There's actually a new rule in tasha's for falling. Forget falling safety, time for a psi powered atomic suplex. Mobile will make the climb to the sky 120 like you said. The creature will take a total of 18d6 bludgeoning damage while you only take 6d6 damage when they fail the dc 15 dexterity save. If your a tabaxi and use feline agility, save your action surge and get to 160 feet in the air with mobile. The damage to this creature on a failed save will be 24d6 bludgeoning while you only take 8d6. And even use the action surge to move a little higher up, then punch during the fall. If you have unarmed fight theres bonus d4 damage while maintaining the grappple.
Wow, that is an interesting rule! Thanks for pointing it out. Man, I do concur that by these rules you could totally do that. That's pretty wicked, lol.
If you're reading this and are thinking "Man I'm still not convinced with this subclass," then boy howdy do I have a story for you. In my last session, we were fighting a group of marauders that had tamed a couple of Gryphons as flying mounts. One of them decided to swoop down to 30 ft. above ground in order to get within normal range for a Javelin attack. I'm playing a Satyr Psi Warrior and for whatever reason, I had the idea of knocking the rider off of the Gryphon, but we're level 3 and have no means of flying. Then, a thought occurred to me. "What if I use Telekinetic Movement on my shield to turn it into a hoverboard?" With a STR mod of 4, Mirthful Leap, and the rules for High Jump, I got a full 10 feet in the air, after which I dropped my shield (dropping items can be done completely for free) so that it would become classified as a loose object. Then I used my action for TM to have the shield fly upward and push me another 20 feet in order to reach the rider. The feature text specifically says that it can move a Large object or willing creature, and since PCs are typically medium/small, the DM ruled that it would have enough force of movement for me to be moved along with it. Then, I spent my action surge to stab into the Gryphon with the goal of steering downward into the ground. As if I wasn't having my way enough, I rolled a critical hit so I used a Psionic Strike for the extra-extra damage, killing it outright, forcing the rider to essentially dismount and take 12 points of bludgeoning damage, and because of Protective Field, the 10 fall damage I would've taken was reduced to 3. It was one of the best D&D moments of my life and I can't wait to continue leveling to see what other dumb shit I can get into.
this is a fantastic example considering that "flying enemies with ranged attack vs grounded melee enemies" is a classic example of a completely one sided battle
I have a psi warrior with thrown weapons style multi with a soul knife rogue. All utility and control. I play short stop and organize the party. Many times I've used telekinetic movement to get a low health member to a healer cause it doesn't proc op attack. Shay used my shield to protect others. Lot of fun with that character.
I like this subclass for the M.O.M Air Genasi, they get featherfall. In fact they could flavour the entire subclass as being an Air subclass rather than psionic to get that ATLA feel.
Guarded mind does NOT say it takes an action - it says at the start kf yoir turn you can expend a psionic energy die to end every frighten and charm effect on you
It is an important distinction - some charm effects take away your actions, such as hypnotic pattern. Dominate person can also be used to dwny you control of your actions on your turn. This ability allows you to bypass those effects by spending it at the start of your turn
It also doesn't provide Advantage against those conditions, so I see no conflict in taking a race with Fey Ancestry or the like ... *ESPECIALLY* since there are spells and effects (Dominate Person, Dominate Monster) with which it's possible for the caster to dictate whether you get to spend your Psi dice for that purpose or not ... and let's face it, fighters have lousy WIS saves.
I think a 1 or 2 level splash from another class as Psi warrior goes a really long ways. Spells like Hunter's mark, hex, shield, feather fall, absorb elements, protection from evil, smites, expeditious retreat, etc. all are great and available with a 1 or 2 level splash.
Really in-depth video!! I love seeing actual analysis and review as opposed to just reading the features verbatim from the book, the work you've put in is really evident! What do you think about Multiclassing potential for the PW? I have an idea in mind for a 2-level Bladesinger dip for the extra RP flavour, spell/cantrip utility, and AC boost but I'm not the most experienced player myself so I'm not too sure how it would actually work out in practice.
Thanks! I appreciate your engagement and support. If you MC with it, it's definitely appropriate for the INT-based Classes. I think it works great with Bladesinger tbh... I've considered such a build for my Bladesinger Build Series, but haven't gotten around to it yet. But I just did a Dhampir Psi Warrior that included Wizard/Artificer Dips, which I think is a lot of fun!
