BPM Psion

[patronkus]

Looking to do another run with BPM on POTD Upscaled. Last run I did I used a Beguiler and liked it a lot, very much enjoyed the chain casting to build lots of focus without attacking at all. Psion looked neat in the base game but just doesn't work in practice. I read BPM makes it much more viable but something I am very curious about is the Focus gain. Ideally I'd like to do Single Class Psion but the big thing for me is the Focus gain. How much Focus do you generate as a Psion, and moreover, when you pair it with features like The Complete Self can you just go with effectively a pure casting Cipher as Psion, similar to Beguiler?

[Boeroer]

16 hours ago, patronkus said:

Psion looked neat in the base game but just doesn't work in practice. 

?? I find it works extremely well in practice - at least with the Community Patch (it changes Soul Mindin a way that not receives damage stops the focus gain but receiving a critical hit). The best Cipher subclass for me personally. 

Soul Mind (Psion focus gain) scales with Power Level. It starts with 1 focus per second. Iirc it's +1 focus per second for every 2 Power Levels. So an SC Psion with Prestige and 2 more Power Levels (for example Wellspring of Life + Stone of Power's Power Surge) will get you to 7 focus per second if I'm not mistaken. 

I played an SC Psion with a small shield and weapon & shield style (less crits agains me - also less attention from enemies) and focus on Whisper of Treason and Puppet Master and I couldn't spend my focus as fast as it came in at some point. Keep in mind that Soul Mind regenerates focus even while you are in recovery or run away, are prone etc. 

Edited June 22, 2023 by Boeroer

[patronkus]

8 hours ago, Boeroer said:

?? I find it works extremely well in practice - at least with the Community Patch (it changes Soul Mindin a way that not receives damage stops the focus gain but receiving a critical hit). The best Cipher subclass for me personally. 

Well as you said the Community Patch Soul Mind change is not the base game.

The PL scaling is good to know, effectively it sounds like if you balance for cast time you can just chain out spells indefinitely. I wonder how it works with something like Time Parasite?

Edited June 23, 2023 by patronkus

[Elric Galad]

Base game : Soul Mind paused on damages

CP : Soul Mind paused on being crit

BPM : Soul Mind paused on being hit (so bit less good than CP)

[Boeroer]

Community Patch's solution is really too good. I think I wrote about that after I played a decent amount of Psion hours and iirc correctly also talked with @Elric Galad when he wanted input about Soul Mind with BPM. 

I also played Psion without mods and found it to be fine. It's still my preferred cipher subclass (then Beguiler) even then. The reason is that the action economy is so much better if you don't have to attack with weapons in order to get fuel for casts - and at the same time don't have to hit enemies at all which makes this subclass more useful against the tough nuts in the game.

With a full party you can avoid to be damaged frequently pretty easily. Again decent deflection (and not having the lowest AR of the party) helps not only against occuring attacks but also disincentivizes enemies from attacking the Psion in the first place.

If you then focus on mind control and other disabling CC (and as MC: also summons!) you make getting damaged even less likely. All the while you generate focus without doing anything (chanter style).

Imo a caster/Psion hybrid is better and more entertaining. Being able to alternate between Focus and other resource pools and you never have to wait for resources - but the SC route grants access to impactful stuff like Puppet Master a lot sooner which is also good. 

I did NOT use Time Parasite much with SC Psion - because it messes with the timing of casting times/recovery and focus generation too much. It doesn't do much good if you suddenly have to wait for focus because you cast too quickly. The focus for Teim Parasite was better spent otherwise imo. Perfect spell for SC Ascendant though.