Psion Class Overview: Psions are masters of mental power, manifesting psionic abilities to control, manipulate, and destroy, making them versatile and potent spellcasters without needing traditional magic.
Anarchic Mind[1]: This build specializes in chaotic energy manipulation and infinite power points, combining Psion and Wilder abilities for high damage and battlefield control.
Dorje Nomad[2]: A mobility-focused Psion build, excelling in power point efficiency through dorje crafting, with strong utility and extended power durations.
The Diamond Dragon[3]: A hybrid melee Psion that uses powers like Metamorphosis to transform into deadly creatures, combining physical combat with psionic abilities.
The Mastermind[4]: A stealthy Psion focused on infiltration, intelligence gathering, and mind control, with sneak attacks enhanced by psionic powers.
The Overmind[5]: A summoner-style Psion who commands powerful astral constructs. They are capable of turning them into dominant forces on the battlefield with minimal resource cost.
Astral constructs with multiple augmentations make for incredibly strong and versatile summons.
Limited direct damage output; relies on constructs for most offensive abilities.
Anarchic Mind
The Anarchic Mind[1] Psion focuses on chaotic energy manipulation, using wild surges and powerful dorjes to create overwhelming force on the battlefield. The build leverages metapsionic feats for infinite power points. All while maintaining battlefield control through abilities like Anarchic Grace and Chaotic Breach.
Infinite power points via linked metapsionic feats and dorje crafting.
Vulnerable to high-damage bursts while overchanneling for wild surges.
Use Psionic Meditation and linked powers to effectively regain focus and manifest powers in rapid succession.
Dorje Nomad
This Psion build capitalizes on the flexibility of a Nomad’s discipline, focusing on mobility and utility powers. Dorje crafting plays a key role in empowering both the character and the party with cheap power points, while extending the duration of key powers for battlefield advantage.
Unmatched power point efficiency using crafted dorjes and linked powers.
Limited in direct offense without relying heavily on equipment.
Use the +1 Bolt of the Manifester trick to easily gain a large pool of extra power points daily.
The Diamond Dragon
A unique Psion build that blends melee prowess with psionic manifestations, focusing on Egoist powers to self-buff and enter melee combat. The build maximizes combat effectiveness through powers like Metamorphosis and Pounce, allowing for devastating transformations and battlefield control.
Extremely potent melee combatant, capable of turning into powerful creatures like dragons.
Low defense against specialized antimagic or antimaterial effects.
Combine Metamorphosis with Psionic Lion’s Charge for a surprise melee powerhouse capable of pouncing across the battlefield.
The Mastermind
A stealthy and manipulative Psion, the Mastermind[4] thrives on controlling information, using skills like Bluff, Disguise, and Psionic powers to gather intelligence and manipulate enemies. Sneak attack abilities combined with psionics make this a deadly scout and interrogator.
Excellent infiltration, mind control, and information-gathering capabilities.
Low combat durability with limited defenses against physical threats.
Use sneak attack with psionic rays to amplify damage while remaining hidden in the shadows.
The Overmind
The Overmind[5] focuses on summoning powerful astral constructs to control the battlefield, using the Constructor class to enhance these constructs with additional abilities. The build centers on high-level manifestations, making it a summoner with overwhelming construct strength.
Astral constructs with multiple augmentations make for incredibly strong and versatile summons.
Limited direct damage output; relies on constructs for most offensive abilities.
Use Boost Construct and Constructor abilities to create grappling constructs that can easily dominate the battlefield, pinning down even the toughest enemies.
FAQ
What makes Psions different from traditional spellcasters?
Psions use psionic power points instead of spell slots, allowing them to freely choose how much power to invest in their abilities. Thus offering more flexibility in resource management and adaptability during encounters.
How does the Anarchic Mind[1] Psion achieve infinite power points?
The Anarchic-Mind utilizes a combination of the Linked Power feat, Metapower, and Dorje crafting to establish an infinite loop of gaining and spending power points, allowing for continuous manifestation of abilities.
The Dorje-Nomad excels in crafting powerful dorjes that provide cheap power points, making it highly efficient for long adventures where conserving power points is critical, while also enabling strong mobility-based tactics.