Jedi build: Race: V Human (extra feat) 1 multiclass dip to Aberrant Mind Sorcerer to get telepathy + Charm Person, Mage Hand, Message, Feather Fall, Lightning Lure, and Prestidigitation. Main Class Fighter Psi Warrior Feats: 1. Linguist (for diplomacy) 2. Mage Initiate (Encode Thoughts, Minor Illusion, and Find Familiar) 3. Eldritch Adept or Sorcerer Initiate (Dark Vision or other Invocations or get Sorcery points) 4. Telekinetic or Great Weapon Master (get better telekinesis and be more sneaky or more damage) Lvl 10 cap further get more feats 5. Resilience (Wisdom so Mind Flayers and Ghosts cant screw with you) 6. Slasher, Crusher, Piercer (useless if sticking with Sunblade or not if homebrew) 7+. Add to Str, Int, or Cha
An interesting level 10 combo I saw was the new beast barbarian taken to level 6, and any monk subclass taken to level 4. This gives you Barbarian and monk’s unarmed movement, a lot of attacks each round (5 if you have claws and flurry of blows), but the main focus was the immense grapple/leap potential. On your main action you could slash someone and then make two grapple attempts at advantage (because you’re a barbarian). Assuming one or both of them hit, you can then use step of the wind as a bonus action which doubles your movement and then triples your jump distance. Combined with the level 6 beast barbarian feature that end handed your leap distance, and you can reliably jump your whole movement straight up. With slow fall and rage combined you take 0 damage from falling (depending on the order of operations if the resistance and the flat damage reduction) but your enemies would take full damage and should fall prone. Even if you don’t use your bonus action to enhance the distance, you can grapple and leap to have prone grabbed enemies who you can then pummel with flurry of blows. Since this takes KI I’d personally go for more monk levels after this, which would also increase your speed further and boost up the damage dice of your unarmed strikes. Also with the Kensei subclass of the new Tasha’s level 2 feature, I’m 95% sure that you could turn the beast barbarian natural weapons into monk weapons, which opens up some nice interaction between the two.
My thought was to combine the psi warrior with moon Druid to become an interesting support Mount. One of the gith races gives you a casting of jump so for something like a moorbounder, it will enable you to get your rider almost anywhere. Dip into monk for step of the wind and you’re a gummy bear. You’ve got a 120ft vertical jump for those slams. Although you’re at level 7 at that point. Alternatively, I want it to be able to be an effective disarming archer with the +2. But you’d end up having to use action surge or be hasted for that to work out. A better combo would be to have an owl familiar swoop in to pick up an item dropped by an enemy once you’ve disarmed them. Which does need this ability.
I'd argue the "target must be lose" only aplies to objects. "As an action, you target one loose object that is Large or smaller or one willing creature"
I don't think level 10 is redundant w a Githzerai. They get advantage on those throws, but it can still happen. To me it just makes them hard to catch w it and impossible to keep with it. That sounds perfect imo.
3 levels bear totem combined with 17 levels psi warrior is the best tank in the game imo. Resistance to all damage while raging, reaction shield to reduce damage even further, limited flight for extra mobility, ability to knock flying enemies prone, ability to end charm and frightened, ability to reposition fragile mages, and +2 AC while you rage. On top of all this, it's one of the few fighter subclasses that gives its capstone at 17 instead of 18 making it ideal for Barb multiclass. As for ASI and feats, Sentinel, GWM, and Tough are a must. Sentinel gives you reaction when you run out of psi dice and map control. GWM with reckless attack is busted. You honestly can keep INT at 8 if you wanna max all your physical stats. Your protective shield will still give you +1 but your psy strike will be -1. Not the end of the world because our psy strike will still knock prone even if we roll no extra damage. INT at 12 feels nice but it's not necessary. 20 CON and tough are most important for maximum tankiness but other than that do what you want.
I want to play a PW dipped in wizard/bladesinger as it's got the perfect abiliy suite to shore up a battle wizard inherent squishiness and puts less stress on a high CON score
This is my plan as well! My plan is to go Fighter up to 5 for Extra Attack, then dip 2 Bladesinger and then back to PW until the end. Did you ever end up making your character? I'd be really curious to see if it actually worked out in practice!
