[3.5 Bloodline] Soulbred

Background- Seems like people were looking for an Incarnum Bloodline. I felt like making one. Done.

Soulbred

Some meldshapers draw upon too much incarnum when shaping their soulmelds. Others forget to release the energy invested in their soulmelds after being done using them. As such, this energy builds up in some meldshapers' bodies, looking for a way to release itself by any means possible, like the transfer of life force that goes into making a child. Children born under such circumstances usually come out of the womb knowing how to shape a soulmeld, almost literally in some cases where individuals are born with a soulmeld already shaped from the moment of birth. These are the Soulbred, born to wield soul energies, also known as Incarnum.

Level	Minor	Intermediate	Major
1			Knowledge(The Planes) +2
2		Knowledge(The Planes) +2	Soulshaper
3			Constitution +1
4	Knowledge(The Planes) +2	Soulshaper	Essentia Boost
5			Essentia Affinity +2
6		Constitution +1	Incarnum Body
7			Concentration +2
8	Soulshaper	Essentia Boost	Essentia Boost
9			Strength +1
10		Essentia Affinity +2	Living Soulmeld
11			Essentia Affinity +4
12	Constitution +1	Incarnum Body	Essentia Boost
13			Spellcraft +2
14		Concentration +2	Born to Shape
15			Charisma +1
16	Essentia Boost	Essentia Boost	Essentia Boost
17			Essentia Affinity +6
18		Strength +1	Archetypal Soulshaper
19			Knowledge(Arcana) +2
20	Essentia Affinity +2	Living Soulmeld	Azure Ascendant

Soulshaper: Soulbred are born to wield and shape Incarnum as they please. As such they have a certain number of soulmelds they know how to shape, and have an innately granted pool of essentia. A Soulbred may choose any soulmeld they wish, providing they meet the prerequisites for it (excepting Archetype Soulmelds(see below)), when choosing to learn a soulmeld gained from bloodline levels. A Soulbred knows a number of soulmelds equal to 1/8, 1/4, or 1/2 x their level, as according to bloodline strength. Their meldshaper level is likewise equal to 1/4, 1/2, or 1 x their level, as according to bloodline strength. A Soulbred's innate essentia pool is equal to 1/8, 1/4, or 1/2 x their level, as according to bloodline strength. Soulbred may use up to 1 + 1/8, 1/6, or 1/4 x their level of Soulmelds, as according to bloodline strength, at a time.

Essentia Boost: When a Soulbred gains this ability, they gain some new power over incarnum. When this ability is gained, a Soulbred may either learn a new soulmeld or increase their innate essentia pool by 1. Alternatively, they may learn to unlock a Least Chakra if their meldshaper level is at least 4th, a lesser Chakra if their meldshaper level is at least 8th, or a greater Chakra if their meldshaper level be at least equal to 16.

Essentia Affinity: A Soulbred knows how to deal with meldshapers as well as they do incarnum. The Soulbred gains the given bonus to all interaction rolls with individuals who can shape a soulmeld or have an essentia pool.

Incarnum Body: Incarnum runs through a Soulbred's veins, and thus permeates their body, helping them learn new ways to use soul energy. The Soulbred gains any [Incarnum] feat they qualify for as a bonus feat.

Living Soulmeld:Due to being partially created of Incarnum, a Soulbred learns how to treat itself as a living soulmeld. At any time, a Soulbred may invest essentia points in itself as though it were a soulmeld. For each point of essentia invested in itself, the Soulbred may either grant an additional +1 bonus to any ability score this bloodline has already granted a bonus to, or gain an additional +2 bonus to a skill this bloodline has granted a bonus to.

Born to Shape: A Soulbred was born to wield Incarnum and manipulate essentia. As such, it should come as no surprise that a Soulbred can learn to do both at the same time. All soulmelds shaped by the Soulbred are treated as having 1 more point of essentia invested in them than they actually do, and does not count toward the maximum amount of essentia that they may invest in a Soulmeld.

