Psionist style..

I've got an inkling to play a psionist, but NWN, of course, lacks anything related to psionics. Is there any way, build wise/custom item wise to simulate it as a player?

For a quick answer, I'd say go sorcerer, but focus on spells dealing with mental attacks (charm, domination, confusion), physical enhancement of yourself (bull's strength, haste), and self-teleportation (transference, teleport, magehound).

Custom item-wise...not sure.

I agree that Sorceror would be the best base to start from... tailoring the spell selection towards the theme of a particular discipline of psionic powers.

What I know of psionics is that power stored into physical objects usually takes the form of crystals.

So for custom items, try to focus on appearances that have gems and crystals in them if you can.

I would also recommend heavy use of Ioun Stones as well

Yeah, I was thinking that. Maybe go the psychic warrior path, and make a custom weapon with a gem-like appearance..

Also consider the Silent Spell Feat.

Psionics may require somatic components, but usually have no Verbal component.

A psionist is a character that needs high INT and WIS, they use their mental abilities to distort the world around them and even themselves.

Psionics however are fatal to use around undead as undead do not have stable or functional minds, and psionic powers used on undead harm psionists via negative energy.

Humans and mindflayers most commonly become psionists, as they are naturally adept at learning and adapting. All psionic abilities use concentration check to both use and maintain. Spellcraft is not used because psionic abilities are not magic nor anything closely related to magic, as is said on both fantasy games and in books that are more along the line of factual (ESP).

Because of the origin and purpose of psionics it will not work on creatures with no form of sentience (constructs) or no form of mind(oozes). In addition psionists are highly limited in powers.

D&D commonly speaks of 5 psionic discplines, and the most a psionist can have access to is two. The method of which you create blades from negative emotions as mentioned above is considered one of these. The other include metashifting, mentalaffliction, innersight, and the common gosh darn loved focusing of objects and causing them to react to your will (mental domination and throwing of objects).

Because psionics are controlled by purely thoughts and emotion there is often no way to determine if someone is a psionist until they enter combat or use a powerful psionic ability.

Might I add that charisma is an additional modifier in regards to altering and control other creatures bodies and minds?

Even though the prime stat is intelligence, wisdom effects the power of a psionic attack and the duration of non-offensive techniques.

So, for a psionist to use a level 1 ability he/she would need 12 INT and 11 WIS. for a level 2 it would rise 1 wisdom point. level 3 rises 1 int. so on, so forth. Boy I wish I was playing tabletop.

More Psionist info: http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Psionic_Overview

Taking all the above why not try to wear a permanent HoD as well ?... I believe Mind Flayer is one of the forms... might be tricky come battle but for the general roleplay and wandering/greeting people you'll look more like a common known psionist.. .. ..
.. just my two cents...

Woo. So I've decided to base off of the soulknife class, using Sorc and fighter. I've got a pretty decent idea of items to use, but one last thing eludes me.

What would his mind blade look like? The only decent models I've found happen to be greatswords, and I'm not sure I want that, but I'll settle if I have to.

Buggerboo. Anyone know of a mind blade-esque weapon override?

The "Lightsaber" that Crideas uses could be a stand-in for a mind blade... the blade appearance is in the options for Longswords.

The Hilt you may need to tweak a bit in order to make it look energybased, rather than solid matter... or you could assume that your character is wieling a Psionic Crystal Hilt that imbued his mindblade with additional powers and augmentations.

I myself have two psionic background characters. Maalys is my soulknife...i simply took a pair of shortswords...put fire crystals on t hem first so they have that firey look. then applied other crystals as acquired.

Renamed them *Mindblade* and made some custom text macros and bam..instant soulknife.

Sykee is my psion..i went with sorcerer..focusing on mental type stuff, though sadly at very low level you dont get many. I also use pets(Astral Constructs) and really any spell can be an attempt to convince a creature that its taking dmg by deceiving in into believe you thru a fireball at it and so on.

I also found a mage staff he could use(the summon ones are great) and recrafted it to have the crystal top for an actual psions staff. My familiar i took as the hell hound but named it (Astral Construct) and he came out rather well.

Hm. Thanks, Kefrem!

One last thing, actually. I plan on having them use a pair of matched mindblades. Is there any specific shortsword that would work for that purpose, or should I custom some up?

I myself made a ranger with weapon finesse and cranked up the dex so even at level 8 she has massive AB. When i further focus in it her ab will only get higher plus i took 1 level of shadowdancer so i can hips and *cloud mens minds* so to speak.

Plus with ranger...so long as you use light weapons and light or less armor you get two weapon prof + ambidexterity for free. I think maalys has like a +12 or +15 or something Ab at level 8 and thats with dual wield. Another nice thing is with the high dex...if you go with belts of agility..the +2 dex +10 hide elven boots and bracers ac(whatever you can wear) i can get her ac up in the 36+ range.

Oh, not the build. The blades themselves. I worked up the build last night. (And I never paly rangers but for very specific character types. I'm a bit obsessive that way.)