The DM I play with limits us to 2 short rests / day. Unless we're in town doing RP stuff. I wouldn't build with the 18th level power in mind. I think building it so that it is NOT M.A.D would be most beneficial. I would start with 3 levels of Artificer, for Con save proficiency (yea fighter already has this I know) and taking Battle Smith specialization allows us to use Intelligence for attacks with magic weapons which we will always have with Infusions, this removes the NEED of Str or Dex for damage. Next I would take 2 levels of Wizard, and take either Bladesinger or Warmage. Bladesong allows us to add our Int mod to AC, gives +10 movement, and adds Int mod to Concentration checks. War Magic grants a reaction bonus to saving throws, but limits spell casting (not a problem for a primarily martial character). I think War Mage is less restrictive of weapon choice, and would make for higher DPR options since you could use PAM + GWM. However.... you COULD use Crossbow Expert + Sharpshooter with a Hand Crossbow with the Repeating Shot infusion on the bladesinger and not fall too far behind in DPR. Since you can't equip a shield and still have Bladesong running you can equip a whip in the off hand for theme, and just incase you need it. This would allow you to play in that mid to melee range as a primarily ranged character, and use all your Psi Knight abilities while staying in relative safety. It would be like a Jedi + VanHelsing Psi powered vampire hunter. The wizard and artificer levels give you access to a very nice suite of spells that will bolster this play style VERY well. Reactions such as Absorb Elements, Shield, Slow Fall, not to mention Familiars and all the other ritual spells as well as Cure Wounds, and Faerie Fire from Artificer. You would also gain access to Guidance and Thornwhip which if flavored could fit the build VERY well. Sure you'd be sacrificing Telekinesis... but you'd have a lot of other spell casting for the whole life of the character, not just the last 1-2 levels before the campaign ends. I would recommend a minimum of 14 dex to start, and prioritize Intelligence, then boost Dexterity. If you're running Mage Armor, and have +5 Int, you'd be sitting at a 20AC with bladesong up. You would probalby only have 19 AC by the time you get Bladesong because of the lack of ASI, but should be 20 by fighter level 6 at the latest. From there, fighter ASI will carry this build pretty hard.
Awesome input, man, many thanks! I may take an extra day to really consider MC options. One thing I forgot to point out is that PW powers are amazing for a dip because their PED aren't level dependent but proficiency bump dependent, so they will scale even without extra PW levels.
@@Bilbrons-and-Dragons I really like the idea of 2 levels Bladesinger. I think there could be a lot of benefit in taking more levels of Artificer too, but I was trying to make it mostly PK since it IS a fighter build. Alternatively, if you didn't want to take 3 levels of Artificer, you could take magic initiate Druid, pick up Guidance and Shillelagh and that would allow you to use a staff or clubs and melee using Intelligence. If you flavor the staff as a wooden sword that glows when you cast Shillelagh... it is now a Light Saber.
Be a goblin jedi... now you're Yoda. Take the Telekinetic (Inteligence) feat at some point after you have taken your wizard levels (For mage hand), and you get a bonus action force push. Depending on your DM, you could also take 3 levels of Rogue and pick up Soulknife to double your PED. Most likely though, this would be treated like Channel Divinity, where you would gain more ways to use the resource, but you wouldn't increase the resource. This would also net you 2 expertise, and at will magic weapons with a range of 60. Flavor these as "magic cards" and you have the gambit character that @Ig Vitale was talking about. This would be redundant with hand-crossbow, but you could still take sharpshooter to keep the DPR up.
My issue with this build is that you don't get an ASI or Extra Attack until levels 9 and 10 respectively. This seems fine if you are starting later level, but those levels I fear you will feel underpowered. Don't get me wrong, it sounds fun once you get everything; just like how in 3.5/pathfinder you felt great once you became a Mystic Theurge, but it was the middle levels where you felt like a hindrance to the party that were rough. I think in lower tier play, you should snag either of the above, not both. 2 Bladesinger/X Fighter lets you focus on your dex, int, and con. 3 Artificer/X Fighter lets you wear heavy armor and shield (or two handed weapon instead) and focus on int and con with a 15 str if you want to keep mobility high with a flanking buddy, or a mount if you are a small race.
@@Starcoffin I'd just use cantrips until I got extra attack. Cantrips scale at overall levels so you can multiclass and still have cantrips up-scale at level 5. Granted the fewer multi-classes you take the sooner you get extra attack. Also if I were able to start with 18 Intelligence I probably wouldn't take an ASI until fighter 6 at the earliest, because the feats would scale damage faster. But I get what you're saying. I was mainly spit-balling ideas that might help Mr. Bafflestone.
Another build idea. I know ability score wise it seems weird. So what about a 2 lv dip in paladin after level 5. I already choose a defense style through fighter. At level one i get lay on hands which I would roleplay as "force" healing. Plus the divine sense can be explained as a psy ability. At level two I get blind fighter style. That will be roleplayed as me sensing enemies with psy ability. A level 2 you get smite which can stack with Psionic strike. In addition you can cast shield of faith which is awesome for making me a a tank. My original fighter style for psy warrior is defensive variant human with the shield master feat. So with chainmail and shield I would have a 19 av. With shield of faith it would be 21. With platemail it would be 23.
