Psionic Tricks Handbook: Brainstorms - originally by kalaskaagathas

[nijineko]

Inspired by some of the stuff in this thread I've decided to try my hand at writing a Psionic Tricks Handbook.  It would be a sort of clearing house for psionic tricks, tactics, and combos.  Trouble is, I'm no expert on what tricks you can pull with Psionics.  So I humbly ask for help in this endeavor.

The MoI Recharge Trick -

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The Recharge Trick uses Midnight Augmentation, Linked Power and Metapower to manifest Bestow Power (linked to  with a lower power point cost than power points bestowed by Bestow Power.  This allows your psychic to do his thing, all day long.
Feats: Midnight Augmentation, Linked Power, Metapower, Psicrystal Containment
Powers: Bestow Power, a first level power (Here I use Synchronicity)
Method:
    1. Focus yourself and your Psicrystal
    2. You choose Synchronicity to be effected by Midnight Augmentation, investing one essentia
    3. Expend your Psychic Focus to manifest a Synchronicity (which you have chosen to permanently join Linked Power to by Metapower)
    4. Expend your Psicrystal's Psychic Focus to manifest Synchronicity, linked to Bestow Power (Costs reduced by Midnight Augmentation for -1, and Metapower for -2, reducing the cost of the Synchronicity/Bestow Power combo to 1 PP)
    5. Refocus yourself and your Psicrystal (Doable in one round, if you choose Synchronicity as your 1st level power)
    6. Repeat 3-6

Minimum Level: 3 (Higher without Flaws + Human)

The Meditation Hustle -

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The Meditation Hustle uses Psicrystal Containment, Psionic Meditation Twin Power, Linked Power, and Hustle to use one metapsionic feat per turn (with two every other turn)
Feats: Psicrystal Containment, Psionic Meditation, Twin Power, Linked Power
Powers: Hustle
Method:
    1. Both you and your Psicrystal are focused
    2. With your Swift, manifest Twinned Hustle linked to Hustle (expending both focuses - total PP cost 3+3+6 = 12.) - you now have two extra move actions, with a third one coming in the next round. Use the two extra move actions to regain both your focus and your psicrystal's, then take your other actions for the turn as normal (move and standard.)
    3. Next round, your linked Hustle goes off. Use your swift again to repeat (2).
    You now have 3 bonus move actions (2 from the twinned hustle, and the third one from last round's linked power.) Use two of them to regain your foci again, and you have your standard + 2 move actions. This of course means that you can manifest a standard-action power modified with two more metapsionic feats (any), use your two move actions to regain your foci, and start the cycle over from (1).

Minimum Level: 12

The Mad Minute-

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The Mad Minute uses Temporal Acceleration, Fission, Affinity Field, and Synchronicity to effectively grant you infinite standard actions, at least until you run out of power points (remember never to go so low that you can't manifest an augmented Bestow Power to recharge).
Feats:
Powers: Affinity Field, Fission, Synchronicity, Temporal Acceleration
Method:
    1. Manifest Temporal Acceleration as a swift action for at least 3 rounds
    A. Manifest Fission as your Standard Action for Temporal Acceleration round 1
    B. Fissioned copy manifests Affinity Field
    C. Fissioned copy manifests Synchronicity, augmented to 3 PP, which effects you both (via Affinity Field)
    2. You use your standard action from Synchronicity to do as you will, your Fissioned Copy uses its standard action to manifest Synchronicity, repeat from 2.

Minimum Level: 17

Move by Wire-

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Move by Wire uses Control Body and your Psicrystal to grant you extra physical actions.  It requires a Psicrystal, and Solicit Psicrystal .
Powers: Control Body, Solicit Psicrystal
Feats: Psicrystal Affinity
Method:
    1. Manifest Control Body, targeting yourself
    2. Manifest Solicit Psicrystal, let your Psicrystal take over the concentration of Control Body
    3. Have your Psicrystal force you to take a physical standard and move action
    4. Repeat 3 for the duration of Control Body/Solicit Psicrystal

Minimum Level: 7

The Save Game Trick-

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The Save State Psion 1.0
By Tleilaxu_Ghola

The Simple Summary
This trick works by abusing time hop to send your psicrystal days forward in time, and forced dream (Magic of Eberron 104), which will return him back in time to the moment you manifested time hop. Doing so will undo whatever caused your party to wipe, because the psicrystal's Dream began before you time hopped it. (Presumably while you were all alive and kicking.)

There's a couple of other things you'll need to make it work, below:

Abstract
With this trick one is able to create "save" game points, with a minimal cost of 15 XP for psionic contingency. The trick allows one to adventure for a day and then reload the save game point if something went awry.

Ingredients:
Forced Dream (Magic of Eberron 104)
Anticipatory Strike (Complete Psionic 78)
Time Hop (Mass version lasts longer, for a full day of adventuring)
Psionic Contingency
A Psicrystal
Status
Imbue with Spell Ability
Metamorphosis - needed if your DM ignores Player's Handbook 177 that states a creature can suppress racial resistances/immunities to magic.
Sending Stones [Optional magic item] (Complete Arcane 150, 15K per linked pair)

Forced Dream: Psion/Wilder 3
[Paraphrased]
Any time during the 1 round/level duration (or minutes per level with 4 pp augment), you can spend a swift action to restart your turn.  As forced dream says, "When this effect is used, everyone and everything is reset to the state they were at when the subject's turn began. Any spells or abilities used are available again, any damage dealt is healed , any effects incurred are negated, any objects or creatures moved are reset to their original position, and so on. The only exception to this is that any power points spent to manifest forced dream are not recovered..." Forced dream ends when the swift action to do this is expended or when the duration expired.

The Trick
Manifest psionic contingency on your psicrystal placing a contingent ancipatory strike on him contingent on the event: returns to the normal time stream from a time hop.

If desired, share metamorphosis with your psicrystal to transform him into something that isn't immune to mind-affecting compulsions. Heck you could transform him into an object of any size if you wish.  (Player's Handbook 177 states a creature can suppress racial resistances and immunities to magical/psionic effects, meaning metamorphosis is just for show.)  Have the party Cleric use imbue with spell ability on the psicrsytal so that it can use the spell status.  (A Spell to Power Erudite, Cerebremancer, Psychic Theurge or someone with an item can cast status himself.)  Mix with affinity field if you wish the psicrystal to have knowledge of all party members' condition, though this requires a level 9 (!) power.

The psicrystal casts status on you or whatever party member you choose. This person's condition will determine whether or not the save state will be reloaded, so choose carefully.  NOTE:  Status will NOT work across planes!  Be careful!

Manifest forced dream on your psicrystal at some time before you fear harm will befall you. Ready a standard action to manifest a contingent time hop on your party (+2PP per target) when the psicrystal moves.  Tell the psicrystal to do so, advancing him hours / level ahead in time. With enough ML you can advance your psicrystal nearly a day. Adventure on your merry way, whilst your psicrystal is outside the time stream.

If your party succumbs to a TOTAL PARTY KILL, your psicrystal will still be alive and kicking the next day. No time will pass for him and when he comes out of the time hop and the contingency will grant him sufficient actions to check the status of the party, provided they are on the same plane as the psicrystal.  (If on another plane, there's a 5% chance of failure.)  The psicrystal may also use a Sending Stone to ask whether his master would like to reload or not.  If the party member is under a certain condition or if the master tells the crystal to, the save state is reloaded as the psicrystal spends a swift action to return to the beginning of his turn, which began with you manifesting time hop on him right before he started moving. You may now retry whatever you failed to accomplish.

The Embrace of Mother Earth-

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Minimum Level: 3 (if you ignore WBL)

You need:
1) Torc of Power Preservation (the more expensive one in the Expanded Psionic Handbook - NOT the cheaper one in the Magic Item Compendium)
2) Earth Power (and it's requirement, Earth Sense).
3) Bestow Power
4) At least one remaining power point (you could use Body Fuel, but that's a bad idea)
5) Natural stone to stand on

Method:
1) Psionically Focus Yourself (requirement for use of Earth Power)
2) Stand on the natural stone (requirement for use of Earth Power)
3) Manifest Bestow Power on yourself, do NOT augment it.
4) Repeat until full of power points.

What happens?  Well, Bestow Power costs 3 points to manifest, and bestows two on the target (you).  Earth Power reduces the cost by 1.  The Torc of Power Preservation reduces the cost by 1.  So you bestow yourself 2 power points at the cost of 1 power point. 

