll almost certainly have to expend your psionic focus so that you don’t heal the BBEG and his minions at the same time.
Kineticist (Psychokinesis)
Level 1
Control Object - Probably good for a couple of comedy spots, but it’s damage and duration are both pretty poor.
Level 2
Control Air - Helpful for dealing with projectile weapons, and tiny creatures. Doesn’t really give any rules for those abilities, though.
Energy Missile - A very good damage power. The one problem you’ll have compared to energy ray or crystal shard is that this power allows a save. The advantage is that you can have 5 different targets, though they must be tightly packed together.
Level 3
Energy Cone - Psionic cone of cold. If you want to blast, you should grab this.
Localized Windstorm - Psionic windwall, with some other potential benefits.
Level 4
Control Body - There are so many awful things that you can do to your enemies with this power. Make the BBEG wizard wade into melee, make the big stupid fighter attack his wizard friend.
Energy Ball - Psionic fireball, but with more options. You’ll probably get more mileage out of energy missile.
Inertial Barrier - Damage reduction 5/- is a nice personal buff, and the duration is good. No cap on how much damage it can absorb. Unfortunately it can’t be augmented so it will lose some steam.
Level 5
Energy Current - This does some disgusting damage. Manifest it and just make your targets eat 9d6 damage every round, and then have it arc to someone else. Synergizes very well with solicit psicrystal.
Fiery Discorporation - You’d probably rather not have this power come into play. It’s also a tad impractical, unless you have a party member that is always carrying an open flame. A good get out of jail free card for villain NPCs, though.
Level 6
Dispelling Buffer - A weird power for the kineticist list which doesn’t contain many personal buffs. This is an item gish psions would like to get, and would be a reasonable use of an expanded knowledge feat.
Null Psionics Field - Psionic anti-magic field. I’m not actually a big fan of anti-magic field, thinking it often hampers the person who manifests/casts it as much as the people targeting him.
Level 7
Reddopsi - I don’t like null psionic field much, but at least it’s going to protect your friends standing next to you.
Level 8
Psychokinetic Sphere - Requires a bit of creativity, but there is a lot you can do with this. Protect and move your friends, separate your enemies, etc.
Level 9
Tornado Blast - It’s a very good blast for late game because it ignores DR and PR/SR, throws your enemy around (regardless of size), and deals upwards of 28d6 (average of 98 damage) to a single target.
Nomad (Psychoportation)
Level 1
Burst - You have access to the strictly better skate at this level.
Detect Teleportation - There’s no reason to grab this when you first gain access to the power. It could be helpful later on as a dorje or power stone, though.
Level 2
Dimension Swap - A really nice battlefield maneuvering trick. Swap places with the fighter if he’s out of position. Lure enemies into engaging with a squishy bard, and then trade the bard for a raging barbarian.
Gravitation Well - Makes a target easier to hit, and your allies harder to hit. A reflex save is required to get away from the effect.
Level 3
Astral Caravan - An option to travel the planes starting at level 5. Unfortunately, most of your friends won’t be able to follow you.
Delayed Response - This can be a very useful power, but it requires too much luck and a bit too much setup.
Gravitational Anchor - Like gravitational well except that it penalizes attacks from your allies, allows a reflex save to negate the entire effect, and targets flying or levitating creatures.
Level 4
Expulsion - The more summoned demons, angels, elemental, etc., the more mileage you’ll get out of this power. You unfortunately can’t augment this power to boost the save DC.
Flight - You’re taking this.
Wrench - If you’re dealing with enemies that like to teleport or go ethereal (see: most extraplanar enemies or casters from level 7 and upward), you’ll need this power.
Level 5
Baleful Teleport - Not actually a teleportation of an opponent, but a damage effect. Like disintegrate in that it affect fortitude instead of the usual reflex.
Psychoport - You’re taking this.
Psychoport Trigger - A get out of jail free card, but you probably shouldn't’ want to have to use this. Good for an NPC BBEG to escape with.
Level 6
Banish - Strictly better than expulsion because you can boost the save DC of the power for when you’re dealing with bigger threats. Use it to get rid of summoned or called creatures that don’t contribute to loot at the end of a fight.
Reposition - Put everyone exactly where they need to be. This is a fantastic way to help out low maneuverability characters deal with high maneuverability ones, or get around tactical barriers like blocked hallways, transparent walls, etc. Eventually you can augment this to put enemies where they need to be, too.
Level 7
Dream Travel - You already got a better travel power, that is also cheaper, in psychoport. There are better, and less complicated save-or-die effects than leaving an enemy in a dreamscape where you can’t rob him of his stuff.
Ethereal Form - Better for you that it would be for a spellcaster because you don’t have material components to care about.
Level 8
Time Hop, Mass - Unlike time hop, which can target enemies, this only targets willing creatures. Unless your party members are so impatient by level 15 that you can’t just tell a GM “we wait X hours,” this is pretty useless.
Level 9
Psychoportation Circle - A permanent teleportation solution that doesn’t require you to manifest psychoportation, greater every time you need to go somewhere. Unless you have a permanent base(s), you should skip this.
Time Regression - High level combat is usually determined before you roll initiative. Unless your allies rolled very badly, and the enemies got a bunch of critical hits, this probably won’t save you. The book keeping will also be a nightmare.
Seer (Clairsentience)
Level 1
Destiny Dissonance - The sickened effect is not worth an enemy being close enough that you can touch them.
Precognition - A +2 insight bonus that you can apply whenever you need it. The duration is nice, but it only lasts until you discharge it. A suped-up guidance.
Psychic Tracking - Lets you fill the role of tracker/hunter for the party if you don’t have a ranger that can do it. Helpfully lets you track Druids.
Level 2
Clairvoyant Sense - Psionic clairaudience/clairvoyance. A fantastic way to scout dungeons, castles, or spy on others.
False Future - Not as good as the Nomad’s dimensional swap power, but still useful.
Object Reading - There is a lot you could learn with this power if you’re doing any kind of investigation.
Sensitivity to Psychic Impressions - Object Reading will give you more specifics than this power, but this can still be useful.
True Terror - Stun is a really nasty effect to apply, but the duration is terrible and it’s only a single target power.
Level 3
Escape Detection - Even if you expect your GM to be constantly spying on the party, this won’t be particularly useful because your allies will still be visible. A decent BBEG power, though.
Fate Link - Similar to share pain except that you need two enemies to fail a will save and then they both will be injured at the same time. It’s a will save, but it’s not mind-affecting, so there are plenty of enemies that this can be affected by. The double save is rough, though.
Level 4
Anchored Navigation - For when a psychoportation goes horribly wrong. If you’re really worried about that situation, grab a power stone.
Remote Viewing - Like scry except that you can interact with your surroundings.
Level 5
Clairtangent Hand - Being able to manipulate objects without line of sight is a very powerful effect Trapped in room? Look into the control room and pull the lever that will free you.
Second Chance - Your best way to gain rerolls on saving throws or ability checks, but it requires you to manifest it ahead of time.
Level 6
Precognition, Greater - +4 to a bunch of rolls is pretty great, though you might be able to get more mileage out of second chance in combat. The long duration does make this more reliable though.
