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Jun 28, 2011 -- 5:04PM, Lormador wrote:

1. Core SRD Psionics recharge.

Requires: Wilder 1 + Torc of Power Preservation, or Wilder 3, knowledge of Bestow Power.
Method: Use Wild Surge for 1, and the Torc of Power Preservation, to manifest Bestow Power on yourself for 2 points at a cost of 1 power point. There is a 5% chance of Psychic Enervation. With enough power points to start with (to avoid a series of unlucky Psychic Enervations). The expected return of 20 manifestations is 37 points, a recharge. 

Note: One can use Earth Power from Races of Stone to substitute either the Wilder level(s), or the Torc of Power Preservation.

You can't actually do this with just Wilder 1. Wild Surge provides augmentation, not manifestation, costs for free. Other related methods appear to work, though. (Arguments about the Torc in CPsi "replacing" the XPH one notwithstanding.) 

3. Naberius Body Fuel trick.

Requires: ability to bind Naberius, Body Fuel feat.
Method: Another really simple one, just use Body Fuel to restore your psionic power points. Naberius will heal the ability damage. Note that this method is a bit shady, in that it's not clear that 'ability burn damage' can be healed by Naberius.

Put me down in the "no" camp here too; if Naberius had text like Fast Healing ('just like natural healing'), I would support this.
(That said, when I was helping write the society mind, we had a problem like this come up: On a strict reading, Fast Healing only heals creatures with fast healing, so if you somehow find a way to bridge that healing around, it wouldn't heal non-fast-healers, which would add another layer of complexity to the Naberius method.)

#2 works, but the fact that it relies upon three twisted things to do speaks volumes. (People have called the StP Erudite "tier zero" for a reason. Not even the artificer can do what it can.)


Here's one you missed: The Efting Spectral Savant. Become a Spectal Savant and learn Shadow Eft. The eft appears with more power points than it costs to summon, and you can Siphon Power from them.

One that does NOT rely on CPsi isn't quite as ideal as the others but is also far, far more likely to be allowed in a game: The Astral Harvest. A Mindfeeding Dissipator weapon grants you 1 temporary PP per 5 damage dealt on a crit, and considers any successful attack against ectoplasmic targets as an automatic critical hit. They're non-stacking, and they do evaporate over time, so this trick is best used out of combat where you can summon, stab, and manifest a buff or utility power ad nauseum.
The original trick involved simply creating an astral construct to stab and leech the temporary PP, but the XPH errata changed Mindfeeder to 1/day. The MIC version changed it back to unlimited, but also says mindfeeder doesn't trigger against astral constructs (since they are immune to crits). Thankfully, it also gave us a workaround: The Greater Demolition Crystal lets you bypass construct crit immunity. And the best part is, since this is a non-combat trick, you can give the crystal to your rogue for actual combat!

Minor correction to your take on Astral Harvest: Mindfeeder grants 1 temporary power point per five points of damage the critical hit dealt, not one per hit. Similarly, while Dissipator isn't required (and is unlisted in your OP), it certainly helps, since most manifesters aren't built to score critical hits on command (and your targets don't last forever).

There's also the assorted Affinity Field tricks (anything relating to Bestow Power can be used to recharge the whole team - but the real advantage is that this will work even if the DM says you cannot use Bestow Power on yourself (charging an ally will spread to you). It just means you need to wait 14 levels later than usual to do this.), but these generally go without saying. You can also use a poor-man's version of this if you work with the psicrystals-get-feats ruling - if your psicrystal learns Hidden Talent or Wild Talent, you may be able to Bestow Power + Share Powers to double up on whatever you bestow on yourself. (Since you're targeting yourself, you transfer a number of PP to yourself up to your manifester level. That effect is shared with the psicrystal. This is different from targeting the psicrystal, where you could at most transfer 0 (for Wild Talent) or 1 (for Hidden Talent) power point per manifestation.) I've looked long and hard for a way to exploit Hidden Talent on psicrystals, but the absence of psionic classes (for either Practiced Manifeter or Manifest A Power From Another's Powers Known purposes) makes this pretty hard to do.



