Critique My Psychokinetic Sniper/SMG Guy

[Doc Schnabel]

Jack of all trades 

Thinking of running a game with this little dudebro. I like the idea of starting fights on my terms, so Sniper Rifles are very tempting. Some battlefield control would be nice as well, but I'm a little too lazy to set up a million traps before every dicey encounter, only to recover half of them in preparation the next fight. Magic is nice too: everyone likes wizards, and mana is a renewable resource.

This build tries to incorporate all those thoughts into something halfway coherent, though I'm not sure whether it's really viable in the long run. Damage resistant enemies and ambushes worry me.

Level: 25

BASE ABILITIES
___________________________

        Strength:    7 (+2 by lvl 24)   
       Dexterity:    7   
         Agility:    7   
    Constitution:    3   
      Perception:   13 (+4 by lvl 16) 
            Will:    3   
    Intelligence:    6   

SKILLS
___________________________

   OFFENSIVE
            Guns:  135(238)
        Throwing:    0     
       Crossbows:    0     
           Melee:    0     

   DEFENSIVE
           Dodge:    0 (13)
         Evasion:  135(169)

   SUBTERFUGE
         Stealth:  135(169)
         Hacking:  115(135)
     Lockpicking:   87(120)
   Pickpocketing:    0     
           Traps:    0 (19)

   TECHNOLOGY
       Mechanics:  113(132)
     Electronics:  113(132)
       Chemistry:    0     
         Biology:    0     
       Tailoring:  112(131)

   PSI
 Thought Control:    0 (13)
    Metathermics:    0 (13)
   Psychokinesis:  135(121)

   SOCIAL
      Persuasion:    0     
    Intimidation:    0     
      Mercantile:    0     

FEATS
___________________________
 1  Sprint
 1  Aimed Shot
 2  Interloper
 4  Tranquility
 6  Snipe
 8  Spec Ops
 10  Premeditation
 12  Psychostatic Electricity
 14  Commando
 16  Expertise
 18  Nimble
 20  Critical Power
 22  Recklessness (Ambush? Sharpshooter? Opportunist?)
 24  Full-Auto

Psychokinesis is there for crowd control and buffing, both via the two Electrokinetic abilities. If I have distance on the enemy, I drop an Electrokinetic Imprint, back up a little and open up with a Snipe. If there's somewhere for me to duck behind, or if a nice bottleneck has formed due to the Imprint, then on turn 2 I take an Aimed Shot with the Sniper Rifle and get behind cover. On turn 3, I do a premeditated Electrokinesis on whoever's following me. If there are more than one, I follow up with two more Electrokineses. That gives me anywhere from 1 to 4 guys stunned on this round. They've also taken a little bit of damage, and they're up to 25% more likely to be critically hit, thanks to Psychostatic Electricity. On turn 4, I switch to an SMG, do two bursts, and probably trigger Commando for a free third burst. Hopefully that solves most of my problems, and the following turns are just cleanup.

If I don't have the drop on the enemy, or if someone's super close to me, then I could just start straight with the turn 3 Electrofest and see where that gets me.

7 Str for Full-Auto.
7 Dex strictly for the SMG portion of the fight. With Spec Ops, I can get two 7-round bursts out of a 7.62mm Smart Steel Cat XM before relying on Commando or consumables.
3 Wis because damage alone isn't my goal with Psychokinesis, and the Electro stuns seem pretty reliable even with the handicap.
6 Int for Premeditation and skills.

Speaking of, I'm a little unclear on how to distribute those. Hacking could probably be a little lower, since I could rely on the huxkey for the really tough prompts (they cap out at 135, yeah?). Likewise, I'm unsure on how to best distribute the crafting skill points. Should tailoring be a little lower if I'm just doing the rathound stuff and some nice spring boots? If so, I might dump the surplus into Chemistry so that I can pad out my fancy bullet stock. Or maybe throwing so that I can lob some grenades or flashbangs if things get hairy. Is it worthwhile to splash into that skill? Also, is Electrokinetic Imprint hidden like bear traps, or visible like caltrops? If it's hidden, does the camo value depend on Psychokinesis?

