Just how "high op" are we talking here? Some of my suggestions below are Tippy-level optimization, so choose your op-level carefully.
Skip personal construct. Replace it with Link Power, from Complete Psionic, (to manifest as a swift, immediate, or standard action, depending on the power you Link it to). Manifest, say, Synchronicity (from C.Psi) Linked with Astral Construct. That'll give you an extra standard action you can use right away, and your construct will appear at the beginning of your next round. Also, Link Power will let you manifest any power within 1 round, so long as it's linked to another power, and you don't have to concentrate on it. So you can manifest, say, Grip of Iron as an immediate action right before your turn, Link it to Astral Construct, Psionic Minor Creation, Psychic Reformation, or some other power, and it'll go off right after, on your initiative count.
I like taking Metapower (Synchronicity + Linked Power), all from C.Psi, to lower manifesting costs by 2. Metapower + Linked (Synchronicity + Astral Construct) gives you an extra pp to use with the Astral Construct power, since the cost is increased by 1 for Synchronicity and lowered by 2 for Metapower. May or may not be worthwhile. Depends on how nuts you go with cost reducers and ML boosters.
Buy or craft some chronocharms, from the MIC. You can wear several at once, and each one can be enhanced with additional neck-slot properties. I like the necklace of adaptation, myself, though it's less important for you, since you don't breathe. However, feel free to pay for several chronocharms of the archmage so you can add additional charges to a single chronocharm. Want to manifest a power with a 1-round manifesting time (like, say, Astral Construct) as a standard action 20x per day? Now you can.
Also look into
http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625b. Best shaper PrC bar none. Early entry is possible if you abuse the Primary Contact feat, from Cityscape. Get that extra skill point, enter the class early, and then PsyRef out the feats you don't want once you have enough HD to have enough skill ranks without them. That way you can be a psion 5/constructor 5, rather than a psion 6/constructor 4. Buy the prereqs if you have some spare cash after everything else you want; see below for how to buy feats and powers.
Consider using PsyRef to nab some crafting feats to craft with. It'll save you 50% on all your magic item costs, and 66% on mundane item costs. More, if you go all out and get in some crafting cost reduction going.
http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1000.0 Imagine spending a handful of XP and GP and crafting several thousand GP in equipment in return.
If you can use some highly regarded 3rd party sources (Hyperconscious and Untapped Potential), there's a feat (Durable Construct, Hyperconscious) that makes your constructs last a flat 10 minutes, and it can be taken at level 3. Combine with Extend Power for 20 minute constructs.
There's more stuff in The Mind's Eye, as well, some of which is 3.0, but a lot of it is still usable, like most of this:
http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/pse/20020727cConsider paying another psion (especially an erudite, from C.Psi -- a mentor, perhaps?) to manifest Psychic Chirurgery on you to get more powers known in exchange for cash. Note that this applies to spells, too, with the convert-spells-to-powers ACF, from The Mind's Eye. Any arcane spell, and this includes practically every divine spell, too, through options such as rainbow servant, the Child of Eberron dragon archetype, and the Southern Magician feat. Use a thought bottle (C.Arc) to massively reduce the XP cost from lots of manifestations of Psychic Chirurgery.
Especially good spells to take are Heal,
Dweomer of Transference,
Mental Pinnacle, Divine Power, Draconic Polymorph (Draconomicon), Polymorph Any Object, and (Greater) Consumptive Field (Spell Compendium). Also consider Wall of Salt, from Sandstorm. Each casting of WoS creates an absurd amount of salt. Now go look in the PHB at the cost of salt, and consider that it's a trade good -- which can be spent exactly as if it were money. IE, salt is literally worth its weight in silver, and you can spend it as such. AND you can use it as an actual defensive/BFC wall spell.
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=17939807&postcount=30And get as many ML boosters and cost reducers as possible. Binding a metapsionic rod (psionic version of a metamagic rod, as per the MIC) to your hands, a few pairs of psionic arcanist gloves (which you already have), Overchannel, and (later) an orange ioun stone. There's a torc in the 3.0 Psionics Handbook that does the same as the torc of power preservation for less than 1/3 the cost.
