Worried about Character

[Dylan]

I'm worried that I build my Character wrong and get stuck with no chance of progressing due to being to weak later on in game. Is this something that can happen?
I'm thinking of making pure Psychic but just build it as I play.

[King Fossil]

That can happen, yes. Pure psi is pretty strong so hopefully you'll be alright though.

[Morgian]

Yes, you can do that.

But first, a psionic is counted among the stronger builds. It takes a bit to lift off, but past level 10 it is usually easy going.

The most important thing to remember is this: to stay focused and don't diversify into this or that. An attack skill of 100 is worth way more than five at level 50. And you need at least one solid attack skill. These are the first four skills and the psionic disciplines, excluding the new one. Some people like to go melee plus psi to make use of the TK buff for open hand combat. In the expansion you can find some nice new psi gear, which also supports melee style (spear).
An important decision is if you plan to go dodge/evasion or heavy armor, as that adds one or two defense skills to your list of skills that must be kept high.

Some skills are useful at a lower level and need not be maxed out. Such can be trained parallel to your combat skill(s). There are lockpicking and hacking, which need not be higher than 100 effective skill, or 135 if you want to plunder every last box. Keep in mind that no plot items are kept in locked containers or behind locked doors, unless those can be opened otherwise (e.g. with the right key). Stealth can be useful even if not too high, and can be augmented with clothing and a device.
As a psionic you probably want electronics and biology for crafting (psionic headband, energy shield), and maybe tailoring to make your own armor. Electronics will have to be higher than the rest to work high level components, but even a shield crafted with 120 effective skill is superior to all you will find. Biology needs only a minor investment, and in any case there are crafting bonuses, once you get your house and can afford the worktables. I mention crafting, since it is very powerful in Underrail, but you can get by with what you find...depends if you can free the points for it.

The thing is that skills by themselves are not all that important. When you have melee 120 you can hit your enemy with whatever you have at hand. But your feats are what determines your special attacks and bonuses with a given weapon. So the feats decide what you are really good at, and you need to put a lot of them into your main skills. As a psionic you want psionic feats, and everything else is second. A consideration are defensive feats, which give a much needed edge, like Uncanny Dodge or Sprint.

And last, but not least you need to go what your stats support. When you go with STR 3, melee is not for you, and neither are it's feats. High stats (like 9 or 10) open sometimes otherwise inaccessible feats like Locus or Thick Skull. If you plan to get one of those, you have to start high with that stat.

[Dylan]

These answers are perfect, thanks for all the tips as well. I have been putting off playing for a good while but might get the expansion and throw myself into the game. Thank you all!

[Ragnaman]

Is it possible to make a walking meat wall psionic ? Or heavy armor is not for psionics ?
I wanted to fiddle with crafting and saw that high intelligence is good for psi user, then i saw that psi user benefits from high constitution, and then saw the juggernaut feat, so...is this all nonsense for a psi user ?

[Varyn [GER]]

Originally posted by Ragnaman:

Is it possible to make a walking meat wall psionic ? Or heavy armor is not for psionics ?
I wanted to fiddle with crafting and saw that high intelligence is good for psi user, then i saw that psi user benefits from high constitution, and then saw the juggernaut feat, so...is this all nonsense for a psi user ?

Intelligence only gives you a small boost to psi regen, which isn't really a deal because psi regen in combat is usually too weak anyway. So it's not really a "psi build" stat but more the standard stat you take if you want to have some crafting feats. (clarification: psi regen isn't useless, but the difference between the standard 6/7 crafting-int vs lets say 10 int is only 1,5-2 psi regen more each round - not worth the investment)
Constitution doesn't benefit you more than it does for other builds. Maybe even less because with a full psi build you take locus of control and dont take (and shouldn't take) thick skull (as thick skull negativly affects locus, because stuns get turned into daze which locus cant cleanse. Without thick skull, you just pull locus on a stun and all is gone).
A tin can psi is possible i guess, but you need to invest into 8/9 str for the armor, which imho isn't really needed because as a full psi character you control the battlefield and the one guy who might not be dead or crowd controlled still has your shield in his way. I prefer the more mobile variant of a psi build.

[Gracey Face]

Originally posted by Morgian:

But first, a psionic is counted among the stronger builds. It takes a bit to lift off, but past level 10 it is usually easy going.

Other way, surely. With psi you get your best spells at the start and once you get them they're as powerful as they'll ever be barring minor perk upgrades. Whereas the physical offenses have crazy perks and thier base efficacy is effected massively by the weapons you loot, so they start weak and ramp up whereas psi starts strong and plateaus.

