Looking for tips/builds for a heavy armored, shotgun+metathermics character.

[ProfBambo]

Hello! I was thinking of building a heavy armored, shotgun wielding character that has affinity for ice and fire psi powers being specialized in metathermics as a way to enhance his tankiness and provide crowd control. The character would be very proficient at technology skills for crafting while also being able to hack and lockpick his way into and out of things. But not so much on the social side of things. Which feats/skills would be most optimal/important for creating such a character? Would it be viable? I'd be interested to know what base stats I should aim for or start with.

[TheAverageGortsby]

UnderRail rewards specialization. Guns require Perception; Psi requires Will.  You're not going to be able to invest heavily in both because you only have enough stat points to go heavy into one stat.  If you're playing on Normal difficulty, you should be fine, though.  Still, your metathermics won't be doing amazing damage, or else it will be and your shotgun won't be.  May also be tough to scrounge up enough stat points to have a good dose of Constitution, which means as a tank you'll be somewhat weaker than you hope.  Additionally, assuming you plan to have something like 12+ in your core combat stats, you're not going to have a lot of room left for INT so you'll need to plan on setting aside a bunch of points for crafting and hacking.  Fortunately you're planning on heavy armor so you shouldn't expect to go heavily into Dodge or Evasion, so your skill points won't be spread out too painfully.

It's not a great pairing. Metathermics needs all the points it can get to be in any way impressive.  Guns need all the skill points they can get to be in any way impressive.  Fortunately, Normal is fairly forgiving, and with your 250+ effective skill come end game, you should be fine.

The build concept is viable for Normal or Hard, and with some significant reloading or heavy use of traps, even DOMINATING.  It would be even better if you'd slip 25 points into Psychokinesis so you can pick up Force Field (since you're already a psi character), 35-75* points into Thought Control so you can get enough Neural Overload to handle doppelgangers (which are immune to mundane weapons), and maybe 50-60 points into Thought Control so you can enjoy the very potent psi haste.  See, all four psi schools need the same stat, and three of the most powerful feats in the entire game are psi, so if you're going in hard for one, it's difficult not to recommend you pick up at least enough of the others for Force User, Premeditation, *Locus of Control, and maybe Pyromaniac.  Those are all really fantastic feats and will be hugely helpful for your build concept.  However, that does also make you a quad-school psion, at which point the shotgun is only holding you back.

[ProfBambo]

UnderRail rewards specialization. Guns require Perception; Psi requires Will.  You're not going to be able to invest heavily in both because you only have enough stat points to go heavy into one stat.  If you're playing on Normal difficulty, you should be fine, though.  Still, your metathermics won't be doing amazing damage, or else it will be and your shotgun won't be.  May also be tough to scrounge up enough stat points to have a good dose of Constitution, which means as a tank you'll be somewhat weaker than you hope.  Additionally, assuming you plan to have something like 12+ in your core combat stats, you're not going to have a lot of room left for INT so you'll need to plan on setting aside a bunch of points for crafting and hacking.  Fortunately you're planning on heavy armor so you shouldn't expect to go heavily into Dodge or Evasion, so your skill points won't be spread out too painfully.

It's not a great pairing. Metathermics needs all the points it can get to be in any way impressive.  Guns need all the skill points they can get to be in any way impressive.  Fortunately, Normal is fairly forgiving, and with your 250+ effective skill come end game, you should be fine.

The build concept is viable for Normal or Hard, and with some significant reloading or heavy use of traps, even DOMINATING.  It would be even better if you'd slip 25 points into Psychokinesis so you can pick up Force Field (since you're already a psi character), 35-75* points into Thought Control so you can get enough Neural Overload to handle doppelgangers (which are immune to mundane weapons), and maybe 50-60 points into Thought Control so you can enjoy the very potent psi haste.  See, all four psi schools need the same stat, and three of the most powerful feats in the entire game are psi, so if you're going in hard for one, it's difficult not to recommend you pick up at least enough of the others for Force User, Premeditation, *Locus of Control, and maybe Pyromaniac.  Those are all really fantastic feats and will be hugely helpful for your build concept.  However, that does also make you a quad-school psion, at which point the shotgun is only holding you back.

Thank you very much for the response and advice. My idea was not so much to use Metathermics for the damage but more for the defensive options like Cryo-Shield and Exothermic Aura to make a sort of Terminator like character. The Force Shield sounds like a great idea too and I think I'll be taking it as well. Like you said, I won't be putting any points into Defense and also Social skills, leaving me more room to breath. I would on the other hand invest a lot of points into Technology for Mechanics, Electronics and Tailoring.

Would going melee, with say a sledgehammer, instead be a better option? I was thinking of having a melee character eventually and since it seems guns is a bit counter intuitive for Psi builds would melee be better? If so, is the following point distribution good/adequate? http://underrail.info.tm/build/?CgkDAwcDCgcAAAA8AAAAMjQAADw8AAAyMgg8HgAAACvfvw

Those Psi skill points are laid out that way so I can use Psycho-temporal Contraction (55 Temporal), 75 Thought Control so I can access Locus of Control, 25 Psycho so I can use Force Field and finally Metathermics would be my main Psi skill as a way to complement the melee playstyle with added tankiness, crowd control and damage if necessary.

What would you say are the best feats for this PsiSledge build and the order in which to pick them? As you can see my idea is to have an absolute tank of a character with high health, heavy armor, Cryo Shields, a trail of flames with Exothermic Aura and energy shields just wreaking havoc wherever he/she goes.

Thank you again for the advice.



EDIT: I put this build together, is it good, bad, okay? http://underrail.info.tm/build/?GQwDAwcDDAYAAADChwAAAE1lAABrawBFVm43woc3AAArRScrLBQ9LiplIQMSYMKECuKjiQrfvw