I'll probably round this off by wearing Infused Rathound Leather Armor. Unsure about goggles. Does Burst count as a special move for the purposes of the Smart enhancements? If so, then Smart is a steady damage increase, but Seeker might be nice for the spikes.

Any thoughts on all of this?

[player1]

Personally, I would prefer, if Full Auto is taken as soon as possible (at 6th level) instead delayed to the end of the game. But on the other hand, so many other good feats are taken from 6th level and forward (Sniper, Spec Ops, Tranquility), and they are all essential for this Sniper/SMG/Psion multi-class you play.

Maybe take it at 12th level instead of Psychostatic Electricity?

[Wildan]

Con 3, no dodge, leather armor, psi (-25% max hp) - a pretty suicidal build if you ask me.
You'd do better to move those +4 points from dex to con, and use AR instead of SMG (yes you can burst twice with a 7.62mm Hornet if you use the rapid reloader mod). You can then replace Spec Ops with Concentrated Fire. You don't need chemistry for 7.62mm micro-shrapnel rounds and your sniper of choice should be 7.62 as well - Spearhead with a rapid reloader for 24 AP per shot.

There is a long way till infused leather and pig would be better than rathound in your case. It would actually be best stop at 8 str (what did you plan 9 for anyway?) and use a metal armor made via Armor Sloping. With a bit of luck you'll get a sturdy vest for lots of extra hitpoints you'll badly need as a psiker.

Interloper is not that bad for ranged stealth builds but you don't really need it as much as a melee fighter would because you want to keep your distance and dont need to worry much about how fast you sneak. Your stealth is mainly for the Snipe and 15 MP recovery doesn't make that much of a difference, Sprint should be enough for you anyway. By replacing Interloper you can also put that one extra point from agility into either con or perception and leave it at 6. Note that Hit and Run is currently bugged and doesn't work for attacks made from stealth.
By the way, every attack that is not standard (meaning it has it own ability in the quick invoker) counts as "special attack" and will be affected by the smart module.

Also I'd drop Psychokinesis all down to 45, just enough to qualify for Electrokinetic Imprint. You figured it out yourself that your psi is for crowd control and not damage dealing. With 3 will investing in max Psychokinesis is not optimal.
Honestly, I'd dump psi here alltogether but that's just me. Dipping into it is more suited for an unarmed or knife fighter IMO. Why? They synergize better with it and your main attacks (burst, sniper shots) are very AP costly. You will not always be able to use Electrokinesis for 25 AP or less (so you can use those attacks afterwards). There is also another problem. The faster your psi attacks (Premeditation, Tranquility, psi tactical vest), the faster will you also deplete your psi points pool. Your psi regeneration is pretty mediocre with 9 points per round. Electrokinesis is not really economical. I would certainly advise you to do some maths on how you could expect your psi points pool to behave after several rounds.

I'd also lower both hacking and lockpicking to effective 100, including Huxkey and the Jackknife. Being a completionist sucks big time if it forces you to give up alot of defense... just to loot a few extra containers here and there. Anyway that would give you enough saved points to max dodge and have an easier time distributing the crafting skills.

[Ryzak]

yes you can burst twice with a 7.62mm Hornet if you use the rapid reloader mod

I haven't been able to do this. When I use a rapid reloader to craft a 7.62 Hornet, I get single shot cost of 9 AP, burst of 27 AP. (Unless you mean burst twice per round with adrenaline, then excuse my comment)

[TJ Lapinski]

Spec Ops reduces bursts to 2 times single shot cost from the base 3 times.

[Doc Schnabel]

Yeah, but the hornet's an assault rifle and thereby ineligible for the spec ops bonus. Pretty sure Wildan does mean that two bursts are available only with adrenaline or blitz.

Anywho, based on the input I've gotten here and elsewhere, I've decided to shuffle some stuff around. SMG's are getting replaced with assault rifles, dex is getting bumped down to 4, agility is going up to 10, and int is getting a point traded in from perception so that I can pick up gun nut. Spec ops is getting switched out for full auto, recklessness is getting replaced with blitz, and a few of the feats are getting shuffled around.

