RacesIn general, any race that penalizes WIS should be avoided like the plague. I would refer everyone to AfterCrescent's cleric handbook, with the thought that CHR is not a serious consideration. I will cover humans and psionic races and whatever the you guys provide here. Thanks to ardent's funky way of selecting powers LA is not as big of an issue. No race has favored class as ardent although humans and Synad can select their first class as a favored class.
Humans:
Extra skill and extra feat. For a feat and skill starved class this is races fixes both problems and is great for all builds, whether it be gish, tank, blaster, healer, whatever. As you will see there will be a lot of feats that you really want, especially metapsionic feats, that you will not be able to pick in your 20 level career. Just being human will save you one dip into a class. Considering that practiced manifester only covers 4 levels this is a big deal. The race all others are judged against.
Kalashtar:
The amount of extra PP you gain from this class means you always have an extra manifesting at full power everyday. Big deal. Mindlink PLA is handy for various situations, but the big one is that it is a preq for thrallherd. But what makes this
great race rather than an
okay race is the fact that you can use Quori embedded shards. They take up no slots so you could have a bunch of them on you. Two that really stand out are Power-linked shard and Power Repository shards.
Power linked shard adds 2 PP that can
EXCEED your ML limit!!! If you have multiple shards embedded you can increase this bonus PP to very high levels indeed, and makes dominant ideal ACF even easier to apply.
Power repository has a power up to level 4 that that you can swap for another power of the same level. Metamorphosis and schism are level 4 powers. If you can't convince your DM to put a certain power in a mantle, this is a perfectly viable means of getting that one power you want.
Just a note on the items; they are supposed to be very rare since they are Siberys dragonshards they can only be found outside of Khorvaire, most likely in Xen'dirk or Argonnessen. So the idea of having 12 power link shards embedded in your PC is possible, it is improbable considering you will be facing feral giants or dragons in hopes of even getting one. Still even having 1 or 2 is pretty powerful.
Inspired:
Much like the Kalashtar, with lots of bonus skill ranks, bonus feat, ability to use embedded shards and a slew of PLAs. More like a kalashtar on steroids, so why is it only an average? +3 LA is just too much of a price to pay.
Chosen:
Bonus feats, bonus lots PP, bonus skills, for the price of only 1 LA. But no Quori spirit means no embedded shards, no mindlink. A kalashtar is better.
Elan:
A tanking race for a tanking class, like peanut butter and jelly this is a natural fit for bodyguard types. -2 on CHR could hurt if you are using metamorphosis that require a DC and your (non-existent) social skills. But for pure survivability, few things can touch an Elan with a big PP reserve. Feats that enhance Elan Resistance and Resilience (found in CPsi) keep these racial features relevant well into higher levels.
Domite:
-2 on STR and WIS is just no good. And the fact that they have a LA of +1, and land speed of only 20 makes this a terrible choice for Ardents. On the plus side, small size and chitin do make this race very hard to kill, free blind fighting is always good to have just in case.
Duergar:
Bonus to CON is good, -4 the CHR is workable, but the real gem of this class is its PLAs. Expansion and Invisibility are not on any mantle, while you could get expansion from a dip into psywar, it would only last 1-5 rounds with wild surge or overchannel. As a PLA it automatically scales with your CL. All in all a decent choice.
Half-giant:
Bonus to STR and CON and penalty on DEX, perfect for a gish of any type other than a ranged build. Powerful build is what makes this race stand out.
Maenad:
Nothing special here. Sonic ray isn't too impressive and lose of a feat for 2 PP seems like a bad trade off. Could still be viable but on the whole this is strictly wilder material.
Synad:
Extra turns before schism is good, extra turns that can be used with schism, temporal acceleration, synchronicity and/or fission is even better. Sure it is only 1/day (or 3/day with the feat) but it but I personally feel it is worth it, even at lower levels. The Synad multitask feat is almost mandatory. Great choice for any build (or any class for that matter).
Thri-kreen:
If only it's racial HD or LA was lower, this would be a great a race for ardents. Alas, even practiced manifester cannot cover all the class levels lost on this race.
Xeph:
Run of the mill, with -2 to STR. Only redeeming quality that saves it from being red is that you can select xeph celerity and extra burst for lots of attacks at full BAB.
