I'm playing another Warforged Shaper, and having fun with it. He is currently only level 2, and I'm thinking about how to progress him in the future.
The party is fairly large, but not very optimized. In the last game, we had two snow elves: a rogue/swashbuckler, and a druid; a human cleric of pelor, a half-elven ranger (archer), and a human monk. The monk and rogue both have low strength, and the monk's con is even worse, and the cleric had to spend her time running around healing people last time. So we don't really have a "tank", except for an NPC currently with us. There is also a bard that will show up occasionally, but he is our "benefactor", and is really only good for Inspire Courage. They are all level 2 or 3.
It is a homebrew world, and warforged are quite rare. They are basically expensive wizard toys, much like other golems/constructs. My 'forged spent the first 50 years of his life guarding a tomb/prison. However, he has now been freed from that, and due to the "progressive thinking" master that inherited him, freed of his indentured servitude. He still disguises himself to avoid stirring up trouble from ignorant "fleshies" while he is in civilized areas (He basically just wears a hooded cloak).
My character looks like this at the moment:
Warforged Psion (Shaper) 2AL: LN
Str 14 (6)
Dex 14 (6)
Con 16 (6)
Int 16 (10)
Wis 8 (2)
Cha 8 (2)
AC: 20 (10+8armor+1shield+1dex)
HP: 14
Move: 20
Attacks: +3 slam (1d4+2), +3 dagger (1d4+2), +2 light x-bow (1d8), +4 MW shortspear (1d6+2)
Saves: F +3, R -1, W +2
Feats: Adamantine Body (1), Overchannel (Psion1), Talented (flaw1), Psicrystal Affinity (flaw2)
Flaws: Inattentive, Poor Reflexes
Trait: Focused (+1 Conc, -1 Spot and Listen)
Skills: Craft (Sculpting) +13, Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering) +8, Craft (Poison) +13, Concentration +11, Disguise +6, Spot & Listen -6
Languages: Common, Elven, Celestial, Infernal
Equipment: MW shortspear, MW buckler, MW sculpting tool, MW Concentration tool, MW Craft Poison tool, lots of Caltrops, disguise kit, weapons listed under attacks.
Power Points: 9
Powers Known: Astral Construct, Psionic Minor Creation, Vigor, Entangling Ectoplasm, Crystal Shard
Psicrystal (Artiste, +3 Craft)Str 1*, Dex 15*, Con Ø, Int 6, Wis 10, Cha 10
HP 6
AC 16
Attack: -1 melee
Saves: F +0, R +2, W +2
Init: +2
Skills: Climb +14*, Listen +6, Move Silently +6, Search +2, Spot +6, Hide +18, Move Silently +2
Feats: Alertness
Special Abilities: Alertness (owner), improved evasion, personality, self-propulsion, share powers, sighted, telepathic link, Hardness 8
Tricks/Tactics: Use Minor Creation to make chains of "poison grenades": thin, hollow spheres of amber filled with contact poison (Sassone Leaf Residue is a good low level one). Coat his weapons, fists, and his psicrystal in poison, also. The DM has already ok'd the use of Psionic Minor Creation to make poisons.
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In the first game, we were ambushed by four Dracotaurs (CR 3 draconic centaurs, with two natural attacks and spears). I summoned a couple of Overchanneled Astral Constructs (I messed up, and made them both level 2, forgetting I'd already blown my focus), and hit a couple of enemies with Entangling Ectoplasm. The Constructs could take a ton of punishment, but had a hard time hitting. The Entangling Ectoplasm was a huge help, causing the enemies to miss several times with what could have been lethal attacks, and causing several potential misses by the party to become hits. For a single power point, this is a fantastic ability.
Since we don't have a real "tank", I am thinking of taking Share Pain and Psionic Repair Damage, so I can soak up some damage when needed. Last game, the monk got dropped to below 0 twice, and the druid once, and the druid's animal companion was killed. The DM seems quite willing to kill PCs. Share Pain might also be useful to mitigate damage from the other PCs to their horses.
Alternate future progressions I'm considering: Alt Prog1 (Constructor): Psion 6/Constructor 10/Psion +4
Feats: Psionic Body (3), Extend Power (5), Boost Construct (6), Psicrystal Containment (9), Expanded Knowledge: Schism (12), (3 more)?
