Lord this annoys me...
Hello. When was the last time you started at 1st?
Tomorrow, if Prime gets the pbp up. Next question, what does that have to do with anything? If everyone is having one there is no wrong way to
play and I'd quantify a guy that's played several games with different people to be more experienced than the same group that's only played 3 games.
But that's your post in a gist. Your opinion.
Like in your
opinion an Erudite Manifests less because you think he has to fully Augment every single Power. In truth you only Augment damage effects which make up 0.00% of superior ran God-style casters. The Erudite Manifests more Powers per day because if you convert his points to Spells per Day or convert a Wizard's Spells per day to Points all Psionic Classes have more points than what it takes because they are expressly given more points to Augmenting. Like a 19 Int Wizard at the 5th level is 4/3/2 or 23 points vs the Erudite's 35 points or 5/3/4.
Next you complain about Known, but each mechanic between the three Classes is radically different and whenever you attempt to specifically measure one aspect to claim one is the best, you're ignoring all other traits. Like the Sorcerer might know 6/4 (because he is 5th level not 4th right? idk you're wrong there too) but can choose the ever popular Web and Grease multiple times but the Wizard who
could Prepare 9 different Spells can only choose to use Grease once. If the Wizard makes an error in his Spell choice it takes a day to fix, a Sorcerer a level or a week of retraining so the Wizard generally has a better tailored list of Spells designed for what is expected rather than generalizing.
The Erudite introduces a third mechanic, technically he has no bad choices because his UPDs are chosen as he needs them rather than best guessing which gives him the exact specific list for the stuff that happens first or he can hold back some UPDs for general-use Powers much like a Sorcerer would choose his Powers. Like a Wizard the choices are reset every day, like a Sorcerer he can recast his favorite OP Spell multiple times without second guessing him self except this comes at the cost of knowing less "Spontaneous Spells" at the end of the day than the Sorcerer does. There is no clear cut answer between them but in trending the Erudite does have some marks of superiority. if you hate the idea of having to plan ahead and the DM throwing you douchebag curve balls and you still want the downtime versatility of being able to cast anything printed the Erudite is the only valid choice.
Let me put it this way. If a CStP Erudite had to pick only spells from the PHB and could not Multiclass, I'd put them on high end of Tier 3. And you bet you'll be going straight for shadow magic, Polymorph, and summoning spells.
Let me put it this way, if your Wizard could only pick Spells from Evocation he'd suck balls too. If your Barbarian could only pick Toughness we're not getting far. If the Monk cannot choose any ACFs he's pretty weak. But if the Commoner gets Chicken Infested holy crap can he be a TPK machine. And limited to Core-Only means you can't have an Erudite since they're Splatbook.
Really through, you're thinking too small. Psychic Chirurgery teaches the Erudite 9th level Powers. The Epic Rules exist in the DMG/SRD also puts 9th level Spells-to-Powers on the table and the 4th choice of Miracle is to
invent new Spells on the fly. Aka, cast Splatbook Spells in a Core-Only Spell Limit. This is something the Wizard doesn't have access to, and thanks to the nova-effect in Psionics the Erudite can Manifest over 25 Miracles per day before you even touch recharge mechanics allowing them to perform that function an infinite number of times per day.
Fact is Captnq, you rate the Erudite at T3 because you have apparently only played three games from the same pool of people in your life and you just don't have the knowledge or understanding of the game as a whole and have never seen it from any viewpoint other than your own. So even when the actual facts, such as point considerations, disagree with you no one has ever came out and told you that's not what the book says, probably because your style is fuck-you-I'm-the-DM or like you your players knew next to nothing about D&D. I'm seeing this trend in multiple threads, like you arguing with Fraen because you've never seen the word "when" in the PHB/SRD/RC before in your life and you'd rather go all in "find me one quote that says I'm wrong" like the books haven't been disagreeing with you the whole time. Reality check, your ideas of D&D don't match what D&D has published. This is why we go online and discuss the topic, to learn, to adapt, to process for the needed progress.