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?131499-DnD-3-5-Power-Point-Cost-ReductionSpeaking of a metapsionic rod, add several rods in one for a +50% markup, as per the MIC. Add those rod powers to your psionic arcanist gloves so you can have all of those bound to your hands chakra simultaneously (via the MoI's Psionic Open Chakra power). And since a power's level does not increase as you augment, you can use the lowest level rod you think you can get away with for the powers you want to use it with. If you do this, make sure you add the cost of several arcanist gloves to your glove/rod so you can use lots of charges per day without having to swap out your gloves.
Also, make ALL of your items warforged components (Eberron Campaign Setting). It doesn't cost anything extra, and your items cannot be removed from your person without your permission as long as you're conscious. You can still remove them yourself, however.
And don't forget a handy haversack from the DMG and some anklets of translocation from the MIC!
If you have a good UPD score, consider adding the horseshoes of a zephyr and horseshoes of speed enhancements, from the DMG. UPD your race as "horse" to make use of them for an hour at a time.
A panther mask from the MIC will add +5' to your base land speed, and Shaundakul's boots, from Magic of Faerun, will add +10' to that, as well. Likewise, you can get yourself a horned helm, from the Arms & Equipment Guide, to double your speed, and a rapid wrath weapon, from the Ghostwalk Campaign Setting, likewise doubles your speed (for really, really cheap). Note that distance and speed multipliers are cumulative, so X * 2 * 2 = X * 4, as per the RAW for bonus multipliers.
Headband of Int doesn't stack with the ioun stone, so you'll have to knock that out. Perhaps craft a headband +4? How about raising your age category to Middle Aged? It'll knock your physical stats down a bit, but it'll raise your mental scores.
For a cheap way to massively boost your Int (both definitions of "cheap"), manifest Mind Switch with another target, followed up by two castings of Polymorph Any Object into a super-high Int form (such as sarrukh, from Serpent Kingdoms), then cancel the Mind Switch. The other creature will be in a new body, but you keep the Int boost. The two castings are to make the duration permanent. Now just store the other creature in a vat of quintessence or something, and you won't have to worry about it. You can use this to dump Int, add those points into other ability scores, and still have a base Int score of 30. If you're worried about Dispelling, go look in Ravenloft: Legacy of the Blood. In there is a feat by the name of Craft Device. Devices are fun little items that are basically nonmagical magic items; they require charges from batteries to run, but can be any magic item at all, but -- I reiterate --
are entirely nonmagical. Get a nonmagical "scroll" device of PAO to make the effects of the second PAO permanent -- and nonmagical, meaning it can't be Dispelled or Disjoined. Ever.
If you take
Faerie Mysteries Initiate from Dragon Magazine, that'll give you +Int to hp, instead of Con, so you can compensate for your lower Con score. If the DM asks how you can maintain an "intimate relationship with a fey," point out that Data kept one up with Tasha Yar in Star Trek: TNG. Also, pen pals, since emotional intimacy counts.
If you can put a few hundred gp towards power stones of Inertial Armor and can buy more when you need them, CPsi allows you to use your own pp instead of the charge in the stone to manifest the power at your manifester level. Since you only need one or two manifestations per day, Inertial Armor might be better used through power stones, instead of as a power known. Replace it with something you'll use more than 2 times per day. Trade I.A. for the Synchronicity power from C.Psi to combine with Link Power for extra standard actions.
...Wait a minute. Why bother with Inertial Armor, since you have Adamantine Body? Alternatively, why bother with Adamantine Body if you have Inertial Armor? You're wasting either a power or a feat, here, and both could be more useful elsewhere. Instead of Adamantine Body, how about using that feat slot for Item Familiar (SRD) or Ancestral Relic (from BoeD) or something for your basic composite plating, and use a bag full of power stones of Inertial Armor (using your pp and manifester level) for your AC? Do note that if you take Ancestral Relic (which shouldn't have an alignment prereq; that's
stupid), you can feel free to sacrifice your castings of Wall of Salt to it.