Isn’t guarded mind a free action? The wording doesn’t explicitly say you take an action to end the charmed or frighten effect; it just says that if you start your turn charmed or frightened, you expend the PED to end the effect. I read it as a good feature because you end the debuff and take your full turn
5 levels sorcerer: divine soul for bless, healing word, aid and revivify 14+ levels fighter: psi warrior for protective field Play as a Harengon gunner. Amazing action economy. You’ll have nice (while not complicated) actions, bonus and reactions every round. Metamagic Quickened Spell Bless. Attack action with extra attacks. Protect your concentration with bless and protective field. Whoop ass while supporting your party at the same time, and that’s just the first turn of combat. Plus, everyone at the table has fun with bless (except some antagonistic DMs). If things go to shit, you can recover people from unconsciousness by using Healing Word or Aid. If people die, you have two 3rd level spell slots to revivify, thanks to Divine Soul, which can be metamagic’d with Distant Spell or Quickened Spell. If you’re out of diamonds and can’t revivify, you can always up cast Aid to 3rd level solely as a prep and increase people’s maximum hp (not temp hp) for 8 hours. With this setup you can do a bit of everything. Here’s my characters end game stats using Standard Array starting stats: 20 Dexterity 20 Constitution 14 Wisdom 13 Charisma 10 Strength 19 Intelligence
Can’t edit on this tablet so I’ll drop this here... Intelligence is the dump stat. Seek out a Headband of Intellect. That’s why intelligence is 19 here. You could also easily switch priorities and increase your intelligence way more than I did. But for me this was part of my character progression. The party (especially the casters) should be partially invested with you as well, because that Headband will allow you to protect them more. Also, some might cringe at a low charisma sorcerer, but none of the high impact spells you’ll be choosing (bless, aid, revivify) require any spell saves or spell attacks. But it’s pretty much just a matter of preference, and I personally prefer to have high constitution so it’s easier to maintain concentration. If you go a different route you could have higher charisma and pick up a charm spell or something like that. But not worth it IMO.
Psi powered Atomic suplex. If having mobile, like he said and grappling while falling and land on top, thats like 18d6 damage on a failed save while you take 6d6. If tabaxi while using feline agility with mobile, that's 24d6 they take on a failed save while you take 8d6. They take an extra d4 if you have unarmed fighting and tabaxi claws are natural weapons that can benefit from both the psi powers and the fighting style.
I personally rate Telekinetic Movement much lower. It's definitely poor due to its highly situational nature and the high cost of an entire Action. Perhaps it's intended that way, and perhaps it's even considered a fluff ability by the developers. It actually seems like it's not supposed to be used in combat at all.
I'm a new player. My first DnD campaign kicked off and I chose the psy warrior at my first character. I have used telekinetic movement in a few ways: I repositioned my squishy mage after he was grappled and drug away from my party back into the backline. Had I not done so, he was going to get swarmed by the ambushed and would have most likely died; I recovered a treasure chest mid sled-ride down a mountain (sweet loot that the DM wanted one of use to jump off and grab); and I slammed a rock over and over into the ground to mimic a giant's gate, forcing a group looking for is to run in terror. I've found it's uses to be limited by a player's creativity and resource management.
A creature affected by the spell are considered restricted, combine that with a bonus action attack for just concentrating on the spell, and your just laying so many attacks without dual wielding and you get advantage.
It’s a wonderful spell for in AND out of combat. Telekinesis lasts for up to 10 minutes while concentrating. The Psi Warrior could perhaps use the spell to move heavy objects and debris to close off or open up narrow spaces. Also, merely concentrating on the spell gives the ability to use your bonus action to make a weapon attack. The feature doesn’t require you to continuously use your action on the spell to get the bonus action. The concentration can be more easily be maintained since the fighter already has proficiency with Constitution saves.
There's actually a new rule in tasha's for falling. Forget falling safety, time for a psi powered atomic suplex. Mobile will make the climb to the sky 120 like you said. The creature will take a total of 18d6 bludgeoning damage while you only take 6d6 damage when they fail the dc 15 dexterity save. If your a tabaxi and use feline agility, save your action surge and get to 160 feet in the air with mobile. The damage to this creature on a failed save will be 24d6 bludgeoning while you only take 8d6. And even use the action surge to move a little higher up, then punch during the fall. If you have unarmed fight theres bonus d4 damage while maintaining the grappple.
Wow, that is an interesting rule! Thanks for pointing it out. Man, I do concur that by these rules you could totally do that. That's pretty wicked, lol.
@@Bilbrons-and-Dragons it's apparently on page 170 when talking about falling on the same square as the creature.
