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Samuel Sturm
2009-04-05, 11:58 PM
I had a really cool idea for a character but wasn't sure if I was breaking any rules, so I decided to run it by the Playground.

If I made a Monk 10 - Soulknife 10, and take the feat Deceptive Blade, which lets me generate a blade from any area of my body(my DM mentioned it, I'm not sure where it's from) I could be a literal living weapon.

However, I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm breaking Core rules somewhere.

Also, any build refinements?


P.S. I know most here don't like soulknife, but I've found it works just fine.

Chronos
2009-04-06, 12:28 AM
What are you hoping to gain by this?

Teron
2009-04-06, 12:30 AM
If basic standards of usefulness within a party count as rules, you'll be in pretty serious violation. Multiclassing between two weak classes is going to give you the worst of both.

If you're looking to stack unarmed strike and mindblade damage, that won't work unless Deceptive Blade specifically allows it. And you'd suck something awful even if you could.

Keld Denar
2009-04-06, 12:44 AM
Try Soulknife + Swordsage instead. Use The Demented One's "Sleeping Goddess" discipline to enhance your Mind Blades and your mind powers. Compliment it with Diamond Mind and you'll be WAY WAY WAY more effective than you ever could as a Monkx/Soulknifex.

Do a search of the homebrew subforum over hear for the Sleeping Goddess discipline. Its really well made and really well balanced, IMO.

Salt_Crow
2009-04-06, 02:36 AM
Atavist PrC from Races of Eberron advance both unarmed strike and mind blade enhancement. It's a Kalashtar-only PrC though and quite Eberron-specific.

Mr.Bookworm
2009-04-06, 10:16 AM
No, no, no, you're doing it wrong.

Go Samurai 3/Soulknife 4/Fighter 5/Monk 8. This will give you a couple of bonus feats, which you can use on feats like Weapon Focus, to enhance your mind blade. When you can't use your mindblade (for example, when you are in a AMF, or have your hands tied) you can use your Monk unarmed damage in place of it. Samurai gives you several useful abilties, is very flavorful, and gets you Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Sword), very useful for your mindblade. Your katana makes a good back up weapon. With this build, you're a very flavorful combatenant whose speed is unmatched on the battlefield, and hosts several potent weapons that you can use to take down your enemies. /sarcasm

EDIT: As an alternate build, though it's not quite as good as the one I suggested up there, you could take a look at the Rilkan in Magic of Incarnum. They have blades growing out of them. Psychic Warrior would go well with this, and maybe Kensai to let you enchant your spikes.

Keld Denar
2009-04-06, 11:05 AM
Go Samurai 3/Soulknife 4/Fighter 5/Monk 8.<snip>With this build, you're a very flavorful combatenant whose speed is unmatched on the battlefield, and hosts several potent weapons that you can use to take down your enemies.


Nagging somene to death is not an optimized tactic. :P

The Rose Dragon
2009-04-06, 11:11 AM
Nagging somene to death is not an optimized tactic. :P

I thought you were married or something.

How can you call nagging someone to death non-optimized?

Keld Denar
2009-04-06, 11:21 AM
I thought you were married or something.

How can you call nagging someone to death non-optimized?

Nope, blissfully bachelor.

Nagging is akin to debuffing without a kill condition. A smart wizard keeps a Meaty McBeatstick around to finish off the foes he's disabled since the melee guy can produce infintite damage over time at the expenditure of 0 daily resources, while the wizard would have to summon something or cast damaging spells, or use death magic. So, the nagging has crippled your foe, emasculated them, and otherwise reduced them to a babbling idiot. This part is optimized. The actual process of nagging someone all the way to death, however, is a long, drawn out process that is very inefficient. And unfortunately, hiring a big Meaty McBeatstick to finish people off is generally frowned upon in modern society.

:P

Sinfire Titan
2009-04-06, 04:25 PM
EDIT: As an alternate build, though it's not quite as good as the one I suggested up there, you could take a look at the Rilkan in Magic of Incarnum. They have blades growing out of them. Psychic Warrior would go well with this, and maybe Kensai to let you enchant your spikes.

Ok, now you're the one doing it wrong. Rilkans are the really "meh" race from the MoI. If you want the badasses with spines growing from their body, you want to be a Skarn.

Rilkans are the pansy elves, Skarns are the badasses that make Wolverine cry.

SoD
2009-04-06, 06:50 PM
No, no, no, you're doing it wrong.

Go Samurai 3/Soulknife 4/Fighter 5/Monk 8.

Come on, play fair. You've got two useless levels in fighter which could be going towards two levels in truenamer!

Chronos
2009-04-06, 07:22 PM
If you have access to Magic of Incarnum, then the way to play a Soulknife is to take any other class at all, and spend a feat on Shape Soulmeld: Incarnum Weapon. You still get to make a blade out of a portion of your soul, but you can actually do things with it, too, thanks to your class levels.

Gorbash
2009-04-06, 07:50 PM
Go Samurai 3/Soulknife 4/Fighter 5/Monk 8. This will give you a couple of bonus feats, which you can use on feats like Weapon Focus, to enhance your mind blade. When you can't use your mindblade (for example, when you are in a AMF, or have your hands tied) you can use your Monk unarmed damage in place of it. Samurai gives you several useful abilties, is very flavorful, and gets you Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Sword), very useful for your mindblade. Your katana makes a good back up weapon. With this build, you're a very flavorful combatenant whose speed is unmatched on the battlefield, and hosts several potent weapons that you can use to take down your enemies. /sarcasm

And if you want to completely break the game and piss off the DM, then you should just buy partially charged Wands of Divine Power and Enlarge Person and Elminster would be afraid of you.

elonin
2009-04-06, 07:57 PM
Am I totally missing something here? The comments have been of the bent that soul knives are a horrible class. I don't understand the basis of that unless you are considering anything less powerful than a druid as weak.

Starbuck_II
2009-04-06, 07:58 PM
When you can't use your mindblade (for example, when you are in a AMF, or have your hands tied) you can use your Monk unarmed damage in place of it.



AMF doesn't stop Mindblade.

streakster
2009-04-06, 08:04 PM
Am I totally missing something here? The comments have been of the bent that soul knives are a horrible class. I don't understand the basis of that unless you are considering anything less powerful than a druid as weak.

Their signature class ability is "has a weapon." That's a problem.

Flickerdart
2009-04-06, 08:04 PM
Am I totally missing something here? The comments have been of the bent that soul knives are a horrible class. I don't understand the basis of that unless you are considering anything less powerful than a druid as weak.
Their only class feature is a magic stick. Which you can buy a better one of. There is a psychic Warrior feat that's essentially this class, and it's pretty well balanced. That alone speaks volumes.

Gorbash
2009-04-06, 08:06 PM
Am I totally missing something here? The comments have been of the bent that soul knives are a horrible class. I don't understand the basis of that unless you are considering anything less powerful than a druid as weak.

They're weak when they're compared even to fighters and monks, because they really can't do anything. They're not skill monkeys, they're not tanks, they're not glass canons, they're just dead weight. Psychic strike is a joke, since it requires a move action to activate it, meaning you have only one attack. They don't get bonus feats, so they can't pull off any stunts the Fighters can. Etc etc.


AMF doesn't stop Mindblade.

Yes, it does. Mindblade is a (Su) ability and supernatural abilities don't work inside AMF.

Starbuck_II
2009-04-06, 08:08 PM
Yes, it does. Mindblade is a (Su) ability and supernatural abilities don't work inside AMF.

Dude, when was the last time you read Mindblade?



Even in places where psionic effects do not normally function (such as within a null psionics field), a soulknife can attempt to sustain his mind blade by making a DC 20 Will save. On a successful save, the soulknife maintains his mind blade for a number of rounds equal to his class level before he needs to check again. On an unsuccessful attempt, the mind blade vanishes. As a move action on his turn, the soulknife can attempt a new Will save to rematerialize his mind blade while he remains within the psionics negating effect.


AMF can't stop a Soulknife. That is the Soulknife only unique ability: don't take it away without reading the class over.

Keld Denar
2009-04-06, 08:09 PM
Am I totally missing something here? The comments have been of the bent that soul knives are a horrible class. I don't understand the basis of that unless you are considering anything less powerful than a druid as weak.

Someone else put it quite eloquently, but heres the jist.

Soulknives are a light melee class, similar to a rogue, but they have way fewer skill points and terrible class skills.
Soulknives are psionic characters, but lack PPs and actual powers.
Soulknives have very little survivability, like a rogue but worse.
Your main damage ability denies you the ability to make a full attack. Thus, your damage is always gonna be trashy. Also, a large number of things block it.
The culmination of your class abilities is a magic weapon...which scales way slower than a melee oriented characters weapon should advance, and doesn't give you the luxury of investing in non-enhancement bonus abilities like Keen or Deadly Precision or Wounding.

So yea...Soulknives are bad. Generally considered on scale with monks as far as being directionless and unfocused. There are a number of homebrew fixes out there that make them suck less, which is good, but as written, they are terrible.

About the best idea presented was mine. Go Soulknife4/Swordsage16, focusing on Shadow Hand, Sleeping Goddess, and Diamond Mind. Sleeping Goddess is a homebrewed discipline by our very own The Demented One, and has a lot of abilities that enhance and utilize the Mind Blade.

Granted, this is mostly good because Swordsage is awesome enough to carry a few levels of Soulknife, but Soulknife does bring a bit of fun to the table, especially combined with Sleeping Goddess.

wadledo
2009-04-06, 08:14 PM
Am I totally missing something here? The comments have been of the bent that soul knives are a horrible class. I don't understand the basis of that unless you are considering anything less powerful than a druid as weak.