A ring of sustenance grants all the
physical and mental benefits of 8 hours of sleep in 2 hours. One of the benefits of 8 hours of sleep is enough rest to recharge power points. So get yourself a ring and only need to rest for 2 hours to recharge. You can even recharge several times per day, if you want. You don't need to sleep, so you and your psicrystal can keep watch while the rest of the party sleeps. You can recharge during first shift, and if something attacks during the night, you can nova the hell out of it, and then rest another 2 hours on last shift to recover all the pp you spent.
Buy a double-handful of +1 arrows with the manifester property, from the XPH. Each arrow will have 5 pp per day in it. USE THEM FOR UTILITY MANIFESTING, NOT SHOOTING FROM A BOW. Note that the cost per arrow is 1/50 that of something like a +1 manifester longbow.
Will you be using Plane Shift much, or can you PsyRef it in when you need it?
Are flaws allowed?
Since this is high op, buy a bunch of feats via magical locations, items that grant feats, and the dark blue ioun stone, then pay for someone to use the Dark Chaos Feat Shuffle
TM on you. Plus, if you multiclass, armor and shield proficiencies are granted as proficiency feats, which you don't need -- check the Armor and Shield Proficiency feats in the SRD for details. You can also devote yourself to an elder evil, or abuse feats that grant more feats than what you put in, such as Planar Touchstone: Catalogues of Enlightenment (war domain) and Planar Touchstone: Catalogues of Enlightenment (metal domain), which give you two feats each to DCFS out. More feats!
http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=6624.20and
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?119456-What-is-a-quot-Chaos-Shuffle-quotand
http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=6248.0There are several items that grant feats, such as the battleax of the bull, the helm of the hunter, the dark blue ioun stone, the panther mask, and the headband of pursuit. Crafting these and DCFSing out the feats for ones you want can get you a lot of feats if you can sneak your way around the XP costs.
If you weren't Evil, I'd suggest going Dragonborn of Bahamut, from Races of the Dragon. The template works
really well on a warforged. You'd keep everything but your slam attack and your natural armor plating -- but you'd keep your Adamantine Body feat. Will the DM waive the Good prereq so you can become a Dragonborn of Tiamat or something? +2 Con, -2 Dex, and low-light/darkvision, wings, or a breath weapon would be really nice. The biggest downside is that you do lose your composite plating, so no optimizing that if you don't take Adamantine Body.
Psicrystals gain actual hit dice equal to yours, RAW, which means they get BAB, feats, and ability score boosts that are NOT included in the psicrystal ability chart. So give your psicrystal metapsionic feats (or take Hidden Talent on your psicrystal to take psionic feats) that you can Feat Leech away, and take the Feat Leech power. Replace the Alertness feat your psicrystal gets for a better feat. Note that this is not the same Alertness feat that your psicrystal gives you when within 5'. One is the psicrystal's feat, and the other is what it gives you for proximity.
Since you've got Crystal Shard, try buying access to Control Body through the Psychic Chirurgery power and abusing the hell out of
this trick. If you want to blast, that's a good way to do so. If you buy some +1 manifester arrows, note that Solicit Psicrystal costs 5 pp, which is a good reason to use them thar arrows. Control Body on yourself costs a bit more, but it's still pretty cheap if you like blasting. Overall, you have better things to spend your pp on than blasting, though. This is just an option for if you reeeeally wanna blast. To make blasting even cheaper, combine the Control Body trick with the Gemstone Breath power, from Races of Stone. Once every two rounds, you get a breath weapon as a standard action for 1 round/lvl. +Int to damage isn't too bad when you're attacking lots of creatures in the AoE and getting multiple standard actions to attack with blasty powers in each round.