Githyanki:
Lots of neat PLAs but -2 WIS and LA of 2 are big no-no's in my book especially if you compare it to humans or kalashtars.
Githzerai:
Bonus to WIS and huge bonus to DEX, -2 on a dump stat and 4 cool PLAs make this a decent race for any build but even better for the Zen archer.
Surreal on Dragonborn and Neanderthals:
I like Dragonborn as a race for ardents. The choice of a breath weapon or flight can be pretty nice and may save you from spending one of your precious powers known. While we're at it, as long as you're a dragonborn I like the dragonscale husk ACF as well, saving you again on powers known and/or wealth spent on armour. Assuming that we're taking Ardent 10 for dominant ideal, that puts us at AC+9 and resist 10 acid/cold/elec/fire which is pretty darned good for a passive ability.
I've always like the Neanderthal (Frostburn), +2 Str/Con, -2 Dex/Int. Toss on Dragonborn for even more beefiness. They're nearly perfect stats for a paladin, and surprisingly good for a Wis or Cha based gish type.
edit: Dragonborn Neanderthal Ardent 10/Slayer 10
- dominant ideal, dragonscale husk (+12 AC, resist 20 acid/cold/elec/fire), +2 Str/-4 Dex/+4 Con/-2 Int, a hefty breath weapon, etc. makes for a fairly solid tank.
Illumians:
This race is good for the "twin advancing PrC". By this I mean cerebromancer and psychic theurge. The Krau sigil makes a level 1 spell heightened to level 3 which lets you get into both PrC with only one level dip in divine or arcane class. You end up with a ML of 20 (since you took PM) and CL of 11. Aeshkrau let you sub your STR modifier for your primary manifesting modifier (for ardents its WIS) making them less MAD as gishes. Not sure if this applies to bonus PP.
MulticlassingYou have two ways to go about this: front load non-ardent levels or spread them out or do a mix of both, but you should never lose ardent levels after level 17. While PM and ardent's way of selecting powers gives you a bit more freedom you still do lose power points and total powers known. They just aren't losing the higher level powers. If you lose 4 levels then you would only have 17 powers in 20 levels, which is only 2 more than an educated wilder which sucks. You also lose 122 PP (that's not counting the bonus PP) which is about 6 full manifesting powers/day. So do not get all cocky and think you don't lose anything from multiclassing, ardent (and PM) affords you a lot of freedom but it is not as lenient as you think, if you can keep ardent ML try to do so. Just because PM says it boosts up to 4 MLs doesn't mean you have to use all of them.
The main thing you are looking for in dipping into other classes is bonus feats and skills, two things that ardents sorely lack. Here's a sample of frontloading your ardent.
1)wilder
2)erudite
3)ardent (pick PM:ardent)
So by front loading wilder you get 8 more skill ranks at level one, 1 level 1 power. Erudite will allow you to pick yet another level 1 power. At level 3 you could pick a level 2 power as if you didn't lose any MLs in ardent. Some planning as to when you should dip/PrC is needed so you don't lose an important power. Frontloading will suffer from lack of PP early on so pay attention to PP economy (or do a recharge cheat). Another obvious draw back to front loading your non ardent levels is you don't get dominant ideal till that much later.
Erudite: free psicrytal and another feat. Not many classes give 2 feat in one level not to mention one unique power that you can pick anew each day. Granted not many level 1 powers can be useful at high levels but it is a nice bonus. Need a INT of 11 and you do lose 1/4 BAB from this.
Wilder: Also a 3/4 BAB class so no lose in BAB. Wild surge save you the trouble of picking overchannel and is just plain better than overchannel. I will just refer you to my wilder handbook for the math but take my word for it. One dip in this class qualifies you for the anarchic initiate, which allows for chaotic surge. When combined with metapsionics like empower and maximize this is downright scary. More on anarchic initiate later. Will need a CHR of 11.
Psychic warrior: Also WIS based and has 2 levels of bonus feats to grab, 3/4 BAB progression means you don't lose any BAB either. Ideal for dipping into when an you hit 11 (for the metapsionic feats). This also gives you martial weapon proficiency which can greatly enhance your damage and is needed for sanctified mind PrC.
Psion: bonus psionic feat is always nice but like erudite you lose 1/4 BAB and need INT of 11.