You Squared-

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Minimum Level: 17

You need:
1) Affinity Field
2) Bestow Power
3) At least 59 remaining Power Points
4) Fission (or another Psion with Bestow Power, but Fission is doing it with Style)

Method:
1) Manifest Fission (which costs 13 PP, and cuts your remaining power points in half - you'll need at least 23 remaining after that)
2) Manifest Affinity Field (Cost: 17 PP, you need at least 6 remaining when you're done)
3) You: Manifest Bestow Power on yourself, augmented as high as you dare (Giving yourself X*2/3 power points, costing you X power points - in the minimal example, you spend all 6 PP, to give yourself 4), and sharing it with your Fissioned duplicate (so 4 PP to you, 4 PP to your duplicate).
Fissioned Duplicate: Manifests Bestow Power on you, to the maximum it can without damaging itself, which is shared back by Affinity Field (it'll have at least 27 Power Points at this point, but could have a manifester level as low as 15, which we'll assume for here).  So it spends 15 power points to give you 10, and itself 10 through Affinity field. 
This round, you have spent 6 power points, and gone up by 14; your duplicate has spent 15 power points, and gone up by 14.
4) You: Manifest Bestow Power on yourself, augmented as high as you dare (you should have a minimum of 14 power points at this point - Spend 12 on Bestow Power, and you have 2, but gain 8 - for a total of 10... and 8 of those are also given to your duplicate.
Your Duplicate: Manifest Bestow Power on you (max of 15 points spent, ten for you, ten for your duplicate back through affinity field).
At this step, you've lost 12 power points, and gained back 18, for a six-point gain. 
5) Go To 4 until either Fission or the Affinity Field expire. 
6) After a few rounds, you'll have fully paid off your power point expenditure.  Oh yes, and when you merge with your duplicate, you get all of it's power points as well - and it's power point total has been going up, too.

Note: Some DM's will read a particular line in Fission, and decide this doesn't work.  If your DM does that, just make sure there's another party member with a manifester level of 6 or higher in the party that knows Bestow Power.  This manifester takes the place of your Fissioned duplicate... and can actually make the effect slightly more efficient.  It's less cool, though.

Tiny von BigMcLargeHuge-

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I link this because it's a cool build and a hilarious idea.  As far as I know, Tiny von BigMcLargeHuge relies on house rules to work.
Tiny von BigMcLargeHuge

I have a kobold whose family is, due to backstory, a cross between humans and dragons, and therefore has the [human] and [dragonblooded] subtypes. Ergo, he (and his brother, a backup character in case my current positive energy evolved undead necropolitan kobold dies) can technically qualify for Jotunbrud (since this isn't Faerun, regional feat prereqs are waived).

This post got me to thinking about a rather interesting build:

Male kobold psychic warrior 2 [human, dragonblooded] with compression and expansion, using the web enhancement from RotD and Slight Build. Take Jotunbrud (Races of Faerun) and the Touchstone feat: Sunken City of Pazar (Sandstorm).

He now may elect to count as being Diminutive, Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, Huge, and Gargantuan.

The way he does this?

His actual size is Small. Slight build lets him count as Tiny. Touchstone (alternately: expansion) allows him to count as Medium. Compression gives him Diminutive. Jotunbrud lets him count as Large. Expansion pushes off of Jotunbrud to allow him to count as Huge. Touchstone (springboarding off of both expansion and Jotunbrud) allows him to count as Gargantuan.

At level 7, he can become Fine (compression) and Colossal (expansion).

The DM already approved it, meaning it's legal in my game.

Question is, what size is he, actually? What size of equipment does he use? And what class should I gestalt him with?

The Fistfull of Manifester Arrows-

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The Bundle of Manifester Arrows capitalizes on the fact that arrows are enchanted in groups of 50, and the Manifester quality can be read to supply 5PP per arrow.
Powers:
Feats:
GP: 18,302.5GP
Method:
    1. Have 50 arrows enchanted as +1 Manifester Arrows
    2. Gain +5PP per arrow, for the price of a +1 Manifester Longsword (which would only provide +5PP)
    3. Confused
    4. Profit

The Masochistic Crystal Trick-

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The Masochistic Crystal Trick is an old standby for psychics.  It uses Share Pain, Vigor, and Psicrystal Affinity to double the number of Temporary HPs granted by Vigor
Powers: Share Pain, Vigor
Feats: Psicrystal Affinity
Method:
    1. Manifest Vigor, sharing it with your Psicrystal
    2. Manifest Share Pain, sharing it with your Psicrystal

Minimum Level: 3

The Psionic Dreadnought-

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The Psionic Dreadnought uses Affinity Field, two (or more) 3rd level (or higher) thralls or followers, Bestow Power, Telekinetic Sphere, Solicit Psicrystal, and Burrowing Power to become the psionic equivalent of the USS Iowa.
Powers: Affinity Field, Bestow Power, Telekinetic Sphere, Solicit Psicrystal
Feats: Burrowing Power, Leadership
Classes: Thrallherd
Method:
    1. Acquire followers or thralls
    2. Manifest Telekinetic Sphere, surrounding yourself and your minions
    3. Manifest Affinity Field
    4. Manifest, using Burrowing Power, through your Telekinetic Sphere (Psicraft DC 31), raining death upon your enemies
    5. Have your minions manifest Bestow Power on you, netting them 1 PP each (2 per manifestation, shared by Affinity Field) and you 4 PP

Minimum Level: 17

ACMA and ACME-

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The Astral Construct Mega Armor and Astral Construct Mobile Entrapment work by encasing a character in an Astral Construct, either to grant said character bonuses (ACMA) or to trap them inside it (ACME).  They both may be found below.

These are the only range limits I've found for manifesting astral construct:
-The construct must be made within Close range.
-The construct can't appear inside another creature or object.  (Metacreativity disicipline limitation.)
-I must have line of effect to the target area.

Because of this, I see every reason to allow Astral Construct Power Armor.  Here's how:
-Manifest an astral construct of at least your size category.  It must be big enough to cover you completely, but I assume you can fit snugly or comfortably inside.  I advise making small holes on the face for breathing and seeing, and holes in the hands through which to use touch powers and rays.
-Mentally direct it.to act as you wish.  You did give it all the transportation modes you needed, right?

Power Armor: Allies and Mounts
You can manifest this 'power armor' on your allies as well.  They'd go on your initiative and use the STR and DEX scores of the construct while being able to act normally.   Effectively, the construct is a mount that surrounds the target instead of merely staying under the target.

Yes, this allows you to turn normal mounts (horses, ponies, force dragons...) into power armored mounts.

Here's how to make a larger power armor than your size category.
-Fly, levitate, or otherwise hover in the place you want to be when your power armor appears.  I recommend near the face or in a specifically-crafted hole in the construct.

Optional:
-Watch this

Astral Construct as a No-Save-Just-Lose Power
With no save and no power resistance, you can make such "power armor" to encase your foes.  They'll probably get a STR check to override the AC's actions, and they can teleport out, but an Astral Construct Mobile Encaser seems like an awesome use for this power!

Skin of the Construct
PS: The feat Skin of the Construct (Complete Psionic 57) is worse once you realize how you can use astral construct by the rules.

The Carmen San Diego Trick-

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The Carmen San Diego Trick uses Remote Viewing and Retrieve to approximate the thieving prowess of our favorite Red-Trenchcoat-and-Hatted-Globe-Trotting-Thief.  It requires Overchannel or similar ability (or cost reducers) to pull off pre-epic.  Because Remote Viewing allows you to "See" the target, you do not need to manifest Retrieve through Remote Viewing.  It does require you to be within Retrieve range of the target.  Red Hat and Trenchcoat are optional.
Powers: Retrieve, Remote Viewing
Feats: Overchannel
Method:
    1. Manifest Remote Viewing on the target object (or a target within 30 feet of the object)
    2. Manifest Retrieve on the target object

Minimum Level: 13

The Psionic Last Breath Trick-

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The Psionic Last Breath trick allows you to preserve a fallen comrade to be raised for the cost of 200+ XP, rather than the sometimes prohibitive sum of 5000GP in Diamonds.
Powers:Time Hop, Psionic Revivify, Quintessence
Feats:
Method:

    1. Either cover your fallen comrade's body in Quintessence or manifest Time Hop on their corpse (an object)

    2. Either bring the body (covered in Quintessence) to the Revivifie or bring the Revivifier to the place where the corpse will appear (after Time Hop runs its course)

    3. Manifest Psionic Revivify on the corpse

Minimum Level: 9

Do the Wight Thing-

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To Do the Wight Thing, one must have a critter under their control who can apply one negative level (such as a Wight, but anything that can apply one negative level at a time, with a type of negative level that will convert to real level loss, will do) and Psionic Restoration to generate 'free' XP.  This can be done as soon as level 11 if one has a Ring of Spell Storing (which should also store powers, due to transparency).
Powers: Psionic Restoration
Feats:
Critters: 1 Wight or Similar
Items: 1 Ring of Spell Storing
Method:
    1. Store Psionic Restoration in the Ring of Spell Storing
    2. Have the critter hit you with one negative level
    3. Wait until the time rolls around for the Fort save on that negative level, and voluntarily fail it, converting it to real level loss, setting your XP to halfway between the level you were and the level before (e.g., if you were level 12, and got drained to 11th, you're halfway between 11th and 12th - 60,500 xp, which is 5,500 xp in excess of 11th).
    4. Spend your newly-unlocked XP however you like (5,500 xp, for the character who starts this as a 12th level Egoist) - but watch the time limit!
    5. Before the time limit expires (1 day per manifester level), use Psionic Restoration to wipe away the level loss, which brings you "up to the minimum number of experience points necessary to advance it to the next higher level".