Archetypal Soulshaper:Unlike most meldshapers, Soulbred know how to use incarnum on an intuitive level, eventually learning how to make use of the greatest soulmelds to exist. Upon gaining this ability, the Soulbred learns how to shape one Archetype Soulmeld of their choice.

Azure Ascendance: Eventually, a Soulbred reaches the peak of their innate Incarnum-shaping abilities. This grants two benefits. The first is that for a number of rounds per day equal to 1/2 their level, they may treat a soulmeld as though it had twice as much essentia invested in it than was actually invested by the Soulbred. These rounds need not be spent all at once, but must be spent in minimum of two-round increments. Secondly, for one chakra at a time, the Soulbred may bind two soulmelds to the same chakra at the same time. If the Soulbred has not opened any chakras by this point, then the Soulbred learns how to bind soulmelds to one least chakra of their choice.

That's all for now. Please PEACH and comment.

That was fast. As I mentioned, I've never really gotten into the Incarnum system, but this looks pretty solid. My only nitpick is:

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Originally Posted by Pyromancer999

The first is that for a number of rounds per day equal to 1/2 the number of bloodline levels they have, they may treat a soulmeld as though it had twice as much essentia invested in it than was actually invested by the Soulbred.

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By "Bloodline Level" do you mean the levels you would take at 3rd, 6th and 12th? :smallconfused: That doesn't make much sense. I think you may have been going for 1/2 their level (It would be 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, depending on bloodline strength, but they have to have a Major to get the ability).

Looks good, though I'd suggest that on the Soulshaper ability you mention they must fulfil any prerequisites. For example the soulmelds from dragon magic require the dragonblooded ability.

Owrtho

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Originally Posted by Welknair

That was fast. As I mentioned, I've never really gotten into the Incarnum system, but this looks pretty solid. My only nitpick is:



By "Bloodline Level" do you mean the levels you would take at 3rd, 6th and 12th? :smallconfused: That doesn't make much sense. I think you may have been going for 1/2 their level (It would be 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, depending on bloodline strength, but they have to have a Major to get the ability).

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Oops. Yeah. That's what I meant.

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Originally Posted by Owrtho

Looks good, though I'd suggest that on the Soulshaper ability you mention they must fulfil any prerequisites. For example the soulmelds from dragon magic require the dragonblooded ability.

Owrtho

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That's true. Thanks. Changed.

I like it; especially Living Soulmeld...

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Originally Posted by Amechra

I like it; especially Living Soulmeld...

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Thanks. With Living Soulmeld, I sort of wanted them to be able to invest essentia in themselves, so, since part of the fluff was that part of them was incarnum itself, I decided to let them treat themselves as living soulmelds, hence the name.

Thought I'd mention, you never seem to mention how many soul melds they can use at a time, just how many they learn. You also still need to fix the Azure Ascendance typo of bloodline level being there in place of level.

Owrtho

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Originally Posted by Owrtho

Thought I'd mention, you never seem to mention how many soul melds they can use at a time, just how many they learn. You also still need to fix the Azure Ascendance typo of bloodline level being there in place of level.

Owrtho

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Hmmm...this is true. Thanks for noticing. Fixed.

Noticed 2 more things. First, while you give them away to unlock their chakra, you fail to mention their limit on chakra binds. Second, this bloodline is almost better at using soulmelds, having essentia, and possibly chakra binds than the Soulborn in Magic of Incarnum (having looked at the table, this doesn't seem as big a deal as I was thinking). Here's a table showing how a level 20 character looks with this bloodline (at each strength) and the 3 official classes. Note as you haven't placed a limit on chakra binds, I'm listing the number of chakra that are unlocked (assuming they unlock one with each Essentia Boost).

