Psi Machete, Thoughts?

[Triste]

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?CgUMCAUDAwYAAAA8DxQAAC0AADwAACg8ADwAPDwAACg5KzHCjAbCmcKO378

So, Melee / Psionics hybrid (HEAVY FOCUS ON MELEE) with a machete. Considering dropping Biology since Temporal Manipulation is already there and pushing Evasion / Dodge for the lower levels might be good. (Those two shouldn't be an issue due to Siphoner Tabi plus Phantom Dancer plus Red Dragon which will buff those by quite a bit and should make those two things reach the % cap).

Maybe lowing Agility and boosting Will somehow to 7 would be good for the Force User feat? Alas, Psychokinesis is not meant to be something to deal damage with, I grabbed it for the utility it brings to the build with the stuns from Telekinetic Punch and Elektrokinesis plus the Force Field, Disruptive Field (which should also help the dodge / evasion stuff), Ele. Imprint & Implosion. So yeah, only usually used when there's too many mobs around to deal with since Sprint + Flurry or Basic Attack usually clears whatever is around, and if not I'll debuff with TM before running away. And yeah the only damage I need from Psychonises is perhaps from Elektrokinesis stuff to deal with bots but even then, once I have the Red Dragon they shouldn't be a problem.

I'm unsure about lowing the Constitution since it's those few points that can keep me alive in rough situations when things don't go as planned, but I can see how it would benefit me to boost Agility even higher for Blitz and then grab Fancy Footwork to have even more attacks per round.

Also I could probably drop Persuasion since it doesn't seem to be THAT useful.

Thoughts on the build and the dilemmas here?

[Triste]

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?HgUQCAUDAwYAAADCoMKgwqAAAEEAAMKRAAA8wpYAwqAAPAAAAMK5KDkrMcKMBsKZwo4qwo1LwodBEmfCsw_fvw

This is how it should end up looking at 30, more or less, and even then there's 160 spare points that I could drop into something to level it to max and I can probably lower stuff here and there.

[TheAverageGortsby]

3 Will + maxed Psychokinesis? That's going to disappoint you. Psychokinesis is a real psi point hog and the only way to get it to do really exceptional damage is to have really high effective scores.  With such a low effective score, your TK Punch will not be landing stuns very often (enemies will successfully make their Resolve checks and resist the stun), so you'll have to rely on Electrokinesis and Electrokinetic Imprint - and they do their stun no matter what your skill is.  So you may as well pull back 115 points from Psychokinesis.  45 will get you the electro trap and the force field.  Now you have 275 points to spare, and that opens up a lot more options for your character.  You can also pull 50 points out of Tailoring if you want, since with housing bonus that'll still give you a high enough effective score to make your highest-quality leather armor and tabis/boots.  325 points.  35 points can come out of Mechanics, since you'll not be wearing metal armor obviously.  360 points.  Now we're talking.  Pick up some more useful skills and even though your stats are still a mess, you'll do just fine.

[Triste]

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?CgUMBgMDBwYAAAA8Hh4AADwAADwAAAA8ADwAPDwAACg5KzHCjBQGwpnfvw

Alright, so, I'm grabbing the base of "Hammer Wizard" and pushing it onto that which should fix a few of the problems I could have and my stats should be good enough now since 5 / Strength is Base for Swords (only Tungsten machete requiring 6 but I figure I can skip those), 6 / Agility because I'll need to grab Sprint, 6 / Intelligence otherwise I won't be able to grab Cheap Shots which since swords use dexterity is something I'll really need and it'll save me some crafting skill points down the line with the crafting benches, and finally 7 / Will to get Force User and to keep the Psionics from falling too far behind, plus since I'll save so many points once I'm done with Persuasion (I think about 80~90 effective should be enough), Lockpicking (I've heard the highest is 130 and it will grab some synergy with Mechanical plus the MKII~III tools means I won't have to level it up past 70~80), Crafting and Temporal Manipulation (Highest effective I need is 70 to grab Stasis) I figure I'll be able to raise Biology to 60~70 for the chems and pump up Metathermics or Thought Control perhaps to help with damage or crowd control, atleast with living beings. The damage on all that, along with the utility everything brings plus the many items I'll pick up to help out and everything else should make this build as solid as it can get.

Figure I could also throw some skill points into Throwing and then just simply buy EMP and smash the robots with that and the Elektrokinesis stuff and to throw a granade here and there when kiting mobs around or funneling them via Force Field / Doors which is something that likely everyone does.

[Juri]

I would recommend fancy footwork over sprint

[TheAverageGortsby]

Temporal Manipulation (Highest effective I need is 70 to grab Stasis)

Just in case this isn't an accidental typo, I should remind you that you need base scores to learn psi abilities, not effective scores.  Effective scores determine the effect of the ability, if it scales off of skill, but you have to have the base value to learn it in the first place.

[Triste]

Typo, yeah I know about the required base for Psionics. And Fancy Footwork would require 7 Agility and I'm not sure how that would affect me in the long run. I imagine, since I'm not going to drop extra stat points I get when levelling up I could perhaps drop one out of Dexterity just for that.

I feel Sprint would help me even more tha Fancy Footwork since that one needs to be activated by hitting an enemy. For example, at the start of combat Sprint could help me catch them without wasting too many Action points and in such a case I would waste a turn or two before hitting them to activate Fancy Footwork and by then they'd already be dead.

[TheAverageGortsby]

I feel Sprint would help me even more tha Fancy Footwork

Personally, I always get a lot more use out of Sprint than Fancy Footwork for my melee characters.  However, for lightly armored builds that are good at quickly killing targets and having enough AP left over to go kill more, Fancy Footwork certainly has its uses.  If you open a fight against a group with a well-placed grenade, FF may let you zip all around the battlefield finishing off the injured, like some sort of wire-fu action sequence