Hahahahahahahaha!
Oh, that was quite funny, I nearly laughed my brains out my ears.

1. Not Full bab, even though you're a melee class.

2. You can either never multi-class(good for flavor, if anything), or you end up with an underpowered weapon.
+5 with +4 enhancements is considered far, far weaker than +1/+8 Enhancements with the party wizard casting greater magic weapon.

3. You're a very weak version of the fighter with a free weapon that's behind the curve in terms of enhancements at early levels, and at high levels you can't use your special abilities against the majority of the opponents you'll be facing(Knife to the Soul, the only on worth noting, is ability damage, which 80% of CR 11 monsters and up are either immune to or don't care about).
AMF can't stop a Soulknife. That is the Soulknife only unique ability: don't take it away without reading the class over.At 16th level, if you have a Wis of 10(More likely lower, since Soulknife only has 3 useful skills that run off wisdom, and no class abilities), you have a 50% chance of passing that check.
More if you spend money on will save items, so perhaps 75% tops.
At level 16.:smallconfused:

Leon
2009-04-06, 08:41 PM
Am I totally missing something here? The comments have been of the bent that soul knives are a horrible class. I don't understand the basis of that unless you are considering anything less powerful than a druid as weak.

The class is ok, yeah it has some glaring issues but its still a perfectly playable class

Yeah this board is home to a Hive of Optimizers - any char idea that's posted that that has something suboptimal get bombarded to change the "better" class options / feat choices etc



I had a really cool idea for a character but wasn't sure if I was breaking any rules, so I decided to run it by the Playground.

If I made a Monk 10 - Soulknife 10, and take the feat Deceptive Blade, which lets me generate a blade from any area of my body(my DM mentioned it, I'm not sure where it's from) I could be a literal living weapon.

However, I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm breaking Core rules somewhere.
Also, any build refinements?
P.S. I know most here don't like soulknife, but I've found it works just fine.

I don't know the feat in question but simply by being a monk you are a living weapon, the Mind blade allows you to alter your damage type (without spending a feat) and gives a free ranged weapon that never runs out of ammo, in addition to what ever Enhancements you place on the blade.

elonin
2009-04-06, 09:06 PM
Darn that's what I get for thinking that a class might be worthwhile solely on the basis of being cool. Then again hating life while playing this class is the opposite of cool.

About the mind blade in an AMF there is a check the soulknife can make to keep the blade up and running or to manifest a new one. Another thought is if you are not using the magic-psionic transpiricy rule the dm might rule that the AMF doesn't affect the psionic blade.

Flickerdart
2009-04-06, 09:11 PM
Darn that's what I get for thinking that a class might be worthwhile solely on the basis of being cool. Then again hating life while playing this class is the opposite of cool.
At least it's better than the Truenamer, who oozes flavour but is mechanically useless. At least the Soulknife has the Soulbow going for it. Truenamer just cries in the corner.

theMycon
2009-04-06, 09:22 PM
*Double checks Forum Rules*

Huh... Okay, Explicit Sexuality & Graphic Violence means I can't post half of what went into my head.
If I've got this right, most Rocky Horror references result in a perma-ban, unless they're really funny, or flamboyant enough that you can call a mod on oppressing your sexual orientation for touching them.

I know which bar is easier to clear.

...take the feat Deceptive Blade, which lets me generate a blade from any area of my body...
This feat is all you need. Be a bard/Soulbow.

Dance "The Time Warp" from Rocky horror and punctuate it with random mindblades shooting out of you. The Pelvic Thrust will be killer.
-------
"Vagina Dentata got you down? Now you possess the ability to fight back."

"Yes, the soulbow is truly the ultimate weapon on the unending war on your stupid hairy vagina."
--------
Maybe if you yell out "SILENT IMAGE" when they pop out, people will assume you're a low-level bard- that way they might actually be afraid of you.
--------
I can see it now. A Psionic bastard sword pops out of your mouth- a deadly weapon forged of pure willpower. And people will say "Hey! It's Gene Simmons!"
--------
Did you know a giraffe's tongue is 18 inches long and prehensile?
--------

In all seriousness, though, this build won't get very far. Soulknife gives nothing that Monk + Greater Magic Weapon doesn't. You can replace those ten levels by buying a Pearl of Power (level 3) and asking your wizard to give you GMW every morning. If you really want, there are some feats that'll throw on a few extra d6's of damage to your unarmed strike. If you really want the "blades from anywhere/everywhere", one level of Soulknife isn't going to hurt much. Or going for a "psionic fist" prestige class, or multiclassing monk3/PsyWarX (with the Talshatora(?) feat) are probably your best options.

Going Soulknife->Soulbow isn't a bad choice, if Psionics weapons is the side you'd like to emphasize. And you can pull off most of the above gags that way, especially if you can convince your DM to refluff the swords as "really short whips".

Mushroom Ninja
2009-04-06, 09:59 PM
Congratulations, theMycon -- You have officially won this thread and made my day, all in one fell swoop. How many internets would you like as reward?

:smallbiggrin:

Gorbash
2009-04-06, 10:00 PM
Yeah this board is home to a Hive of Optimizers - any char idea that's posted that that has something suboptimal get bombarded to change the "better" class options / feat choices etc

There's a difference between suboptimal and downright useless. Suboptimal is a Blaster Wizard. He's still doing tons of damage, yet he can do so much more, and that's why he's considered suboptimal.

Healer Cleric is also suboptimal, since healing is inferior to killing things that are doing the damage in the first place, yet he keeps the party alive and well, but his role is suboptimal.

But Soulknife 10/Monk 10 can't actually do anything. And that's a fact. I agree with you that the concept of mindblade is truly awesome and is the closest that a D&D character will get to being a Jedi, but it has a flaw that he actually can't do anything with it. Alright, not anything, but everyone else will do it better. Not to mention that not one Monk's ability synergies well with Soulknife. Or vice-versa. Monk has a high speed, but Soulknife uses move actions to charge his Psychic Strike. Same goes for Flurry of Blows which is a full-round action. Etc.

If he doesn't mind being the absolutely worst in the party, feeling useless, being overshadowed by everyone and be killed very easily (since he has no defensive mechanisms), then by all means, he should play that character, but aside from the cool concept, he doesn't have anything else to offer to the party.

ocato
2009-04-06, 10:05 PM
First of all, please disregard the rather impolite responses. D&D isn't really played the same way it's debated around here (or on other forums) and mocking you for going against people's ideas of acceptable and unacceptable class choices is childish.

Monk and Soulknife are two reasonable class choices (assuming that the other players make characters that aren't cribbed from forums and pimped out for l33tsauce damage). However, I think that Monk/Soulknife may be a bit of a convoluted manner of achieving what you want. I'm a little rusty with 3.5, but I think we can come up with something similar to your original idea thematically, but more streamlined.

Consider Monk/Psionic Fist (It's called the Psionic Fist in the SRD and Fist of Zuoken in the Expanded Psionics Handbook). If you take Monk to L6, you get a fair helping of feats, flurry at -1 Base attack (or -1 decisive strike, if you decide you prefer that option found in the Player's Handbook 2), and a few other nifty tricks (slowfall, evasion). You can hold off until L9 if you want, but I think you want to get into Psionic Fist quickly because it will bring with it the fun.

Psionic Fists use Psychic Warrior powers, which are often regarded as good stuff. You can make yourself bigger (for grapples, trips, and fist/weapon damage), turn your hands into (even more) powerful weapons, and boost your armor class with inertial armor and the like. Heck, you can even pick up Psionic Lion's Charge and couple it with Flurry/Decisive Blow for a charge. Grab some neat psionic feats to run up walls or whatever and you'll have a pretty fun character.

This way, instead of trying to channel extra damage into your fists, you can do several things (increase damage, increase defenses, utility uses, etc).

Flickerdart
2009-04-06, 10:12 PM
And remember, nothing is stopping you from taking anything you want and re-fluffing everything into swords that come out of your body. Punch a guy in the face? Your fist was just a sword. Slow fall? Grind a sword against the wall. Basket weaving? Carve a basket out of an ancient oak with the furious strikes of your mighty psionic blades.

wadledo
2009-04-06, 10:14 PM
*snip*

So, you yourself are suggesting he take no levels in Soulknife in favor of a PrC?:smallconfused::smallannoyed:

Also, the majority of the forum does not use chat-speak, so don't insult us by generalizing.
The OP asked for build refinements.
The majority of the posts here have been of our advice on the subject or decision on our opinion of the soulknife class.

Kylarra
2009-04-06, 10:22 PM
First of all, please disregard the rather impolite responses. D&D isn't really played the same way it's debated around here (or on other forums) and mocking you for going against people's ideas of acceptable and unacceptable class choices is childish.
but then you go along and do what everyone else is doing...

but I think we can come up with something similar to your original idea thematically, but more streamlined.


...Consider Monk/Psionic Fist...