Ranger: Gives a free track feat which you need for slayer. Gain 1/4 BAB and decent Reflex bonus, extra 16 skill ranks at level 1. If you want a zen archer build then taking 2 levels in this for the free point blank shot as well. This class is a bit to specific for me to rank it higher.
Fighter: two levels of bonus feats and an extra 1/4 BAB for each dip. Not the best choice but sometime you just really need the proficiency, feats, or even BAB in addition to what you get from psywar.
ToB classes: Out of these 3 I'd say swordsage would be the best choice simply due to being WIS based, no less in BAB, and lots of maneuvers, however IIRC you lose you init and AC bonus wearing heavy armor. The crusader and warblade do gain you BAB and have some mechanics that favor tanking. Either way 1-2 level dips in one of these classes vastly improves your combat options. If MLs worked like ILs then this handbook would a lot easier to write. These classes also open the possibility of using feats like psionic renewal to expend focus to regain a maneuver.
Monk: The feat Tashalatora and Monastic Training lets your monk and psionic levels stack. For two feats you can advance two classes. Pretty good, although I always felt monks should have been psionic in the first place.
Prestige ClassesWotC sources and 3.5 only, as there is no direct conversion from 3.0 to 3.5 due to psionic combat and 0 level powers. I'll only cover the ones that advance ML, since I feel that an ardent in any role is better with more ML. Of course, I am open to other interpretations.
Psychic theurge and
Cerebromancer: Using the Illumian early entry cheat you can enter both PrC by 4th level. The benefit of entering early is dubious since you lose out on dominant mantle until much later. Still, you will end up with 9th level powers and 6th level spells by level 20, and more spells and PP than you know what to do with.
Elocater: A hefty feat buy in cost, but for a gish ardent build this might be the best option even with only 3/4 BAB. This is thanks to opportunistic strike which gives you a big bonus to attack and damage rolls (up to +6 by lvl 8). Capricious step, scorn earth, and flanker also add mobility offensive options most of which are geared towards making you a decent glass cannon.
Illithid Slayer: One of the few PrCs that has full BAB progression, and a favorite for the more martially oriented players. The best class feature is breach power resistance which lets your melee attacks lower power resistance. Many people seem to like cerebral blind, but its utility for PCs is limited since a DM will always know everything, which translates into one surprise round (assuming you made a good hide check). This is more of a NPC feature. If you need BAB faster to qualify for a feat or see yourself fighting a lot of illithid, then this is an okay way to since it does have 9/10 ML progression. Not for all gish builds, and even if you are going with anti-psionic in mind, a Sanctified mind is much better since it's class features apply to all psionic creatures and not just illithids.
Sanctified Mind: Another PrC with full BAB and 5/6 ML progression, but for some reason not a popular choice. A shame really, because it is better than Illithid Slayer in every way. This PrC is geared against psionic users and front line work (just like Illithid Slayer). Illithid Slayers may have features that work while they are stunned and dazed, but a SM can continue to function even when dazed or stunned thanks to partitioned mind. It's disrupting blow forces a Fort save and cuts off all psionic power and PLAs for 1d4 rounds and with a DC that is based on his WIS modifier and his SM level. Hard to hold gives an all around boost to grapple defense and not just from illithids. Always take this over Illithid Slayer.
Diamond Dragon: Another little known gem from Dragon Magic. This is one of the easiest gishy PrCs to qualify for, and provides 8/10 ML progression, bonus to physical attributes, immunity to sleep and paralysis, flight, a breath weapon, claws that you can use while you manifest powers, and fear aura. Easy qualifications, good ML progression (especially combined with ardent and practiced manifester), and many utility features makes this a top choice.
Metamind: This maybe a sub-par choice for other classes but for an ardent with dominant mantle and practiced manifester this PrC is downright broken even without front of power. As was mentioned, lowering costs is important since it will allow for more metapsionic feats. Free manifesting allows you devote all of your "cap space" (max PP=ML) towards metapsi and augmentation. Ever want to shot an energy ball that with max damage, double range, empowered, twined and linked? With metamind you can do that. The lose of 5 ML is there to balance things, but with ardent's wacky power selection, it's clear that metamind was not meant to be played in this manner. I won't even get into why Font of Power is broken...