The Diamond Dragon[3] uses powers like Metamorphosis and Psionic Lion’s Charge to transform into powerful creatures, combining psionic buffs with melee combat to become a devastating force on the battlefield.
Can the Psion Overmind’s astral constructs be customized?
Yes, the Overmind[5] can augment its astral constructs with additional abilities through class features and feats, making them versatile and highly effective at grappling, damage dealing, or performing specific tasks.
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Ready to try playing a Psion in your next game? What do you think—could the Psion be the best class in D&D 3.5? Join the discussion on our Stellar Dragons Discord server at https://discord.gg/uAPvgEq6Z7.
Writer, Editor, GM, Technologist – Andrew’s been playing TTRPGs since as far back as he can recall… at least sometime in the nineties… or was it the early 2000s?
After finding their destination, a quaint establishment by the name of “The Fishbone’s Gutter”, they made their way inside, only to be struck by the heavy smell of tobacco, cheap alcohol, sweat and seafood.
The sensitive nose of the woman made her grimace as she took in more olfactive information that the man could even imagine existed.
Despite being at a place of rest for many sailor, tough and strong men amongst many others, they both still stood a good head above the rest. Fortunately, the place was busying in the morning hour and nobody gave them much attention, except for a man sitting at a small booth who waved at them. Their contact.
As they got closer, the man could swear in the shadows of the booth that the man had twophantasmic heads that floated next to their contact. He tried to blink it a way as he thought that must have been a trick of the light.The heads didn’t fade, though.
-“Glad you two could make it. Now, order yourselves some chowder because this is going to take a while, said the man with an amicable scoff.”
Race
Synad
Classes
-Psion 5/Anarchic Initiate 10/Psion +5
Ability Scores
Str 8/Dex 11/Con 15/Int 18/Wis 13/Cha 8
Skills
Knowledge(Psionics) 8, Knowledge(The Planes) 8.
Feats
Our Metapsionic Feats are Extend Power for obvious reasons, and later on we add Linked Power for shenanigan reasons detailed below.
Overchannel will let us take damage to increase our Manifester Level and is a Prerequisite to get into Anarchic Initiate so that’s fine.
Craft Dorje+Dorje Mastery makes our Dorje extremely potent which is always fun.
Psicrystal Affinity+Psicrystal Containment are no-brainers for any Psion.
Late game, the Midnight Augmentation+Metapower+Linked Power, combined will let you Manifest say Precognition linked with Bestow Power to gain infinite Power Points.
Yep. Fear the infinite PP.
Finally, Psionic Meditation lets us regain our Psionic Focus as a Move Action and frankly that’s another feat that should be a straight Class Feature so good it is.
Special Abilities
Discipline: Kineticist
Psicrystal: Nimble
Nimble gives bonus to Initiative and Initiative wins battles as always. As for our Discipline, we are focusing on overt displays of power here. That means energy control, telekinesis and the like. Flashy, and despite what naysayers like to complain about, fairly effective if deployed appropriately. Don’t focus too heavily on those though. There’s no need.
Equipment
Once again, the majority of your gold will go into crafting Dorjes. Early on, you don’t have much in terms of strict necessities which allows you to buy extra traveling equipment that the rest of your party might be too financially tight to afford which is a nice place to be all things considered.
Final Thoughts on the Build
Anarchic Initiate is easily the second best Psionic Prestige Class out there for a Psion. By granting you a Wild Surge equivalent from the Wilder on top of all your Psion Discipline, your infinite PP combo, your various Dorje and Powers, you can achieve some spectacular amounts of damage with spending very little resources.
Add on this some of the Anarchic Initiate’s incredible abilities like Anarchic Grace which gives enemies a specifically un-bypassable 20% miss chance on all attacks, and Chaotic Breach Complete is a ridiculously fun battlefield control/Save or Suck ability.
This build gets the best of both worlds from being a Psion and a Wilder and it makes for a fantastic psionic character to play.
The woman’s voice was direct, but still a certain degree of discomfort could be felt from it. Her white coat drenched by the downpour that had continued unabatedfor a week now. The coat muddied on its lower end flapped heavily with each step.
-“As much as I could have trusted you not to slice my throat the first time we met”. The man following her spoke up nonchalantly, completely dry despite the torrential rain, protected by some spell of his.