@@geoxaga6507 yeah. This was a secret boon to monks and creative barbarians everywhere.
@@theshadowbadger yeah, step of the wind actually becoming useful in combat!!!
Fall damage maxes out at 20d6, but this is still an excellent idea.
If you're reading this and are thinking "Man I'm still not convinced with this subclass," then boy howdy do I have a story for you.
In my last session, we were fighting a group of marauders that had tamed a couple of Gryphons as flying mounts. One of them decided to swoop down to 30 ft. above ground in order to get within normal range for a Javelin attack. I'm playing a Satyr Psi Warrior and for whatever reason, I had the idea of knocking the rider off of the Gryphon, but we're level 3 and have no means of flying. Then, a thought occurred to me. "What if I use Telekinetic Movement on my shield to turn it into a hoverboard?"
With a STR mod of 4, Mirthful Leap, and the rules for High Jump, I got a full 10 feet in the air, after which I dropped my shield (dropping items can be done completely for free) so that it would become classified as a loose object. Then I used my action for TM to have the shield fly upward and push me another 20 feet in order to reach the rider. The feature text specifically says that it can move a Large object or willing creature, and since PCs are typically medium/small, the DM ruled that it would have enough force of movement for me to be moved along with it. Then, I spent my action surge to stab into the Gryphon with the goal of steering downward into the ground. As if I wasn't having my way enough, I rolled a critical hit so I used a Psionic Strike for the extra-extra damage, killing it outright, forcing the rider to essentially dismount and take 12 points of bludgeoning damage, and because of Protective Field, the 10 fall damage I would've taken was reduced to 3.
It was one of the best D&D moments of my life and I can't wait to continue leveling to see what other dumb shit I can get into.
The three words I can use to describe that moment would be *RULES OF NATURE*
this is a fantastic example considering that "flying enemies with ranged attack vs grounded melee enemies" is a classic example of a completely one sided battle
I have a psi warrior with thrown weapons style multi with a soul knife rogue. All utility and control. I play short stop and organize the party. Many times I've used telekinetic movement to get a low health member to a healer cause it doesn't proc op attack. Shay used my shield to protect others. Lot of fun with that character.
I like this subclass for the M.O.M Air Genasi, they get featherfall. In fact they could flavour the entire subclass as being an Air subclass rather than psionic to get that ATLA feel.
1:19 Just FYI, you've discounted their Bonus Action per Short Rest to restore 1 psionic die. This is a significant +1 bump across each row for PW
Guarded mind does NOT say it takes an action - it says at the start kf yoir turn you can expend a psionic energy die to end every frighten and charm effect on you
It is an important distinction - some charm effects take away your actions, such as hypnotic pattern. Dominate person can also be used to dwny you control of your actions on your turn. This ability allows you to bypass those effects by spending it at the start of your turn
It also doesn't provide Advantage against those conditions, so I see no conflict in taking a race with Fey Ancestry or the like ... *ESPECIALLY* since there are spells and effects (Dominate Person, Dominate Monster) with which it's possible for the caster to dictate whether you get to spend your Psi dice for that purpose or not ... and let's face it, fighters have lousy WIS saves.
I think a 1 or 2 level splash from another class as Psi warrior goes a really long ways. Spells like Hunter's mark, hex, shield, feather fall, absorb elements, protection from evil, smites, expeditious retreat, etc. all are great and available with a 1 or 2 level splash.
Besides, "These aren't the droids you're looking for" basically requires a spellcaster dip. 😉
Great video.
This subclass is truly amazing; a Jedi or a Gambit like build seems rigth with it.
Really in-depth video!! I love seeing actual analysis and review as opposed to just reading the features verbatim from the book, the work you've put in is really evident! What do you think about Multiclassing potential for the PW? I have an idea in mind for a 2-level Bladesinger dip for the extra RP flavour, spell/cantrip utility, and AC boost but I'm not the most experienced player myself so I'm not too sure how it would actually work out in practice.
Thanks! I appreciate your engagement and support.
If you MC with it, it's definitely appropriate for the INT-based Classes. I think it works great with Bladesinger tbh... I've considered such a build for my Bladesinger Build Series, but haven't gotten around to it yet. But I just did a Dhampir Psi Warrior that included Wizard/Artificer Dips, which I think is a lot of fun!
Jedi build:
Race: V Human (extra feat)
1 multiclass dip to Aberrant Mind Sorcerer to get telepathy + Charm Person, Mage Hand, Message, Feather Fall, Lightning Lure, and Prestidigitation.