Psion Uncarnate: It's amazing how PrC suddenly seem great when you don't lose any ML. This is another one of them. Being incorporeal has many benefits, but being incorporeal with equipment, and be able to dimensional step through people's heads? Oh and you deal 10d6 of damage if they fail a Fort save when you pop out of them too. Did they make their save? Not like anything can hit you anyway, wilt them down with your mental might or touch attack.
Thrallherd: Oh the abuses you can do with thralls. But the one thing that chimes in well with ardents is the reduced cost of charm and dominate. The more levels in Thrallherd the ardent gets the cheaper it is meaning more metapsionics you can apply. Granted their isn't too much you can do with charm or dominate, other than achieve complete battle field dominance (pun intended) by stacking chain power on said powers. Congrats on making all encounters henceforth undead, slimes and golems. Bet your teammates will love you.
Anarchic Initiate: Not many people agree with me when I say wild surge is better than overchannel. It isn't much of a debate since the math says so and as the signature feature of wilders, it was intended to be better. This PrC gives you this feature while advancing your ML in ardent. It's the best of both worlds really and increasing ML is better than decreasing costs. Chaotic surge is a free empower 50% of the time and makes this decent even as a dip. If there was a casino where you won 50% of the time, broke even 25% of the time and lost 25% of the time (but lose less than you win) would you gamble there? I certainty would and so should you. I don't see the need to stay for all 10 levels, level 7for the wild surge is suffice or level 8 if you really want that postpone enervation. The only PrC where you don't need practiced manifester to make up any lost ML (but might need it for the wilder dip).
Ectopic Adept: First I want to say that ectopic form feats are very good. They give you more special abilities than their normal counterparts (two menu selections compared to only one). With boost construct feat (more on this later) you can match the versatility of the normal ACs. This PrC has a bad rep especially when compared to the vastly superior Constructor. It isn't a bad PrC per say, ectopic forms are decent and no rule says you have to pick one when you manifest AC, allowing you to keep your versatility. No, the main reason why this is bad for ardents is the fact that you need to keep your craft skills higher than your ML. Ardents have terrible amount of skill and the Ectopic Adept continues that trend. For any psionic class, keeping Concentration and psicraft maxed is a must. That leaves little in the way to spend on craft. This requirement is on ALL the class features too, meaning you can't dump INT anymore.
War Mind: As a five level dip, this WIS based PrC can keep up with PP progression and still give you the amazing sweeping strike and level 9 powers by lvl 18. This is more for gishes. Going over level 5 is not recommended. If you took mental might, you can gain the +2 WIS bonus on PPs for both classes.
Cognition Thief: I had mentioned this little known PrC in my Wilder handbook but here it is again. This PrC is special in that it follows the same rules for power selection as ardents: if you can manifest it, you can pick it. In ten levels, you get 8 telepath only powers, which includes psychic chiurgury. This is the only way to get that power pre-epic and it is a very nice power..... and in some cases quite broken.
Flayerspawn psychic: Not a popular choice and I have many disagree with me on my opinion on this, but mechanically this is a decent PrC, especially for an ardent. You gain 4 illithid feats in 10 levels and thanks to practiced manifester you lose no ML at all. Mind Blast is a very nice PLA, even if we have no idea what the extra PP do. I would assume you augment the effects and DC like a psionic blast power, but what scale? What is keeping this from being a great PrC is that it just doesn't give enough illithid feats to gain extraction. As mentioned earlier, the Illithid feat change is very decent in that it gives you bonus powers and increases the DC to them. If you were selecting these feats to begin with since you don't have charm, or dominate, or dispel (all very good powers) in your mantles, then this PrC is a logical continuation as it gives you the feats you want anyway.
Storm Disciple: I maybe a bit harsh here, as this is one PrC that seems to be tailored towards Ardents, but this PrC is pretty bad. It's capstone is that it gives you a thundering weapon. Shocking aura is.... nice but the range is too small to fully capitalize on it and places you in danger of AoE spells/powers/artillery. Even more bizarre is that shocking aura doesn't stack with psychic aura making this PrC suck for divine minds as well. Stay away from this.
Constructor: By picking this PrC you will give up quite a bit of BAB and getting an even smaller HD (d4), but you also gain much more. First thing to note is that this PrC requires boost construct as a feat and astral construct as a power. The AC and other powers are easy to get with creation feat, boost construct is a bit more complicated. What does boost construct do for a AC manifested with ectopic form? Some have said "nothing", but based on RAW (and I suspect RAI) this is not the case.
