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View Full Version : Random thought comes to mind. Wilder//Soulknife



AstralFire
2008-08-20, 06:27 PM
Wilder: Very few powers known. Wild Surge is meh because its penalty is very hard to get around and very threatening. Appears to have been intended for a gish, but low HD, limited power selection, MAD, lack of proficiencies, etc all hinder that.

Soulknife: A weapon is not a class feature. Knife to the Soul is so limited in application, a Ninja might take pity. (A Rogue definitely would.)

If you just suddenly gestalted the classes and switched HD to d8, how would that turn out? It's hard to get massive amounts of synergy between them still, but surging euphoria would border on useful (especially with the Euphoric Reduction feat from C. Psi), and a wilder could simply focus on melee powers for once.

JoshuaZ
2008-08-20, 07:03 PM
So this new class would be the combination of both? There are a lot of Soul Knife fixes floating around. I think this could potentially make a slightly too powerful class. Letting a Gish-type get 9th level powers/sells is rarely a good idea.

AstralFire
2008-08-20, 07:07 PM
So this new class would be the combination of both? There are a lot of Soul Knife fixes floating around. I think this could potentially make a slightly too powerful class. Letting a Gish-type get 9th level powers/sells is rarely a good idea.

A gish that only gets two 9th levels, and any PrCs are capped at that. A wizard, cleric, or druid capped to a maximum of 11 spells known would find themselves... wanting. Even a Sorcerer has more than that just looking at their 6th to 9th level spells. Versatility is as much a component of spellcaster dominance as is raw power, hence why Blaster mages (which are noted for typically focusing on only one type of spell; a wizard is not considered a blaster just for preparing Fireball that day) are actually not over the top compared to most classes (still beat a core-only Fighter, sure, but...).

Jack_Simth
2008-08-20, 08:43 PM
A gish that only gets two 9th levels, and any PrCs are capped at that. A wizard, cleric, or druid capped to a maximum of 11 spells known would find themselves... wanting. Even a Sorcerer has more than that just looking at their 6th to 9th level spells. Versatility is as much a component of spellcaster dominance as is raw power, hence why Blaster mages (which are noted for typically focusing on only one type of spell; a wizard is not considered a blaster just for preparing Fireball that day) are actually not over the top compared to most classes (still beat a core-only Fighter, sure, but...).
Psychic Reformation. Done by way of Bend Reality, if you're in a hurry, takes care of that. You've got two known ... right now. Tack on Incarnate for the included utility powers, and you're set.

Mind you, a Wilder doesn't have any particular advantages in that game over the Psion, but it can be done.

JoshuaZ
2008-08-20, 09:14 PM
A gish that only gets two 9th levels, and any PrCs are capped at that. A wizard, cleric, or druid capped to a maximum of 11 spells known would find themselves... wanting. Even a Sorcerer has more than that just looking at their 6th to 9th level spells. Versatility is as much a component of spellcaster dominance as is raw power, hence why Blaster mages (which are noted for typically focusing on only one type of spell; a wizard is not considered a blaster just for preparing Fireball that day) are actually not over the top compared to most classes (still beat a core-only Fighter, sure, but...).

Well, they obviously take Bend Reality as an 8th level power. Most wilder builds take it anyways since the XP cost is so small. And the other reason that blasters aren't that great is because blasting just doesn't do much overall. A battlefield control wizard with only a small number of different control spells prepared is still more powerful then any fighting class. So if the wilder picks a few of the right buffs or battlefield control stuff, it could be bad.

If one wants to play a better Wilder there is an official variant that was in the Mind's Eye a while back that replaced all the copies of Volatile Mind with Expanded Knowledge as a bonus feat. It isn't half bad. (Although the official flavor for it was pretty stupid. Better flavor: Wilders are weird and unpredictable and so have a few powers that do who knows what unlike those nice, well-behaved psions who always focus on one discipline).