[Gracey Face]

Originally posted by Ragnaman:

Is it possible to make a walking meat wall psionic ? Or heavy armor is not for psionics ?
I wanted to fiddle with crafting and saw that high intelligence is good for psi user, then i saw that psi user benefits from high constitution, and then saw the juggernaut feat, so...is this all nonsense for a psi user ?

Being a psi user gives you innate health penalties, so you can't really be a tank in the same way a non psi can. Though tanking in this game via health rather than by evasion/dodging isn't too effective anyway. Most of the time it's better to be a psyker though for the haste spell.

Also if memory serves, you can't craft psi boosting versions of Metal Armour, which is the heaviest form of armor and what you need if you want to be a meat tank, which is another downside.

[Ragnaman]

What other stat than INT/WIS can a psi user use ?
He uses an electric pistol as a backup? Is 15+ INT a viable psi build (for handgun dmg from feat), or is it better to max WIS for extra psi skill boost ?

I assume psi user wants to stay away from melee, that means either ranged or throwing skills. Throwing requires dex and dex seems like a melee stat. Perception with ranged bonus + other seems like the best bet.

Also, do critical hits always hit ? (meaning 6 PER + handgun is great for psi user?)

Then again, agility 10 and its feats are very nice. And a mobile glass cannon psi user is better than immobile one.

[meiam]

If your on normal you'll be fine. I did my first playtrough fully blind and my character was awful (didn't realize you could increase stats above 10, didn't know what spell were available, didn't know how dodge/evasion worked, only realized very late how shield worked and so on) and I was still able to finish it with just a bit of help for the last area.

If all else fail, you can brute force pretty much any encounter by retreating out of an area and coming back in from another direction, along with some good old save scumming and you'll be just fine.

[Morgian]

Criticals:
If you hit - if - you have a small chance that the hit will turn critical. There are feats that guarantee the hit will be critical, if it hits (aimed shot), but that is a one-time deal.

There are several ways to increase the chance for the crit to happen, and they have their pro and cons - sometimes you will get easier critted yourself, e.g. if you pick Recklessness. One of the crafting feats increases the chance by 5%, but offhand I believe it was for melee weapons only.

Psionics have little use for handguns. There is no synergy with any power, unlike open hand attacks. You need to kinda specialize in a handgun type, too, and you most likely want your psionic feats first. Psi attacks always hit anyway, which is a big advantage over guns, too.

Melee is OK, since one of the early TK powers works only with your fists. This makes them often the back-up weapon of choice for psionics. Combined with a good combat glove it works fine. Leather is faster than metal, so you can get 4 hits with your fists per round without aid, and 6 with temporal discipline.
That was my own choice, btw, for the occasional case when your psi powers are gone. Goliath beetles like to put the no-psi effect on you, and others do so too, e.g. lunatic scanners.

[cypherusuh]

Bit late, but pure psi is probably the strongest build in the game, so strong, that it's possible to never got hit by any enemies until end-game. You can't really goes wrong with psi, as long as you maxed psychokinesis and Metathermics. 70 Temporal Manipulation is enough, and you could either max Thought Control or stop at 75 for Locust of Control. Makes sure to adds stealth, the good place to stop putting stealth is ~90 effective. You'll able to get so much stealth from gear, that it should be enough till end game.
Technically, you could skip both tailor and mechanics and grab Tchortist Noble Robe, but if this is your first time, I recommend investing it a bit. Electronics will be your main crafting skill for Psi-headband and energy shield

For early stats, put 10 on both Will and Int, then you could put the rest on either Con for more health or Agi for better stealth / initiation. Max Will, since it'll increased your overall Psi damage.

Between Tranquility and Psychosis, tranquility is more balanced and focused on "tactical play", you'll be able to cast more spells per turn, so you'll have more combination and tools at your disposal, the limit of Tranquility is your Psi pool and Psi Booster cooldown.

Psychosis is focused on pure damage, you could pretty much 1 shot everything. The damage is absurdly high but it requires 9 Con for Survival Instinct. You'll often have 1% health, but your damage is insanely high that it's possible to 1shot anything. The only limit of Psychosis is your Action Points due to Hemophilia essentially makes your spell cost no Psi points. Your spell becomes a lot more expensive that you'll have to makes sure to kill the correct target per turn, and any enemies that could shoot you will kill you due to extreme glass cannon.

Both route are extremely strong compared to any other guide, and it's possible to invest on Social skills for more lore / roleplay choice, which is a big plus if you like extra dialogue and alternative encounter outcomes