Here is the exact wording the boost construct:
"When you create an astral construct, you can give it one additional special ability from any menu that the construct currently has an ability from."
Some have argued that since the ability is innate to the ectopic form, they did not select it from any menu hence they gain nothing. The wording is tricky but it never says: "ability picked from the menu", but rather "menu that the construct
currently (as in time it was created) has an ability from". Hence, if it has an ability on a menu, you can pick an additional one. So if I picked Alabaster Aerial, who has both fly and deflection, and both on menu A, I should be able to pick another power from menu A. More on this feat in the feats section. Anyway, your AC are better, tougher last longer, and you can manifest them faster. They even have out of combat functions thanks to utility construct.
FeatsThe key thing to remember when optimizing an Ardent's feats is make the most of your metapsionics. All the other stuff can be done by other classes (and often better) with the same feats. This means getting the best metapsionic feats, increasing ML, and decreasing cost. All the other "gishy" type feats take a back burner, because the true meaning of optimizing means to make the most of what is unique to that class while minimizing/overcoming its weaknesses. Not losing focus on metapsionics is very unique (and powerful) and one should focus on that aspect.
General Psionic feats: These are feats any psionic user would want or consider and not all that Ardent specific.
Psicrystal affinity:
***Psicrystals have the entry "–" in advancement characteristic, which means it is a non-ability. Non-abilities do not grant any benefit, thus preventing Psicrystals from gaining feats or any other form of advancement not specified in the feat and class description. Check with your DM to see if they overrule this to allow Psicrystal feats.*** This little guy will become a beast when you use metamorphosis, it gets feats too.
: This loses some of its appeal due to sub powers ACF, but it does still provide you with more powers which is a key weakness in Ardents. Hidden talent can be taken at level 1 and a fine way to get more PP and Astral construct without ectopic form on it.
Psionic Body: Always good but since Ardents don't get that many feats to begin with, this will not be as good of a choice when compared to psywar or psion.
Psionic Meditation: Not as vital since you can apply metapsionics without lose of focus. Still useful for feats like deep impact, which is a natural partner of power attack. If you dipped into a ToB class and selected psychic renewal, you can spam that one maneuver over and over (even without hustle).
Speed of thought: Freedom mantle already provides this benefit so in some cases it is redundant. But if mobility is this feat is the way to go.
Metamorphic transfer: The greatness of this feat has been discussed already.
Inquisitor: Very useless feat, and if it wasn't a prereq for cognition thief and thrallherd I would not have mentioned them at all.
Power penetration: With dominant mantle you no longer have to pick between accuracy and power. Still the fact you need to expend your focus does make it lose a lot of its appeal.
Psychic renewal: This lets you expand your focus to regain a maneuver. Since you will not be spending a lot of levels in ToB classes this will greatly increase your durability in combat. Hustle and psionic med are a must.
Instant clarity: This feat allows you the regain focus right after you use a maneuver. Sounds like a natural fit for psychic renewal except it is limited to 3/day. If this was 3/encounter it would easily be one of the best feats around but alas it is not, and 3/day just doesn't cut it.
Ectopic Form: Ectopic Forms are not popular among players compared to normal ACs. The reason is that players no longer get to customize their beasts which loses a lot of versatility. But carefully looking at each ectopic form shows that you usually get twice the abilities a normal AC would get for the same level. By taking this several times to cover for different situations you gain versatility in what you can manifest, in fact some do things no normal AC can. These extra abilities are a big deal, especially at early levels. Taking boost construct will also do you well for even more abilities. The biggest drawback to this feat is the fact that all the menu C abilities will be closed off to you. Look at all the ectopic forms, and you will see that while most have more abilities, none have any menu C choices.
Boost construct: Go for it if you are using ACs. Many would argue that if using ectopic form feat you can't benefit from this, but I disagree. The wording says as long as it is a construct and has an ability that is on a menu, you can select 1 more ability from said menu. This is fine and dandy at early to mid levels and will give you a big boost in terms of versatility, but when you are level 15 and can't select menu C abilities is the time you may want to go back to normal ACs. As a preq for constructor PrC you can't really go wrong with this feat.