Level 7
Fate of One - A power similar to the Seer capstone comes 7 levels early. You can’t affect as many rolls, and you have to pay the power point cost regardless of the result of the second roll, but you don’t have to expend your psionic focus. I’d rather manifest Second Chance at the start of a combat. This can save you in a pinch, though.
Level 8
Hypercognition - I don’t know why you wouldn’t always manifest this as an immediate action, if only because it’s cooler to immediately have all that knowledge at your fingertips.
Level 9
Metafaculty - Not even a wish stops you from knowing the question that makes a supercomputer spit out 42. Be wary of the ability score burn, though.
Shaper (Metacreativity)
Level 1
Astral Construct - Astral constructs are fantastic. This should be one of the core reasons that you’re a shaper. Get this power.
Ectoplasmic Creation - As long as you have the appropriate craft skill, you can create *anything* organic (temporarily). Wizards and sorcerers can’t do this until caster level 7.
Level 2
Reconstruction - A good way to heal your psicrystal or astral construct in a pinch. Probably better as a dorje.
Level 3
Concealing Amorpha, Greater - Proper total concealment that isn’t defeated by true seeing is great.
Ectoplasmic Cocoon - Save-or-suck spells that target reflex saves are rare because most big strong dangerous enemies have bad reflex saves. Make the BBEG take a break and not contribute while you deal with his friends.
Level 4
Crystalline Bonds - Another Save or suck reflex save power. This one lets you fight your enemy while they’re tied up They can break out, but it takes them a full round to do so.
Modify Matter - Psionic fabricate, 1 spell level earlier than arcanists get it. A great utility power.
Quintessence - It’s a poison/damaging substance that also acts as immortality gel. It’s hard to get in large quantities unless you have a MASSIVE amount of time on your hands, though. Don’t let your friends touch the stuff, though.
Level 5
Hail of Crystals - Without any augmentation this power averages 35 damage to a single target if a touch attack hits and they don’t pass their save. It’s alright.
Level 6
Crystallize - The rare psionic save or die that isn’t mind-affecting and doesn’t target will.
Genesis - You create a demiplane. Until Ultimate Magic, psions were the only people capable of this. It’s still great, though.
Modify Matter, Greater - If you took modify matter you won’t need this. If you didn’t, then go ahead and grab this one because it makes 10x more stuff.
Level 7
Ectoplasmic Cocoon, Mass - The first one is really good, and so is this one.
Level 8
Astral Seed - A nice get out of jail free card for death. It’s basically a lich’s phylactery that doesn’t automatically rebuild you. Grab the power to create it, and then retrain or use psychic reformation to learn something more generally useful.
Level 9
True Creation - You gain the power to truly create *anything.* It is real, it cannot be dispelled. Crafting checks are for idiots. Just watch out for the ability burn.
Telepath (Telepathy)
Level 1
Empathic Connection - Augmentation makes this power much better than charm person, if you can identify the creature you’re targeting, or if you need a more long term mole. A very nice power.
Mindlink - This becomes a good power if you aren’t getting the telepathy discipline level 8 telepathy ability. If you are, then you won’t want it in the long run.
Suppress Compulsion - This can be helpful for when your rogue fails this will save, but having a rogue is probably something you want to avoid happening in the first place.
Level 2
Aversion - The duration makes this a decent out of combat power, and the augmentation for it is pretty cost-efficient, but there are probably better ways to achieve that effect.
Brain Lock - It’s a will save the target gets every round, the duration is tied to concentration, and you have to augment it for it to affect non-humanoids. Not a fan.
Compelling Voice - This is basically the psionic version of the suggestion spell.
Read Thoughts - The area of effect on this power is very nice, basically letting you can an entire room for information. It’s still only going to be helpful outside of combat, and even then it will have a slightly niche use.
Sense Minds - This is an extremely niche power that takes a very long time to activate. It is helpfully not blocked by walls or barriers, however.
Level 3
Battlesense - I can’t count on two hands the number of times I’ve seen people take advantage of aid another in combat, and the duration isn’t very strong. The buffs you can get are nice because circumstance bonuses are relatively easy to stack. There are worse buff powers you could know, but there are better buff powers you could know.
Crisis of Breath - I’m not a fan of single target save-or-die effects, especially not ones that you’ll need to augment to affect non-humanoids. It requires two failed saves to be a true save-or-die, but if they fail the will save, the character will probably be useless for the remainder of an encounter.
Empathic Transfer, Hostile - You’d rather not be in range to apply a touch spell on an enemy, even with your ability to buff your personal defenses. If you’ve taken the damage required to make this power worthwhile, you’re probably going to be in very bad shape. The burst augmentation of the power is fun, though.
False Sensory Input - It’s a single target illusion that trades out being negated by true-seeing for being a mind-affecting power. While the former is something that is extremely problematic for illusions, the latter is a problem you already have with far too many of your abilities.
Level 4
Alienation - This is remotely interesting in a campaign heavy on social situations, but completely overpriced for anything other than that.
Fear Cascade - A weird power. Cowering is an incredible status to put on an enemy, and even if you fail to apply it to the target, his friends are shaken for a round.
Memory Modification - A niche power that will let you do some good stuff when you actually use it. I’m just not sure how often that’s going to be.
Mind Control - Hey look it’s dominate person, but the duration isn’t impacted by concentration, and you can receive sensory input from a target. Awesome.
Mindlink Thieving - This power is good if you expect to see lots of psionic characters in your campaign. If you don’t expect to see many, if any, psionic characters in the game, it’s terrible.
Schism - Go easy on your enemies with a lower manifester level in exchange for obliterating the action economy.
Sensory Cascade - Compare this power to confusion, a level 4 sorcerer/wizard spell. Sensory cascade completely blinds the target regardless of whether or not they have eyes, and has a 75% chance that the target does nothing every round. You don’t get the occasional comedy of a confused character killing himself one of his allies, but you also can’t make confusion permanent after augmentation.
Level 5
Metaconcert - If you don’t expect to have many psionic characters with you or in the party, skip this power. If you do have other psionic characters in the party then this will take some prep work to take advantage of because of the 1 minute manifesting time. When you can make it work though, it’s pretty incredible what you’re able to do with it.
Mind Probe - The best way to get information from an NPC that isn’t immune to mind-affecting abilities.
Level 6
Mind Switch - A tempting, but incredibly dangerous power to use. If your target dies, you die too, and your original body probably won’t be nearly as durable without psionic powers to protect it.
Level 7
Crisis of Life - I’m not a fan of save or die spells, and this one will age very badly unless you augment it.
Level 8
Mind Seed - This is a weird power. I really don’t know why you’d want to create a duplicate of yourself that you couldn’t control.
Level 9
Mind Switch, True - Does that dragon’s body look interesting to you? I bet it does. It’s yours now and forever, and now when you squish your old body under your new claws you won’t be killing yourself.
Psychic Chirurgery - This power is only average if you don’t have another psionic character in the party, NPC or otherwise. Getting rid of all of those status effects is nice, but there are going to be more affordable ways to do that, and other classes that will be better at it. If you have another psionic character to give psionic powers to, or trade psionic powers with, it becomes great.