The 7.62mm Spearhead with RR gets me two opening shots, which hopefully down 1-2 guys, then I sprint out of the way to avoid return fire. Turn two has me popping back and shooting sparks at everyone, same as before. On turn three, I use blitz, which even without the sprint conversion should give me enough AP for two bursts of that RR'ed 7.62mm Hornet. Commando probably pops here and gives me a third burst. If the scene's kind of sketchy on this turn, I can also slam some adrenaline into my guy's system for a third burst that way (plus, again, the fourth from command).

I imagine most of my problems are over by this point. If not then I dunno, maybe throw a grenade at something? Reload the rifle and keep bursting? Reload the game and try again? The world's my oyster, I guess.

[TJ Lapinski]

With 8 armor you can wear the best metal armor. Why 4 dex? Probably better off with 3 and put more points in con. If you're going so heavily into Int you can get armor sloping and negate a chunk of the armor penalty from metal plates. Just some ideas.

[Doc Schnabel]

I'm taking strength up to 7 by level 24, no higher than that, so metal isn't in the cards unless I move some attribute points around.

I've noticed that metal armor is the standard pairing for sniper+assault rifle, but I'm trying to focus on avoidance and stealth instead, so it's not really a good fit here. I need to be at max health to fire off 3 Electrokineses, and that'll pretty much never happen if I'm in metal armor, since I wouldn't dodge anything and I'd never start first. Similarly, the point in dex is a marginal increase in initiative, which is helpful if I get ambushed. Putting it in con doesn't really do me much good, since I'm trying not to get hit in the first place.

[player1]

If you go for assault rifles, you need Str 7 even more and Full Auto as soon as possible to make burst remotely useful.

[newageofpower]

I'm taking strength up to 7 by level 24, no higher than that, so metal isn't in the cards unless I move some attribute points around.

I've noticed that metal armor is the standard pairing for sniper+assault rifle, but I'm trying to focus on avoidance and stealth instead, so it's not really a good fit here. I need to be at max health to fire off 3 Electrokineses, and that'll pretty much never happen if I'm in metal armor, since I wouldn't dodge anything and I'd never start first. Similarly, the point in dex is a marginal increase in initiative, which is helpful if I get ambushed. Putting it in con doesn't really do me much good, since I'm trying not to get hit in the first place.

First of all, Styg confirmed max CTH malus from difference in skill (when your dodge/evade is twice theirs) is only 60%; dodge means you'll still get smacked 35%(assuming optimal range) of the time. So pure evade/dodge as an absolute defense that is completely out of the question.

To make up for this, players choose from armor types and a shield, which is determined by their build/playstyle/requirements. Crafting players can make the lighter armors work, for a cost, or the super heavy armors even better. If crafting, a high quality supersteel fiber infused Leather vest gives powerful bonuses, low armor penalty (if not ancient rathound) and damage mitigation equivalent to most mid-weight body armors. I think everyone has heard me extoll the virtues of heavy SS metal armor, so we'll skip that.

Another problem I see with your build is that SR and SMGs actually have a fairly weak synergy, not only do SR weapons not benefit from auto weapons feats but requires critical feats to maximize. SRs have base 5 STR req, while SMG builds are really maximized by 16 DEX builds, and benefit much less from Perception than SR builds. SMG/SR builds are workable, but requires quite a bit of minmaxing, and is less flexible (Attribute-feat-skillwise) than an AR/SR build.

Even worse, you have a 3 WILL psi build. Splashing in some psi-based CC on a high-CON Juggernaut build is okay, but on a 3con build you'll die to almost anything for minimal gains. Most psi-spells are not very good on correctly optimized SMG builds anyways, because you will kill all your opponents in 1-2 turns (6 bursts in one turn if blitz or adrened with 7.62).

I could splash psi on a 3 constitution run, but not for my first game, not for Psychostatic electricity, and most definitely not on a 3 willpower build. Add in the difficulty of attempting an SR/SMG build, and the points for Attributes, Feats, and Skills don't exist.