Alt Prog2 (Tank): Psion 10/Slayer 10
Feats: Psionic Body (3), Extend Power (5), Track (6), Expanded Knowledge: Metamorphosis (9), Expanded Knowledge: Schism (10), Quicken Power (12), Psicrystal Containment (15), ?
Alt Prog3 (Crafter): Psion 20 (assumes DM will let me craft normal, non-psionic constructs)
Feats: Craft Universal Item (3), Craft Arms and Armor (5), Craft Construct (6), Boost Construct (9), Expanded Knowledge: Schism (10), Psicrystal Containment (12), Quicken Power (15), ?
Alt Prog4 (Tattoo Master): Psion 20
Feats: Craft Dorje (3), Craft Psionic Tattoo (5), Tattoo Mastery (6), Dorje Mastery (9), Boost Construct (10), ?
For this one, I think I'd "abuse" Psychic Reformation and Expanded Knowledge. I'd take Expanded Knowledge, craft a reusable tattoo of the new power, and then Psychic Reform it to something else. Rinse and repeat. I'd also use this to make some reusable tatoos for my partymates. I'm leaning strongly towards this one. The DM has encouraged me to go this route, also.
Alt Prog5: If the
online alternative class features will be allowed, I think I will take this: I'll probably take Scribe Tattoo at 3rd, and Tattoo Mastery at 6th with this, and drop Craft Dorje, even though Craft Dorje would probably be more useful.
A later post about how the character was performing and developing:
I just made 5th level last night. The most useful powers so far have been Entangling Ectoplasm and Psionic Minor Creation. The DM has been fairly lenient on what he lets me make with Minor Creation, and as a result, it is insanely useful when I have time to manifest it.
I usually make a bunch of "grenades" of Sassone Leaf Residue. This is just the plant poison encased in a thin shell of amber, so that it breaks if you throw it on someone. At the low levels, these things are very lethal, doing 2d12 damage on a failed save (DC 16). We've also been coating everyone's weapons with the poison by breaking one or two of these "grenades" into our quivers, and dipping our other weapons into it. However, I'm starting to see the power of this dropping off a bit, since the really tough enemies Fort saves are getting higher. I might need to "upgrade" the type of poison I make with this in the future.
In one game, we knew we were going to be facing trolls, so I made a bunch of "grenades" of flamable plant oil encased in amber instead. Yes, that's right, our party of level 4s and 5s fought 4 trolls and won. Most of the party climbed trees. Our cleric did die in this fight, though. The player made another cleric for the next game, very similiar in theme, but more optimized.
We decided next time that I'd include cotton fuses on them, so we wouldn't have to bother lighting the oil
after it hits.
I've also been making liberal use of caltrops, ringing our campsite with them every night, and having my psicrystal collect them while we're breaking camp and preparing spells in the morning.
The DM has house-ruled away the XP cost for crafting magic items, and is pretty liberal on what kind of items he lets us create. We've also had decent cash. So I took Craft Universal Item at 3rd, and have worked with the other spellcasters to craft one time per day items of several buff spells.
I took Craft Arms and Armor at 5th, and plan to take Craft Construct at 6th.
Our party has formed a company that does crafting for people, and retrieves items for commissions. My guy is basically the party crafter, and I plan to make a bunch of minor constructs that can continue making things while I'm out adventuring.
So far for powers I have:
1st: Entangling Ectoplasm, Astral Construct, Crystal Shard, Vigor, Psionic Minor Creation
2nd: Share Pain, Psionic Repair Damage, Levitate, Identify
3rd: Ectoplasmic Cocoon, Energy Bolt
My feats, flaws, and trait are:
Feats: Adamantine Body (1), Overchannel (Psion1), Talented (flaw1), Psicrystal Affinity (flaw2), Craft Universal Item (3), Craft Arms and Armor (5)
Flaws: Inattentive, Poor Reflexes
Trait: Focused (+1 Conc, -1 Spot and Listen)
I'm debating on choosing Energy Bolt power. We don't have a party wizard or sorcerer, and noone really has a decent area affect spell. And we also have been in several fights where we encountered fairly large numbers of creatures that were all bunched together. I was screaming inside for a Fireball-like power, but didn't have one.
However, I think Telekinetic Thrust, or something else, might be more useful, since Energy Bolt is a line, and will be harder to catch multiple enemies at once with. We also travel with a wagon, so I could fill it up with a bunch of greatswords (covered in poison) to thrust at enemies with no problem.