**Conduit (Athanatism)
(Due to the conduit's Spirit Affinity ability, they have more flexibility in taking limited powers.)
Level 1
Guidance of the Ancestors - This has some flexibility, but the individual effects are still situational. At low levels, this allows you to leverage your high intelligence into being the knowledgeable one. At higher levels, it's most useful for picking up another language when needed. However, its short duration limits its use.
Insight of the Dead - This is a situational, but effective, power for information gathering. In investigative games, this is good, otherwise it's limited.
Seance - This can be amazingly powerful for its level. While its low save DC and potential for deception are problematic for use on enemies, when used on those who would cooperate, this can give essential information easily.
Level 2
Bond of Death - This is extremely narrow. However, if you plan on turning your friends into undead, this is generally a powerful boost to their companion.
Bring Forth the Soul - This is generally less effective at obtaining information than seance, but it also functions as a powerful scouting power and eventually becomes a less-effective but free form of raise dead.
Follow the Strands - Useless. Perhaps it could allow you to find the owner of stolen property, but that's unlikely to come up.
Object Possession - While this should be an interesting polymorph effect, the power does not actually allow you to maintain your intelligence in object form. If it is ruled that you retain your mental abilities and manifesting, this is good. Otherwise, it is terrible.
Level 3
Deathbond - Yet another way to receive information from the dead. However, there are some powers that work well with this, allowing long-range resurrection. With the long duration, this could be worth picking up for a day before dropping again.
Quicken Rejuvenation - Useless without allied ghosts or augmentation. If you plan to spend most of your time incorporeal, the augmented version of this is great. With allied ghosts, this is good in most campaigns.
Resting with the Fallen - Not much better than insight of the dead unless augmented.
Level 4
Binding of the Flesh - While low-level for a resurrection effect, the temporary duration and destruction of remains mean that you probably won't want to use this on your friends.
Gift of the Corpse - If your friends are willing to stuff your body in a bag of holding, (with a hand hanging out so that you can return) this is an absurdly powerful defensive and mobility buff. It gives you incorporeality and all undead immunities as well as a fly speed. It lasts all day and you can't be killed while it’s active. Most natural weapons cannot damage incorporeal targets at all, so this will provide complete immunity to many monsters.
Inverse Possession - A very situational power that provides a minor bonus. The second augment is good, but it still requires an available target.
Scales of Damnation - This is a reasonable pre-combat buff, but where it really shines is with the first augment. It allows for greatly reduced buffing costs with half-decent Charisma. When combined with any healing power, it provides a great deal of all-day endurance and an all-day buff.
Level 5
Ephemeral Binding - Pretty much strictly worse than the 3rd level power fettering the shade.
Horrid Fetter - This is basically Planar Binding for incorporeal creatures. This can give you very powerful, long-lasting, minions. However, it is somewhat difficult to use.
Orphic Descent - This can call up very powerful allies, no matter how long ago they died. When augmented, this can give you great minions. However, it has a long manifesting time and potential for failure.
Level 6
Autolingua - This allows you to completely short-circuit many investigation plots. While somewhat situational, the conduit's Spirit Affinity ability allows you to have it when you need it. The augments allow you to be faster or even to find that macguffin you need.
Bind Flesh to Soul - This is pretty much useless on enemies. However, if used with incorporeal allies, this is an amazing tool to share buffs. Manifest it on your entire party and then unload your daily buff on yourself.
Death Pact - If the target agrees, this gives them auto-rez and what is a power-up for many characters. All the augments but the last are a little confusing for PCs, but could still be useful. Obviously, if they do not consent, it's terrible. The permanent duration combines well with Spirit Affinity.
Ex Nihilo - This is not really an improvement on gift of the corpse, especially with the shortened duration. There may be some times when you'd want this instead, but not many. Even two levels later it's still nice though.
Level 7
Horrid Transformation - This is a horribly inefficient combination of hold person and a death effect that merely spawns another monster upon completion. On top of that, it requires augmentation to affect most targets at all.
Sever the Strand - This is unlikely to ever come up. On top of that, the permanent duration allows it to be dispelled if your enemies really want to bring them back.
Spiritual Contingency - This is trigger power a level late, but with the ability to affect a dead body. It does allow you to have two triggered powers at the same time. In addition, Spirit Affinity means that it does not need to clog up a power known slot.
Level 8
Gate of Avernus - While this power is costly, it can provide you with the assured service of very powerful creatures.
Inurement - Not only does this return you from the dead, it gives you a powerful template in the process, one which makes you effectively immortal.
Level 9
Both Feet in the Grave - While the long manifesting time of this power make it useless in combat, if properly planned, this can be a significant upgrade to your character's abilities.
Rending the Veil - This is a rather situational power that is not too effective.
*Indicate powers that are both talents and first level powers, and can also be augmented. The talent ratings will be the rating for using that power by expending your psionic focus, while ratings in the 1st level group will be for when you actually want to expend power points or augment those abilities.
**Indicate a power from the Psionics Augmented series of books. Ratings provided by thisisacat.
Talents
Blinding Flash* - Casters don’t often use flare for the same reason you won’t use this, dazzled is a pretty crappy effect. In your case, you also have a better way to apply it.
Conceal Thoughts* - This power is either good or great, depending on the campaign. It is essentially a flat +10 bonus to bluff that will stack with most spells, powers, and magic/psionic items that you can apply to your fellow party members. In a game where you’ll be doing even moderate sleuthing or espionage, this power is an absolute must have.
Create Sound* - Like ghost sound, this power is going to have legs for a long time.
Crystal Light - This allows your psicrystal so serve as a torch, and also for you to use that psicrystal or any crystal to throw next to someone to dazzle another a creature. The best talent if you don’t have darkvision.
Detect Psionics* - You get this as a power known automatically, and that’s awesome because it’s an awesome power when you do spend points on it, and you don’t have to do that.
Distract* - If you need a way to overcome sense motive, conceal thoughts is a much better power. Unless you are a stealthy psion (aka a blue), or playing in a game where you’ll need to sneak around, you should absolutely skip this power.
Ectoplasmic Trinket - This is a pretty interesting power if you don’t have to spend power points on it. It’s not a bad way to manufacture some basic ammunition for the party, and can create a basic tool in a pinch.
Empathy* - It’s a nice power to put up before you enter a conversation, but you’re the only one who can take advantage of the bonus to skills, and they’re ones you won’t be very good at. It’s not a bad espionage power if you have a way to discreetly give the emotional information you’re reading off the subject to your party
Energy Splash - Just take energy ray or crystal shard
Far Hand* - A good little utility power for when you need to pull a lever or push a button.
Float* - Unless you are in an aquatic campaign and also can’t afford to put ranks in swim, you should skip this.
Fortify, Lesser - Resistance bonuses to saves fade very quickly, and a +1 bonus isn’t much to write home about, but at least it’s a bonus you’ll see some use out of.
Judge* - If you want to make a single sense motive check with a +2 bonus, use empathy.