Minimum Level: 11 (With Ring of Spell Storing, otherwise 12)

The Feat Battery Trick-

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The Feat Battery Trick uses your Psicrystal (or Psionic Cohort/Thrall) as a source of extra feats, shared with you via the Feat Leach Power.  This can grant you access to extra psionic or metapsionic feats.
Powers: Feat Leach, Psychic Reformation (not necessary but beneficial)
Feats: (A Psicrystal requires Wild Talent or Hidden Talent, you'll also need to give the Battery whatever feats you want to get)
Method:

    1. You manifest Feat Leach on the 'Battery'
    2. The 'Battery' voluntarily fails its Will Save
    3. You gain up to your Wis mod in bonus feats

Minimum Level: 3
Note: A list of useful feats can be found here

***This trick is based on a highly questionable interpretation of the rules.

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The core of the debate is that since a psicrystal's HD is listed:   "Hit Dice: As master’s HD (hp ½ master’s)", some feel that it gains feats from the HD like any other creature does. However, on the other side, the advancement capabilities of the psicrystal in the monster entry is listed as: "Advancement:    —", which means that it is a non-ability, or completely incapable of advancement - The fact that it has HD, and that the HD changes based on owner's HD, is a function of the feat description, not a function of the HD or it having what is effectively virtual HD. Since the feat description for a psicrystal does not grant the feats explicitly, AND the advancement part of the stat block is listed a non-ability, it cannot have feats.

Check with your DM to see which interpretation is being used in your game. ***

[nijineko]

Garryl's Casual Disconcern for the Action Economy-

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Garryl came up with this trick, which is yet another way for psychics (in this case, Ardents) to tell the Action Economy to shut up and sit down.

Doable as early as Ardent 10.
Requires: Ardent 10, Dominant Ideal ACF, Substitute Powers ACF, Time mantle, Synchronicity power, Linked Power feat.
Optional: Bestow Power power, Metapower feat.

With Dominant Ideal (set to Time Mantle), you spend 2 PP less (minimum 1 PP) and do not expend your psionic focus when using metapsionic feats or augmentations on powers from the chosen mantle. With Substitute Powers, you can put Synchronicity into the Time mantle. Thus, you can spend 1 PP to manifest Synchronicity linked to Synchronicity, which does not cost you any actions effectively, and grants you an extra standard action in the next round. Since you haven't expended your psionic focus, you can do this again (manifesting the power using the standard action granted by the first Synchronicity) to get as many extra actions as you want in the next round at the cost of 1 PP per action.

The option for the recharge comes when you link Synchronicity to Bestow Power. For 1 PP (base 4 PP, reduced by 4 between Metapower and Dominant Ideal), you gain 2 PP next round at no effective action cost to you. Thus, the amount of PP you can have access to increases at an exponential rate, close to doubling every round. Even if your DM rules that you can't have more PP in your pool at once than your normal maximum, you can still "float" the excess PP from round to round using the automatically readied standard actions granted by a linked Synchronicity manifested from the previous round.

The Psionic Sandwich-

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The Psionic Sandwich was an attempt to build the most optimized useless character possible, back on 339.  The nice thing about this trick is that Tleilaxu_Ghola found a way to effectively get a True Mindswitch without paying the 10,000XP cost.

The Psionic Sandwich by Tleilaxu_Ghola

Hmph, I think I should edit my original mind-switch thread. The most optimal way to gain a body permanently is no longer true mind switch. It's to use astral seed + mind switch + psychic chirurgery. The result is an XP expendature of 0 XP, that's right zero. You lose no levels, and you gain all the effects of true mind switch.

Anyways, so in lieu of what I just said above, the most optimal way to create the most un-optimal character is to use the following sequence and build:

Race: Elan
Build: Telepath 20
Feats: Any, must have EK(Astral Seed) and skill focus (craft [basket weaving])

1. Acquire a loaf of bread (2cp)
2. Turn the bread into a sandwich (craft DC 5) (probably 2 minutes)
3. Polymorph the sandwich (preferably ham with mustard, pepperoni, salami, and jalapenos) into a fuzzy little bunny. (NPC casting 1200 gp) (1 standard action)
4. Cast astral seed (10 minutes)
5. Ritualistically slay yourself with favored method of suicide. Be sure to place your storage crystal next to the sandwich turned bunny. (I prefer to be killed with a dagger to the heart... :shifty: ) (Approximately 5 rounds)
6. Use mind-switch (the 6th level power) to switch with the rabbit, while in your storage crystal. (1 std action)
7. Metamorph into a troll and smash your storage crystal (now containing the mind of a sandwich). (2 standard actions)
8. Use psychic chirurgery to remove your negative level gotten from committing suicide. (10 minutes)
9. Dismiss your metamorphosis and manifest dispel psionics on yourself (to dispel the polymorph). (2 standard actions)

Congratulations, your ascension to the sublime state of a sandwich took:
23 minutes 6 seconds and cost you 1200.02 gold pieces.

Any one have a more optimal method?

Now, it occurred to me that this might not be a half bad character to play. So long as you pick up the power psionic overland flight and tweak your character levels a bit, you could seriously play a sandwich. Of course your hitpoints or AC wouldn't be much to speak of... but honestly, who is going to kill the sandwich that the fighter packs.

Nijineko's Steal Steel-

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Synopsis: To store one's body in a time-stopped state, but allowing one's mind to be free from the body and able to act. In other words, stylishly masquerade as a magic or psionic item.

Process overview: Separate the mind from the body. Preserve the body. Store the body. House the mind so that it is free to act.

Pros: Able to inhabit any edged metal (host) weapon within a certain radius at will. Able to exist for a few rounds outside of a "host". Can be affected only by a very limited list of effects; for example: effectively immune to all physical and energy damage. Body is immune to at least one (or two) rounds of damage, regardless of type. Effectively disguised as a minor magic item.

Cons: Complex requirements-limited entry. Requires daily (or more frequently, depending on character level) power point expenditure to survive. Cannot benefit from magic items, except for weapon crystals. (which fact went a long way towards placating my dm.) Can still be affected by mental and death effects. True seeing reveals that you are not a minor magic item.

Preparation:
Two to five feat slots filled with Expanded Knowledge Feat (manifester level 3rd).
Glove of storage (2,500 gp) or similar psionic item.
Psychic Reformation power (psion/wilder 4th level power, manifester level 7).
Compression power (psychic warrior 1st level power, manifester level 1-via expanded knowledge feat).
Crystalize power (shaper 6th level power, manifester level 11, must be shaper or use another expanded knowledge feat.)
Quintessence (shaper 4th level power, manifester level 7, must be shaper or use another epanded knowledge feat.)
Steal Steel (psion 5th level power, manifester level 9, unique power-via expanded knowledge feat)
Sufficient ranks of Autohypnosis to set up an unconscious hypnotic command.
Delay power feat if there is any question about the timing of the sequence of events.
Construct body feat or animate object power to activate the glove of storage.
Ring of sustenance to offset any minor quibbles of survivability, especially if the quintessence is canceled.

step one: compression (requires psychic reformation, and exp. know. feat)
   this will reduce her weight to below the glove's limit, if augmented for double
   reduction.
step two: steal steel. (unique power, must be obtained from dragon in the forgotten
   realms setting, or by dm permission/arrangement/fiat. )
   this will allow her to escape her body and inhabit an edged weapon.
step three: crystalize.
   this will preserve her reduced body and its life functions.
step four: use quintessence on the crystalized body.
   this will timestop the duration of all non-permanent effects on her. it will also
   serve as a measure of protection against damage, as if the glove is
   destroyed, the violence of the gloves destruction would neutralize the
   quintessence but leave enclosed items undamaged... till next round.
step five: use glove of storage on the compressed crystalized body.
   if there is a question of activation, use psychic reformation to acquire
   construct body feat, to wear a construct form long enough to active the glove.
step six: use quintessence on the glove.
   this will time stop the duration of all non-permanent effects on her. it will also
   serve as a measure of protection against damage, as if the dagger is
   destroyed, the violence of the daggers destruction would neutralize the
   quintessence but leave enclosed items undamaged... till next round.
step seven: store glove in the handle of the dagger.

since shrink cannot be used on a 'magic item', and crystalize results in a 'magic item', this route will allow the character to exist in the dagger. have the quintessence prepared ahead of time.

Steelsteal
Psychoportation (Dex)
Level: Psion 5
Display: None
Manifestation Time: 1 action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 hour/level or until you return to your body (D) (see text)
Power Points: 9

You free your spirit from your body, allowing you to travel as an incorporeal creature and inhabit metallic blades (such as daggers, swords, and so on). While incorporeal, you cannot make attacks or use any abilities, but you can fly at speed 30 (perfect). You do not carry any equipment with you but gain a deflection bonus to AC equal to your Charisma bonus. You can remain incorporeal for up to 3 rounds in succession, after which the power ends and your spirit returns to its body. When incorporeal, you are affected by spells and powers that ward or harm such disembodied spirits or possession attempts, such as magic circle against evil, which prevents you from entering or attempting to possess any blade within the area.