:  /

Your build is poorly optimized, and will have some trouble in the late game without permastealth-alpha strike shenanigans. If you enjoy walking everywhere at a snail's pace, having to save scum, and occasionally dying anyways in 1 hit from a sniper, you can continue and still clear.

Otherwise, I reccomend you restart.

[Doc Schnabel]

If you go for assault rifles, you need Str 7 even more and Full Auto as soon as possible to make burst remotely useful.

Good point! I'll work on getting str to 7 first, then int, and later per.

Your build is poorly optimized, and will have some trouble in the late game without permastealth-alpha strike shenanigans. If you enjoy walking everywhere at a snail's pace, having to save scum, and occasionally dying anyways in 1 hit from a sniper, you can continue and still clear.

Otherwise, I reccomend you restart.

Well it's a stealth build, so yeah, the whole idea is to sneak around and rely on alpha strike shenanigans (then stunning and critting down anyone who follows me). A 30% move reduction is fine when I'm exploring; I tend to take my sweet time on new maps anyway, and I'm a habitual quicksaver.

Also, to reiterate, I'm switching over from smg's to assault rifles and picking up blitz.

Even worse, you have a 3 WILL psi build. Splashing in some psi-based CC on a high-CON Juggernaut build is okay, but on a 3con build you'll die to almost anything for minimal gains. Most psi-spells are not very good on correctly optimized SMG builds anyways, because you will kill all your opponents in 1-2 turns (6 bursts in one turn if blitz or adrened with 7.62).

I could splash psi on a 3 constitution run, but not for my first game, not for Psychostatic electricity, and most definitely not on a 3 willpower build.

How big do encounters tend to get in this game? I'm probably beating a dead horse here, but my thinking is that I can take 1-2 guys down with the sniper round, and then another 2 (maybe 3?) down with the assault rifle round, after they've been softened up with electrokinesis. Any leftovers after that will, hopefully, be manageable. Are there points in the game where I'm mobbed by a half dozen or more strong enemies?

[MisterBurkes]

My very first playthrough is with a full Psi user (all 3 disciplines), and I ended up supplementing it with snipers. I started out with 4 strength, and increased it to 5 so I can use sniper rifles. You don't need more than 5 strength - there are even a couple of assault rifles that only require 5 strength. What you do want is high will and high perception. There are so many great psionic skills that will help you disable opponents and maintain your distance, allowing for very easy snipes as follow-up with 95% accuracy. My first turn in any fight allows for a free stun, followed by a 400-500 damage Aimed Shot. Then you have the choice of adrenal shot for a 2nd snipe, or using a lower AP cost psi ability. Avoid using 12.7mm sniper rifles, because the 45 AP cost is too high and prevents you from getting off 2 snipes a turn. Use 7.52mm or 8.6mm sniper rifles. 8.6mm sniper rifles give you the added benefit of using incendiary bullets for extra lulz.

[Doc Schnabel]

I guess I worry about close quarters combat. I'm only level 5, and I've yet to enter GMS, but I've cleared the two passageways maps and the caves south of the SGS upper platform, and there were a few instances where sniping alone (even with cc) would probably have been super unwieldy.

Gotta admit that some of those Thought Control powers look pretty great, especially with Locus of Control. I should look into that line on a second playthrough, though melee might be tempting as well. Any idea if both can be combined?

[nbilling]

Thought Control wants Locus of Control which requires 10 will, which I think is going to rule out a dex melee build. I tried running something like 8 str, 3 dex, 3 agi, 10 con, 3 per, 10 wil, 3 int and it seemed to work fine but I got bored with it and didn't finish. That kind of build is very committed once you start combat-- you aren't going to get the first turn and you aren't going to get to initiate combat on your terms very often, and you won't get away and disengage.

e: and mobility sucks so the enemies kind of get to choose whether they die from sledgehammer or metathermics.

[newageofpower]

I can count the amount of times I've gotten attacked by multiple very powerful opponents on two hands.

SMG builds have no problem with close combat because of the obscene close range DPS. AR builds can deal with  a few guys at close range but its uncomfortable.

Psi-monks can do Locus of Control, but it requires some compromises. I think a 10 AGI (and max Dex) Psi-monk build, dumping STR is optimal.