Irony? :smallconfused:

~~~~~~~
@OP
There's a nice homebrewed soulknife fix here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=104047) if you're set on the whole mindblade thing. Just as another option.

ocato
2009-04-06, 10:35 PM
That comment was directed at the people who felt the need to list every possible forum stereotype for a bad character and suggest a "better build" that included every one of them. Or the responses that had a strong tone of "everything you just said was stupid." If your response wasn't impolite, it probably wasn't one of the impolite responses I was referring to.

streakster
2009-04-06, 10:45 PM
Yeah this board is home to a Hive of Optimizers - any char idea that's posted that that has something suboptimal get bombarded to change the "better" class options / feat choices etc


I have to disagree here.

First of all, when asked for advice, it would be remiss of us not to point out the weak points of his build. As for "get bombarded to change the "better" class options / feat choices etc" - well, naturally. That's what improving a build means. Changes for the better.

Most everyone here has been trying to suggest a way he can have the character he wants (living weapon guy with a mindblade) without the problems that his current build would entail, or pointing out those same problems (let him know what he's getting into). If we were just trying to randomly optimize, as people say, we'd be telling him to play a wizard/incantrix.

If he took that character, he'd lag behind most of his group. He'd have a hard time defeating enemies at his level. That's not fun. If we can come up with a way that he can still play that character, and make it strong enough so that he can play and have fun - well, that's were here, and that's why we do this.


EDIT: And, of course, making soulknife jokes. Because those are hilarious.
EDIT: Isn't there a feat that lets you make a mind-quarterstaff? Because application of that to your posterior could make for an effective Paladin disguise...:smallbiggrin:

FMArthur
2009-04-06, 10:57 PM
Their only class feature is a magic stick. Which you can buy a better one of. There is a psychic Warrior feat that's essentially this class, and it's pretty well balanced. That alone speaks volumes.

I think this could use some elaboration. What is this feat, and what does it do, specifically?

streakster
2009-04-06, 11:03 PM
I think this could use some elaboration. What is this feat, and what does it do, specifically?

Mind's Eye.

Here:(It's free, so I think this is OK)


Soulbound Weapon

You can summon a specific weapon to your hand that is bound to your very soul.
Level: 1st and 2nd.
Replaces: You lose your 2nd-level bonus feat.
Benefit: You must choose a soulbound weapon at 1st level and you gain the Weapon Focus feat with this weapon. Also, the first power you learn must be call weaponry. You can summon your chosen soulbound weapon to your hand using call weaponry.

At 2nd level, you gain the soulbound weaponclass ability, and the weapon you summon using call weaponry is of the same type as you chose at 1st level. Its physical appearance slowly changes, growing in power as you do. You must manifest the power call weaponry to obtain your soulbound weapon; you retain the weapon for the duration of the power. You may still use the call weaponry power as normal if you wish. This is a specific weapon every time you summon it, and it automatically gains a weapon enhancement at the following levels:
4th +1 weapon
8th +2 weapon
12th +3 weapon
16th +4 weapon
20th +5 weapon

Also, add the following augmentation to your call weaponry power:

Augmentation: When you manifest your soulbound weapon, for each additional 5 power points you spend, you may add a weapon enhancement of +1 value to the weapon. For example, if you spend an additional 10 power points, you could add two +1 weapon enhancements or a single +2 weapon enhancement.

Chronos
2009-04-07, 12:08 AM
Quoth wadledo:
At 16th level, if you have a Wis of 10(More likely lower, since Soulknife only has 3 useful skills that run off wisdom, and no class abilities), you have a 50% chance of passing that check.
More if you spend money on will save items, so perhaps 75% tops.
At level 16.What kind of save-boosting items are you thinking of, that work in an anti-magic field?

And yes, the Soulknife, Monk, and a hybrid of the two are all playable classes, but then, the Commoner is a playable class, too. If you're in a situation where your class abilities don't matter, then you can be any class at all. But if you're in a situation where class abilities do matter, then you've got a problem, because a soulknife doesn't have any class abilities that ever really matter. All you can do is hit people with your weapon, and that's something anyone (including that commoner) can do.

Kaiyanwang
2009-04-07, 09:04 AM
Mind's Eye.

Here:(It's free, so I think this is OK)

Could you please bring a link? It could be very useful for me*. Thanks in advance.

I have to admit that things like this make me feel very concerned about designers attitude. It's something like the reseve feats for wizard almost replicating an eldricht blast. (Is not exactly that way but enough closer to make people upset).

To the other hand, you can say that a thing like this makes the game more interesting if soulnkife and warlock are missing, and can be banned if they are part of the group (i.e., the campaign lacks of the option).


OP, even if I'm the first person saying that you can play almost every class in almost every campaign, and I find very annoying read always the same things for melee (i.e. "go ToB" and "go CoDzilla") BUT you need to plan you builds a little bit, and as someone said above, you need something more to make soulknife and monk work together well.


Maybe could be an idea see if there is a multiclassing feat making some soulknife and monk ability stack (maybe in secrets of sarlona) or if does not exist, homebrew. If you like the character concept, you can enjoy it a lot, otherwise, reroll.

About the feat, I dobt you could flurry with your weapon, but In SoS there should be something for you, take a look anyway.

*

I was wondering... Psywarrior // Soulknife could have TWO soul swords? It's the avatar of coolness!

TWF and some soul - eating prestige class from Vile Darkness, vampire + something else template, and I have a great NPC... and a great quote from Soul Reaver!

Person_Man
2009-04-07, 09:45 AM
Shameless self promotion of my homebrew Soulknife fix:

Force Adept
d6 hit dice
4 Skill Points per level
Class Skills: Autohypnosis, Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Jump, Knowledge (Psionics), Listen, Profession, Sense Motive, Spot, Swim, Tumble.
Weapon and Armor Prof: Simple weapons and light armor, no shields.

{table=head]Level|
BAB|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Abilities
1st|
+1|
+0|
+2|
+2| Psychic Weapon +1, Psychic Weapon Ability
2nd|
+2|
+0|
+3|
+3| Psychic Talent
3rd|
+3|
+1|
+3|
+3| Psychic Weapon Power
4th|
+4|
+1|
+4|
+4| Force Combo (1 per encounter)
5th|
+5|
+1|
+4|
+4| Psychic Weapon +2, Psychic Weapon Ability
6th|
+6/+1|
+2|
+5|
+5| Psychic Talent
7th|
+7/+2|
+2|
+5|
+5| Psychic Weapon Power
8th|
+8/+3|
+2|
+6|
+6| Force Combo (2 per encounter)
9th|
+9/+4|
+3|
+6|
+6 | Uncanny Dodge
10th|
+10/+5|
+3|
+7|
+7| Psychic Weapon +3, Psychic Weapon Ability, Psychic Talent
11th|
+11/+6/+1|
+3|
+7|
+7 | Psychic Weapon Power
12th|
+12/+7/+2|
+4|
+8|
+8| Force Combo (3 per encounter)
13th|
+13/+8/+3|
+4|
+8|
+8| Evasion
14th|
+14/+9/+4|
+4|
+9|
+9 | Psychic Talent
15th|
+15/+10/+5|
+5|
+9|
+9| Psychic Weapon +4, Psychic Weapon Ability, Psychic Weapon Power
16th|
+16/+11/+6/+1|
+5|
+10|
+10| Force Combo (4 per encounter)
17th|
+17/+12/+7/+2|
+5|
+10|
+10| Psychic Force
18th|
+18/+13/+8/+3|
+6|
+11|
+11| Psychic Talent
19th|
+19/+14/+9/+4|
+6|
+11|
+11| Psychic Weapon Power, Force Mastery
20th|
+20/+15/+10/+5|
+6|
+12|
+12| Psychic Weapon +5, Psychic Weapon Ability, Psychic Talent, Force Combo (5 per encounter)
[/table]

Psychic Weapon (Su):
As a Move action, you may manifest one simple weapon out of psychic energy. This weapon acts exactly like a mundane weapon of the same type. Any Psychic Weapon that you manifest has a +1 enhancement bonus to hit and damage. This increases by another +1 every five levels, to a maximum of +5 at level 20. This bonus applies to any Psychic Weapon, ammunition, and shield that you manifest with this ability, as do all Psychic Weapon powers that you manifest.

You may also manifest any simple object or tool. You may manifest up to 1 cubic foot of material per Force Adept level. For example, you could manifest a rope, shovel, mirror, wall, etc. If you wish to manifest a complex object, you must make the appropriate Craft check, with a DC set by your DM. These objects behave exactly as a mundane object of the same type.

You may only manifest one weapon or object at a given time. If you lose physical contact with the weapon or object, it dissipates at the end of your turn. If you lose consciousness for any reason, the weapon or object dissipates immediately. You may alter the minor features of the weapon or object, such as color, at will when you create the item. Any weapon, object, shield, or armor that you manifest with this ability has a hardness and hit points of 10 + your Force Adept class level, though you’re free to make it lower if you choose. You may dismiss any Psychic Weapon effect as a free action.

Anything that you manifest with this ability counts as a Force effect. This allows it to hit incorporeal enemies normally. However, the damage dealt by your Psychic Weapon still counts as physical damage.

If anything created with your Psychic Weapon ability is destroyed, you must make a Will Saving Throw (DC = damage dealt to object) or be Stunned for 1 round.

Psychic Weapon Ability (Su):
At first level, you gain the ability to manifest your Psychic Weapon in a new way. You gain an additional Psychic Weapon ability at 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th levels as well. Any Psychic Weapon

Unless otherwise noted, you may only select each Psychic Weapon Ability once. Choose from the following list:

Armor: You gain the ability to manifest Force armor. This is in addition to your ability to manifest one Psychic weapon or object. It grants an armor bonus of 4 + the enhancement bonus to your Psychic Weapon (max +9 at 20th level). Your armor counts as a Force effect, and thus fully applies to your Touch AC and to attacks from Ethereal enemies. Furthermore, it imposes no armor check penalty, max Dexterity bonus, or spellcasting failure. It does not penalize your movement, and you count as not wearing any armor for other feats or class abilities.

Martial Weapon: You gain the ability to manifest all martial weapons as a Psychic Weapon. You gain proficiency with all martial weapons that you manifest as a Psychic Weapon.