Missive* - A good power when you don’t have to spend points on it, but unless you think you’ll be doing any espionage it’s not really worth your time and drops down to bad.
My Light* - Crystal light is a better and more versatile option for providing light than this. It’s a shame because my light is a pretty cool power.
Psionic Repair - This would be much more useful if it affected your constructs.
Sense Poison - This is an option that the Druid or Cleric prepare after you think someone has been affected by a poison, not something you dedicate a powers known slot to.
Telekinetic Punch - You can do some cheeky disarmament with this power, but you’ll be better served in terms of utility by taking far hand instead.
Telepathic Lash* - Dazed is almost as good of an effect to put on creatures as sleep, and this spell targets more HD than slumber will, but the duration of this power holds it back.
Unearthly Terror* - A will save to apply the shaken effect is usually not going to be worth expending your psionic focus for. You get this power to augment it later.
Vim - Just use vigor. 1 power point and maintaining psionic focus is worth the extra 4 temp HP.
Level 1 Powers
Astral Traveler - Only useful if you have a Nomad, or someone else who can manifest astral caravan
Attraction - It’s psionic charm person. It’s still good here as a way to limit or ignore the impact of a poor charisma.
Blinding Flash* Blinded is a fantastic effect to apply on someone, but the duration simply isn’t there without hefty power point expenditure.
Bolt - If you’re trying to play an archer psion, or have any ranged combatants in your party, this is a good power. Otherwise, it’s not worth much.
Broker - Skip this, and use telempathic projection for free.
Call to MInd - A +4 bonus and a reroll after a failed knowledge check is really nice, but failing a knowledge check doesn’t usually have that dire of consequences for you.
Catfall - Psionic featherfall, but it works slightly differently. It will keep you safer than featherfall because it won’t make you a floating target, but you’ll need to expend power points on higher falls. Probably not worth expending a powers known slot on.
Conceal Thoughts* - There is no reason to spend a power point on this, the duration is long enough that you can easily manifest it long before you run into a situation where you wouldn’t want to lose psionic focus.
Control Flames - A very nice power for dealing damage and making enemies move around that ignores SR and PR. It’s one of the very few powers you have that automatically scales with level, but it’s held back by always being fire damage.
Control Light - A combination of the effects of the darkness and daylight spells.
Create Sound* - Only expend points on this power if you intend to do a couple of combinations of powers quickly.
Crystal Shard - One of your two direct damage dealing options among first level powers. Crystal shard ignores spell resistance/power resistance, which will help against certain enemies like golems, but is affected by damage resistance.
Deceleration - A rare reflex save debuff, but you’re probably better off increasing your own party member’s speed instead of trying to decrease your enemies.
Deja Vu - You need to be little clever, but when applied correctly this is a good save-or-suck power.
Demoralize - Allows a save for a mediocre debuff.
Detect Compulsion - Who put the psionic talent in the 1st level power’s list?
Detect Psionics* - Identifying magic items can be a pain, getting a +10 bonus to the spellcraft check, and being able to maintain it without a concentration check makes it much easier.
Disable - A short range mind-affecting debuff with a hit dice limit that is totally negated by your opponents taking a standard action or receiving any healing. Trash.
Dissipating Touch - Why would you use then when you have two perfectly good ranged touch attack damage powers available to you, and a better melee touch attack damage power? Cool flavor, though.
Ectoplasmic Sheen - The psionic version of grease.
Empathy* - You’d probably be better off spending a point on telempathic projection, but this doesn’t allow a save, and the augmentation improves the duration.
Empty Mind - The best thing about this power is that it’s an untyped bonus. Unfortunately it’s a bonus to your good save, and it only lasts a single round.
Energy Ray - Your other option for dealing damage. This one is affected by spell resistance/power resistance, but ignores DR. It also has the chance of either being negated by a creature’s energy resistance, or taking advantage of a creature’s vulnerability.
Entangling Debris - The psionic version of entangle that requires you concentrate during the duration, but doesn’t require a natural setting to work, and forces targets to move ½ their speed even on a successful saving throw, so it will always be useful. You can augment it to deal damage as well.
Entangling Ectoplasm - This doesn’t require you to concentrate like entangling debris, and doesn’t allow a saving throw if you make the ranged touch attack. The augmentation is useless.
**Euterpe’s Prophetic Song - While initially underwhelming, this scales to become one of the best buffs in the game. If you have solicit psicrystal, this is a must.
Far Hand* - The augmentation you’ll probably use most often is the one that increases the maximum weight of the target, and you’ll probably still be expending psionic focus to decrease its cost.
**Find the Host - This is completely useless.
Float* - No.
Force Screen - This starts out strong because you aren’t proficient with shields and it doesn’t take up free hand for weapon finesse users, but falls behind Inertial armor because it’s augmentation is more expensive. It is a good option for gish characters, though.
Fortify - Augmentation helps to keep this power relevant, but the duration would keep it from replacing a cloak of resistance.
Foxhole - Leave digging holes to Beefcake McMuscles the fighter.
**Guide the Willing - This is pretty useless when unaugmented, but eventually becomes a deathtouch. It’s a way to fit a high-level power in a low-level slot.
Hammer - This is better this dissipating touch, but it still sucks because it means you’re in melee.
Inertial Armor - Augmentation makes this power more effective than mage armor, and keeps it as a relevant buff throughout the entire game. It will help to give you some of the best armor class in the entire party. +8 bracers of armor cost 32,000 gp, +8 inertial armor costs 9 power points.
Inevitable Strike - True Strike is a good spell, and this is a better power. It gives you more options, allowing you to take a small bonus this turn, or a larger bonus next turn. The more you make attack rolls, the more you’ll want this power.
Judge* - The value per point here is simply awful.
Know Direction and Location - This is useful at later levels when you’ll be travelling and teleporting all over the planes. Grab a couple of power stones if you’re really worried about that.
Locate Secret Doors - Just take 20 on a perception check.
Matter Agitation - You make no attack roll, and your target gets no save, they just take damage. It takes a couple of rounds to get going, and won’t be useful past low levels.
**Mark of the Shroud - Useless unless you know psionic revivify, then pretty good.
**Memories of Flesh - Useless unless you or a friend is incorporeal, then a decent buff.
Mind Thrust - Best raw damage power, but it’s mind-affecting and allows a saving throw.
Missive* - You should avoid spending power points on this, unless you are very far away, and can’t afford to lose your psionic focus
**Morbid Fascination - Horribly situational and weak on top of that.
My Light* - This isn’t worth spending power points on, and you shouldn’t need to manifest this as a swift action.
Precognition, Defensive - This doesn’t augment especially well, and the bonus is very modest, but the duration is nice. You have better powers that boost your armor class and saving throws.
Prescience, Offensive - Bonuses to attack can be hard to come by, and this will stack with most things. Don’t waste points on the swift action manifesting, use those to points to give yourself a larger bonus to attack before combat.
Sense Link - Lets you see the rogue try to sneak off with treasure through his eye. Gives the party scout a second perception check.