She forced a smirk on her face.
-“So not at all huh? Great. I hate psionics.”
The man looked at her and with a few words of arcane power, she was suddenly dry and under the same kind of protection as he was.
-“No need to grumble about this, you know how I feel about those mad cultists who venerate that long lost empire. Still, only their master has enough clairvoyance to find my sister’s whereabouts.”
The woman groaned even harder, but nonetheless grabbed the man by the arm and got closer to him. She was extremely warm, the man thought to himself as they continued making their way through the docks of the city.
Race
Elan
Classes
-Psion 20
Ability Scores
Str 8/Dex 12/Con 16/Int 18/Wis 10/Cha 6
Skills
No Prerequisites, so Invest in Concentration, Psicraft and various Knowledges.
Feats
Skill Focus will help regain our Psionic Focus via Concentration checks.
Psicrystal Affinity shoulda been a Class Feature so much so it is good for Psions, and Psicrystal Containment lets you have two Psionic Focus at once, which can let you do some craaaaazy stuff.
The fact that at lvl 10 we get Elan Retainment which will let us spend 3 Power Points instead of losing our Psionic Focus regardless of why we would have spent/lost it for means that Psionic Focus is never going to be an issue from lvl 10 onwards.
Dorje Mastery turns the Dorje you craft into very dangerous items. Craft Dorje, Craft Psionic Arms and Armors and Craft Universal Items means your party will love you by giving them stuff. It also enables a very cheap method to gain a metric ton of PPs, which I will detail in the Equipment section.
Extend Power will save you so many PPs in the long haul it is not even funny. Doubling the duration of effects can turn the tide of a battle on its head alone. Burrowing Power will let you use powers through barriers which is great, and Linked Power is just ridiculously good, double so if you can use it fully with Synchronicity, a combination that lets you essentially give the proverbial middle finger to the Action Economy.
Special Abilities
Discipline: Nomad
Psicrystal: Nimble for more Initiative, as Initiative wins encounters. Coupled with your Improved Initiative means that you are very likely to always act first.
Equipment
You don’t really have anything here that is a need. However, a good old Crossbow for when/if you run out of PP is always useful, especially early on. Eventually, you will switch that to Dorjes. All the Dorjes.
Also, here’s a fun trick. Crafting a bunch of +1 Bolts of the Manifester grants you 5PP per Arrow.
And Crafting Magical/Psionic Ammunition costs peanuts because you apply the cost for 50 Arrows.
Let’s calculate that actually.
50 +1 Bolts of the Manifester would cost
350(Masterwork)+1000(+1)+8000(Manifester) 9350gp.
9350 gold pieces for an effective +250 PP/day is ridiculously cheap. Seriously, if you are going to use this trick and the GM allows it, don’t abuse it for the sake of everyone involved.
Final Thoughts on the Build
Even a pure Psion is extremely fun to play. We don’t use Extra Knowledge shenanigans to grab Powers outside of our Discipline like Synchronicity which combined with our Linked Power could have enabled some of the highest of shenanigans. Still. Our Dorje are going to be extremely powerful, we have access to many really fun shenanigans with powers like Time Hop and Time Regression.
We can craft items for our party, and have a serious amount of flexibility with access to 9th lvl Powers, and with our few key Metapsionic Feats we can mitigate our weaknesses like PP consumption.
As an Elan, we can spend PPs to nullify damage/instead of expending our Psionic Focus and combined with our vast reserve of PPs from being a Psion, our High Intelligence and our +1 Bolts of the Manifester, we can sponge some significant damage. Overall, a classic, yet very effective “main caster-type” build.
The woman groaned heavily as the both of them made their way through the sewers.
-“You knew they would ask us something in return for the intel, so no complaining.”
The man said that reactively, but he understood her too. This whole thing about his sister was stressing her out, and he would be lying if he said her showing up after a decade was not getting to him.
Still, they didn’t have a choice. Together they had to stop his sister and to find out who was employing her skills as the single best killer on the continent.
Suddenly, the man stopped. Something was approaching. A thin, almost ghastly humanoid covered in armor with a shivering greatsword seemingly made of liquid silver, great crystal wings and a swift lashing tail charged him out of the darkness.
