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The other day, I used the old character builder to print out cards for a new human battlemind. For each of the augment-able at will powers, there is a separate card created for each augment point that can be applied to that power. The only exception is the human bonus at-will power that I chose Vicious Cobra Strike, it only has one card for 0 augment points. The power lets you apply up to two augment points, thus character builder should provide two more cards.

Is this a bug?

Can you augment the bonus human at-will power as much as desired?

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2 Answers 2

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No, you cannot augment the bonus human at-will power at all.

From the glossary definition of Augmentable:

When a racial trait lets an adventurer choose an extra at-will attack power and the adventurer chooses an augmentable at-will attack power, the power loses both the augmentable keyword and its augmentations.

I wouldn't recommend making a house rule allowing the human extra at-will power to be augmentable for two reasons:

  1. As noted by @Iszi, augmentable powers are psionic classes replacement for encounter powers. Humans get bonus at-wills, if you allow them bonus encounter powers as well, that is unbalancing.
  2. By improving nearly all psionic classes for humans only you decrease the incentive for players to pick other races when choosing to play a psionicist.
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There seems to be a conflict here. The WOTC online compendium Psion entry gives a different ruling:

When a racial trait grants you an at-will attack power of your choice and you choose an augmentable at-will attack power, the power loses its augmentations. However, the power does not lose the augmentable keyword. This means the power is unaugmented when you use it, unless you augment it by some other means.

If this is accurate, and overrides the augmentable glossary definition, my take would be that you cannot augment it in the normal fashion with your points, but that some other means (a magic item or weapon?) could augment the power.

Still, very confusing as it seems to directly contradict the glossary entry.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ There are some effects that only apply to augmentable powers, and so they could still be used here. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 13, 2011 at 2:43
  • \$\begingroup\$ So far as I can tell, that quotation is originally from the article "Player's Handbook 3 Debut: The Psion" (Dragon #377 5–15). I suspect it was changed it in the final draft of the Player's Handbook 3 precisely because, as a psionic character, "[a]t 7th, 13th, 17th, 23rd, and 27th level, you can replace one of your at-will attack powers with another one of your level or lower. Both powers must be augmentable and from this class" (23 et al. and emphasis mine). The change makes it so the human bonus at-will power psionic power can't be replaced by a power that can be augmented. \$\endgroup\$ Commented May 11, 2020 at 6:21

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