**Shroudsight - Undead are pretty common, and the augment isn’t bad, but this is still horribly limited.
**Shunning of the Material - This has a lot of creative uses, I like using it to bypass walls. When augmented, it can reshape a battlefield.
Skate - Use this to keep yourself out of harm’s way, to let your friend get into harm’s way more easily, or to make life easier on your pack mule when he’s dragging all your equipment behind him.
Slumber - The psionic version of sleep, and you can augment it to affect more hit dice later, but not increase its save DC. Avoid this if you plan on playing past 4th level.
Synesthete - Weird fluff, but it’s a helpful way to defend yourself gaze attacks, or ignore blindness/deafness, and it grants a bonus to your perception check. Not a bad power to get in a power stone.
Telempathic Projection - A decent social power for Psions who aren’t telepaths. Telepaths should skip this power in favor of empathic connection. The bonus to skills isn’t worth the power known compare to the alternative.
Telepathic Lash* Augmentation too costly to be worth it. You’ll probably want to expend a power point when manifesting this to keep your psionic focus, though. Just not a very good option.
Unearthly Terror* This is a save or suck that actually will augment very well in the future, but if you’re not going to augment it, you shouldn’t be spending a power point on it.
**Unnatural Aura - While a powerful effect for a level 1 power, it’s too limited to really see use. Only bother with it if you fight a bunch of druids or mounted enemies.
Vigor - One of the best personal buffs in Pathfinder. Providing temporary hit points before a fight is strictly better than healing the equivalent during a fight.
**Ward the Mind - Way too situational.
Level 2 Powers
Bestow Power - One of those powers that’s occasionally useful if you have another psionic character in the party, but useless otherwise.
Biofeedback - decent at early levels, but the augmentation is not points efficient. You’ll never get more than DR 7/- out of it.
**Blackest Shade - a reasonably effective scout, but short-ranged.
Body Equilibrium - Just use defy gravity.
Breach - Psionics’ knock. Grab a couple power stones if you think you’ll need it.
**Breath of Thanatos - A penalty to saves if they fail a save? Pass.
Cleanse Body - If your party needs someone to help out with the healing, this is a good option to take care of ability damage. Even if the party doesn’t need help with that, it’s still an average power.
Cloud Mind - Psions don't’ get invisibility. Instead they get a single target, mind-affecting power that is more effective than invisibility when it works. Single target encounters that aren’t immune to mind-affecting powers with low will saves that you can defeat without threatening them are pretty rare.
**Clutching the Shroud - Don’t bother unless you’re dealing with a lot of negative energy.
Concealing Amorpha - Psionic blur. Helpfully not negated by true-seeing. Share Pain+Vigor will probably get your more mileage, but this is still a good pick for gish psions.
Concussion Blast - Force damage is nice because it’s magical and almost nothing is immune to it. You don’t get the best damage-pp ratio, though.
Control Sound - You create sounds by changing sounds that are already being created. The description lays out only some of the utility with this power.
**Dead Hand - This doesn’t come with a way to see ethereal things, so the only use I see in it is stealing things with Shunning of the Material.
Defy Gravity - Float around. Helpful if you want to avoid enemies in melee because it gets around the usual restriction on movement after a 5-ft. step. The power is great if you’re a Nomad because you can use it to move your teammates into places they wouldn’t normally be able to reach.
Detect Hostile Intent - You like going first, so being surprised sucks. A good power to have on hand out of combat as well.
Ego Whip - If other characters did Charisma damage, this would be blue. As it is, you’re still targeting a traditional dump stat, and getting dazed on a failed save.
Elfsight - Coincidentally, most of the good races for being a psion already have darkvision or low-light vision.
Empathic Condition Relief - Another power, like cleanse body, that can let you help with party healing or condition removal if necessary. Unfortunately it will often not remove the condition and instead simply decrease the duration.
Energy Adaptation, Specified - The rare psion power that automatically scales with level, and with a 4 point augment to let you manifest it the moment you need it. The sticking point is that it requires you to use your active energy type, so you can’t get resistance to acid, and often the energy you’re using for damage won’t be the one you’ll want to protect yourself from.
Energy Push - The size category limit holds this power back.
Energy Stun - Compared to energy ray, you’re paying 2 points and up to 2d6 damage for a chance to stun a target. Not bad. Not great, but not bad.
**Epidermal Fissure - This is just weird, it’s a reasonably effective buff and a weak debuff at the same time. Can give a very large Strength boost if augmented. Unlike Animal Affinity, this power works on your teammates, gives a skill boost, and can be augmented. However, it only works on one stat, has a shorter duration and deals them damage.
Everyman - Strictly better than disguise self with its ridiculous duration, but still not great for a character with low charisma.
Feat Leach - Useless in a campaign without another psionic character. Otherwise, it’s going to be an average power.
Id Insinuation - It’s a confusion effect, but it only gives the target a 10% chance to act normally.
Inflict Pain - Not a great debuff for both the duration and the effect. You’re guaranteed to get something out of it, though.
**Heartbinding - While the duration is nice, the bonuses are of common types. The augment is too expensive for what it is. If a party member has a good source of morale bonuses, this is good.
**Lifeless Tongues - Not really worth the slot known.
**Melpomene’s Psionic Howl - This is hard to resist, but also hard to position. Still, it’s area damage with a rider effect in a low-level power.
Mental Disruption - Why use this when you can use energy stun and get a superior debuff, deal damage, and not let enemies within 10 ft of you?
Metamorphosis, Minor - If you’re playing a Gish character, this is a must have, but you should be an egoist and have gotten it at level 1. Normal psions will like to have it, especially if they have a way to share buffs with their friends.
Missive, Mass - More words, more targets and a longer range than the level 1 version.
Psionic Lock - Arcane lock, but for psions. You don’t have a book you need to protect.
Psychic Bodyguard - How about you just buff your friend’s will save, instead.
Recall Agony - Use mind thrust instead and deal 3d10 damage with a higher saving throw.
Sense Link, Forced - There are probably some uses for this, but I wouldn’t devote a powers known slot to it.
**Shape the Shade - Useless unless heavily augmented. When augmented, this becomes a very flexible all-day buff. It can grant flight, pounce + reach, extra limbs, concealment, tremorsense or even more if augmented farther.
Share Pain - A really great defensive buff because you have vigor to give yourself a damage buffer. It’s fantastic if you a have a psicrystal to stay hidden and absorb damage for you with it hardness.
Sustenance - This is a one point racial ability. It is not worth spending 3 points on unless you expect to be stranded in the wilderness and can’t afford to put ranks in survival.
Swarm of Crystals - Psionic flaming hands that will be blocked by DR instead of fire resistance.
**Sympathetic Drain - Without the surge augment, this is pretty bad. All that saves it from being useless is its low cost and no-save damage.
**Tormenting the Living - Way too minor an effect for the long duration to matter.
Thought Shield - You have a good will save, and this is only going to help for one saving throw.
Level 3 Powers
**Banshee’s Hearing - While not as effective as touchsight, this has a much longer duration.
**Biokinetic Endurance - Too situational to see use.
Body Adjustment - Cure 1d12 hit points? Cure Light Wounds takes care of 1d8+5 hp at this level. Walk into a fight with 25 temp HP from vigor for the same cost, and don’t get injured in the first place.