Ammunition: You gain the ability to manifest all ammunition as a Psychic Weapon, such as arrows, darts, bolts, shuriken, etc. You also gain the ability to manifest any Psychic Weapon ammunition as a free action. This allows you to make a full attack with a ranged weapons and certain thrown weapons - though each Psychic Weapon still dissipates as soon as you attack your enemy and then manifest the next psychic weapon (or at the end of your turn, if you choose not to manifest a replacement). If ammunition that you manifest is fired from a magic weapon, the special properties of your ammunition stack with the properties of the weapon, following the same rules as regular magic ammunition fired from a magic weapon (for example, Enhancement bonuses still do not stack).

Exotic Weapon: You gain the ability to manifest one Exotic Weapon of your choice as a Psychic Weapon. You also gain proficiency with this Exotic Weapon when you manifest it as a Psychic Weapon. You may take this ability multiple times. Each time you take this ability, you gain proficiency with an additional exotic weapon.

Multiple Weapons: You may now manifest two Psychic Weapons or objects at once, instead of one. (Or one weapon and an object, or two objects). This allows you to use Two Weapon Fighting with your Psychic Weapons, though you must still qualify for and take the feats as appropriate to avoid the penalties for fighting with two weapons. You may take this ability multiple times. Each time you take it, you may manifest one additional weapon or object. This allows a Force Adept with multiple arms to use Multi-Weapon Fighting.

Shield: You gain the ability to manifest a shield as a Psychic Weapon. This is in addition to your ability to manifest one Psychic Weapon or object. You may manifest a buckler, light, medium, or heavy shield. The shield has an enhancement bonus equal to your Psychic Weapon's enhancement bonus, which applies both to it's shield AC bonus and your attack bonus, as if it had been enchanted separately as a weapon. You automatically gain proficiency with any Psychic Weapon shield that you manifest. As a Force object this shield protects normally against ethereal attacks, although attacks with a Psychic Weapon shield still count as physical damage just as they do with a normal Psychic Weapon. Furthermore, it imposes no armor check penalty, max Dexterity bonus, or spellcasting failure.

Special Material: Choose any one material, such as adamantine, cold iron, mithril, or star metal. Instead of a Force effect, you may manifest anything that you create with your Psychic Weapon ability as that material. If you have the ability to manifest armor and/or a shield, you may also manifest them as a special material. When you manifest an item from a special material, it takes on the properties of that material. This includes hardness, hit points, and ability to effect enemies with damage reduction. For armor and shields, this also includes armor check penalty, weight, spellcasting failure, etc. When manifested as a special material, your effects cease to be a Force effects (and thus ethereal enemies would gain their standard benefits against you, and your armor and shield bonuses no longer apply to touch attacks). Objects manifested with your Psychic Weapon ability still dissipate like any other Psychic Weapon or object. You may choose this ability multiple times. Each time you take this ability, you may manifest your Psychic Weapon as one additional material.

Psychic Talent (Su):
At 2nd, 6th, 10th, 14th, 18th, and 20th levels, you gain a Psychic Talent. Force Talents have a range of 5 feet per Force Adept level. Feats and other modifiers that improve or hinder your Disarm, Trip, Grapple, or Bull Rush attempts apply to the effects of Psychic Talents. For all Psychic Talents, you count as medium size, regardless of your actual size.

Psychic Talents are fueled by Force Points. With the exception of Force Energy, each Psychic Talent takes 2 Force Points to activate. You have a number of Force Points equal to your Force Adept level. You may regain your Force Points by taking a full round action and making a Concentration check = 10 + number of Force Points you wish to rejuvenate. If you fail this check, you do not rejuvenate any Force Points. You may not manifest any Force Talent during a round that you regain Force Points.

You may spend additional Force Points to enhance your Psychic Talents. You may spend more then one Force Point per round in this fashion, and the bonuses stack.

If another Force Adept attempts to use a Force Talent, you may make a Knowledge (Psionics) check (DC = 10 + Force Adept level of your enemy) as a Free Action to recognize the Force Talent and the total number of Force Points that your enemy is using to activate and enhance it. If you possess the same Force Talent, as an Immediate action you may spend the same number of Force Points to negate your enemy’s use of the Force Talent, or to reduce the number of points that he enhances it by.

Force Talents are Supernatural abilities, and thus are not effected by Spell Resistance or Power Resistance, and they never provoke an attack of opportunity.

With the exception of Force Energy, you may only choose each Talent once. Each time you gain this ability, you may choose any one Talent from the following list:

Force Energy: Instead of a new Talent, you gain 2 Force Points, in addition to the Force Points gained from your Force Adept levels. You must be at least a 6th level Force Adept to take this Talent.

Force Explosion: As a Full Round Action make a Bull Rush attempt, using your Wisdom modifier in place of your Strength modifier as a bonus for the opposed roll, against all targets within 5 feet per Force Adept level. This action applies to all targets, including all enemies, allies, and objects. You may decrease the radius of the Force Explosion, but you may not shape the blast (it goes in all directions, including up and down).

Movement causes by Force Explosion does not provoke an attack of opportunity from you, although it does provoke from others. Targets are effected simultaneously though, and may not make an attack of opportunity on an enemy moved by Force Explosion if they also fail their Force Explosion opposed check. Targets are always pushed directly away from you in a strait line.

If the target is pushed into a wall or other solid object, they take damage as if they fell, 1d6 damage for every 10 feet pushed. If the enemy is pushed into an occupied square, the enemy's movement stops, but they must both make a Reflex Save (DC = your opposed check result) or be knocked Prone.

You may spend additional Force Points to enhance this Talent. For each additional Force Point you spend, you gain +1 to your opposed Bull Rush check.

Force Grip: As a full round action make a Grapple check against a single enemy, using your Wisdom modifier in place of your Strength modifier as a bonus for the opposed roll. If you succeed, your enemy counts as being Grappled. You do not count as being Grappled, but you do lose your Dex bonus to AC for as long as this Talent is active.

You may maintain Force Grip each round as a full round action as part of the same Force Grip use. Once each round (including the round that you initiate the Grapple) you may make another opposed check to pin, move, or deal damage against your enemy. If you move your enemy, you may move them 5 feet in any direction for every 5 points that you beat them on your opposed check. If the enemy is pushed into a wall, they take damage as if they fell, 1d6 damage for every 10 feet pushed. (You could even push your enemy strait up, and then let them fall down, if you chose). If the enemy is pushed into another enemy, the movement stops, but they must both make a Reflex Save (DC = your opposed check result) or be knocked Prone. If you choose to deal damage, you deal 1d6 damage, +1d6 for every three Force Adept levels that you have, to a maximum of 7d6 at 18th level. On his turn the enemy may make opposed Grapple checks as normal to free himself. If at any point you lose an opposed check, the Force Grip is ended.

You may use this Talent to move an unattended object weighing up to 25 lbs for every Force Adept levels you possess automatically. You may move it at a speed of 5 feet for every Force Adept levels you posses. You may spend additional Force Points to enhance this Talent. For each additional Force Point you spend, you gain +1 to your opposed Grapple check, and you may move an additional 25 lbs of weight on an unattended object. You must pay any enhancement cost each round that you maintain a Force Grip on an enemy. However, after the first round of successfully moving an unattended object, you do not need to pay the enhancement cost on your Force Grip. For example, if you Force Grip a box weighing 100 lbs (4 Force Points), then maintaining that grip only costs 1 point per round thereafter.

Force Lightning: As a Standard Action, you may manifest your Force power as pure energy. Make a ranged touch attack against a single enemy within range. If you hit, you deal 2d4 points of Force damage, and the enemy takes a -2 penalty to its Dexterity for 1d4 rounds. If the enemy is non-living (construct, undead) you deal 4d4 points of damage instead, and the enemy is Dazed for 1d4 rounds. A Fortitude Save (DC = 10 + your Cha bonus) prevents half of the damage and the Dexterity penalty or Daze effect. The penalties and durations of multiple Force Lighting uses against the same enemy overlap.

You may spend additional Force Points to enhance this Talent. For every two additional points you spend, you increase the damage dealt by 2d4 (or 4d4 for non-living enemies), and increase the Save DC by 1, and increase the Dexterity penalty by 2.

Force Move: As a Swift action you may manifest Hustle (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Hustle). You may use this action to Move, to activate your Psychic Weapon ability, or any other Move Action.

You may spend additional Force Points to enhance this Talent. For 1 Force Point, you may manifest Feather Fall until the beginning of your next turn. For 2 Force Points, you may manifest Spider Climb until the beginning of your next turn. For 3 Force Points, you may manifest Air Walk until the end of your turn. If you're not standing on solid ground by the end of your turn, you fall. You may make a Tumble check to negate the falling damage as normal, or manifest the enhanced Force Move again each round to continue your Feather Fall, Spider Climb, or Air Walk). Each of these effects are in addition to the normal effect of Hustle.

Force Pull: As a Standard Action, make a Disarm check against a single enemy, using your Wisdom modifier in place of your Strength modifier as a bonus for the opposed roll. You count as using a one handed weapon for this check. If you succeed, you may pull any one object from your enemy, including anything that he is holding, wielding, carrying, or wearing, except for armor or clothing (though your DM may allow you to pull a hat, helmet, or similar worn items, depending on how securely it is fastened). If you have a free hand, you may take the object directly into your hand. Otherwise, it falls harmlessly into your square.