Main Class Fighter Psi Warrior
Feats:
1. Linguist (for diplomacy)
2. Mage Initiate (Encode Thoughts, Minor Illusion, and Find Familiar)
3. Eldritch Adept or Sorcerer Initiate (Dark Vision or other Invocations or get Sorcery points)
4. Telekinetic or Great Weapon Master (get better telekinesis and be more sneaky or more damage)
Lvl 10 cap further get more feats
5. Resilience (Wisdom so Mind Flayers and Ghosts cant screw with you)
6. Slasher, Crusher, Piercer (useless if sticking with Sunblade or not if homebrew)
7+. Add to Str, Int, or Cha
Better Jedi build.
Bladesinger. That's it.
@@Jk-zv6tz not enough telepathy or telekinesis for me.
I went Dex, Drow, duelist, rapier and loved it!
Thanks for the info, but all the acronyms were hard to follow
An interesting level 10 combo I saw was the new beast barbarian taken to level 6, and any monk subclass taken to level 4.
This gives you Barbarian and monk’s unarmed movement, a lot of attacks each round (5 if you have claws and flurry of blows), but the main focus was the immense grapple/leap potential.
On your main action you could slash someone and then make two grapple attempts at advantage (because you’re a barbarian). Assuming one or both of them hit, you can then use step of the wind as a bonus action which doubles your movement and then triples your jump distance. Combined with the level 6 beast barbarian feature that end handed your leap distance, and you can reliably jump your whole movement straight up.
With slow fall and rage combined you take 0 damage from falling (depending on the order of operations if the resistance and the flat damage reduction) but your enemies would take full damage and should fall prone.
Even if you don’t use your bonus action to enhance the distance, you can grapple and leap to have prone grabbed enemies who you can then pummel with flurry of blows.
Since this takes KI I’d personally go for more monk levels after this, which would also increase your speed further and boost up the damage dice of your unarmed strikes.
Also with the Kensei subclass of the new Tasha’s level 2 feature, I’m 95% sure that you could turn the beast barbarian natural weapons into monk weapons, which opens up some nice interaction between the two.
By the rules, you reductions are applied first, than you can use your resistance to half the damage 💪
My thought was to combine the psi warrior with moon Druid to become an interesting support Mount.
One of the gith races gives you a casting of jump so for something like a moorbounder, it will enable you to get your rider almost anywhere. Dip into monk for step of the wind and you’re a gummy bear. You’ve got a 120ft vertical jump for those slams. Although you’re at level 7 at that point.
Alternatively, I want it to be able to be an effective disarming archer with the +2. But you’d end up having to use action surge or be hasted for that to work out.
A better combo would be to have an owl familiar swoop in to pick up an item dropped by an enemy once you’ve disarmed them. Which does need this ability.
I'd argue the "target must be lose" only aplies to objects. "As an action, you target one loose object that is Large or smaller or one willing creature"
I don't think level 10 is redundant w a Githzerai. They get advantage on those throws, but it can still happen. To me it just makes them hard to catch w it and impossible to keep with it. That sounds perfect imo.
3 levels bear totem combined with 17 levels psi warrior is the best tank in the game imo. Resistance to all damage while raging, reaction shield to reduce damage even further, limited flight for extra mobility, ability to knock flying enemies prone, ability to end charm and frightened, ability to reposition fragile mages, and +2 AC while you rage. On top of all this, it's one of the few fighter subclasses that gives its capstone at 17 instead of 18 making it ideal for Barb multiclass.
As for ASI and feats, Sentinel, GWM, and Tough are a must. Sentinel gives you reaction when you run out of psi dice and map control. GWM with reckless attack is busted. You honestly can keep INT at 8 if you wanna max all your physical stats. Your protective shield will still give you +1 but your psy strike will be -1. Not the end of the world because our psy strike will still knock prone even if we roll no extra damage. INT at 12 feels nice but it's not necessary. 20 CON and tough are most important for maximum tankiness but other than that do what you want.
I want to play a PW dipped in wizard/bladesinger as it's got the perfect abiliy suite to shore up a battle wizard inherent squishiness and puts less stress on a high CON score
This is my plan as well! My plan is to go Fighter up to 5 for Extra Attack, then dip 2 Bladesinger and then back to PW until the end. Did you ever end up making your character? I'd be really curious to see if it actually worked out in practice!
The DM I play with limits us to 2 short rests / day. Unless we're in town doing RP stuff.
I wouldn't build with the 18th level power in mind.
I think building it so that it is NOT M.A.D would be most beneficial.