Body Purification - Cleanse body costs 2 pp less, cures an average of .5 points more ability damage, and removes the fatigued condition.
**Caustic Retribution - A weird buff that can deal a good bit of damage. Without a save augment, this falls off in utility.
**Caustic Transfusion - Very weak when unaugmented, concentration duration is still a problem when augmented.
Concussive Onslaught - 3d6 damage isn’t very impressive. 3d6 force damage is moderately impressive because almost nothing resists it. 3d6 damage a round in a 30 ft. radius that you can augment to move around? That’s pretty good.
Danger Sense - This become a decent power if you are playing trapfinder for the party, if only because of it’s generous duration. Otherwise you should skip it.
Dismiss Ectoplasm - Practically requires you to be dealing with psionicists, and then only dealing with ones that manipulate ectoplasm frequently, to be of any use.
Dispel Psionics - Someone in the party needs to have this. It may as well be the full manifester in the group.
Endorphin Surge - Rage is a mediocre buff that strips you of the ability to manifest powers.
Energy Bolt - You’ll get more mileage out of energy missile, but it won’t cost you a feat to get this.
Energy Burst - You should expect to have an ally be within 40-ft. of you, or you’ve let enemies get way too close to you.
Energy Wall - You can’t augment the power to increase the damage, though it does slightly scale with manifester level. It’s a decent battlefield control spell, but it will lose power over time.
Eradicate Invisibility - A power you’d rather not use, and it comes 2 levels after invisibility enters the game, but you’ll probably need someone in the party with this power.
**Feast of the Dead - A power that provides a nice set of minor buffs and healing. Definitely worth manifesting if you have the time.
**Fettering The Shade - While the basic use of this is not too strong, the augments are very nice, especially with the long duration. I recommend Bane as an enhancement.
**Follow the Strands - Useless. Perhaps it could allow you to find the owner of stolen property, but that's unlikely to come up.
**Fracture Pattern - A bit too weak and easily resisted to really deserve a slot.
Heightened Vision - You get darkvision. You get a better vision power this level.
**Living Haunter - A flexible power, but the effects are all weak. One of the only ways to create illusions psionically.
Mental Barrier - This is really bad when you first get it, but it can become decent with some augmentation to increase the duration.
**Mind over the Immaterial - This would be great if you could target corporeal creatures with it. You can’t, so it’s bad.
Mind Trap - Your enemy loses an additional 1d6 power points or nauseated and you still get mind controlled.
Mindhunter - This is a weird power, but can actually be very helpful for tracking someone down.
**Moan of the Sorrowful Dead - An effective save-or-lose that still imposes a small penalty on a passed save. However, as a fear effect, immunities are common.
**Myra's Occultation - A power for NPCs. Pass.
**Phantasmagoria - This covers a large and easily placed area with a save-or-lose. It forces multiple levels of saves and lasts a long time. It is still mind-affecting and lacks a DC augment though.
Psionic Blast - A 30-ft. cone-shaped burst of stun is pretty solid, but the duration is very poor.
**Release Death’s Hold - An interesting effect, but not that useful. It will remove undead immunities if that’s something you need, but it probably won’t come up too much unless you have undead allies.
**Sanguine Displacement - Starts out weak, scales to be an effective source of damage.
**Shade Venom - Poison tends to not be a good option for PCs, and Psions have no abilities that make it better.
Share Pain, Forced - This has uses, but it’s probably better to just directly deal damage to an enemy with your good blasing powers than get injured every time your enemy is hurt.
Sharpened Edge - keen is a good effect to add onto a weapon for a gish character, or for anyone that has a crit-fisher in the party.
Solicit Psicrystal - If you have a psicrystal, you should have psicrystal containment, but this stacks with that, and reserves the psicrystal focus for expending for metapsionics or discipline abilities. A bit pricey when you first get it. If you don’t have a psicrystal, this is obviously useless.
**Spiritual Resting Place - This is a very effective method to safely rest. It is much like rope trick except that it can be used in combat and with less debate about how it works. The final augment makes it somewhat effective offensively as well.
Telekinetic Force - Being able to move and push things around from a distance sounds less impressive than it is. Throw enemies off of cliffs, drop a chandelier on the guy in a ghost costume, throw the big stupid fighter into the thieving rogue like a bowling ball, create a rainstorm of giant weapons to damage your enemies.
Time Hop - There are so many wonderfully horrible and creative things you can do with time hop. The power doesn’t force you to target a person, so it can be an effective way to move barriers out of your way or disarm a soldier in addition to making the BBEG disappear for a little bit.
**Tormenting the Dead - Not only is this a awfully situational, single-target blast, since it lacks the [object] tag, undead are completely immune to its effects. This means that it has nearly no valid targets.
Touchsight - See invisibility, darkvision, and See in Darkness(Su) wrapped up into one power that also helps to protect you from visual illusions and gaze attacks. A fantastic power for a party scout.
Ubiquitous Vision - +4 to perception is nice, but not for 5 power points.
**Volatile Reaction - You will never want to use this, and if you did protection from evil is better.
Level 4 Powers
Augured Answer - Get the answer to any question you ask.
Aura Sight - Detect Good/Evil and Detect Chaos/Law can be situationally useful, as first level spells that a cleric can prepare when he needs them.
Correspond - The manifesting time is long, and the duration is incredibly short for the type of effect. The range is infinite, but sending messages is a standard action instead of a free action like most communication. When you expect to do a lot of extraplanar travel, this may be useful as a dorje or power stone.
Deadly Fear - Phantasmal killer is pretty crappy, but at least phantasmal killer can’t be turned back on you.
Death Urge - A better save-or-die effect than deadly fear. It’s still a save-or-die, and I’m not a huge fan of those, but they have their place, and you could choose worse ones.
Detect Remote Viewing - The more scry and fry you expect to deal with, the better this power gets. However, this is only an alarm, it doesn’t do anything to actually stop the scry or remote viewing attempt. Probably better for npcs than player characters.
Empathic Feedback - If enemies attack you, they are killing themselves, and it ignores any DR or energy resistance they might have. Better used as a power you put on your tanky character or on a gish than something a manifester relies on as a defensive buff.
Energy Adaptation - An awesome personal defense buff. It automatically scales with manifester level and by the time you get this power, it is already granting you 20 energy resistance against every energy type except force in a single manifestation.
Fold Space - Psionic dimension door, letting you bypass and solve so many problems in and out of combat.
Incite Passion - A debuff that has some uses outside of combat, but that is limited by the duration. It’s pretty weak inside of combat.
Intellect Fortress - Really great if you expect to deal with a lot of blasting effects and spellcasters. The augmentation to deal with breath weapon damage is gravy.
Mindwipe - Negative levels are pretty strong, and the duration is good. Not as strong as enervation, though.
Moment of Terror - The [evil] rider is annoying, as is the size category limit. The prone and helpless duration is frankly pathetic. If you want a -2 penalty on will saves vs mind-affecting powers, just manifest mindwipe and force a -2 to everything.