The woman barely had to the time interpose herself and deflect the blade with her shifted clawed hand.
-“I hate psionics.“ She grumbled as white fur slowly grew on her face and her gray eyes turned a bright yellow.
Race
Githyanki (+2 LA Buyoff)
Classes
Psion 6/Diamond Dragon 10/Slayer 4
Ability Scores
Str 14/Dex 13/Con 16/Int 18/Wis 6/Cha 8
Skills
Knowledge(Arcana) 3, Knowledge(Dungeoneering) 4
Feats
Power Attack is a staple of any good melee character and yes. We are, in fact, building a melee psion. Since we become proficient with all martial weapons as a Slayer, we can invest a bit to gain Weapon Focus and Improved Critical for our Greatsword(which we will come back to later). And with Craft Psionic Arms and Armor, we can craft our blade ourselves.
Expanded Knowledge lets us grab Psionic Lion’s Charge which will let us Pounce and Pounce is awesome.
Since we will get in melee a lot, Concentration becomes even more important, so Skill Focus is even more justified than usual.
Finally, we grab the usual suspects Extend Power and Linked Power
Special Abilities
Discipline: Egoist
Egoist has some of the most hilariously broken psionic powers. Fission and Fusion in particular are of note, but Metamorphosis is our main attraction by far here. The ability to turn into say, a dragon for example, coupled with Pounce is of a hilarity I can hardly put in words, you have to see it in play to understand just how ridiculous this gets.
Equipment
Early on pick a Shortspear or a Quarterstaff and bonk people over the head. As soon as you hit your first level of Slayer however, get yourself a Githyanki’s Silver Sword. Also, at the same time grab yourself a Full Plate as armor does not impede Manifesting.
Final Thoughts on the Build
You end up with about a Medium BAB, Full Plate, a Greatsword that disrupts psionics, the ability to buff yourself to a level that makes even Cleric raise an eyebrow.
Add the ability to psionically manifest a 10ft reach Tail, claws, to have a breath weapon that can deal some solid Sonic damage. You can also manifest a Frightful Aura and wings to fly with perfect maneuverability.
If you add all of this together on top of being a full manifester with 9th lvl powers. Yeah, this build will be able to rock the world of your game really, really fast.
The infamous Mastermind behind the cult of the One Mind looked down into the warehouse from the small office that served as the front of her organization.
She had formally registered her business as an import and export company to the Empire, but her real business was the information trade.
She didn’t react as the couple entered the warehouse. She was expecting them. She already knew why they were here, and she had the information they wanted. The only problem was that said information was extremely valuable, and getting rid of a single rogue member of her organization was not worth its price, but, the woman in the white coat was unlikely to take that as an answer.
As the staircase groaned and creaked under the two adventurers footsteps, the mastermind pinched the bridge of her nose, knowing that this conversation would be a headache.
Take the Flaws Murky Eyed and Noncombatant at 1st level, and take the Feats Combat Expertise and Cosmopolitan(Move Silently).
You gain Hide and Move Silently as Class Skills via Martial Study and Cosmopolitan respectively, and Darkstalker lets you hide even against special perceptions which can be amazing if combined with the correct powers.
Psionic Meditation is your only Psionic Focus lost mitigation feat in this build and is thus more than welcomed.
Extend Power and Linked Power are our obvious usual suspects and finally, we grab Weapon Finesse more out of principle at this late point than anything else. Feel free to change it up to something else.
Special Abilities
Discipline: Shaper. We are doing an Information Trader build here. Abilities to dominate and charm others is going to be mandatory. Plus it gives us a few more necessary class skills like Bluff and Disguise which are going to be critical to our theme.
High Psionics by Level
16-Greater Psionic Focus +1
17-Greater Psionic Focus +2
18-Greater Psionic Focus +3
19-Psionic Reach
20-Sculpt Power
Extra reach, the ability to not friendly fire and making your powers that much harder to resist is just extra gravy on top of an already excellent build.
Equipment
A few daggers and a Light Crossbow are what you are aiming at early on. Grab yourself a good old Torc of Power Preservation as soon as possible to preserve as many PP as you can.