While incorporeal, you can overlap a metallic blade with your incorporeal form and enter it fully. While "possessing" the blade in this manner, you can see, hear, and feel as well as a normal human. You can speak and use any powers or abilities you have that don't require somatic or material components (therefore psionic abilities function normally). You cannot move the blade unless you have magic or psionics that allow you to move objects (such as far hand, skate, or telekinesis). You can remain within a blade indefinitely, subject to the duration of the power. As a standard action you can vacate the blade and become incorporeal again, or transfer directly between two blades in physical contact at the time. A blade possessed by you can bypass damage reduction as if it had a +2 enhancement bonus, but it does not gain any bonuses to hit or damage. Damaging the blade causes you no harm, and destroying it merely returns you to your incorporeal form. At any time you can end the power as a standard action and immediately return to your body.

If you attempt to possess an intelligent blade, the blade resists and you must attempt a Will saving throw (DC = item's ego). Success means you possess the blade and can use its abilities in addition to your own (so if the weapon could teleport once per day, you could activate that ability and teleport yourself and the blade to your choice of locations). Failure means you possess the blade but cannot use its abilities or any of your own (you are essentially a passenger), although you can still leave the blade normally.

Your body remains behind, unconscious. Effects on your body (such as poison, disease, and so on) continue while you are away, and because your body is still alive, it still needs air, water, and food. If your body is killed, you die.

Note: Another possible DM fiat, but the autohypnosis power could be used to self-program to auto expend the pp on the steal steel power. so long as one does not drop down below the minimum pp required to manifest it for 24+ hours.... I believe that there are other methods to get into an object more or less permanently, but this is one of the lowest level ones I can find.

Also note the unusual level-based duration. This article was published in June 2003, one month before the 3.5 phb was released, and a year or so before the exp psi was released... so this is definitely a 3.0 power.

This combination can render one effectively immortal, so long as the body is not destroyed nor dies, and you are not prevented from manifesting this power in a timely fashion, somehow.

Suck it Wizards, (Su) Psi and You- ***(This trick may have been dis-proven. See spoiler for details.)

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isn't the argument stemming from the fact that the ability to manifest powers was described as an SLA? if one distinguishes between the ability to manifest powers and the effect (the powers themselves), i can see it go either way. if one does rule different in that case, i'm not sure what effect, if any, the feats would have then. i don't have much of an opinion on this argument.

I'm not arguing that powers aren't PLAs. That is definitely RAW. The trouble is that psionics-magic transparency does not, and never has, applied to feats.

The quote:

Psionics-Magic Transparency
Though not explicitly called out in the spell descriptions or magic item descriptions, spells, spell-like abilities, and magic items that could potentially affect psionics do affect psionics.

Feats are not covered by the rule. Thus, feats that affect magic (such as metamagic) and feats that affect psionics are always treated separately.

Furthermore, while PLAs are similar to SLAs, they are explicitly treated separately in the rules. SRD again:

In addition to existing spell-like and supernatural abilities, creatures can also have psi-like abilities. (Psionic creatures may also have extraordinary and natural abilities.)

Which finally leads us to the basis for the entire "trick" - Quicken SLA and Empower SLA. Here is that quote:

Psi-Like Abilities And Feats
Creatures with access to psi-like abilities can use the feats Empower Spell-Like Ability and Quicken Spell-Like Ability.

These are two very specific exceptions to the general rule. It does not write us a blank check to go hunting for SLA-only feats to apply to psionics; that includes Supernatural Transformation.


I'm sorry if it seems like I'm running this into the ground, but I pointed out this issue to KA in the original thread on GitP when we started this guide and he hasn't got around to removing it from the list yet. I think the trick is cool and all, but if we start allowing houserule tricks in the guide there's no telling how long and unwieldy it could end up. There's more than enough RAW exploits in the psionics rules without resorting to things that simply don't work by any true reading.

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Disclaimer!!! This trick is verging on T.O. /Disclaimer!!!  Ok, with that out of the way, this is one beautiful trick.  You see, according to the SRD:
Quote from: SRD

Psi-Like Abilities (Ps)
The manifestation of powers by a psionic character is considered a psi-like ability

And...

Quote from: SRD

Psi-Like Abilities And Feats
Creatures with access to psi-like abilities can use the feats Empower Spell-Like Ability and Quicken Spell-Like Ability.

Which means that your manifesting is a valid target for feats which affect Spell-Like Abilities.  Like, say, Supernatural Transformation.  Now, the benefits of making your manifesting into an (Su) power are manifold - they are no longer subject to Dispell Magic/Psionics, they are no longer effected by PR/SR, and the big one, they no longer have an XP cost to manifest.  Now, the Sage has said that Supernatural Transformation does not apply to class based abilities, as it says "Innate Spell-Like Ability" in the feat description.  However, this is not RAW and it could be argued that Psionic ability is in fact innate - to quote the SRD:

Quote from: SRD

Powers And Power Points
Psionic characters manifest powers, which involve the direct manipulation of personal mental energy. These manipulations require natural talent and personal meditation.

So, if you take Supernatural Transformation and apply it to your manifesting, you gain a host of benefits.  Sprinkle in Spell-to-Power Erudite to taste and you've got one wicked character.
Powers:
Feats: Supernatural Transformation
Method:

    Take Supernatural Transformation, apply directly to Manifesting
    Dodge DMG, XPH, Boot, etc. to the head (And one for Jenny and the wimp)
    Confused
    Profit

Minimum Level: 1

Power Surge-

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You will need:

- Wild Surge +3 or Font of Power
- Bestow Power
- [recommended] A Torc of PP Preservation
- [optional] A psionic cohort or party member

Summary
This tricks lets you generate infinite power points - either to recharge your own reserve or someone else's. As a Metamind, your ability to do this is more limited and comes online much later, but is also more reliable.

Method
As a Wilder:
1) Manifest Bestow Power, targeting yourself.
2) Wild Surge +3, paying for one augmentation.
3) If successful, you will have spent 3 points and gained 4, before any PP reduction e.g. Torc of PP or Earth Power.
4) Repeat as needed to refill your PP reserve. (but see "Psychic Enervation" below.)

As a Metamind:
1) Pour all your remaining PP into cognizance crystals, or Bestow it to your party members when they run low.
2) Activate Font of Power
3) Manifest Bestow Power, targeting whoever needs it (starting with you), augmented as high as you can.
4) Repeat (3) until everyone is recharged or FoP ends ten rounds later.

Special: Place an Affinity Field on yourself, and you can refill your own reserve and that of the entire party simultaneously.

Sidebar: Psychic Enervation
The Wild Surge method can be done earlier (level 7) but carries with it the risk of psychic enervation - the chance that your attempt to recharge is cancelled out by all the PP you lose. We can use the mean probability formula to determine how many PP this trick will gain you on average.

If you Wild Surge +3, your chance of enervation is 15%, or 0.15. If you enervate, you will lose PP = to your wilder level. Therefore, at level 7, the outcome will be:

(net PP gained w/o enervation)(chance of success) + (net PP lost w/ enervation)(chance of failure)

= (1)(0.85) + (-6)(0.15) = -0.05 before PP reduction. (On average you gain nothing, and actually end up worse off if you do this 20 or more times.)

With PP reduction = 1 it becomes:
= (2)(0.85) + (-5)(0.15) = +0.95, now on average you gain PP.
With PP reduction >= 2 you no longer need Wild Surge and can instead just Bestow Power yourself directly with no chance of failure.

This is why PP reduction helps the trick work reliably, but you can still refill others without it - the PP you lose from enervating won't be taken from their total.

Suicide (A Do the Wight Thing Variant)-

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This fuctions as normal for "Do the Wight Thing", but instead of using a Wight or some other level-draining critter, you use Fission, and kill your duplicate - giving you a negative level, which you leave until it becomes real level loss.  Then continue with Do the Wight Thing as normal.

Diamonds are Forever-

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Diamonds are Forever is a method to truly, really, permanently change your form.  This requires you really, really lose a level (Restoration won't help), as it's by death.  But the way it works is as follows:
1) Get the form with abilities you want (whether that's by Mind Switch, Metamorphosis, or any other method.
2) While in said form, manifest Astral Seed
3) Let the method of switching forms expire.
4) Kill yourself.
5) Make a new body from your astral seed - which is "a living, breathing body that is an exact duplicate of your body at the time you manifested astral seed (the crystal itself breaks down and becomes a part of the new organic body). When the tenth day ends, you completely and totally inhabit the new body. You possess all the abilities you possessed when astral seed was manifested, at one level lower, but you have none of your equipment."

Congrats - it cost you a level, but hey: Instant change of shape.  If you're an Egoist-17 with Greater Metamorphosis, this lets you get Supernatural abilities, too. 