I would start with 3 levels of Artificer, for Con save proficiency (yea fighter already has this I know) and taking Battle Smith specialization allows us to use Intelligence for attacks with magic weapons which we will always have with Infusions, this removes the NEED of Str or Dex for damage. Next I would take 2 levels of Wizard, and take either Bladesinger or Warmage. Bladesong allows us to add our Int mod to AC, gives +10 movement, and adds Int mod to Concentration checks. War Magic grants a reaction bonus to saving throws, but limits spell casting (not a problem for a primarily martial character). I think War Mage is less restrictive of weapon choice, and would make for higher DPR options since you could use PAM + GWM. However.... you COULD use Crossbow Expert + Sharpshooter with a Hand Crossbow with the Repeating Shot infusion on the bladesinger and not fall too far behind in DPR. Since you can't equip a shield and still have Bladesong running you can equip a whip in the off hand for theme, and just incase you need it. This would allow you to play in that mid to melee range as a primarily ranged character, and use all your Psi Knight abilities while staying in relative safety. It would be like a Jedi + VanHelsing Psi powered vampire hunter. The wizard and artificer levels give you access to a very nice suite of spells that will bolster this play style VERY well. Reactions such as Absorb Elements, Shield, Slow Fall, not to mention Familiars and all the other ritual spells as well as Cure Wounds, and Faerie Fire from Artificer. You would also gain access to Guidance and Thornwhip which if flavored could fit the build VERY well. Sure you'd be sacrificing Telekinesis... but you'd have a lot of other spell casting for the whole life of the character, not just the last 1-2 levels before the campaign ends. I would recommend a minimum of 14 dex to start, and prioritize Intelligence, then boost Dexterity. If you're running Mage Armor, and have +5 Int, you'd be sitting at a 20AC with bladesong up. You would probalby only have 19 AC by the time you get Bladesong because of the lack of ASI, but should be 20 by fighter level 6 at the latest. From there, fighter ASI will carry this build pretty hard.
Awesome input, man, many thanks! I may take an extra day to really consider MC options. One thing I forgot to point out is that PW powers are amazing for a dip because their PED aren't level dependent but proficiency bump dependent, so they will scale even without extra PW levels.
@@Bilbrons-and-Dragons I really like the idea of 2 levels Bladesinger. I think there could be a lot of benefit in taking more levels of Artificer too, but I was trying to make it mostly PK since it IS a fighter build. Alternatively, if you didn't want to take 3 levels of Artificer, you could take magic initiate Druid, pick up Guidance and Shillelagh and that would allow you to use a staff or clubs and melee using Intelligence. If you flavor the staff as a wooden sword that glows when you cast Shillelagh... it is now a Light Saber.
Be a goblin jedi... now you're Yoda. Take the Telekinetic (Inteligence) feat at some point after you have taken your wizard levels (For mage hand), and you get a bonus action force push.
Depending on your DM, you could also take 3 levels of Rogue and pick up Soulknife to double your PED. Most likely though, this would be treated like Channel Divinity, where you would gain more ways to use the resource, but you wouldn't increase the resource. This would also net you 2 expertise, and at will magic weapons with a range of 60. Flavor these as "magic cards" and you have the gambit character that @Ig Vitale was talking about. This would be redundant with hand-crossbow, but you could still take sharpshooter to keep the DPR up.
My issue with this build is that you don't get an ASI or Extra Attack until levels 9 and 10 respectively. This seems fine if you are starting later level, but those levels I fear you will feel underpowered. Don't get me wrong, it sounds fun once you get everything; just like how in 3.5/pathfinder you felt great once you became a Mystic Theurge, but it was the middle levels where you felt like a hindrance to the party that were rough. I think in lower tier play, you should snag either of the above, not both. 2 Bladesinger/X Fighter lets you focus on your dex, int, and con. 3 Artificer/X Fighter lets you wear heavy armor and shield (or two handed weapon instead) and focus on int and con with a 15 str if you want to keep mobility high with a flanking buddy, or a mount if you are a small race.
@@Starcoffin I'd just use cantrips until I got extra attack. Cantrips scale at overall levels so you can multiclass and still have cantrips up-scale at level 5. Granted the fewer multi-classes you take the sooner you get extra attack. Also if I were able to start with 18 Intelligence I probably wouldn't take an ASI until fighter 6 at the earliest, because the feats would scale damage faster. But I get what you're saying. I was mainly spit-balling ideas that might help Mr. Bafflestone.
Another build idea. I know ability score wise it seems weird. So what about a 2 lv dip in paladin after level 5. I already choose a defense style through fighter. At level one i get lay on hands which I would roleplay as "force" healing. Plus the divine sense can be explained as a psy ability. At level two I get blind fighter style. That will be roleplayed as me sensing enemies with psy ability. A level 2 you get smite which can stack with Psionic strike. In addition you can cast shield of faith which is awesome for making me a a tank. My original fighter style for psy warrior is defensive variant human with the shield master feat. So with chainmail and shield I would have a 19 av. With shield of faith it would be 21. With platemail it would be 23.