Final Thoughts on the Build
You have a small amount of Sneak Attack and quite a few very interesting abilities in the form of Dire Strike and its Dire Augments, all aimed at Interrogation and Intelligence Gathering. As a fun aside, many Psionic Powers, especially Rays, can be used with Sneak Attack, letting you apply said Dire Strike and Dire Augments to them.
Add on top of that the fact that you are a full Manifester capable of throwing powers such as Genesis and Astral Seed, you are a power to be reckoned with. The fact that you also happen to be able to also use Astral Construct for example is just cherry on top of a great Psion build that is sprinkled with extra skills, scouting ability and even a small extra damage capability, turning the Psion into an even more terrifying foe to face.
Once the rogue member was eliminated, their contact at the Fishbone Gutter gave them an address. A warehouse of some sort seemed from the emplacement thought the man and as predicted, so it was.
As they entered the vast building, they were met with a sight that left them both surprised. Several creatures of an astral-like white of somewhat humanoid form, but utterly lacking in distinctive features were at work moving crates and putting them either on piles ready for sending or on massive shelves for storage.
In the middle, a fat man was sitting on one of said creatures as if a chair, barely noticing their arrival as he was taking franctic notes.
–“You the people here to see the master?” He barked at them in a casual yet uninterested voice.
As the woman was about to groan something she would have regretted, the man cut her off by replying.
–“We are. Where can we meet him?”
Without even looking at them, the man pointed at a small office overlooking the warehouse where only a single staircase was leading to.
Race
Human
Classes
-Psion 6/Constructor 10/Arch Psion 4
Ability Scores
Str 8/Dex 13/Con 14/Int 18/Wis 13/Cha 8
Skills
Craft(Any) 9, Knowledge(Psionics) 15, Psicraft 15
Feats
Take the Flaws Murky Eyed and Noncombatant at 1st level, and take the Feats Boost Construct and Psionic Focus(Psychokinesis).
Our two usual suspects, Extend Power and Linked Power, come very late in the build, where you might normally desire it earlier, that’s because while nice round ups, they aren’t strictly necessary for our purposes here.
Psicrystal Affinity and Psicrystal Containment are pretty much mandatory for any self-respecting Psion as we have seen so far, and Craft Dorje is just so good it’s really hard to pass up. Psionic Meditation will let us regain our focus as a move action which is going to be extremely useful for clutch moments.
Boost Construct lets us apply another augmentation to our Astral Construct and it specifically cumulates with the Constructor’s ability of the same name, meaning our Astral Constructs can be extremely powerful really, really fast.
Special Abilities
Discipline: Shaper
Shaper gives us access to the Astral Construct power and that is pretty much all we will focus on in this build, although Shaper has some other very nice powers as well.
Psicrystal: You thought I would surprise you here by not saying Nimble did you?
High Psionics per level
17-Innate Psionics
18-Psionic Reach
19-Sculpt Power
20-Psionic Energy Discharge
You get to choose one of your Powers to use for free 2/Day, your Touch Powers now have a 30ft reach, you can sculpt your powers to avoid friendly fire and you gain a fairly okay blast, adding some nice extra oomph to your Powers all in all.
Equipment
You honestly don’t need anything in particular, except more PP, so buy yourself a Light Crossbow and later on 50 +1 Bolt of the Manifester for some extra well needed PPs. Besides all that, invest in your Dorjes.
Final Thoughts on the Build
Your Astral Construct can unironically become the single strongest Grappler in the game with the proper Augmentations (I am looking at you Constrict) with extremely little investment.
Let me put this thing in perspective. To summon a 9th lvl Astral Construct, it costs you 17 PP. Out of 300+ at level 20. And because of your Constructor class, this thing can maul things for you for minutes/Manifester Level. And on top of that, your 9th lvl Construct has 5 Abilities from the Menu C. That can get out of control extremely fast for a ridiculously low amount of PPs.
And all of that? That’s one of your 36 Powers you will learn through your career(unless you spend some xp to learn more).
Add on top of this Dorjes you create are considered as having 4PP always spent to enhance their power. Meaning you can spam lvl 3 Astral Construct for very, very cheap without even spending your own PPs.
You can also create non-combat Astral Construct that stays for hour/level to do mundane tasks for you which is always nice.
All in all, pretty much the main method to do a “Psionic Summoner” type character, and it works fantastically well.
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