Personality Parasite - Your force an unhelpful version of schism onto an opponent. Unless you’re dealing with other psions, this won’t be of any use. If you are dealing with other psions, this will only occasionally be useful.
Power Leech - I’d rather manifest personality parasite than this, especially considering it requires concentration.
<<Psychic Reformation>> - The most important power known for a psion from level 7 to level 20. Period. Spend a day recuperating after you completely change your powers known, skills and feats. This doesn’t just let you retrain powers like a sorcerer, it lets you, given enough prep time, play like a suped-up cleric. When fully augmented, the enforced downtime vanishes, allowing you to spend 10 minutes and 13 PP to completely rebuild your character multiple times a day.
Psychokinetic Charge - Fling an ally around the battlefield, and grant them a free attack.
Slip the Bonds - Freedom of movement is a very good spell because being grappled and slowed down sucks for you. This is no different.
Telekinetic Maneuver - CMD scales very much against the players in Pathfinder, and you won’t be taking the feats to help you overcome them.
Trace Psychoport - Useful for when you’re chasing the BBEG through the planes and across time and space. Most parties won’t need this until higher levels.
Wall of Ectoplasm - Let’s you engage in the standard divide and conquer strategy during combat, and the ability to create a flat plane and a sphere gives you some more out of combat utility. Automatically scales with level.
Wither - Touch range powers generally suck, but 2d4 strength damage that’s only halved on saving throw is no joke. This is probably best used if you have a psicrystal or some other way to channel the power onto an enemy when they aren’t right next to you.
Level 5 Powers
Adapt Body - Helps you deal with minor environmental hazards in the elemental planes, as well as let you move freely underwater and in the void of space.
Catapsi - Situationally useful even if you can expect to run into psionic characters constantly. The emanation isn’t very far reaching, just far enough to interfere with any allied psionic characters.
Dream Message - This seems like a really good power to create an adventure hook, and a really terrible power for adventuring.
Ectoplasmic Creation, Major - The psionic equivalent of major creation. With a little creativity, this power will go a long, long way.
Ectoplasmic Shambler - spellcasters within this shapeable mist can’t see, take damage, and have to make concentration checks to cast or manifest. A great power for dealing with ranged threats.
Incarnate - Let’s you make lots of vision improvements and detections spells permanent. A good power to use every so often.
Induce Nightmare - It’d probably be more effective to manifest remote viewing and then manifest a psychokinesis power to deal damage than to deal 1d10 damage so that they, go forbid, can’t sleep.
Leach Field - This is more useful than previously because it affects spells now, but you still won’t be gaining a ton of points when you’re hit by a spell.
Pierce the Veils - Just like wizards and sorcerers, you get the ability to negate all illusions at level 5. It’s dumb that a spell like true seeing exists, but here it is for you.
Planar Travel - Equivalent to plane shift, with the bonus that you can augment the power to be more accurate when you need. Thus begins your exploration of the planes.
Power Resistance - A free scaling buff against spells and powers. It’s going to cap out at a respectable 32. SR/PR is better on casters, but more so on those who can heal and buff themselves.
Psychic Crush - A mind-affecting save-or-dying.
Shatter Mind Blank - Mind blank and barred mind are really annoying effects for any telepath or seer looking to manipulate or find someone. That’s why you have dispel psionics.
Shrapnel Burst - I don’t like blasting powers that are practically guaranteed to hurt your allies or mean that your character has completely isolated himself from his support. There’s a better physical damage spell at this level, regardless.
Tower of Iron Will - At level 9, this is going to be a 50/50 defense against mind-affecting spells and powers if you’re dealing with an equal level caster who doesn’t have any abilities like spell penetration. That would be terrible, but an immediate action casting time and great augmentation makes the power one that will be situationally useful.
Upheaval - You rip up the ground, slam it down on your enemies and then make the ground under them difficult terrain. This would be blue if you could augment the damage in addition to the area of effect.
Level 6 Powers
Aura Alteration - Getting a second saving throw against a charm or compulsion at a +2 bonus is really weak for a 6th level power considering that’s the same effect protection from evil gets. Being able to alter alignment by one step is really weak for a 6th level power considering that’s a lesser effect than what misdirection would allow you to do. Getting both doesn’t make the power any better.
Breath of the Black Dragon - Acid damage is actually hard to come by as a psion, but there are better blasting powers available to you regardless.
Brutalize Wounds - This is a really good debuff. The will save is partial, with the duration being guaranteed. The target must either take a move action to get an extra save to avoid taking more damage, or they eat a ton of damage every time someone hits them.
Co-opt Concentration - A power for a situation that isn’t going to come up all that often.
Defer Fatality - Definitely one of the better get out of death powers. You’d rather never use these powers, though.
Disintegration - Hit a touch attack, and then have them make a save or take massive damage. Just throw out a save or die if you want them to die, or use a standard blast power for more consistent damage. 22d6 at level 11 is really nice.
Fuse Flesh - An actual save or die compared to disintegration. Requires a melee touch attack, though.
Remove View Trap - Make someone take piddly damage in the very rare situation you are actually scryed on.
Retrieve - A little pricey for the effect at this level, but there is a surprising number of things you can do with it.
Suspend Life - An interesting adventure hook or plot twist, a useless power for an adventurer.
Sustained Flight - If you can’t fly already, either through equipment or powers, you need to grab this one.
Temporal Acceleration - Grant yourself a free round of actions.
Trigger Power - Like contingency, this power lets you act outside your action economy, either to save yourself or attack your enemies.
Level 7 Powers
Barred Mind, Personal - Psionic mind blank, and like the spell it grants a resistance bonus that won’t stack with anything. You at least get it two levels earlier, but it only has the range of personal.
Bend Reality - It’s psionic limited wish. The gold cost will keep you from throwing it around all the time, but, especially as a character with a powers known limit, you’ll want it for the versatility.
Cosmic Awareness - Moment of prescience on level earlier. A decent power to throw on before a fight.
Decerebrate - A fortitude save or die. Not mind-affecting. It’s solid.
Divert Teleport - At this level, almost every enemy will want to teleport. Keep dangerous enemies from teleporting into you, fleeing enemies from teleporting away from you, or use it as a threat to prevent any kind of teleportation.
Energy Conversion - Ignore damage and then fire it back on your attackers. It’s fun, but maybe not that effective.
Energy Wave - You should have gotten whatever damage powers you’re going to need by this point. If you haven’t, a 120 ft. cone is good range/area of effect.
Ensconce - Useful if you’ve kidnapped someone and need to hide them, I guess.
Ethereal Passage - It’s passwall, but two levels later and only you can use it. Use fold space.
Evade Burst - A decent buff if you don’t want to get a ring of evasion.
Oak Body - A good replacement for an amulet of natural armor, if you take time to manifest it before a fight. The speed penalty shouldn’t be an issue due to flight. You’ll get plenty of immunities out of it, too.
Psychosis - There are better debuffs available to you.
Ultrablast - A staggeringly disappointing power for something called an “ultra” blast.
