I’m struggling to build out a Psychic that primarily uses Imaginary Weapon in melee. It is so flavorful, yet at 6 base HP per level and no armor proficiency, it feels really dangerous to get up close and personal. Sure, Warp Space amps it to be at 30ft range, but there are only so many focus points available to spend amping.

I’m looking to have this be viable at level 6 (so Parallel Breakthrough is an option). Any heritages, feat chains, or items I should look into to make it feel good to use Imaginary Weapon?

  • Zagaroth
    2•11 months ago

    I’m going to copy my reply from your cross-post to the PF2E instance as this one seems more active overall, and maybe someone will have some more thoughts or insights.

    My first thought is to make sure you start off with Amped Shield and use the block each turn if you would get hit, that gets you three turns of reducing the damage of one hit each turn. And buy scrolls / a wand of Mage Armor. You do not want to take up a Spell-Known slot for it.

    Hmm, Automaton has reinforced chassis, but unless you were already planning on having a strength of 16+, that seems less than ideal.

    A human can just simply grab armor proficiency at 1st level (Via General Training). If you really want to commit, spend your first general feat to then upgrade it to Medium armor. Watch that Strength requirement for armor though. You might be better off getting the toughness feat for that general feat. Ouch, just realized proficiency does not auto-scale from this feat.

    Spending two class feats to get Mountain Stance seems expensive (martial Artist archetype -> Mountain Stance), but does stack with Mage armor.

    1 class feat for Sentinal dedication gets you light & medium proficiency up to Expert.

    You could be a Well Spring mage, then no one will want to be near you in case you blow up! (just kidding … or am I?)

    That’s all I can think of at the moment.

    • @FearfulSaladOP
      1•11 months ago

      I had been considering Gnome, for Energized Font, with Toughness, which may be the play alongside scrolls of Mage Armor, thanks for the suggestion. I had hoped to find an alternative Conscious Mind to leverage with Parallel Breakthrough, but Amped Shield and Mirror Image do seem to be better-suited for melee than any of the other Conscious Minds’ cantrip-and-spell combos, at least so far as level 6 play goes.