You may use this Talent to pull an unattended object weighing up to 25 lbs for every Force Adept levels you possess automatically. You may move it at a speed of 5 feet for every Force Adept levels you posses. You may spend additional Force Points to enhance this Talent. For each additional Force Point you spend, you gain +1 to your opposed Disarm check, and you may move an additional 25 lbs of weight on an unattended object.

Force Push: As a Standard Action, make a Bull Rush attempt against a single enemy, using your Wisdom modifier in place of your Strength modifier as a bonus for the opposed roll.

Movement causes by Force Push does not provoke an attack of opportunity from you, although it does provoke from others. You may choose the direction your enemy is pushed, as long as it is not towards you. If the enemy is pushed into a wall or other solid object, they take damage as if they fell, 1d6 damage for every 10 feet pushed. (You could even push your enemy strait up, and then let them fall down, if you chose). If the enemy is pushed into an occupied square, the enemy's movement stops, but they must both make a Reflex Save (DC = your opposed check result) or be knocked Prone.

You may use this Talent to push an unattended object weighing up to 25 lbs for every Force Adept levels you possess automatically. You may move it at a speed of 5 feet for every Force Adept levels you posses. You may spend additional Force Points to enhance this Talent. For each additional Force Point you spend, you gain +1 to your opposed Bull Rush check, and you may move an additional 25 lbs of weight on an unattended object.

Psychic Weapon Power (Su):
At third level and every four levels thereafter (7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th) your Psychic Weapon gains a new power. These power applies to any Psychic Weapon, ammunition, or shield that you manifest with your Psychic Weapon ability. You may choose any Power from the following list:

Block: Whenever you are attacked by a melee attack (including melee touch attacks) that includes physical and/or Force damage as a component of the attack, you may attempt to Block it as an Immediate action. If you choose to use this power, you must declare that you are using it after your enemy successfully hits you but before the DM announces damage or effects of the attack. Make an attack roll, using your Wisdom modifier in place of your Strength (or any other ability score) modifier as a bonus to hit. If your modified attack roll is higher then the enemy’s modified attack roll, the attack is negated. If your modified attack roll is 5 points higher then your enemy’s modified attack roll, then the attack is redirected back against the enemy. Resolve the attack against the enemy’s AC (or touch AC, if it was a touch attack) as if the enemy had attacked themselves.

Defending: You may transfer some or all of your Psychic Weapon's Enhancement bonus as an Insight bonus to your Armor Class and to resist any opposed Bull Rush, Disarm, Grapple, Overrun, or Trip attempt. You do not gain this bonus on opposed checks resulting from any attack or Force Talent that you initiate. And Insight bonuses do not stack with other Insight bonuses, so if you have two Psychic Weapons manifested you only gain your Psychic Weapon's Defending bonus once. As a Free Action, the Force Adept may choose how to allocate the Psychic Weapon’s enhancement bonus at the start of his turn before using the weapon, and the effects last until the beginning of his next turn.

Deflect: Whenever you are attacked by a ranged attack (including ranged touch attacks) that includes physical and/or Force damage as a component of the attack, you may attempt to Defect it as an Immediate action. If you choose to use this power, you must declare that you are using it after your enemy successfully hits you but before the DM announces damage or effects of the attack. Make an attack roll, using your Wisdom modifier in place of your Strength (or any other ability score) modifier as a bonus to hit. If your modified attack roll is higher then the enemy’s modified attack roll, the attack is negated. If your modified attack roll is 5 points higher then your enemy’s modified attack roll, then the attack is deflected against the enemy. Resolve the attack against the enemy’s AC (or touch AC, if it was a touch attack) as if the enemy had attacked themselves.

Illumination: You can control the illumination of anything that you manifest with your psychic weapon ability. It may be as bright as a Daylight (www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Daylight) spell, or as dark as a Deeper Darkness (www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Deeper_Darkness) spell. You may alter the intensity and range of the light or darkness as a Move action, increasing or decreasing the area of effect as you like, from as little as a radius of 5 feet, up to the maximum of 60 feet.

You do not suffer any ill effects from light or darkness created by your psychic weapon ability. For example, an orc Force Adept wouldn’t suffer the penalties from the light of a weapon using Daylight, nor would he suffer from the 20% miss penalty of using Deeper Darkness. However, all others within your area of effect (including allies) take penalties as normal. You cannot use light and darkness effects at the same time, even if you can manifest more than one Psychic Weapon at a time. If you manifest both, they cancel each other out. If someone else manifests or casts a magical light or darkness effect, it can cancel yours out following the standard rules for doing so.

Keen: Any Psychic Weapon (including shield spikes) that you manifest has the Keen property. This property does not stack with any other Keen effect.

Opposition: Choose one alignment from the following list; Lawful, Good, Chaotic, or Evil. You may not share that component as part of your own alignment. Whenever you hit and deal damage with your Psychic Weapon against an enemy who has that alignment component, you deal an additional 1d6 points of Force damage to them. You may choose this ability more then once. Each time you choose it, you deal an additional 1d6 points of damage to your chosen opposition alignment. If you change alignments to share your opposition alignment, you must reassign this ability to a different opposition alignment.

Resistance: As long as you are wielding a Psychic Weapon or shield, or wearing armor manifested with your Psychic Weapon ability, you gain Energy Resistance 10 against all Electricity and Force effects (such as Magic Missile and Force Lightning, but not damage from Psychic Weapons because they count as physical damage). You may choose this ability more then once. Each time you choose it, you increase your Energy Resistance by 10 points. Energy Resistance from other sources overlap. If you select this power as all five of your Psychic Weapon powers you gain Energy Immunity to Electricity and Force effects, and immunity to all Stun and Paralysis effects.

Throw: You may throw any Psychic Weapon or shield that you manifest. It automatically returns to your hand immediately after your attack. If the Psychic Weapon already has a ranged increment, such as a javelin, you may use that ranged increment. Otherwise, it has range increment of 10 ft. You may take this ability multiple times. Each time you take it, your range increment increases by 10 feet.

Force Combo: (Su)
Immediately after successfully attacking an enemy and dealing damage with a Psychic Weapon or Force Talent, you may manifest a single Force Talent that you know as an Immediate Action. You must have enough Force Points to manifest the power, and you must pay the full Force Point cost for doing so. You may enhance the Force Talent as usual, paying the additional Force Point cost as usual.

You may do this once per encounter at 4th level, and one additional time for every four levels you possess.

Uncanny Dodge (Ex):
Uncanny Dodge: You gain the Uncanny Dodge ability. If a character already has Uncanny Dodge from another class, the character gains Improved Uncanny Dodge instead, and the levels from the classes that grant Uncanny Dodge stack to determine the minimum level a Rogue must be to flank the character.

Evasion (Ex):
You gain the Evasion ability. If a character already has Evasion from another class, the character gains Improved Evasion instead.

Psychic Force Mastery (Su):
Once per day when you use Force Explosion, Force Grip, Force Lightning, Force Pull, or Force Push you may channel massive amounts of psychic power. The range for your effect is extended to anything within your line of sight. There is no weight limit, as long as the entire object is within your line of sight. Any attack roll or opposed check that you roll is automatically maximized, as if you had rolled a natural 20. For an attack roll, this counts as a critical hit (dealing *2 damage). Any damage dice that result from this attack (including damage from falling or being pushed into an object) are also maximized. Your DM may exclude ridiculously large objects that have their own gravity field, such as planets, moons, stars, etc.

Anywho, I thought that Deceptive Blade did something with Improved Feint, and was meant for Rogue/Soulknife multiclassing? I'm not sure though.

Kaiyanwang
2009-04-07, 10:48 AM
Shameless self promotion of my homebrew Soulknife fix:

Force Adept
d6 hit dice
4 Skill Points per level
Class Skills: Autohypnosis, Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Jump, Knowledge (Psionics), Listen, Profession, Sense Motive, Spot, Swim, Tumble.
Weapon and Armor Prof: Simple weapons and light armor, no shields.

{table=head]Level|
BAB|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Abilities
1st|
+1|
+0|
+2|
+2| Psychic Weapon +1, Psychic Weapon Ability
2nd|
+2|
+0|
+3|
+3| Psychic Talent
3rd|
+3|
+1|
+3|
+3| Psychic Weapon Power
4th|
+4|
+1|
+4|
+4| Force Combo (1 per encounter)
5th|
+5|
+1|
+4|
+4| Psychic Weapon +2, Psychic Weapon Ability
6th|
+6/+1|
+2|
+5|
+5| Psychic Talent
7th|
+7/+2|
+2|
+5|
+5| Psychic Weapon Power
8th|
+8/+3|
+2|
+6|
+6| Force Combo (2 per encounter)
9th|
+9/+4|
+3|
+6|
+6 | Uncanny Dodge
10th|
+10/+5|
+3|
+7|
+7| Psychic Weapon +3, Psychic Weapon Ability, Psychic Talent
11th|
+11/+6/+1|
+3|
+7|
+7 | Psychic Weapon Power
12th|
+12/+7/+2|
+4|
+8|
+8| Force Combo (3 per encounter)
13th|
+13/+8/+3|
+4|
+8|
+8| Evasion
14th|
+14/+9/+4|
+4|
+9|
+9 | Psychic Talent
15th|
+15/+10/+5|
+5|
+9|
+9| Psychic Weapon +4, Psychic Weapon Ability, Psychic Weapon Power
16th|
+16/+11/+6/+1|
+5|
+10|
+10| Force Combo (4 per encounter)
17th|
+17/+12/+7/+2|
+5|
+10|
+10| Psychic Force
18th|
+18/+13/+8/+3|
+6|
+11|
+11| Psychic Talent
19th|
+19/+14/+9/+4|
+6|
+11|
+11| Psychic Weapon Power, Force Mastery
20th|
+20/+15/+10/+5|
+6|
+12|
+12| Psychic Weapon +5, Psychic Weapon Ability, Psychic Talent, Force Combo (5 per encounter)
[/table]

Psychic Weapon (Su):
