ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Hey all,

I'm a bit confused about the Psychometry aspect of Transcendent Thoughtform.

The way I read it :
- Biofeedback heals (very little) but requires damage to be taken. It does have the regen potential of Fast Metabolism... Once the Feedback bar is full, so the cost-to-effect ratio for the Thoughtform is rather low (It's somewhat better for us once we get a copy of the Thoughtform's gained feedback. All gain, no pain. But I disgress.)
- Lucid Dreamer is of limited use if you're not playing a snooze Solipsist, and even comes with a potential downside (wait till you run into a Nightmare-tree rare critter and see how much fun it'll have Inner Demonizing your sleepwalking imaginary friend...)
- Psychometry has the potential to give a nice boost to physical power, and is one of the few ways we can actually buff our Thoughtforms' damage. BUT it is as dependent on gear as it is on Talent Levels, so unless we get a way to improve that, I don't see it as being much use.

I get the Lucid Dreamer part and the Biofeedback part, weak though they are - and part of me could wish there was a way to turn off the Lucid Dreamer part... But since there's no way, as far as I've been able to see, to affect or even check the inventory of the Thoughtform, I'm kinda confused how much of an impact Psychometry can have on them. Do they get partial inventory like an Alch's Golem ? Do they get bonii from what WE are wearing ? Is there any way to optimise the effect Psychometry can have on them ? Is it all randomized each time we summon a new one ? (And wouldn't THAT suck !)

If there is more to it than RNG madness, I could see putting more than one point in that skill. Otherwise, is looks like the worse waste of a Class point in the Solipsist's arsenal... Any thoughts ?

Thoughtforms' equipment are randomly generated. This is easy to test by casting it a few times and inspecting the creature. It will have different bonuses to resistances or damage or what have you. I assume the equipment scales in some sort of way, but I could not tell you the correlation. The quality seems static (and therefore the bonus from Psychometry), but it could improve with the progress of some aspect of your character. Once I get my Solipsist further along, I will have some better speculations about that.

Also, you can turn Lucid Dreamer off by using Over Mind. The thoughtform will not turn it back on afterwards. Unfortunately, you would have to do this every time you cast a new thoughtform.

netphenix wrote:If there is more to it than RNG madness, I could see putting more than one point in that skill. Otherwise, is looks like the worse waste of a Class point in the Solipsist's arsenal... Any thoughts ?

Having Overmind is worth having to put a point in Transcendent Thoughtform. You should use thoughtforms for things like opening vaults and chests and monster pits that have doors and any other situation where you can stand on the far side of a wall from danger. The feedback is also helpful and I don't think discharge builds are possible without it. Even without discharge solipsism turns all heal and regen partially into psi regen offsetting the psi you spend on casting things when not getting damaged.