Shards of Leadership-

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This trick uses nested leadership to effectively grant a 17th (or higher) level Cohort to a 2nd level character.
Powers:
Feats: Psicrystal Affinity, Improved Psicrystal, Leadership
Method:

    Take Psicrystal Affinity and Improved Psicrystal until your Psicrystal has 6HD
    Have your Psicrystal take Leadership and pick a level 4 Human Psion as its Cohort
    Have your Psicrystal's Cohort repeat step 1 until his/her Psicrystal has 7HD
    Have your Psicrystal's Cohort's Psicrystal take Leadership and choose a 5th level Human Psion (with at least 12 Charisma) who repeats step one to attract an 8HD Psicrystal
    Repeat previous steps until a Psion Cohort of 17th level is attracted

Minimum Level: 2 (Human with two flaws)

***(This is based on a highly questionable interpretation of the psicrystal rules. See "The Feat Battery Trick"

It also would seem to violate the Leadership rules, wherein it is stated, "The character can attract a cohort of up to this level. Regardless of a character’s Leadership score, he can only recruit a cohort who is two or more levels lower than himself."

A psicrystal is not a character, and cannot be one due to having the following three entries: Level Adjustment:    —; Advancement:    —; and Challenge Rating:    Included with master.)***

Having said that, swapping out the psicrystal for an elemental envoy might do the trick.

Frickin' Laser Beams-

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Use energy conversion, a psicrystal (with metamorphosis to remove immunity to mind-affecting effects), schism, Chain Power, Split Psionic Ray, Overchannel, Greater/Psionic Shot, and Aligned Attack/a chasuble of fell power, along with energy wall to charge it up, to deal up to (8x[ML+3]x3)+7d6 damage (and half damage to tons of secondary creatures) every single round, and all for the cost of one energy conversion and one energy wall (both manifested beforehand) and a schism (a psychoactive skin can take care of the metamorphosis bit).

Erudite Concerto-

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The Erudite Concerto gets you around your UPpD limit.
This trick lets level 9+ Erudites circumvent their UPpD limitation..

You will need:
- A Psicrystal with Wild/Hidden Talent, or a psionic cohort
- Metaconcert

Method:
1) Manifest Metaconcert, targeting yourself and your friend/pet rock.
2) Use the entity created to manifest any utility powers you need.

Because the entity manifests the powers, and knows every power you know, you are able to access your entire library without adding to your UPD count - you are not actually manifesting them.

It is unclear whether the entity gets its own set of actions or must use those of the conductor. If the latter, simply make your psicrystal the conductor so that you can keep manifesting as needed.

Notes:
1) This can only be done solo if your psicrystal gets feats (they are not psionic by default, but Wild Talent makes them that way.) This is (possibly) RAW, but some DMs do not like this. Without it, you will need a cohort or party member.
***(Please see Feat Battery Trick for details.)***
2) This is not always suitable for combat. Metaconcert takes a minute to cast (10 rounds) and only lasts minutes/level, so ideally you will already be in one when a fight starts if you need your repertoire that much.
3) You can get around the movement speed reduction; RAW it only applies "if you move as a group." So tell your psicrystal not to move, put it in your pocket, and move as normal.

MoI Infini-manifesting

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What you need: Azure Talent, Psycarnum Infusion, CON 13, a power point reserve.

Recommended: Psionic Mediation

How it works:

Azure talent grants you power points = to 2x the number of essentia invested in  the feat, subject to your max essentia cap.

Psycarnum infusion grants virtual max essentia capacity in one of your soul-melds, incarnum feats, class features, or other incarnum receptacles, until the start of your next turn, or effectively one round, in exchange for expending focus.

Furthermore, you cannot gain focus unless your reserve is above 0pp, thus a cognizance crystal will not work.
Here is why:

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Gain Psionic Focus

Merely holding a reservoir of psionic power points in mind gives psionic characters a special energy. Psionic characters can put that energy to work without actually paying a power point cost—they can become psionically focused as a special use of the Concentration skill.

If you have 1 or more power points available, you can meditate to attempt to become psionically focused. The DC to become psionically focused is 20. Meditating is a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity. When you are psionically focused, you can expend your focus on any single Concentration check you make thereafter. When you expend your focus in this manner, your Concentration check is treated as if you rolled a 15. It’s like taking 10, except that the number you add to your Concentration modifier is 15. You can also expend your focus to gain the benefit of a psionic feat—many psionic feats are activated in this way.

Once you are psionically focused, you remain focused until you expend your focus, become unconscious, or go to sleep (or enter a meditative trance, in the case of elans), or until your power point reserve drops to 0.

A cog-crystal cannot add to your power point reserve.

A user cannot directly replenish her personal power points from those stored in a cognizance crystal, nor can she draw power points from more than one source to manifest a power.

when your reserve is 0, you cannot focus. cog crystals cannot add to your reserve. therefore, a cog crystal will not work for this trick, even though the cog crystal is providing 1pp.

Example: let's pretend the max essentia capicity for this example is 3, and our power points are 1.
Step one: expend focus, activating psy-inf, targeting, azu-tal.
Step two: gain 6pp until next turn.
Step three: on next turn pp return to 1, as the azu-tal deactivates. you must regain focus to repeat.

Cautions:

- You can't assign stuff to Azure Talent in the morning, or else it may get locked and iffy things may happen by strict logic
- You have to have an empty reserve or else iffy things happen when you spend PPs which may or may not come from your bonus PPs
- you have to accept that Psycarnum infusion breaks common Incarnum feat rules. If you don't, the feat is rather useless.

How do you break the trick:

- I'm thinking the GM could say you have to log bonus PPs for the day. Use the trick once, get X bonus PPs. Use some of them, the next time you use the trick you don't get new bonus PPs, simply the same ones (which have already been used) again. This could be supported by strict reading of Azure Talent, if you don't believe Psycarnum Infusion breaks that clause. I believe it does break the 1/day clause.

Possibly disproved by Sor-O:
Sor-O pointed out to me that the feat Azure Talent has wording that indicates it grants the bonus power points from the process of investing incarnum, not by containing some incarnum or by being full of incarnum. Thus putting a virtual "full of incarnum" state into Azure Talent feat technically does not trigger the feat's benefit, only the act of investing does, based on the wording and grammar.

Erudite Chameleon

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Erudite Chameleon
-Be an Erudite.  Spell-to-Power is optional.
-Take 2 levels of Chameleon.  (Remember, it's for Humans, Changelings, and Dopplegangers only unless your GM says otherwise.)
-Use your floating feat on Expanded Knowledge.   Learn every power you want (and can), one day at a time.  If your GM rules that Expanded Knowledge works on spells converted to powers (and you're Spell-to-Power), go ahead!

This trick is costly in terms of time (one power per day), requires the level 1-only feat Able Learner, and puts you behind one power level compared to a full Psion or Erudite.  It may be worth it for a low wealth game, or if you really want to learn a lot of powers you couldn't otherwise.

Possible alternate containers or sources for powers:

• Psicrystal
• Soul Crystal
• Metaconcert
• Psychic Chirurgery
• Psychic Chirurgery plus Metaconcert
• Feat Leech
• Psychic Reformation

Larval Harvest

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Larval Harvest:
Summon Larval Flayers (a Psion2 power from Complete Psionic) and get a +1 Mindfeeder Arrow, the equivalent of a +4 weapon.  (A scythe does more crit damage, but we're giong for economy.)  As ammo, it costs only 1/50 as much, or about 646G.

The SRD limits a Mindfeeder weapon to 1/day, but the Magic Item Compendium version of Mindfeeder removed the 1/day limit.

Order your larval flayers to go unconscious and therefore helpless.

Coup de grace 'em (in melee of course) for more PP!  Assuming average HP, each flayer can take 21 damage before going totally dead.  Thus, expect no more than 21 PP per dead flayer.  Your GM may rule that negative HP go down infinitely, thus allowing you to break the 21 PP per flayer cap.

Larval Harvest II

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I've worked out a variation of this trick - I suppose I'll call it Larval Harvest II.

Take a powerleech weapon from Lost Empires of Faerun (+8,000 gp, gives you 1 pp every time you hit a psionic creature, drains 1 pp from the target every time you hit a creature with a power point total).  Whack the larval flayer for nonlethal damage every round - if you're 4th level or higher, you should have a net gain of at least 1 pp per summon.  (Works out even better if you use Elemental Steward as a 1st level power, especially the earth variant.)

If you've got Bestow Power, though, you may be better off with the mindfeeder weapon since it can be a lot faster at generating power points.  Just manifest Bestow Power on yourself, and then transfer those temp PPs into your power point total.

wow. a whole new use for beating your head against a wall... er... weapon. ^^

Unless your only intent is to convert temp power points, striking yourself with a powerleech weapon doesn't work at all - each time you hit yourself, you'd also be draining a power point from your own reserves with every swing.  The net difference would then be zero (minus some hit points).   

Even if you did want to convert temp PP's (like from a mindfeeder crit), you're much better of just targeting yourself with Bestow Power, since then you won't need to worry about healing.

In order to actually gain power points with a powerleech weapon, you'd need to swing at a psionic creature with either (1) a power point total above zero or (2) psi-like abilities.  #2 is preferable, because then you continue to gain power points even after the target's power point total is reduced to zero.  Thus, the trick necessitates a larval flayer or some other summonable creature with psi-like abilities.

(editted for readability)

Sleep It Off

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Psychofeedback Exploit:

Dunno what to call this - "Sleep It Off"?  "Feel The Burn (But Not Really)"?