I should clarify that I really don't think Bestow Power should ever have been printed, or if it had, it shouldn't have been done as a power (just to avoid all of this tomfoolery), and that I flat-out refuse to ever learn it as a result. The only method I've seen that doesn't rely on templating or Bestow Power is the Astral Harvest, and that's functionally limited (temporary PP with a short duration), synergizes with physical attack damage (meaning the only class that can both manifest Astral Construct and synergize with physical damage on its own is the ardent) and requires an expensive melee weapon.

Jun 29, 2011 -- 11:29AM, Darioth wrote:

The torc of power preservation was powered down to the point it works 3 times per day in MIC so any combo relaying on it was destroyed.

That's the argument I mentioned above: It also changed the price of the item pretty dramatically. Different price, different effect - some say it's actually a different item (i.e. a "lesser" torc of power preservation). I don't think it is, but then again, I think the two are actually priced reasonably appropriately as if they were.

However, as Lormandor mentioned, the Earth Power feat can be used in place of the Torc, and it isn't limited in times per day. (Instead, it costs two feats and requires you to be both focused and standing on the ground. And yet, somehow, the magic version has fewer restrictions and far more power.)

Four more you forgot are the α Celebrilith calling savant(same as the efting savant but faster,available at higher levels and costing a 7th level power) β larva flayer calling savant (same as the efting savant but slower ,doable at lower levels and costs the knowledge of a lower level power) γ fuel in a vest (take body fuel and the feat that lets you shape a soulmeld found in the magic of incarnum,then take the soulmeld that looks like a vest and has the ability to reduce ability damage,note that ability burn is ability damage that doesn't heal magically but as ability damage it can be stopped before taking its toll on you)  and δ the meditationist:Manifester with at least 3pp, knowing the bestow power and having the linked power and two times the metapower (bestow power) feats.First round you sit in a meditation stance (you have a reputation) and cast bestow power linked with bestow power and pay for the first and not the second manifestation that will go off the next round.Profit is 1pp/two rounds after the first or 1pp/per round after the first if you have the psionic meditation feat.

Alpha and Beta are essentially the same thing as the Efting Savant, but remain valid options, so they could be rolled into the same discussion.

Gamma is subject to the same problem that Hellfire Warlocks have - the damage you take from Body Fuel is a cost, so if you prevent the cost, you don't get the effect. Unlike the hellfire warlock, here the rules are perfectly clear: Body Fuel says you gain the PP "by taking" 1 point of damage; the Strongheart Vest says that "any time you would take ability damage...the amount of damage is reduced by 1 point" (with extra essentia raising that limit, and the example clearly demonstrating that if it prevents all the damage, you "take" zero damage). In other words, using Body Fuel with the Strongheart Vest to prevent the damage, you "take" zero damage, and regain zero PP. 
 I don't have ToM with me to check the exact text on Naberius' faster ability healing; I know it works with the Hellfire Warlock since the warlock just uses ability damage (it seems no book outside of the XPH, not even CPsi, ever bothered to use Ability Burn, which is a shame). I doubt it will work for ability burn since ability burn says it cannot be magically or psionically healed, and as I recall Naberius' healing is a Supernatural ability, which is magical. (If it works "like natural healing", it might bypass it, but I doubt it.)

Delta has a bigger problem: Metapower explicitly cannot be stacked with the same metapsionic feat, so you can't pick Metapower (Linked Bestow Power) twice. Furthermore, a Metapower (Linked Bestow Power) is identical to augmenting Bestow Power one more time, but trading your psionic focus for just 2 pp (the amount that the augment would gain you). (That is, a 9th level manifester with Metapower (Linked Bestow Power) could manifest a 9pp Bestow Power, or [6pp Bestow Power]+[1pp Bestow Power] for 7pp and his psionic focus, and both would restore +6pp.) If your ML is not a multiple of 3, this will let you squeeze in one extra "augment" at the cost of your focus, but that's no different from Overchannel+Talented.