Isn’t guarded mind a free action? The wording doesn’t explicitly say you take an action to end the charmed or frighten effect; it just says that if you start your turn charmed or frightened, you expend the PED to end the effect.
I read it as a good feature because you end the debuff and take your full turn
I agree with this. I don't see anything in the description of PED or Guarded Mind that says it takes an action.
Yep, I was mistaken about that, so it's even better than I thought!
5 levels sorcerer: divine soul for bless, healing word, aid and revivify
14+ levels fighter: psi warrior for protective field
Play as a Harengon gunner. Amazing action economy. You’ll have nice (while not complicated) actions, bonus and reactions every round.
Metamagic Quickened Spell Bless. Attack action with extra attacks. Protect your concentration with bless and protective field. Whoop ass while supporting your party at the same time, and that’s just the first turn of combat. Plus, everyone at the table has fun with bless (except some antagonistic DMs).
If things go to shit, you can recover people from unconsciousness by using Healing Word or Aid. If people die, you have two 3rd level spell slots to revivify, thanks to Divine Soul, which can be metamagic’d with Distant Spell or Quickened Spell. If you’re out of diamonds and can’t revivify, you can always up cast Aid to 3rd level solely as a prep and increase people’s maximum hp (not temp hp) for 8 hours.
With this setup you can do a bit of everything. Here’s my characters end game stats using Standard Array starting stats:
20 Dexterity
20 Constitution
14 Wisdom
13 Charisma
10 Strength
19 Intelligence
Can’t edit on this tablet so I’ll drop this here...
Intelligence is the dump stat. Seek out a Headband of Intellect. That’s why intelligence is 19 here.
You could also easily switch priorities and increase your intelligence way more than I did. But for me this was part of my character progression. The party (especially the casters) should be partially invested with you as well, because that Headband will allow you to protect them more.
Also, some might cringe at a low charisma sorcerer, but none of the high impact spells you’ll be choosing (bless, aid, revivify) require any spell saves or spell attacks. But it’s pretty much just a matter of preference, and I personally prefer to have high constitution so it’s easier to maintain concentration. If you go a different route you could have higher charisma and pick up a charm spell or something like that. But not worth it IMO.
Well, now I need to play a Psi Warrior.
So want to try a Psi Warrior
How about psi warrior ,soulknife and astral self ( flavored as psionics ) as a 9th level character .
Why land safely when you can land ON your target?
Psi powered Atomic suplex. If having mobile, like he said and grappling while falling and land on top, thats like 18d6 damage on a failed save while you take 6d6. If tabaxi while using feline agility with mobile, that's 24d6 they take on a failed save while you take 8d6. They take an extra d4 if you have unarmed fighting and tabaxi claws are natural weapons that can benefit from both the psi powers and the fighting style.
I personally rate Telekinetic Movement much lower. It's definitely poor due to its highly situational nature and the high cost of an entire Action.
Perhaps it's intended that way, and perhaps it's even considered a fluff ability by the developers. It actually seems like it's not supposed to be used in combat at all.
I'm a new player. My first DnD campaign kicked off and I chose the psy warrior at my first character. I have used telekinetic movement in a few ways:
I repositioned my squishy mage after he was grappled and drug away from my party back into the backline. Had I not done so, he was going to get swarmed by the ambushed and would have most likely died; I recovered a treasure chest mid sled-ride down a mountain (sweet loot that the DM wanted one of use to jump off and grab); and I slammed a rock over and over into the ground to mimic a giant's gate, forcing a group looking for is to run in terror.
I've found it's uses to be limited by a player's creativity and resource management.
I feel like this could have been a much more interesting subclass if it was a monk subclass
I don’t see why you’re so enamored with the Telekinesis spell. It’s got some uses sure but I don’t think I’d ever cast it in combat.
A creature affected by the spell are considered restricted, combine that with a bonus action attack for just concentrating on the spell, and your just laying so many attacks without dual wielding and you get advantage.
It’s a wonderful spell for in AND out of combat. Telekinesis lasts for up to 10 minutes while concentrating. The Psi Warrior could perhaps use the spell to move heavy objects and debris to close off or open up narrow spaces.
Also, merely concentrating on the spell gives the ability to use your bonus action to make a weapon attack. The feature doesn’t require you to continuously use your action on the spell to get the bonus action. The concentration can be more easily be maintained since the fighter already has proficiency with Constitution saves.