Take the feats Mind Over Body and Persistent Power, as well as the power psychofeedback.  Wait until you're able to manifest psychofeedback as a persistent power - this will require things like a torc of psionic might and other cost-lowering items/abilities to accomplish before epic levels.

Manifest a persistent psychofeedback immediately before you go to sleep for the night; make sure to distribute the ability burn such that you can heal it all up in one night.  (Ex: if you've got a +4 constitution bonus, you can put 5 points of ability burn into your int, wis, and cha for a +15 bonus.)  Upon waking, the ability burn from this power will be gone completely and you'll have a massive all-day bonus to one physical ability score.  (Thus demonstrating yet another reason why giving psychofeedback ability burn vice a temp ability penalty was a VERY bad idea.)

For maximum cheese, if you can rely on not getting dispelled for several days, I'd put everything into constitution to begin with, and then start doing multiple persistent psychofeedbacks each night, taking full advantage of your newfound ability to sleep off massive amounts of ability burn.  This trick doesn't work nearly so well if you've dumped multiple mental stats, if you habitually eat ability burn from some other source, or if you're prone to getting dispels thrown at you.  Or if your DM is fond of midnight ambushes.  (Hope whatever you're getting ambushed by can be clubbed to death, because you'll probably be too hungover to manifest anything in response.)

So, if you've got any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.  Also, I'm not sure that the MoI Recharge Trick or the Move by Wire trick work, though, so if they don't let me know.  And if you can think of a way to make them work, even better.

Acknowledgements

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The Meditation Hustle is the work of Psyren, over on GitP
The Mad Minute is the work of Jack_Simth, over on GitP
The MoI Recharge Trick is the work of another (Does anyone know whom?)
The Move by Wire trick is my own
The Embrace of Mother Earth is the work of another
You Squared is the work of another
The Save Game Trick is the work of Tleilaxu_Ghola
Tiny von BigMcLargeHuge is the work of Lycanthromancer
The Psionic Dreadnought is the work of Emo_Duck
Thanks to Stegyre for explaining the MoI Recharge Trick to me
ACMA and ACME, Erudite Chameleon, and Larval Harvest belong to Endarire
The Carmen San Diego Trick by jameswilliamogle
The Psionic Last Breath Trick is the work of Psyren
The Do the Wight Thing Trick is the work of Jack_Simth
The Feat Battery Trick is the work of another (possibly Lycanthromancer?)
Garryl's Casual Disconcern for the Action Economy is the work, fittingly enough, of Garryl
The Psionic Sandwich is the work of Tleilaxu_Ghola
Nijineko's Steel Steal is, of course, Nijineko's
Suck it Wizards, (Su) Psi and You is the work of Lycanthromancer
Power Surge is the work of Psyren
Suicide is the work of Jack_Simth
Diamonds are Forever is the work of Jack_Simth
Shards of Leadership is the work of Godskook
Frickin' Laser Beams is the work of Lycanthromancer
Erudite Concerto is the work of Psyren
A Fistful of Manifester Arrows is the work of Lycanthromancer
Infini-manifesting pointed out by brainpiercing
Larval Harvest II and Sleep It Off by Azoriel

Changelog

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1 December 2010 - Changed the Move by Wire trick to include Solicit Psicrystal
1 December 2010 - Added the Save Game trick
1 December 2010 - Added The Embrace of Mother Earth
1 December 2010 - Added You Squared
1 December 2010 - Added Tiny von BigMcLargeHuge
1 December 2010 - Added the Fistfull of Manifester Arrows
1 December 2010 - Fixed the 'Racial Requirement' line in The Embrace of Mother Earth
2 December 2010 - Added the Masochistic Crystal
3 December 2010 - Added the Psionic Dreadnought
3 December 2010 - Fixed the MoI Recharge Trick
3 December 2010 - Added ACMA and ACME
4 December 2010 - Added the Carmen San Diego Trick
10 December 2010 - Added The Psionic Last Breath Trick
10 December 2010 - Added the Do the Wight Thing Trick
10 December 2010 - Added the Feat Battery Trick
16 December 2010 - Added Garryl's Casual Disconcern for the Action Economy
20 December 2010 - Added the Psionic Sandwich link
26 December 2010 - Added Nijineko's Steel Steal Trick
27 December 2010 - Added Suck it Wizards, (Su) Psi and You
9 January 2011 - Added Power Surge
9 January 2011 - Added Suicide
9 January 2011 - Added Diamonds are Forever
9 January 2011 - Added Shards of Leadership
9 January 2011 - Added Frickin' Laser Beams
20 January 2011 - Added Erudite Concerto
16 February 2011 - Added source on A Fistful of Manifester Arrows
14 November 2011 - Ported to new forums by nijineko. Minor editing
17 November 2011 - Added MoI Infini-manifesting.
08 September 2020 - added Erudite Chameleon and Larval Harvest, Larval Harvest II, Sleep It Off

[snakeman830]

A method of getting (Su) powers that is completely legal with no questionable interpretations is as follows:

Character A is a Binder, bound to any of the psionic vestiges.  All vestige granted abilities are Su in nature, and the online articles introducing the psionic vestiges even backs this up stating the granted manifesting ability is all Su.  However, the powers granted are kinda meh and difficult to abuse this with.

Character B is a full manifester with Metaconcert.  When manifesting Metaconcert, Character A is designated as the conductor.  As such, he can draw upon the powers known of Character B and manifest them as Su abilities.

[brujon]

Some of these tricks are extremely TO in nature, isn't it better to move this to You Break it You Buy It?

[nijineko]

well, it was in the handbooks section on the old forums, so i put it here. i wasn't planning on judging which is and isn't TO, but i see your point. i like referring to this handbook as both a player and a dm. useful to know what tricks to look out for. I would like to see a handbook for non-psionic tricks of all levels, consolidated into one someday... sort of like the old dirty tricks threads.

[brainpiercing]

Psiwarrior MOI Infinimanifesting is missing:

What you need:
Psywarrior, Azure Talent, Psycarnum Infusion (Psionic Mediation)

Reduce PPs to 0 with regular manifestation. You are now no longer a psionic creature, can't psionically focus. Take a Power crystal that contains 1PP, now you CAN psionically focus again. Expend focus to treat Azure talent as completely filled. Immediately manifest for those PPs, your single PP from the crystal is safe, since you can't mix sources. After the round you have 0 again, but since there are no rules for below 0 PPs, you never go below.

Doable by level: 1 (Human, Azurin). Any with two flaws. Suggested race: Dragonborn Water Orc for beefy 10 Wis psywar. .

Later you can do it every round, and manifest a standard action power every round. With psycrystal it gets better, yet.

[Garryl]

Psiwarrior MOI Infinimanifesting is missing:

What you need:
Psywarrior, Azure Talent, Psycarnum Infusion (Psionic Mediation)

Reduce PPs to 0 with regular manifestation. You are now no longer a psionic creature, can't psionically focus. Take a Power crystal that contains 1PP, now you CAN psionically focus again. Expend focus to treat Azure talent as completely filled. Immediately manifest for those PPs, your single PP from the crystal is safe, since you can't mix sources. After the round you have 0 again, but since there are no rules for below 0 PPs, you never go below.

Doable by level: 1 (Human, Azurin). Any with two flaws. Suggested race: Dragonborn Water Orc for beefy 10 Wis psywar. .

Later you can do it every round, and manifest a standard action power every round. With psycrystal it gets better, yet.

I never understood this logic. There aren't rules for what happens when you go below 0 PP (other than that you can't spend more PP than you have and the rules about being at 0 PP), which is true. However, are there any rules saying you can't have negative PP, or that if an effect would reduce your PP below 0 it instead reduces it to 0? Anything that actually says that negative PP scores don't exist?

[nijineko]

Reduce PPs to 0 with regular manifestation. You are now no longer a psionic creature, can't psionically focus.

this is actually not true. while it is true that you cannot focus without power points, the qualification for being a psionic character, is having a power point reserve... not how many power points you have. same as natural armor, or an incarnum pool. even a humanoid has natural armor, it is just 0 normally. but creatures do not get an incarnum pool or a power point reserve unless they take a feat or class level or race or template.

[brainpiercing]

Psiwarrior MOI Infinimanifesting is missing:

What you need:
Psywarrior, Azure Talent, Psycarnum Infusion (Psionic Mediation)

Reduce PPs to 0 with regular manifestation. You are now no longer a psionic creature, can't psionically focus. Take a Power crystal that contains 1PP, now you CAN psionically focus again. Expend focus to treat Azure talent as completely filled. Immediately manifest for those PPs, your single PP from the crystal is safe, since you can't mix sources. After the round you have 0 again, but since there are no rules for below 0 PPs, you never go below.

Doable by level: 1 (Human, Azurin). Any with two flaws. Suggested race: Dragonborn Water Orc for beefy 10 Wis psywar. .

Later you can do it every round, and manifest a standard action power every round. With psycrystal it gets better, yet.