Another guy made a warforged fighter, and I helped him with his feat choices. He is using a guisarme, and has Adamantine Body, Improved Trip, Combat Reflexes, Power Attack, and Cleave. Last night I put Share Pain on him, and was using my Psicrystal to deliver Psionic Repair Damage to him during a tough fight, which worked quite well, but costs alot of power points. Overall, I think it was more efficient than buffing myself and cranking out Astral Constructs that couldn't hit anything, though.
We have a bard and cleric who casts bless at the beginning of the fight, and the DM lets Bless stack with Inspire Courage. So the party "fighters" have signifigantly higher to-hit bonuses than my constructs do. The constructs are still very handy in some fights, but for high AC enemies, I'm better off just buffing and healing the warforged fighter, and tossing out Entangling Ectoplasms, I think.
Another update. This was unfortunately as far as I got. The campaign fell apart due to RL reasons.
Made it to 6th level. Added Time Hop and Touchsight to his powers known. I took the feat Craft (Psionic) Construct. I plan to make some Dedicated Wrights, and set them to crafting Effigies and other things. The DM is fine with using Transparency like this (I don't know, maybe it is totally legal. I don't own the MiC).
I tried using Crystal Shard for the first time... and missed... with an overchanneled 7 power point shard.
Our party of 5 took out about 15 orcs which seemed to have about 4-5 class levels each last game, and I didn't have any poison made before the fight. They ambushed us, also. It was quite tough.
I plan to make poison first thing in the morning with an Extended Minor Creation, and then make some more when that runs out. That will keep me supplied 24/7 for 4 power points, which is less than 10% of my max now. Well worth it. I can throw a bunch of them at once with Telekinetic Thrust in tough fights, too.
I might swap out Touchsight for Damp Power. I forgot about Damp Power, and I haven't used Touchsight yet. We don't fight spellcasters that often, though. Or at least, we haven't so far.
I had played another character similiar to this at 9th level. The
original thread has since been archived. The DM wound up banning Polymorph, so the build I went with wound up being pretty different from the original idea posted below.
You, Me, and Everyone We Know (aka The Toolkit) Warforged Shaper 10
Feats: Psicrystal Affinity (Psi1), Overchannel (1), Talented (3), Metamorphic Transfer (Psi5), Boost Construct (or EK: Dimension Swap) (6), EK: Metamorphosis (9), EK: Schism (Psi10)
Skills: max Use Psionic Device
Equipment: an item that gives a bonus on Use Psionic Device, if allowed, and an Orange Ioun Stone (if you can afford it).
Benefits:
Via Metamorphosis and Metamorphic Transfer, you can turn into just about anything (including inanimate objects, like wrenches :rofl:) and gain whatever ability that you need. This would be alot of fun to roleplay as the "sidekick" to a rogue or artificer. "Bob, wrench now!" "Yessir!"
You can heal yourself and your psicrystal.
You can disguise yourself as one of your summoned astral constructs.
Your constructs are quite powerful (7th level, if you can get the Ioun Stone, and they have an extra ability).
You can effectively summon two per round (via your psicrystal using UPD). Of course, this isn't free...
You're a full psion, so you can have plenty of "other" powers.
Fun stuff: Manifest Metamorphosis and share it with your Psicrystal to turn both of you into an Astral Constructs. Give your Psicrystal some power stones (or a Dorje) of Astral Construct. Manifest Schism, and both of you start using your standard actions every round to manifest Astral Construct. Use your Schism action every round to ready an action to escape any attackers that come after you via Dimension Swap (with a summoned construct) or Dimension Door (if you can afford the Ioun Stone). Share this with your Psicrystal.
This is what I actually wound up playing:
Warforged Shaper 9 Ability Scores: (28 pt. buy) Str 8 (0), Dex 16 (14+2enh) (6), Con 20 (16+2enh+2race) (6), Int 20 (16+2enh+2levels) (10), Wis 12 (6), Cha 6 (0)
Hit Points: 86
AC: 25 (10+8armor+4shield+2dex+1defl) (+1-3insight and/or +4 defl. sometimes), Touch 12, Flat-footed 25
Saves: Fort +10, Refl +8, Will +8 (+1-3insight sometimes)
Initiative: +3
Movement: 30'
Attack: +8 MW Light Crossbow (1d8), +7 Ranged Touch, +3 Slam (1d4-1)
Feats: Psionic Body (1), Psicrystal Affinity (Psi1), Quicken Power (3), Overchannel (Psi5), Expanded Knowledge: Empathic Transfer (6), EK: Schism (9).