As a Move action, you may manifest one simple weapon out of psychic energy. This weapon acts exactly like a mundane weapon of the same type. Any Psychic Weapon that you manifest has a +1 enhancement bonus to hit and damage. This increases by another +1 every five levels, to a maximum of +5 at level 20. This bonus applies to any Psychic Weapon, ammunition, and shield that you manifest with this ability, as do all Psychic Weapon powers that you manifest.

You may also manifest any simple object or tool. You may manifest up to 1 cubic foot of material per Force Adept level. For example, you could manifest a rope, shovel, mirror, wall, etc. If you wish to manifest a complex object, you must make the appropriate Craft check, with a DC set by your DM. These objects behave exactly as a mundane object of the same type.

You may only manifest one weapon or object at a given time. If you lose physical contact with the weapon or object, it dissipates at the end of your turn. If you lose consciousness for any reason, the weapon or object dissipates immediately. You may alter the minor features of the weapon or object, such as color, at will when you create the item. Any weapon, object, shield, or armor that you manifest with this ability has a hardness and hit points of 10 + your Force Adept class level, though you’re free to make it lower if you choose. You may dismiss any Psychic Weapon effect as a free action.

Anything that you manifest with this ability counts as a Force effect. This allows it to hit incorporeal enemies normally. However, the damage dealt by your Psychic Weapon still counts as physical damage.

If anything created with your Psychic Weapon ability is destroyed, you must make a Will Saving Throw (DC = damage dealt to object) or be Stunned for 1 round.

Psychic Weapon Ability (Su):
At first level, you gain the ability to manifest your Psychic Weapon in a new way. You gain an additional Psychic Weapon ability at 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th levels as well. Any Psychic Weapon

Unless otherwise noted, you may only select each Psychic Weapon Ability once. Choose from the following list:

Armor: You gain the ability to manifest Force armor. This is in addition to your ability to manifest one Psychic weapon or object. It grants an armor bonus of 4 + the enhancement bonus to your Psychic Weapon (max +9 at 20th level). Your armor counts as a Force effect, and thus fully applies to your Touch AC and to attacks from Ethereal enemies. Furthermore, it imposes no armor check penalty, max Dexterity bonus, or spellcasting failure. It does not penalize your movement, and you count as not wearing any armor for other feats or class abilities.

Martial Weapon: You gain the ability to manifest all martial weapons as a Psychic Weapon. You gain proficiency with all martial weapons that you manifest as a Psychic Weapon.

Ammunition: You gain the ability to manifest all ammunition as a Psychic Weapon, such as arrows, darts, bolts, shuriken, etc. You also gain the ability to manifest any Psychic Weapon ammunition as a free action. This allows you to make a full attack with a ranged weapons and certain thrown weapons - though each Psychic Weapon still dissipates as soon as you attack your enemy and then manifest the next psychic weapon (or at the end of your turn, if you choose not to manifest a replacement). If ammunition that you manifest is fired from a magic weapon, the special properties of your ammunition stack with the properties of the weapon, following the same rules as regular magic ammunition fired from a magic weapon (for example, Enhancement bonuses still do not stack).

Exotic Weapon: You gain the ability to manifest one Exotic Weapon of your choice as a Psychic Weapon. You also gain proficiency with this Exotic Weapon when you manifest it as a Psychic Weapon. You may take this ability multiple times. Each time you take this ability, you gain proficiency with an additional exotic weapon.

Multiple Weapons: You may now manifest two Psychic Weapons or objects at once, instead of one. (Or one weapon and an object, or two objects). This allows you to use Two Weapon Fighting with your Psychic Weapons, though you must still qualify for and take the feats as appropriate to avoid the penalties for fighting with two weapons. You may take this ability multiple times. Each time you take it, you may manifest one additional weapon or object. This allows a Force Adept with multiple arms to use Multi-Weapon Fighting.

Shield: You gain the ability to manifest a shield as a Psychic Weapon. This is in addition to your ability to manifest one Psychic Weapon or object. You may manifest a buckler, light, medium, or heavy shield. The shield has an enhancement bonus equal to your Psychic Weapon's enhancement bonus, which applies both to it's shield AC bonus and your attack bonus, as if it had been enchanted separately as a weapon. You automatically gain proficiency with any Psychic Weapon shield that you manifest. As a Force object this shield protects normally against ethereal attacks, although attacks with a Psychic Weapon shield still count as physical damage just as they do with a normal Psychic Weapon. Furthermore, it imposes no armor check penalty, max Dexterity bonus, or spellcasting failure.

Special Material: Choose any one material, such as adamantine, cold iron, mithril, or star metal. Instead of a Force effect, you may manifest anything that you create with your Psychic Weapon ability as that material. If you have the ability to manifest armor and/or a shield, you may also manifest them as a special material. When you manifest an item from a special material, it takes on the properties of that material. This includes hardness, hit points, and ability to effect enemies with damage reduction. For armor and shields, this also includes armor check penalty, weight, spellcasting failure, etc. When manifested as a special material, your effects cease to be a Force effects (and thus ethereal enemies would gain their standard benefits against you, and your armor and shield bonuses no longer apply to touch attacks). Objects manifested with your Psychic Weapon ability still dissipate like any other Psychic Weapon or object. You may choose this ability multiple times. Each time you take this ability, you may manifest your Psychic Weapon as one additional material.

Psychic Talent (Su):
At 2nd, 6th, 10th, 14th, 18th, and 20th levels, you gain a Psychic Talent. Force Talents have a range of 5 feet per Force Adept level. Feats and other modifiers that improve or hinder your Disarm, Trip, Grapple, or Bull Rush attempts apply to the effects of Psychic Talents. For all Psychic Talents, you count as medium size, regardless of your actual size.

Psychic Talents are fueled by Force Points. With the exception of Force Energy, each Psychic Talent takes 2 Force Points to activate. You have a number of Force Points equal to your Force Adept level. You may regain your Force Points by taking a full round action and making a Concentration check = 10 + number of Force Points you wish to rejuvenate. If you fail this check, you do not rejuvenate any Force Points. You may not manifest any Force Talent during a round that you regain Force Points.

You may spend additional Force Points to enhance your Psychic Talents. You may spend more then one Force Point per round in this fashion, and the bonuses stack.

If another Force Adept attempts to use a Force Talent, you may make a Knowledge (Psionics) check (DC = 10 + Force Adept level of your enemy) as a Free Action to recognize the Force Talent and the total number of Force Points that your enemy is using to activate and enhance it. If you possess the same Force Talent, as an Immediate action you may spend the same number of Force Points to negate your enemy’s use of the Force Talent, or to reduce the number of points that he enhances it by.

Force Talents are Supernatural abilities, and thus are not effected by Spell Resistance or Power Resistance, and they never provoke an attack of opportunity.

With the exception of Force Energy, you may only choose each Talent once. Each time you gain this ability, you may choose any one Talent from the following list:

Force Energy: Instead of a new Talent, you gain 2 Force Points, in addition to the Force Points gained from your Force Adept levels. You must be at least a 6th level Force Adept to take this Talent.

Force Explosion: As a Full Round Action make a Bull Rush attempt, using your Wisdom modifier in place of your Strength modifier as a bonus for the opposed roll, against all targets within 5 feet per Force Adept level. This action applies to all targets, including all enemies, allies, and objects. You may decrease the radius of the Force Explosion, but you may not shape the blast (it goes in all directions, including up and down).

Movement causes by Force Explosion does not provoke an attack of opportunity from you, although it does provoke from others. Targets are effected simultaneously though, and may not make an attack of opportunity on an enemy moved by Force Explosion if they also fail their Force Explosion opposed check. Targets are always pushed directly away from you in a strait line.

If the target is pushed into a wall or other solid object, they take damage as if they fell, 1d6 damage for every 10 feet pushed. If the enemy is pushed into an occupied square, the enemy's movement stops, but they must both make a Reflex Save (DC = your opposed check result) or be knocked Prone.

You may spend additional Force Points to enhance this Talent. For each additional Force Point you spend, you gain +1 to your opposed Bull Rush check.

Force Grip: As a full round action make a Grapple check against a single enemy, using your Wisdom modifier in place of your Strength modifier as a bonus for the opposed roll. If you succeed, your enemy counts as being Grappled. You do not count as being Grappled, but you do lose your Dex bonus to AC for as long as this Talent is active.

You may maintain Force Grip each round as a full round action as part of the same Force Grip use. Once each round (including the round that you initiate the Grapple) you may make another opposed check to pin, move, or deal damage against your enemy. If you move your enemy, you may move them 5 feet in any direction for every 5 points that you beat them on your opposed check. If the enemy is pushed into a wall, they take damage as if they fell, 1d6 damage for every 10 feet pushed. (You could even push your enemy strait up, and then let them fall down, if you chose). If the enemy is pushed into another enemy, the movement stops, but they must both make a Reflex Save (DC = your opposed check result) or be knocked Prone. If you choose to deal damage, you deal 1d6 damage, +1d6 for every three Force Adept levels that you have, to a maximum of 7d6 at 18th level. On his turn the enemy may make opposed Grapple checks as normal to free himself. If at any point you lose an opposed check, the Force Grip is ended.