I never understood this logic. There aren't rules for what happens when you go below 0 PP (other than that you can't spend more PP than you have and the rules about being at 0 PP), which is true. However, are there any rules saying you can't have negative PP, or that if an effect would reduce your PP below 0 it instead reduces it to 0? Anything that actually says that negative PP scores don't exist?

The thing is that many things state what you can do when you HAVE PPs, and what you can't do when you don't have them. But there is no mention of going below 0. The Power Leech power cannot drain below 0. You don't get negative bonus PPs when going below 10 on your governing ability. There are several spells and powers that grant PPs to another person or yourself, even temporarily, and when these are used and then the spell or power expires, the PP reserve of the recipient is not negative.
Since psionics is not something where real-world deduction works, it would be quite safe to assume that you can't do anything that isn't stated, which means you can't actually drain a reserve below 0. Saying otherwise might be desirable, but it would be a house rule.

And since this is a thread about psionic tricks, there is really no difference between this and psionic recharge, except you can do this at level 1, and psionic recharge at some point becomes very slow. (100s of rounds.) With this trick you can always manifest an unaugmented power up to your highest power level, I believe, as long as you have the required actions.

[nijineko]

Psiwarrior MOI Infinimanifesting is missing:

What you need:
Psywarrior, Azure Talent, Psycarnum Infusion (Psionic Mediation)

Reduce PPs to 0 with regular manifestation. You are now no longer a psionic creature, can't psionically focus. Take a Power crystal that contains 1PP, now you CAN psionically focus again. Expend focus to treat Azure talent as completely filled. Immediately manifest for those PPs, your single PP from the crystal is safe, since you can't mix sources. After the round you have 0 again, but since there are no rules for below 0 PPs, you never go below.

Doable by level: 1 (Human, Azurin). Any with two flaws. Suggested race: Dragonborn Water Orc for beefy 10 Wis psywar. .

Later you can do it every round, and manifest a standard action power every round. With psycrystal it gets better, yet.

I never understood this logic. There aren't rules for what happens when you go below 0 PP (other than that you can't spend more PP than you have and the rules about being at 0 PP), which is true. However, are there any rules saying you can't have negative PP, or that if an effect would reduce your PP below 0 it instead reduces it to 0? Anything that actually says that negative PP scores don't exist?

The thing is that many things state what you can do when you HAVE PPs, and what you can't do when you don't have them. But there is no mention of going below 0. The Power Leech power cannot drain below 0. You don't get negative bonus PPs when going below 10 on your governing ability. There are several spells and powers that grant PPs to another person or yourself, even temporarily, and when these are used and then the spell or power expires, the PP reserve of the recipient is not negative.
Since psionics is not something where real-world deduction works, it would be quite safe to assume that you can't do anything that isn't stated, which means you can't actually drain a reserve below 0. Saying otherwise might be desirable, but it would be a house rule.

And since this is a thread about psionic tricks, there is really no difference between this and psionic recharge, except you can do this at level 1, and psionic recharge at some point becomes very slow. (100s of rounds.) With this trick you can always manifest an unaugmented power up to your highest power level, I believe, as long as you have the required actions.

this does not duplicate psionic recharge.

azure talent grants you power points = to 2x the number of essentia invested in  the feat, subject to your max essentia cap.

psycarnum infusion grants virtual max essentia capacity in one of your soul-melds, incarnum feats, class features, or other incarnum receptacles, until the start of your next turn, or effectively one round, in exchange for expending focus.

furthermore, you cannot gain focus unless your reserve is above 0pp, thus a crystal does not work.

example: let's pretend the max essentia capicity for this example is 3, and our power points are 1.
step one: expend focus, activating psy-inf, targeting, azu-tal.
step two: gain 6pp until next turn.
step three: on next turn pp return to 0, as the azu-tal deactivates. you must regain focus. same source rules apply, so multiple applications overlap instead of stack.



therefore, even though you cannot recharge, you can manifest on empty, so long as you can focus. which is worth a trick.

if i am missing something, please point out the rule/book/page so that i can amend accordingly.


in any case, the trick as i understand it has been added and credited to brainpiercing.

[nijineko]

A method of getting (Su) powers that is completely legal with no questionable interpretations is as follows:

Character A is a Binder, bound to any of the psionic vestiges.  All vestige granted abilities are Su in nature, and the online articles introducing the psionic vestiges even backs this up stating the granted manifesting ability is all Su.  However, the powers granted are kinda meh and difficult to abuse this with.

Character B is a full manifester with Metaconcert.  When manifesting Metaconcert, Character A is designated as the conductor.  As such, he can draw upon the powers known of Character B and manifest them as Su abilities.

i have a question: i see nothing in metaconcert that would allow the blending of class features, such as manifesting one participants powers known as another participants (SU) abilities. the metaconcert would certainly have access to all the abilities, but not the ability to mix and match parts. now if there was a psionic version of geomancer, i would be more inclined to go with this idea.

i say this does not work at all. can you show me otherwise? (rule/book/page)

[snakeman830]

A method of getting (Su) powers that is completely legal with no questionable interpretations is as follows:

Character A is a Binder, bound to any of the psionic vestiges.  All vestige granted abilities are Su in nature, and the online articles introducing the psionic vestiges even backs this up stating the granted manifesting ability is all Su.  However, the powers granted are kinda meh and difficult to abuse this with.

Character B is a full manifester with Metaconcert.  When manifesting Metaconcert, Character A is designated as the conductor.  As such, he can draw upon the powers known of Character B and manifest them as Su abilities.

i have a question: i see nothing in metaconcert that would allow the blending of class features, such as manifesting one participants powers known as another participants (SU) abilities. the metaconcert would certainly have access to all the abilities, but not the ability to mix and match parts. now if there was a psionic version of geomancer, i would be more inclined to go with this idea.

i say this does not work at all. can you show me otherwise? (rule/book/page)

The reason why it works is that the Binder is set as the Conductor (and thus controls the metaconcert), not the manifester of Metaconcert.  Since his manifesting ability is Su in nature, so are any powers manifested via this method.  There is no mixing of class features involved, merely granting more PP and powers known to a Su manifester (as well as the other benefits and drawbacks of the power)

The fact a Binder's manifesting ability is Su is explicitly stated in the sidebar here.

Now, if the peerson who manifested Metaconcert were the conductor, it wouldn't work this way as they would be manifested in the normal way.

[nijineko]

A method of getting (Su) powers that is completely legal with no questionable interpretations is as follows:

Character A is a Binder, bound to any of the psionic vestiges.  All vestige granted abilities are Su in nature, and the online articles introducing the psionic vestiges even backs this up stating the granted manifesting ability is all Su.  However, the powers granted are kinda meh and difficult to abuse this with.

Character B is a full manifester with Metaconcert.  When manifesting Metaconcert, Character A is designated as the conductor.  As such, he can draw upon the powers known of Character B and manifest them as Su abilities.

i have a question: i see nothing in metaconcert that would allow the blending of class features, such as manifesting one participants powers known as another participants (SU) abilities. the metaconcert would certainly have access to all the abilities, but not the ability to mix and match parts. now if there was a psionic version of geomancer, i would be more inclined to go with this idea.

i say this does not work at all. can you show me otherwise? (rule/book/page)

The reason why it works is that the Binder is set as the Conductor (and thus controls the metaconcert), not the manifester of Metaconcert.  Since his manifesting ability is Su in nature, so are any powers manifested via this method.  There is no mixing of class features involved, merely granting more PP and powers known to a Su manifester (as well as the other benefits and drawbacks of the power)

The fact a Binder's manifesting ability is Su is explicitly stated in the sidebar here.

Now, if the peerson who manifested Metaconcert were the conductor, it wouldn't work this way as they would be manifested in the normal way.

after careful review of both the link provided (thank you so much!) and metaconcert, i still have to disagree.

my reasons:

a) the effect of the metaconcert is the creation of an entity which manifests the powers.
b) the only thing transferred from the participants to the entity, is power points, and powers known. technically, not even the ability to manifest is transferred.
c) the entity manifests the powers, getting bonuses specified based on number of participants, not the conductor with the (SU) abilities.
d) the conductor commands the entity, but is not the entity, nor really even a part of the entity.
e) technically speaking, everyone in the metaconcert can still manifest stuff normally on their turn, in addition to the entity. only movement is restricted. so, this is the original "they were eleven" power.

*edit*
f) the entity can manifest powers and psi-likes. no mention of supernatural. ergo, no supernaturals.

now i have three questions:

what are the entity's manifester level and saves based on, since it gets bonuses to saves and dc to manifest powers... from whom or what does it base those saves and dcs on?

since the power is manifested by one individual, i think it stands to reason that it is based on the manifester's saves and dcs, regardless of whom the conductor might be. which would wind up being further circumstantial against class abilities that are not powers or psi-likes. and if it can manifest psi-likes, whose can it manifest, since the only thing transferred are power points and powers known?

and can participants be targeted individually, or are they  all "covered" by the entity?

i think i can see some hints as to what was supposed to be RAI, but, wow, this power needs some clarification.

any further thoughts or suggestions?

[brainpiercing]

this does not duplicate psionic recharge.