{table=head]Source|Meldshaper[br]Level|Usable[br]Soulmelds|Essentia[br]Pool|Chakra[br]Binds
Minor|5|3|2|1
Intermediate|10|4|5|2
Major|20|6|10|4
Incarnate|20|9|26|5
Soulborn|20|5|10|3
Totemist|20|9|20|5[/table]
Then again, the list of soul melds is rather more limited, and you don't gain any of the other features of the class, so it likely isn't a big deal (I think I might have been misreading the Soulshaper ability before I made the table).

Anyway, for formatting, you may want to change the last sentence "Soulbred may use up to 1 + 1/8, 1/6, or 1/4 x their level of Soulmelds at a time." to "Soulbred may use up to 1 + 1/8, 1/6, or 1/4 x their level, as according to bloodline strength, of Soulmelds at a time."

Owrtho

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Originally Posted by Owrtho

Noticed 2 more things. First, while you give them away to unlock their chakra, you fail to mention their limit on chakra binds.

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Oh, right. Forgot about that. I'm thinking 1, 2, and 4 chakra binds based on bloodline strength. Thoughts?

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Second, this bloodline is almost better at using soulmelds, having essentia, and possibly chakra binds than the Soulborn in Magic of Incarnum (having looked at the table, this doesn't seem as big a deal as I was thinking).

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Yeah, the Soulborn is pretty weak at this sort of stuff. That's part of the reason why there have been so many fixes for it.

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Here's a table showing how a level 20 character looks with this bloodline (at each strength) and the 3 official classes. Note as you haven't placed a limit on chakra binds, I'm listing the number of chakra that are unlocked (assuming they unlock one with each Essentia Boost).

{table=head]Source|Meldshaper<br>Level|Usable<br>Soulmelds|Essentia<br>Pool|Chakra<br>Binds
Minor|5|3|2|1
Intermediate|10|4|5|2
Major|20|6|10|4
Incarnate|20|9|26|5
Soulborn|20|5|10|3
Totemist|20|9|20|5[/table]
Then again, the list of soul melds is rather more limited, and you don't gain any of the other features of the class, so it likely isn't a big deal (I think I might have been misreading the Soulshaper ability before I made the table).

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Hm...still, given the few number of chakra binds they can pull off, why not allow them to use them all?

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Anyway, for formatting, you may want to change the last sentence "Soulbred may use up to 1 + 1/8, 1/6, or 1/4 x their level of Soulmelds at a time." to "Soulbred may use up to 1 + 1/8, 1/6, or 1/4 x their level, as according to bloodline strength, of Soulmelds at a time."

Owrtho

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That's true. Changed.

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Originally Posted by Pyromancer999

Oh, right. Forgot about that. I'm thinking 1, 2, and 4 chakra binds based on bloodline strength. Thoughts?

Hm...still, given the few number of chakra binds they can pull off, why not allow them to use them all?

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That is true. Though when you word it I'd suggest making sure they only gain the boost to max chakra binds if they use the Essentia Boost to gain a chakra. Otherwise you risk things like a totemist grabbing the bloodline and having 4 chakra binds at level 5 (would be 5, but there's only 4 places to bind them at that level). For that matter though, you may want to specify if they can unlock chakra they already can bind to and have it function like gaining the Double Chakra feat for that chakra (or just granting it for said chakra).

Owrtho

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Originally Posted by Owrtho

That is true. Though when you word it I'd suggest making sure they only gain the boost to max chakra binds if they use the Essentia Boost to gain a chakra. Otherwise you risk things like a totemist grabbing the bloodline and having 4 chakra binds at level 5 (would be 5, but there's only 4 places to bind them at that level). For that matter though, you may want to specify if they can unlock chakra they already can bind to and have it function like gaining the Double Chakra feat for that chakra (or just granting it for said chakra).

Owrtho

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Not entirely sure what you're talking about with the wording, but granting Double Chakra benefit for a chakra you can already bind sounds interesting. I'll think it over.