You could get a similar effect with Metapower (Twin Bestow Power), but that works out to be better on its own than when combined with Linked Power due to the extra costs involved in doing both:Spoiler: Show

Spoiler: Show

Jun 29, 2011 -- 7:17PM, ObsidianConspiracy wrote:

Strongheart Vest + Body Fuel

 Depends on how you read things 

No, not really. There's some arguments on the Hellfire Warlock (which uses different language, and I usually just suggest Naberius instead since that WILL work there while the Vest will just start arguments), but on Body Fuel, it's perfectly clear.

And I covered that above, too.

[that method] is subject to the same problem that Hellfire Warlocks have - the damage you take from Body Fuel is a cost, so if you prevent the cost, you don't get the effect. Unlike the hellfire warlock, here the rules are perfectly clear: Body Fuel says you gain the PP "by taking" 1 point of damage; the Strongheart Vest says that "any time you would take ability damage...the amount of damage is reduced by 1 point" (with extra essentia raising that limit, and the example clearly demonstrating that if it prevents all the damage, you "take" zero damage). In other words, using Body Fuel with the Strongheart Vest to prevent the damage, you "take" zero damage, and regain zero PP. 
 I don't have ToM with me to check the exact text on Naberius' faster ability healing; I know it works with the Hellfire Warlock since the warlock just uses ability damage (it seems no book outside of the XPH, not even CPsi, ever bothered to use Ability Burn, which is a shame). I doubt it will work for ability burn since ability burn says it cannot be magically or psionically healed, and as I recall Naberius' healing is a Supernatural ability, which is magical. (If it works "like natural healing", it might bypass it, but I doubt it.)

So, once more, Body Fuel says:

You can recover 2 power points by taking 1 point of ability burn damage to each of your three ability scores: Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution.

While the Strongheart Vest says:

any time you would take ability damage...the amount of damage is reduced by 1 point.

Therefore, you never actually take the 1 point of ability damage, so you never recover the power points. It's like saying you buy food in exchange for giving up some money, but then something reduces the amount of money you give the shop to 0, so you don't actually buy the food.

This is different from the Hellfire Warlock, which uses looser language that doesn't expressly call out the damage you take is a cost. (It just says "every time you use ths ability, you take 1 point of Constitution damage." and provides a description that strongly suggests it's a cost.) Compare to Body Fuel, where it expressly IS a cost.

I also have my ToM now,  and Faster Ability Healing says this:

You heal 1 point in each damaged ability score every round, and 1 point in all drained ability scores every hour.

It has no reference to natural healing, so it's a property of the ability itself, which - as a pact ability - is supernatural. Supernatural abilities are all magical, and Body Fuel uses Ability Burn, which is like ability damage except that it cannot be magically or psionically healed. Thus, I'm forced to conclude that not even Naberius can circumvent Ability Burn.

It goes either way with the Naberius and Body Fuel thing. It says-

Benefit: You can recover 2 power points by taking 1 point of ability burn damage to each of your three ability scores: Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution.

Ability 'burn' is a special thing, but it is still a type of damage. They probably shouldn't have written that, but they did. And although it also says that this ability burn damage is special, in that it cannot be magically or psionically healed, Naberius' healing isn't exactly either of those. It's a Supernatural ability, neither spell-like nor dispellable. It's suppressed in an antimagic field. One might read 'supernatural' as a superior variety of 'natural' healing, and another might read 'supernatural' as the opposite of 'natural' and disallow the maneuver.

The Soulmeld thing appears to me to be a far shadier maneuver, but still worthy of inclusion, because PP Recharges will always need express DM permission in the first place.

Once I work out the Twin Bestow Power, Metapower calculations myself I'll include that too. It's high quality work.

It amuses me to imagine a Scythe being used for the Astral Harvest.