You may use this Talent to move an unattended object weighing up to 25 lbs for every Force Adept levels you possess automatically. You may move it at a speed of 5 feet for every Force Adept levels you posses. You may spend additional Force Points to enhance this Talent. For each additional Force Point you spend, you gain +1 to your opposed Grapple check, and you may move an additional 25 lbs of weight on an unattended object. You must pay any enhancement cost each round that you maintain a Force Grip on an enemy. However, after the first round of successfully moving an unattended object, you do not need to pay the enhancement cost on your Force Grip. For example, if you Force Grip a box weighing 100 lbs (4 Force Points), then maintaining that grip only costs 1 point per round thereafter.

Force Lightning: As a Standard Action, you may manifest your Force power as pure energy. Make a ranged touch attack against a single enemy within range. If you hit, you deal 2d4 points of Force damage, and the enemy takes a -2 penalty to its Dexterity for 1d4 rounds. If the enemy is non-living (construct, undead) you deal 4d4 points of damage instead, and the enemy is Dazed for 1d4 rounds. A Fortitude Save (DC = 10 + your Cha bonus) prevents half of the damage and the Dexterity penalty or Daze effect. The penalties and durations of multiple Force Lighting uses against the same enemy overlap.

You may spend additional Force Points to enhance this Talent. For every two additional points you spend, you increase the damage dealt by 2d4 (or 4d4 for non-living enemies), and increase the Save DC by 1, and increase the Dexterity penalty by 2.

Force Move: As a Swift action you may manifest Hustle (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Hustle). You may use this action to Move, to activate your Psychic Weapon ability, or any other Move Action.

You may spend additional Force Points to enhance this Talent. For 1 Force Point, you may manifest Feather Fall until the beginning of your next turn. For 2 Force Points, you may manifest Spider Climb until the beginning of your next turn. For 3 Force Points, you may manifest Air Walk until the end of your turn. If you're not standing on solid ground by the end of your turn, you fall. You may make a Tumble check to negate the falling damage as normal, or manifest the enhanced Force Move again each round to continue your Feather Fall, Spider Climb, or Air Walk). Each of these effects are in addition to the normal effect of Hustle.

Force Pull: As a Standard Action, make a Disarm check against a single enemy, using your Wisdom modifier in place of your Strength modifier as a bonus for the opposed roll. You count as using a one handed weapon for this check. If you succeed, you may pull any one object from your enemy, including anything that he is holding, wielding, carrying, or wearing, except for armor or clothing (though your DM may allow you to pull a hat, helmet, or similar worn items, depending on how securely it is fastened). If you have a free hand, you may take the object directly into your hand. Otherwise, it falls harmlessly into your square.

You may use this Talent to pull an unattended object weighing up to 25 lbs for every Force Adept levels you possess automatically. You may move it at a speed of 5 feet for every Force Adept levels you posses. You may spend additional Force Points to enhance this Talent. For each additional Force Point you spend, you gain +1 to your opposed Disarm check, and you may move an additional 25 lbs of weight on an unattended object.

Force Push: As a Standard Action, make a Bull Rush attempt against a single enemy, using your Wisdom modifier in place of your Strength modifier as a bonus for the opposed roll.

Movement causes by Force Push does not provoke an attack of opportunity from you, although it does provoke from others. You may choose the direction your enemy is pushed, as long as it is not towards you. If the enemy is pushed into a wall or other solid object, they take damage as if they fell, 1d6 damage for every 10 feet pushed. (You could even push your enemy strait up, and then let them fall down, if you chose). If the enemy is pushed into an occupied square, the enemy's movement stops, but they must both make a Reflex Save (DC = your opposed check result) or be knocked Prone.

You may use this Talent to push an unattended object weighing up to 25 lbs for every Force Adept levels you possess automatically. You may move it at a speed of 5 feet for every Force Adept levels you posses. You may spend additional Force Points to enhance this Talent. For each additional Force Point you spend, you gain +1 to your opposed Bull Rush check, and you may move an additional 25 lbs of weight on an unattended object.

Psychic Weapon Power (Su):
At third level and every four levels thereafter (7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th) your Psychic Weapon gains a new power. These power applies to any Psychic Weapon, ammunition, or shield that you manifest with your Psychic Weapon ability. You may choose any Power from the following list:

Block: Whenever you are attacked by a melee attack (including melee touch attacks) that includes physical and/or Force damage as a component of the attack, you may attempt to Block it as an Immediate action. If you choose to use this power, you must declare that you are using it after your enemy successfully hits you but before the DM announces damage or effects of the attack. Make an attack roll, using your Wisdom modifier in place of your Strength (or any other ability score) modifier as a bonus to hit. If your modified attack roll is higher then the enemy’s modified attack roll, the attack is negated. If your modified attack roll is 5 points higher then your enemy’s modified attack roll, then the attack is redirected back against the enemy. Resolve the attack against the enemy’s AC (or touch AC, if it was a touch attack) as if the enemy had attacked themselves.

Defending: You may transfer some or all of your Psychic Weapon's Enhancement bonus as an Insight bonus to your Armor Class and to resist any opposed Bull Rush, Disarm, Grapple, Overrun, or Trip attempt. You do not gain this bonus on opposed checks resulting from any attack or Force Talent that you initiate. And Insight bonuses do not stack with other Insight bonuses, so if you have two Psychic Weapons manifested you only gain your Psychic Weapon's Defending bonus once. As a Free Action, the Force Adept may choose how to allocate the Psychic Weapon’s enhancement bonus at the start of his turn before using the weapon, and the effects last until the beginning of his next turn.

Deflect: Whenever you are attacked by a ranged attack (including ranged touch attacks) that includes physical and/or Force damage as a component of the attack, you may attempt to Defect it as an Immediate action. If you choose to use this power, you must declare that you are using it after your enemy successfully hits you but before the DM announces damage or effects of the attack. Make an attack roll, using your Wisdom modifier in place of your Strength (or any other ability score) modifier as a bonus to hit. If your modified attack roll is higher then the enemy’s modified attack roll, the attack is negated. If your modified attack roll is 5 points higher then your enemy’s modified attack roll, then the attack is deflected against the enemy. Resolve the attack against the enemy’s AC (or touch AC, if it was a touch attack) as if the enemy had attacked themselves.

Illumination: You can control the illumination of anything that you manifest with your psychic weapon ability. It may be as bright as a Daylight (www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Daylight) spell, or as dark as a Deeper Darkness (www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Deeper_Darkness) spell. You may alter the intensity and range of the light or darkness as a Move action, increasing or decreasing the area of effect as you like, from as little as a radius of 5 feet, up to the maximum of 60 feet.

You do not suffer any ill effects from light or darkness created by your psychic weapon ability. For example, an orc Force Adept wouldn’t suffer the penalties from the light of a weapon using Daylight, nor would he suffer from the 20% miss penalty of using Deeper Darkness. However, all others within your area of effect (including allies) take penalties as normal. You cannot use light and darkness effects at the same time, even if you can manifest more than one Psychic Weapon at a time. If you manifest both, they cancel each other out. If someone else manifests or casts a magical light or darkness effect, it can cancel yours out following the standard rules for doing so.

Keen: Any Psychic Weapon (including shield spikes) that you manifest has the Keen property. This property does not stack with any other Keen effect.

Opposition: Choose one alignment from the following list; Lawful, Good, Chaotic, or Evil. You may not share that component as part of your own alignment. Whenever you hit and deal damage with your Psychic Weapon against an enemy who has that alignment component, you deal an additional 1d6 points of Force damage to them. You may choose this ability more then once. Each time you choose it, you deal an additional 1d6 points of damage to your chosen opposition alignment. If you change alignments to share your opposition alignment, you must reassign this ability to a different opposition alignment.

Resistance: As long as you are wielding a Psychic Weapon or shield, or wearing armor manifested with your Psychic Weapon ability, you gain Energy Resistance 10 against all Electricity and Force effects (such as Magic Missile and Force Lightning, but not damage from Psychic Weapons because they count as physical damage). You may choose this ability more then once. Each time you choose it, you increase your Energy Resistance by 10 points. Energy Resistance from other sources overlap. If you select this power as all five of your Psychic Weapon powers you gain Energy Immunity to Electricity and Force effects, and immunity to all Stun and Paralysis effects.

Throw: You may throw any Psychic Weapon or shield that you manifest. It automatically returns to your hand immediately after your attack. If the Psychic Weapon already has a ranged increment, such as a javelin, you may use that ranged increment. Otherwise, it has range increment of 10 ft. You may take this ability multiple times. Each time you take it, your range increment increases by 10 feet.

Force Combo: (Su)
Immediately after successfully attacking an enemy and dealing damage with a Psychic Weapon or Force Talent, you may manifest a single Force Talent that you know as an Immediate Action. You must have enough Force Points to manifest the power, and you must pay the full Force Point cost for doing so. You may enhance the Force Talent as usual, paying the additional Force Point cost as usual.

You may do this once per encounter at 4th level, and one additional time for every four levels you possess.

Uncanny Dodge (Ex):
Uncanny Dodge: You gain the Uncanny Dodge ability. If a character already has Uncanny Dodge from another class, the character gains Improved Uncanny Dodge instead, and the levels from the classes that grant Uncanny Dodge stack to determine the minimum level a Rogue must be to flank the character.