Level 8 Powers
Barred Mind - Proper mind blank. At this level, it’s only protecting you from divination and providing a +3 bonus vs. mind-affecting powers.
Body of Iron - Oak Body already gives you enough benefits in terms of immunities. This is probably a better pick for a melee gish, though.
Matter manipulation - Useful if you have a golem or some other construct who relies on hardness in the party, I guess.
Psychoport, Greater - You will be using this constantly. Plane shift and Psychoport to get where ever you need to be, whenever you need to be there.
Recall Death - Mind-affecting save-or-die. Meh.
Shadow Body - For most manifesters, this will be better than body of iron or oak body because it lets you hide and gives you more non-AC defenses.
True Metabolism - 10 hp/round for 1 minute per level is amazing. This caps out at 2000 hit points restored with a single manifesting.
Level 9 Powers
Affinity Field - I’d like this a lot more if you could specify allies, instead of it applying to all creatures.. You’re going to need to be careful with the placement of the aura. That said, being able to turn every personal range power like vigor into a buff on the whole party is very useful.
Apopsi - I don’t know why you would ever use this. If a spell caster has a bad will save and also a couple of powers or spells that are going to obliterate the party, just use a save-or-die and instantly solve the problem.
Assimilate - Get a +4 untyped bonus to all ability scores for killing what will effectively be a mook at this level. That alone makes this a great spell. All the other stuff is just gravy. Gishes should love this power for the temp HP alone.
Ethereal Form, Greater - Ethereal jaunt has its uses. You’ll need it occasionally.
Microcosm - No save-just die… if the target has less than 100 hit points and isn’t immune to mind-affecting powers.
Reality Revision - It’s wish. Everyone grabs wish. You’ll grab this.
Timeless Body - Make yourself invulnerable for a round. Only you. Disable the thing that is attacking you and save more than just yourself.
Unravel Psionics - Like mage’s disjunction, this no longer destroys all the party’s loot during a fight. If you see a target burdened by his magical equipment and enchantments, remove them.
Trappings of the Mind: Equipment
Because everyone needs their crystal dongles.
Psionic and Magical Items
Big 7 Magic Items
Amulet of Natural Armor - At high levels, you’ll have ways to give yourself natural armor bonuses that will exceed and not stack with what you can get here.
Belt of X - Unless you’re playing a strength-gish psion, you’ll only need a belt of physical might +6 (Dex & Con).
Cloak of Resistance - Your saves are pretty bad, so you’re going to need this.
Headband of X - Most psions are going to be fine with just getting the headband of mental prowess +6 (Int & Wisdom). Face Psions will want to get a headband of mental superiority +6.
Ring of Protection - Not entirely necessary for you, as you’ll be able to get a lot of armor class boosters elsewhere. You might get more from rings that have magical effects or abilities besides raw number boosts.
Magic Armor/Shield - You really don’t need one of these, even if you’re a gish. You already have plenty of very good buffs like extended inertial armor and force screen, that will do the job for you. If you get magical armor it will be more for the special abilities that you can stack on it.
Magic Armor Enchantments Light or Moderate Fortification, Slick
Psionic Armor Enchantments Linked (if your friends have it), Manifester
Magic Weapon - Unless you’re a gish, you can completely skip on this. If you are gish, it should be a priority.
Magic Weapon Enchantments Conserving, Corrosive/Flaming/Frost/Shock, Dueling, Ghost Touch, Keen, Returning, Seeking,
Psionic Weapon Enchantments Agile, Collision, Greater Energy, Linked Striking, Psychic, Wrenching
Misc Magic Equipment
Handy Haversack or a Bag of Holding - Your strength is never going to be great, so having some extra-dimensional storage will be important.
Tome of Clear Thought +5 - Obviously.
Ioun Stones - cracked dark blue rhomboid, dusty rose prism, cracked dusty rose prism, cracked pale green prism, western star.
Ring of Evasion - At high levels, you’re not going to have too much HP, and there aren’t a ton of great rings out there. It’s a bit pricey, though.
Ring of Invisibility - Unlike wizards and sorcerers, you don’t have a way to fully reproduce this effect with powers.
Ring of Sustenance - If your GM is strict about resting time, or you think the party is under threat of ambushes at night. Better early game than late game.
Misc Psionic Equipment
Power Stones - of situational powers, especially downtime ones, that you don’t want to dedicate powers known slots for.
Dorjes - of your favorite spells that you expect to be manifesting at every level and without too much augmentation.
Psionic Tattoos - of your favorite powers that you want your party members to be able to use.
Psicrowns - of the traveller and the greater discerning watcher.
Universal Items
Boots of Skating - A free movement increase of 15 ft., with the additional benefits that skate provides.
Psionatrix - Clairsentience, Psychokinesis, and Telepathy are pretty good choices
Torc of Power Preservation - Decreases the cost of every power manifested by 1.
Psychoactive Skins - Defender, Psion, Troll
Shards - Good for knowledge skills and crafting, or other skills you’ll be using in downtime or social situations.
Student’s Robes - Makes you treated as 5 levels higher when determining a specific Discipline’s Abilities and effects. Great for grabbing Discipline abilities when going into prestige classes before reaching lvl 8. Means a Dual Disciple can have both 8th level Discipline abilities as low as level 10.
Non-Magical Equipment
Weapons
Masterwork Light Crossbow - The masterwork part is optional. This is just the ranged weapon you’ll be using for most of the game.
Club - It’s free and deals bludgeoning damage.
Adamantium Dagger - Daggers are useful tools for cutting the rope around your foot, or through the net you’ve been trapped in. Adamantium lets you cut through just about anything with it.
Elven Curve Blade - The weapon half-elf dexterity melee gishes should use.
Scimitar/Rapier - The weapons most melee dexterity gishes are going to use.
Longspear - For Psions looking to engage in melee combat, this will let you do so without making yourself as vulnerable to counter attack as other melee fighters.
Armor
Mithral Heavy Steel Shield or Darkwood Heavy Wooden Shield - The armor check penalty drops to 0, so you ignore non-proficiency penalties. You could eventually enchant these if you so desired.
Padded armor +1 or mithral chain shirt +1- You’re seeing that correctly. Augmented inertial armor is going to give you a larger benefit to your armor class than any armor you can buy, except for heavily enhanced heavy armor. Grab something really cheap to wear over it that you can throw special effects onto if you’re so inclined. Padded Armor for a manifester, chain shirt for a gish, who will want the more consistent and durable armor class bonus.
Misc Non-Magical Equipment
Alchemist fire/holy water/tanglefoot bags - These are all pretty cheap, and useful in a pinch, or when you want to impact a combat without using a power point.
An ass and a cart - Donkeys are cheap. If your GM is a stickler about carrying capacity, buy a mule or a horse and hitch them to a cart. If your GM isn’t a stickler, it will still let you move heavy equipment, spare suits of armor, and other adventurer gear for the team.
Bags of flour - To detect invisible people with.
Empty sacks - For stuffing loot and the halfling rogue into.
Pole, 10-ft. - The party is going to need it at some point.
Rope - The party is going to need it at some point.