Extra Feats: Empower Power, EK: Control Body
Skills: Craft: Sculpting 10, Psicraft 8, Knowledge: Psionics 10, Concentration 12, Use Psionic Device 12, Knowledge: Architecture and Engineering 10
Powers Known: [Level (number known)] +2 free powers
1st (5): Vigor, Energy Ray, Precognition: Defensive, Grease, Crystal Shard, Astral Construct
2nd (4): Empathic Transfer, Share Pain, Ego Whip, Levitate, Energy Adaptation: Specified, Psionic Repair Damage
3rd (4): Energy Wall, Dispel Psionics, Ectoplasmic Cocoon, Solicit Psicrystal, Mental Barrier
4th (4): Fabricate, Dimension Door, Intellect Fortress, Schism, Control Body
5th (2): Hail of Crystal, True Seeing
Power Points: 94
Equipment: Power Stones of Psychic Reformation (950 gp, contains 50 XP), Trace Teleport (700 gp), Body Purification (2 stones, 150 gp each (PsiW), ML4), Object Reading (2 stones, 150 gp each, ML3), Clairvoyant Sense (3 stones, 150 gp each, ML3), and Psionic Revivify (1,125 gp, did not include XP since both pay it, ML9); Psicrystal (Single-Minded, +3 Concentration), +2 Darkwood Heavy Shield (+4 AC, 0 ACP, 15% ASF, 4,257 gp), Amulet of Health +2 (4,000 gp), Headband of Intellect +2 (4,000 gp), Heward's Handy Haversack (2000 gp), Dagger (2 gp), Gloves of Dexterity +2 (worn, 4,000 gp), Warforged Component: equivalent of Skin Ectoplasmic of Armor (3,000), Cloak of Resistance +2 (4,000 gp), Ring of Protection +1 (2,000 gp), MW Crossbow (335 gp), Circlet of Persuasion (4,500 gp, on Psicrystal), Stone of Alarm (2,700 gp). 39,567 used.
My comments on the build, and why it is the way it is.
The DM asked me not to take Metamorphosis, but let me have a couple of extra powers and extra feats (all the PCs have stuff like this). He had an NPC that is a psiwarrior, and he asked me not to take a couple of things that duplicated some of that guys abilities and items. (Ectoplasmic Cocoon, Entangling Ectoplasm and a Psychosomatic Skin... Spiderman/Venom inspired...). He let me take the Skin of Ectoplasmic Armor as a Warforged component, though, which was nice.
First, the character is alot of fun. He has quite alot of hit points, and by using Share Pain, he can actually take quite a bit more damage than the "tank" of the party (a Knight, has 120 max hit points), and his AC is actually better by 1 point (party isn't all that optimized). And it is ridiculously easy to heal himself by sharing the minimum 3 power point Psionic Repair Damage with his Psicrytal. 3 power points heals each of them on average 21 points, so basically the Psion can heal himself for 42 damage with 3 power points. I think dropping Talented was a good decision. The 3d8 damage for Overchanneling is inconsequential, really.
On the taking damage front, the main thing you have to be careful about is getting your Psicrystal (with Share Pain on it) caught in an area affect spell that also hits the main character. It would be really easy to lose a Psicrystal like this. The Improved Evasion + Hardness helps moderate this alot, however.
The other thing that was obvious was that it is REALLY easy to just blow all of your power points and be left useless. I started out kind of gung-ho and fired off a couple of Overchanneled Augmented Empowered powers (Energy Ray and Crystal Shard), and failed Power Resistance on the first, and rolled a 1 on the Ranged Touch Attack for the other. Then I had to heal myself for the Overchannel damage... Made me feel kind of silly and ineffective... In what seemed no time, I was down to 1/3 of my power points, and I didn't even use any of my power point intensive strategies to increase my actions per round (Shared Quickened Schism + Astral Construct, then firing off a bunch of Control Body powers, and passing their control off via Solicit Psicrystal).
I realize that with the setup I have, it would be extremely easy to blow pretty much all of my power points on one encounter. It would also be very silly... and might not even be that effective. All it would take is a few bad rolls, and alot of those power points could be entirely wasted. Playing a psion is all about learning to restrain yourself, it seems. Overall, I enjoy the character, but it plays quite a bit differently than any other I've had before.