What non-explicitly-psionic Prestige Classess advance psionic manifesting?

Question

So, I was looking for a way to close up my Cerebremancer (Wizard/Psion) build with emphasis on Psionic side (I like it way more) and as little Manifester Level loss as possible, and... There's not a lot to work with. Most psionic Prestige Classes don't work with the character in question, some offer redundant class features, and one (ArchPsion) looked almost perfect, but required a "translation" from 3.0 to 3.5 (it's as simple a translation as taking away 0th level Powers/Psionic Combat and replacing the prereqs with their 3.5 equivalents), and it's basically off the table.

Now, there's a subset of Prestige Classes that don't advance specifically arcane, or divine spellcasters (Like Alienist and Magical Trickster, whose class tables read "+1 level of existing spellcasting class"), and some even progress just an existing class (such as Loremaster and Divine Oracle that read "+1 level of existing class"). The descriptive text usually does have information on Spellcasting/Spells per Day progression, but it still strikes me as an interesting choice of words.

The question is, if this choice of words allows a Psionic character to advance his Manifesting capabilities via these classes, or if Psions should stick to explicitly Psionic prestige classes.

Answer 1

The table is always abbreviated and for reference only. The “real” rules are the text. The errata rules specify this explicitly. So you have to go by the text.

And the text in this case talks about caster level, spells per day, and spells known, not manifester level, daily power points, or powers known. And the default magic–psionic transparency says nothing about (prestige) class features. So talk about caster level, spells per day, and spells known in a class feature does a manifester no good (as opposed to those things in a spell or magic item, which do aid a manifester).

So no, officially, these do nothing for you. They’re usually easily-translated, and some even have official Adaptation sections suggesting it, but then the arch-psion is also pretty easily translated and you already said that was out.

The only other thing you might be able to do is somehow get access to the magic mantle from Complete Psionic, either by dipping a level of ardent or, if you’re specifically an egoist psion, by using the true healer variant to get the life mantle, and then taking the Tap Mantle (magic mantle) feat at 6th and the Don Mantle (magic mantle) feat at 9th (both Tap Mantle and Don Mantle are from Complete Psionic). This might accomplish what you want because the magic mantle is worded terribly and so arguably allows this kind of “complete transparency” over and above what Expanded Psionics Handbook suggests. This is almost-certainly not intended, since Complete Psionic describes the effect as something “Most campaigns already [do],” but ultimately the wording is so poor that no one can say for sure. Only your DM can answer that question for your campaign.

Were it me, not in a million years would I want to invite magic mantle abuse into my game; I would much, much rather perform some minor translation for you.

Answer 2

There are a small number of classes that allow you to progress all class features of a previous class, without reservation (the uncanny trickster, for example, or the legacy Champion). They're probably not what you're looking for, though, as they pretty much all involve losing a level or two along the way. If you really don't like any of the available psionic classes, you might want to consider just going back to your base class.

Alternately, you could use one of the generic progress classes to continue to progress Cerebremancer itself, and try to get both sides of your progression. You might need to talk with your DM about that one.