And for the love of the gods, get the Soul Crystal power from Magic of Incarnum ASAP! ...But that's not for a few levels yet. Combine with Quintessence for permanently stored, multi-use power stones.
If you want to go ethereal any time you move, the phase cloak soulmeld will let you bypass all sorts of obstacles, including doors, walls, enemies (along with AoOs), difficult terrain, trees, and pretty much anything you'd otherwise have to climb or fly over. Shape Soulmeld (Phase Cloak) will get you there, and the Psionic Open Chakra power (with several ML boosters and cost reducers) will bind it to your shoulders easily. Combine with major speed boosters, and it's basically like flying. All of this is from Magic of Incarnum. Use a metapsionic rod of Extend Power, and you can bind to your shoulders chakra for 2 days straight, and if you'd bound that rod to your hands chakra, you get an additional +1 ML, too.
Boost your Craft (Alchemy) skill, and use Psionic Minor Creation to craft poisons on the fly. Combine with Linked Power and a power with a low manifesting time to manifest PMC in one round instead of one minute. You're 100% immune to poison, after all. You can also use PMC to make a hamster ball for yourself any time you expect AoEs to be flying around.
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=8305463&postcount=12You might want to consider using an armor crystal, from the MIC, on your body armor. Since your armor is actually YOU, you should get the benefits of whatever you have on the armor crystal. Make sure to stack as many armor crystal qualities as you can onto one crystal; that way you get all the benefits at once. Adamant armor crystals for stacking hardness? Sure. Also, give yourself plenty of fun armor qualities. Blueshine (from the MIC) is nice, because it makes you immune to acid and rust attacks. This only works on warforged, as far as I know.
Don't take damaging powers that overlap. For instance, you probably don't want both Crystal Shard and Energy Ray. One or the other should be fine. Then find a damaging AoE power that relies on a save, such as Hail of Crystals or Energy Burst. If you take Supernatural Transformation (see below), damaging powers with Power Resistance: Yes become MUCH more valuable, because now they're PR: No. Crystal Swarm doesn't deal much damage per pp, and it's really close range, but there's no way to prevent damage from it other than super-high hardness or flat-out immunity to slashing damage. It becomes much better if you add +Int to the damage output, though.
If you really want to get into the high end optimization, know that you can use spell-like ability feats on powers, because powers are defined in the rules as innate psi-like abilities, and the rules say that you can use feats like Quicken Spell-Like Ability on them. So feel free to get those feats to act like Auto-Quicken, or whatever. Also, grab the Supernatural Transformation feat (from Savage Species) for your psionics, turning your manifesting into a (Su) ability and boosting your manifester level up to your HD (to cover for any MLs you lose via PrCs or multiclassing). You also -- and here's the real kicker -- get to ignore Spell- and Power-Resistance. Completely. Forever. Wanna hit that epic golem with a Time Hop? Now you can. You also no longer provoke AoOs for manifesting.
Another really cheap thing to do is to install quori power link shards in your body, from Magic of Eberron. You can install one shard per level, and each one allows you to boost the number of pp you can use on a power by +2, 3/day. You can use multiples at once, and they break the normal pp cap. You do need to use UPD to trick the shards into thinking you're a quori, though, and each one permanently reduces your hp by 1. However, this is ridiculously powerful, essentially tripling the number of pp you can spend on three powers per day, if you use them all at once. Or you could spread them out through the day.
http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=10296.0Three levels in cleric qualify you for Initiate of Mystra, which allows you to cast (and manifest) in dead magic zones and AMFs. However, this costs you three levels and a feat, which is a hefty investment all by itself.
PS, you might want to lower your Dex score; Adamantine Body limits how much you can use a high Dex to a mere +1, so add it onto your Cha score for higher Bluff and UPD checks. That's
if you keep Adamantine Body. Changing this to Mithril Body or getting rid of Adamantine Body altogether means you can keep that Dex high.
PPS, the arcanist gloves actually do work like you think they work. They boost your ML, which automatically raises the number of pp you can spend on the boosted power.