It doesn't, which is why it's best for low-level psywars. I don't exactly remember what the max incarnum capacity for feats can become, so it may be that 5th or 6th level powers are the highest you can ever cast. Which again makes it best for psywars. Also, obviously without being able to double-focus you can't apply metapsionics.

What I meant with my earlier statement was that it's in no way worse from a balance perspective than recharge.

azure talent grants you power points = to 2x the number of essentia invested in  the feat, subject to your max essentia cap.

psycarnum infusion grants virtual max essentia capacity in one of your soul-melds, incarnum feats, class features, or other incarnum receptacles, until the start of your next turn, or effectively one round, in exchange for expending focus.

Which I believe I said... or maybe not precisely enough.

furthermore, you cannot gain focus unless your reserve is above 0pp, thus a crystal does not work.

If you have 1 or more power points available, you can meditate to attempt to become psionically focused.

Yes, a Cognizance crystal does work. You have 1PP available. If you can manifest powers you can also become focused.

example: let's pretend the max essentia capicity for this example is 3, and our power points are 1.
step one: expend focus, activating psy-inf, targeting, azu-tal.
step two: gain 6pp until next turn.
step three: on next turn pp return to 0, as the azu-tal deactivates. you must regain focus. same source rules apply, so multiple applications overlap instead of stack.

This I don't get. You never apply anything twice at the same time, so nothing can overlap. If you are able to use Psycarnum infusion twice in one round then indeed they overlap. I don't see a practical application of this, though, unless you use cascading action granting linked power shenanigans.

therefore, even though you cannot recharge, you can manifest on empty, so long as you can focus. which is worth a trick.

if i am missing something, please point out the rule/book/page so that i can amend accordingly.

in any case, the trick as i understand it has been added and credited to brainpiercing.

I didn't invent the thing, even though I discussed it on the old boards, and IIRC was among those who made sure that it actually does work like it does, and also made the restrictions clear:
- You can't assign stuff to Azure Talent in the morning, or else it may get locked and iffy things may happen by strict logic
- You have to have an empty reserve or else iffy things happen when you spend PPs which may or may not come from your bonus PPs
- you have to accept that Psycarnum infusion breaks common Incarnum feat rules. If you don't, the feat is rather useless.

How do you break the trick:
- I'm thinking the GM could say you have to log bonus PPs for the day. Use the trick once, get X bonus PPs. Use some of them, the next time you use the trick you don't get new bonus PPs, simply the same ones (which have already been used) again. This could be supported by strict reading of Azure Talent, if you don't believe Psycarnum Infusion breaks that clause. I believe it does break the 1/day clause.

[nijineko]

Yes, a Cognizance crystal does work. You have 1PP available. If you can manifest powers you can also become focused.

i think that examining a larger section of your quoted area might change your mind. emphasis mine.

Gain Psionic Focus

Merely holding a reservoir of psionic power points in mind gives psionic characters a special energy. Psionic characters can put that energy to work without actually paying a power point cost—they can become psionically focused as a special use of the Concentration skill.

If you have 1 or more power points available, you can meditate to attempt to become psionically focused. The DC to become psionically focused is 20. Meditating is a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity. When you are psionically focused, you can expend your focus on any single Concentration check you make thereafter. When you expend your focus in this manner, your Concentration check is treated as if you rolled a 15. It’s like taking 10, except that the number you add to your Concentration modifier is 15. You can also expend your focus to gain the benefit of a psionic feat—many psionic feats are activated in this way.

Once you are psionically focused, you remain focused until you expend your focus, become unconscious, or go to sleep (or enter a meditative trance, in the case of elans), or until your power point reserve drops to 0.

i believe that your quoted section refers to the sections i put in bold.

A cog-crystal does not add to your power point reserve.

A user cannot directly replenish her personal power points from those stored in a cognizance crystal, nor can she draw power points from more than one source to manifest a power.

when your reserve is 0, you cannot focus. cog crystals cannot add to your reserve. therefore, a cog crystal will not work for this trick, even though the cog crystal is providing 1pp.

This I don't get. You never apply anything twice at the same time, so nothing can overlap. If you are able to use Psycarnum infusion twice in one round then indeed they overlap. I don't see a practical application of this, though, unless you use cascading action granting linked power shenanigans.

this, plus the previous comment were both targeted at explaining why it does not work like recharge, as was implied (or so i thought) by a comment made earlier.

I didn't invent the thing, even though I discussed it on the old boards, and IIRC was among those who made sure that it actually does work like it does, and also made the restrictions clear:
- You can't assign stuff to Azure Talent in the morning, or else it may get locked and iffy things may happen by strict logic
- You have to have an empty reserve or else iffy things happen when you spend PPs which may or may not come from your bonus PPs
- you have to accept that Psycarnum infusion breaks common Incarnum feat rules. If you don't, the feat is rather useless.

How do you break the trick:
- I'm thinking the GM could say you have to log bonus PPs for the day. Use the trick once, get X bonus PPs. Use some of them, the next time you use the trick you don't get new bonus PPs, simply the same ones (which have already been used) again. This could be supported by strict reading of Azure Talent, if you don't believe Psycarnum Infusion breaks that clause. I believe it does break the 1/day clause.

you brought it to my attention, so you get credited. i can have changed the wording to more strongly imply that you told me about it rather than invented it if you like. or, if you find the original creators, i can credit them too.

i almost always double check work, even if they are a trusted source. I like to be able to explain from my own knowledge, rather than having to say that i'm assuming it works 'cause someone said so'. but then i get yelled at for "not trusting" a lot as a result, so... yymv.

i happen to agree that you should leave the feat uninvested if you plan to temp charge it. so long as you never spend more than the pp granted by the feat, once activated, then even if your reserve is not 0, it should work fine. i also think that since it is a temp effect, that uses the wording to the effect of "as if maxed" that it does not actually max it.

i'll add those restrictions to the post, useful that.

[brainpiercing]

Hmm, I still disagree about not being able to focus with a Cog crystal. However, your reasoning is good, it just boils down to weighting of the sentences.

So the only thing that remains is recharging your Cog Crystals when empty, which you can do once you can cast Bestow Power on yourself from a crystal. OR you go full action-boosting shenanigans that must allow you to both manifest Bestow Power AND another power in one round so that you can Infinicast every round. As is, every other round should still work.

This turns it from a Psywarrior trick into a psion trick, since I'm not sure Psywars can even cast Bestow Power.

[kalaskaagathas]

I'm glad to see this got ported over.  I still need to clean it up, get everything from the threads at BG and GitP, get it formatted, and post the handbook proper.  Unfortunately, I'm pretty busy with school at the moment, so it may be a little while.  In the mean time, keep the tricks coming!  I may want to start a Brainstorming Thread Mk. II, just so everyone can post to it, but that's work for tomorrow.

Anyhow, I'm glad to know that this has been of benefit to somebody, and I want everyone to know that I haven't forgotten about it.

[nijineko]

Hmm, I still disagree about not being able to focus with a Cog crystal. However, your reasoning is good, it just boils down to weighting of the sentences.

So the only thing that remains is recharging your Cog Crystals when empty, which you can do once you can cast Bestow Power on yourself from a crystal. OR you go full action-boosting shenanigans that must allow you to both manifest Bestow Power AND another power in one round so that you can Infinicast every round. As is, every other round should still work.

This turns it from a Psywarrior trick into a psion trick, since I'm not sure Psywars can even cast Bestow Power.

i guess we'll have to agree to disagree. i don't see how reserve = 0pp = cannot focus, and cog-crys cannot replenish reserve can be viewed differently than cog-crys cannot be used to focus, but perhaps i'm being too narrow minded or missing a critical point. if so, i apologize.

for psywars, the EK feat should get any psionic class the bestow power on their powers known list.

I'm glad to see this got ported over.  I still need to clean it up, get everything from the threads at BG and GitP, get it formatted, and post the handbook proper.  Unfortunately, I'm pretty busy with school at the moment, so it may be a little while.  In the mean time, keep the tricks coming!  I may want to start a Brainstorming Thread Mk. II, just so everyone can post to it, but that's work for tomorrow.

Anyhow, I'm glad to know that this has been of benefit to somebody, and I want everyone to know that I haven't forgotten about it.

anytime you want the thread back, i'll happily turn it over. =D i just felt it too important to lose. take your time.

[phaedrusxy]

I used the Feat Battery trick to spectacular effect with Eddie, my thrallherd psion. I also combined it with the "psionic sandwich" and "big guy is with me".

I doubt I "originally" came up with the feat battery trick, but I think I did at least independently come up with it for that build.

[nijineko]

I used the Feat Battery trick to spectacular effect with Eddie, my thrallherd psion. I also combined it with the "psionic sandwich" and "big guy is with me".

I doubt I "originally" came up with the feat battery trick, but I think I did at least independently come up with it for that build.

i don't think the psycrystal - feat thing is legit by raw, but many do, so other than adding my reasons for why, i left those alone. however, on a personal note, i think sidekick types should be able to be independent if the character dies, and thus should get feats - be it familiars, mounts or psicrystals or whatever. i just don't think raw supports it. ^^