Feats that raise ML or cut costs:Practised Manifester: An ardent's most important gish feat. Might not be worth it if you are only losing 1 ML but anything over that you must get this. This feat should be taken on the "raising ML" principle even if you aren't going gish (like dipping into other classes to get bonus feats).
Overchannel: Again raising ML= more metapsionics, more damage, more range, more DC, more everything. It is suboptimal since wilder dip or entering anarchic initiate for wild surge is better but if you don't mind taking damage and very slow progression (+3ML at level 15!!!???) then this might be okay. I'd personally avoid this one since taking 3 levels in wilder still leaves you with one ML "to spare" for something like slayer.
Earth Power: You'll need earth sense to get this but it is worth it. This feat requires that you maintain focus to get its benefits so normally it is not possible to benefit from it when applying metapsionics. But since you no longer lose focus applying metapsionics on powers in your dominant mantle you can go to town!
Metapower: This permanently connects a metapsionic feat to a power so that every time you manifest that power, it will be meta'd and at 2 less PP to a minimal of 0. You may find yourself picking this 2-3 times since Linked power can't change targets (unless the second target is invalid, and last I checked you can ego whip yourself), unless you use synchronicity to cheat.
Illithid complusion: +1ML and +1 DC to all your compulsion powers. A bit niche but still very handy since dominate and charm fall under this, so it depends on your mantles. Illithid legacy will get you both (along with read thoughts and dispel) if you need the extra powers.
Elemental cognizance: Pick your favorite element and it now gets +1ML when you manifest it. Great for blasters. Not great for anyone else since you need 2 other feats for this.
Stygian archon: Your debuffing powers get +1ML. I know I like me some sytgian bolt. Still very niche but if you are going for a debuff build then get this, since negative levels are pretty crippling.
Metapsionics: Dominant ideal lends itself well to metapsionics as expected. The best thing is that you don't need psicrystal containment to stack metapsi feats on a power, and with so many ways to decrease cost you could maximize, empower and expand an energy missile all in one manifestation. With so many metapsionic feats out there which are winners, which are sleepers and which are duds?
Linked Power: Doesn't get better than this right? Combined with synchronicity you can change the target of the second power. This saves you lots of time, and cut the cost of many powers, or even make it free with metapower (bestow power recharge cheat). A gish with psionic medication could also keep linking hustle to another hustle to keep focused and use deep impact over and over again. The tricks get even worse when you get schism.
Enlage Power: A dominant ideal ardent needs to get this once they hit 10. Why? It is free. It only costs your psionic focus and if you manifest in the mantle it is free. You can't keep applying it and make everything infinite in range (I don't think) but double range is great and it's free.
Maximize power: Lot about optimizing is taking out the randomness of dice. This power does just that by making things predictable. If you did nothing to lower the cost of your powers, the break even point for this power would 8 die. That means choosing between max'ing 4 die (8 minus the cost of the power) and rolling 8 die is the same. By the time you get dominant ideal you will be well beyond 8 ML. If you cut the cost of this feat it will also the break even ML the same amount, so by level 10 ardent you would be making a "profit" of 4dX.
Burrowing power: This feat only raises the cost by 2 but allows said power to bypass walls and cover. This allows for considerable tactical uses for your powers especially if you combine it with BFC powers like wall of ectoplasm and energy wall. With Dominant Ideal it is free, however you still need a way to see your target. Powers like clairvoyant sense are mandatory. In addition, you could have your psicrystal deliver all your touch powers as well. Another interesting tactic is to use the cheaper sense link on your BSF while you hide behind cover. Then again, forced sense link on an opponent could be even more devastating as everyone comrade he looks at dies. This is not a navy feat only because it is more useful for "casting" ardents rather than gish.
Empower Power: Add 50% to any numeric value for the cost of only 2 PP. Should be combined with chaotic surge to get even more out of your manifestations as well as offset -50% that sometimes happens with chaotic surge.
MiscIllithid feat chain:
Refers to heritage--> compulsion--> legacy--> greater legacy This could include illithid blast as well if you want to enter the cognition thief PrC. Why are these feats good? Because in four feats you get 4 awesome telepath only powers (charm, read thoughts, dominate and dispel) but also +1 to all DC with compulsion descriptors, and +2 on saves against spells/powers and spell/psi like abilities. A natural chain if you take the the flayerspawn psychic PrC.
More to come...........