Evasion (Ex):
You gain the Evasion ability. If a character already has Evasion from another class, the character gains Improved Evasion instead.

Psychic Force Mastery (Su):
Once per day when you use Force Explosion, Force Grip, Force Lightning, Force Pull, or Force Push you may channel massive amounts of psychic power. The range for your effect is extended to anything within your line of sight. There is no weight limit, as long as the entire object is within your line of sight. Any attack roll or opposed check that you roll is automatically maximized, as if you had rolled a natural 20. For an attack roll, this counts as a critical hit (dealing *2 damage). Any damage dice that result from this attack (including damage from falling or being pushed into an object) are also maximized. Your DM may exclude ridiculously large objects that have their own gravity field, such as planets, moons, stars, etc.

Anywho, I thought that Deceptive Blade did something with Improved Feint, and was meant for Rogue/Soulknife multiclassing? I'm not sure though.

I like a lot the thing that the kind of weapon and power choose, are not fixed by level, but at certain level you choose from a list of power and weapon.

wadledo
2009-04-07, 02:26 PM
Quoth wadledo:What kind of save-boosting items are you thinking of, that work in an anti-magic field?

Durrrrr......
Really awesome ones.:smallredface:

Tokiko Mima
2009-04-07, 04:38 PM
Personally, whenever I see a soulknife in a build, I ask "why not a glaive-lock (warlock with Eldritch Glaive?)" You get all the fun of a weapon that appears and disappears at need, is a Reach weapon, does close to sneak attack level damage and almost never misses. It even gives you a reason to put points into Concentration skill, and no class has it easier when switching between melee and ranged attacks. You don't need any other base class to pull it off, either. :)

theMycon
2009-04-07, 05:08 PM
Congratulations, theMycon -- You have officially won this thread and made my day, all in one fell swoop. How many internets would you like as reward?

:smallbiggrin:
My only regret is that I had to keep them all PG. I had so many good ones about tentacle rape...

Also, I'll take two- I wanna give my ex a cheap but impressive birthday gift.

Chronos
2009-04-07, 05:16 PM
Personally, whenever I see a soulknife in a build, I ask "why not a glaive-lock (warlock with Eldritch Glaive?)"Also true. And in addition to the benefits you mention, you also get a variety of other nifty tricks you can do (which you could re-fluff as being psionic rather than arcane easily enough).

FMArthur
2009-04-07, 05:35 PM
Mind's Eye.

Here:(It's free, so I think this is OK)

[Soulbound Weapon description]

That does come extremely close, and the augmentation is certainly superior, but the full-round cast time and the minute-per-level duration of the weapon are a bit of a turn off. I think it'd be usable with Overchannel combined with Earth Power (are there any other pp cost reducers/pp limit boosters?), but otherwise you'd risk becoming a weak Psychic Warrior.

Starbuck_II
2009-04-07, 07:20 PM
Durrrrr......
Really awesome ones.:smallredface:

Epic items will be fine (since they are based on epic magic which is immune).

wadledo
2009-04-07, 07:33 PM
Epic items will be fine (since they are based on epic magic which is immune).

At level 16?:smallconfused::smallannoyed:

Starbuck_II
2009-04-07, 07:47 PM
At level 16?:smallconfused::smallannoyed:

When your a Straight (non-multiclassed) soulknife you deserve epic items at level 16.

VirOath
2009-04-07, 07:59 PM
Ok, there is ALOT that the other posters are assuming. And in some cases, they are right. Many in fact, but they are leaving rather big holes and assumptions in things.

First of, the two classes don't have much synergy since by RAW you can't get your Mindblade and Monk HtH damage at the same time. If your DM houserules this in, then it's better.

Countless other posters have given builds and suggestions that are more optimized builds, even ones with alot of fun flavor to them, but you should remember the campaign that you will be playing in.

They knock the "Has a weapon" feature, but the point of the matter is that not every setting created by a DM is going to be oozing in magic items and gold. Rather, there are a lot of "low powered" campaigns that have a rather painful markup on magic items. (And sometimes it's fun, sometimes it isn't. I had two of them start up at about the same time, one was a blast and one of the better campaigns I had played in due to creative use of what we had, rather than falling back on magic for everything. The second one had it's players kindly ask the DM to fold up the campaign and play something else.)

So in a world where magic is readily available to overflowing and in a higher powered party you may feel like you are sitting on your butt waiting for combat to finish and not having the skills to deal with other challenges. Or not using means provided by your class. But a quick wit and silver tongue can provide alot of fun RP, which is the point of the game, not numbers. And as they will note, this means it can be applied to a character that is optimized and be fun. It's flavor, and cool.

Now, in a campaign setting that is a bit scarcer, like the DM loving to toss mobs with no treasure table at you over and over, or with a more average party (IE: NOT ideal or optimized.) then you'll find yourself being more than viable and close on power level.

But, both the monk and the Soulknife are classes that excel in situations that generally screw parties over. By that I mean taken captive, stipped of weapons, gagged and bound, or forced to give up equipment in other means. The Monk and Soulknife might not scale compared to item dependent melee's, but they also can't be hindered in the same way that those item users can. Being item dependent is both a strength and a weakness. Having a nice big shiny sword might make you powerful, but it's also a prime target for sunders, disarms and many other things.

Heck, the party I play with just got hit with a disjunction in a session a few days ago. The fighter was crying, but the rogue was more meh over it. Class Features, while they may be joked and even 'lacking' aren't as easy to take away as magic. Even casters, as powerful as they are, are very vulnerable beyond just hit points. Magic is something that is very easy to negate or lock down.

Just that many DMs don't feel comfortable with exploiting that fact.

So play what you want, talk to your DM about it and keep your party in mind. Flavor is fun, but try to make something that meshes well with the rest of the party in terms of power and the campaign setting.

Chronos
2009-04-07, 10:07 PM
Even if you don't have access to any magic items at all, though, a barbarian with a nonmagical greatsword is still going to fare better than a soulknife. You rage for extra strength, which gives you +2 to hit and +3 to damage that the soulknife doesn't have, plus you've got more BAB, which you can also convert to more damage via Power Attack, plus a greatsword does more base damage than a bastard sword (which the mindblade acts as). And if you do happen to find a +1 sword, the barbarian just gets even better, while the soulknife doesn't have any way to benefit from it.

Zincorium
2009-04-07, 10:19 PM
@VirOath:

What you're describing is 'screwing over everybody to make the most screwed feel better'. Just with examples instead of stating it explicitly. Running a 'low magic' game is all well and good, but ask yourself this question:

How, on earth, is someone who makes magic blades come out of their hands, thematically appropriate in a low magic game?*

As a DM, I've learned it's better to try and bring one person up to the level of the others than hammer down all but one.

*For values of 'low-magic' that are due to DMing style and campaign flavor and not dislike of your players 'being teh munchkinns'.

Waspinator
2009-04-08, 12:13 AM
If you're in a low-magic, low-loot game and really want to mess with things, play an Artificer.

Chronos
2009-04-08, 12:33 AM
If you're in a low-magic, low-loot game and really want to mess with things, play an Artificer.That still depends on DM fiat, though. Artificers (or other crafters) don't just turn a pile of gold pieces into an item; they need unspecified rare components to make things. If the DM's going to say that magic items are rare, then he can also say that the raw materials for making magic items are rare, too.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-04-08, 09:34 AM
*snipped*The most powerful classes in a low-magic game, though, are Casters. Defenses like Protection from Arrows+Flight suddenly makes the casters immortal, rather than just very tough. In a game with the party regularly imprisoned, I would rather play a Druid, Warblade, or GlaiveLock than a Monk or Soulknife due to their ability to accomplish stuff without needing the rest of the party nerfed. Heck, the PsyWar power listed earlier seems designed for times you're missing your weapon.

Waspinator
2009-04-08, 09:38 AM
Psychic Warrior has two ways to be the "summon a weapon" guy. That alternative class feature and the power it works with is one, another is to just use Claws of the Beast and augment the slag out of it to make it a really good natural attack.

Tokiko Mima
2009-04-08, 12:29 PM
Heck, a Glaivelock in a kidnapped/no equipment scenario is usually much better off, because one of the better low level invocation choices gives them access to Shatter at will. You'd literally have to keep a glaivelock tied down Hannibal Lector style 24/7 to stop them from breaking out.

Not having access to magic items doesn't benefit badly designed classes. It benefits classes that can replicate a lot of magic effects all on their own, doesn't change much for classes that are good at what they do, and generally hurts hybrid classes like gishes that need magic items to fill gaps.

Monk, Soulknife and Samurai are all badly designed. They are heavy on class features that are either useless (Stare, Quivering Palm, FoB), inadequate crutches for fighting styles that are heavily penalized (Unarmed Combat, TWF), or easily obtained in a better form elsewhere (Safefall, Mindblade.)

theMycon
2009-04-08, 04:16 PM
Monk, Soulknife and Samurai are all badly designed. They are heavy on class features that are either useless (Stare, Quivering Palm, FoB), inadequate crutches for fighting styles that are heavily penalized (Unarmed Combat, TWF), or easily obtained in a better form elsewhere (Safefall, Mindblade.)

Hey, don't diss FoB more than it deserves. It's badly designed, not useless. The fact that you need a full attack means you'll only be using it when you're going up against people who stand still, or small mobs of people. Were it in a fully-functional martial class, that'd be useful. Were it like Snap-kick- affecting your standard attack - it'd be fantastic. As it is, it's basically the clear-out-melee-mooks or "keep 1 more attack than the fighter without gerring his accuracy."