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Originally Posted by Pyromancer999

Not entirely sure what you're talking about with the wording, but granting Double Chakra benefit for a chakra you can already bind sounds interesting. I'll think it over.

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Well, I was saying two things. The first, was that it should only increase their max chakra binds each time they unlock chakra (or each time they gain essentia boost). This would be to avoid having it blend overly well with an incarnum class, which, if you just say it gives however many chakra binds (relying on them only getting chakra from essentia boost), could get a bit stronger than intended.

The second part was that if you used essentia boost to gain a chakra you already have (from either class levels or already unlocking it earlier with the bloodline), it would grant you Double Chakra for that chakra. Not sure if this is the best idea, but it doesn't particularly seem overpowered and might allow some things like characters who just want to focus on a given chakra.

Owrtho

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Originally Posted by Owrtho

Well, I was saying two things. The first, was that it should only increase their max chakra binds each time they unlock chakra (or each time they gain essentia boost). This would be to avoid having it blend overly well with an incarnum class, which, if you just say it gives however many chakra binds (relying on them only getting chakra from essentia boost), could get a bit stronger than intended.

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Not quite getting you here. Max Chakra binds should only apply to the ones gained from this bloodline.

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The second part was that if you used essentia boost to gain a chakra you already have (from either class levels or already unlocking it earlier with the bloodline), it would grant you Double Chakra for that chakra. Not sure if this is the best idea, but it doesn't particularly seem overpowered and might allow some things like characters who just want to focus on a given chakra.

Owrtho

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Eh, this might not be the best idea.

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Originally Posted by Pyromancer999

Not quite getting you here. Max Chakra binds should only apply to the ones gained from this bloodline.

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The issue with that though is that there seems to be no differentiation with the classes specifying the limits can't be spread between them if you multiclass. Thus a totemist 6/incarnate 2 could have 3 chakra binds. Still I suppose you could try going with that. it also doesn't address if the character wanted to do something like take feats for more chakra (though those may well just give you an increase in chakra binds each time you take them since they neglect to mention it).

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Originally Posted by Pyromancer999

Eh, this might not be the best idea.

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The issue of balance here seems to depend on how you have it work. For example, if you have a character without any levels in a meldshaper class gain the ability to double bind chakra by giving up his chance to get a new chakra (while also increasing his max chakra binds by 1), it doesn't seem overly powerful. After all, it's about the same as granting a bonus feat at that level (between Shape Soulmeld, Bonus Essentia, Open Least Chakra, Open Lesser Chakra (if high enough level), Open Greater Chakra (if high enough level), and Double Chakra, though in the case of the open x chakra you don't gain the minor bonus) and depending on how one looks at it, the increased number of chakra could just be a part of standard progression. In that case, the gaining Double Chakra doesn't seem overly powerful.

As for when looking at a character with levels in a meldshaping class, they may already have chakra binds. In this case you could have the Double bind option only available if they already used essentia boost to gain that bind. Even if you don't though, it becomes the option between letting them gain a chakra bind they already have and having just a +1 to max chakra binds (which they'll benefit from at that level or any later one), or letting them gain the ability to double bind a chakra bind they already have and granting a +1 to max chakra blinds. Again useful for the extra bind, but also allowing them to stack it onto another chakra. At any rate, none of the soulbinding classes ever gain enough chakra binds that 4 extra would grant them more than their total number of available chakra (well, at the rate you can gain the 4 chakra binds). Personally, I'm not sure that double bind is all that powerful. Sure it might be worth a feat, but so are the other options granted. It mainly seems to grant more of the ability to specialize rather than have variety from multiple chakra being available.
All said though, I might suggest that if you do allow it, placing a limit based on meldshaper level (much like the feat), though possibly only meldshaper level 8 rather than 9 (due to the levels you gain the essentia boosts at).

Owrtho

How does this apply to a character who already has Meldshaper levels? Do they stack (essentia pool, etc) or do you just take the better of whatever you would have?