[Dreamscarred Press] Psionics Augmented: Soulknife

[Prime32]

I think cutting the threads of magic/psionics/etc with a mindblade would be really cool and very thematic; I'm not so sure about diseases and the like though.

Improved Knife to the Soul = Carve off memories?

[Thealtruistorc]

This Fellow has a few good ideas.

[Fax Celestis]

This Fellow has a few good ideas.

...you mean the guy who posted immediately before you?

[Psyren]

That being said, I like the idea I saw somewhere of an Invocation using Soulknife. Something like the Warlock but using Psionic Invocations, and the eldritch blast equivalent was the increasing Mind Blade value.

I would actually prefer this idea on the Cryptic instead - getting a smaller selection of auto-scaling psi-like abilities, in lieu of the manifesting progression, and completing your trransformation into the Psi-lock.

[Fax Celestis]

Psi-lock.

Don't you mean...
(•_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)

Psylocke?

＼(｀Д´)／ YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

[Psyren]

I did immediately think of her, yeah - but, since she is the quintessential soulknife and I was arguing for cryptic, I thought spelling it that way would have only been more confusing

[Sayt]

THIS!
Something I would like to see would be a few weapon enhancements exclusive to mind blades, specially related to psychic strike. An ophiduan archetype with ways to generate poison in your mindblade would also be pretty cool. Some kind of positive/negative energy theme (be it by archetypes, blade skills or a combination of both) could work as well.

However, the one thing I think we need to see is the ability to cut through dimensions with your mindblade. Actually, the power to cut abstract things with your mindblade would also be pretty cool - say, cutting disease out of an ally. Or if your enemy is buffed (say, hasted) you cut the buff out of him.

The ability to dispel magic/psionics instead of doing psychic strikes would be very cool.

How about a blade skill that forces enemies struck by Psychic Strike to have to make concentration checks to cast or manifest for [Psychic Strike Dice] rounds?

I hesitate to be mean to monks, but the ability to cut ki out of their ki pools, maybe?

I think cutting the threads of magic/psionics/etc with a mindblade would be really cool and very thematic; I'm not so sure about diseases and the like though.

Improved Knife to the Soul = Carve off memories?

These give me some ideas: Two mutually exclusive, one transforms the Psychic strike damage to positive energy damage, the other to negative energy. Then two further blade skills: the first is a a psychic strike rider that forces a Save or Die on an undead, and makes them stay dead-dead-dead, requiring the PE blade skill. The other, a knife to the soul-like, that substitutes the Psychic Strike damage for negative levels equal to psychic strike dice.

This Fellow has a few good ideas.

I approve of all of those ideas! Using your mind blade to cut through space/planar boundaries is really cool, and gives some access to powerful, neccessary mobility features which are normally reserved for casters.

[PsyBomb]

People have mentioned Akashic Crossover, I'm going to take that a step further. I want to see a full triage of Akasha, Soulknife, and Aegis, with a Vow of Poverty style restriction in exchange for getting full (or nearly full) access to all 3.

I'm throwing money at the screen but it isn't doing anything!

Seriously, this is a golden opportunity to take the concept and finally do something good with it. If you phrase the entry requirements right, you can probably let it work with a WIDE variety of entry methods. Give it excellent Essence growth, binds, rapid progression on both the Armor and Blade abilities, a couple of Bladeskills, and the ability to invest Essence for Enhancement bonuses to various stuff... well, I'd play one. Or more than one.

BTW, dispelling on melee attacks is another Akashic thing which can port easily to Psionics. Check the Guru ability "Sunder the Veil"

[Seerow]

I'm throwing money at the screen but it isn't doing anything!

Seriously, this is a golden opportunity to take the concept and finally do something good with it. If you phrase the entry requirements right, you can probably let it work with a WIDE variety of entry methods. Give it excellent Essence growth, binds, rapid progression on both the Armor and Blade abilities, a couple of Bladeskills, and the ability to invest Essence for Enhancement bonuses to various stuff... well, I'd play one. Or more than one.

BTW, dispelling on melee attacks is another Akashic thing which can port easily to Psionics. Check the Guru ability "Sunder the Veil"

Yeah if this doesn't become an official thing I'll probably end up making a homebrew for it eventually.

[ErrantX]

With this much support, I think Ssalarn is going to have be engaged on this one for a few things too! Thanks for the support on this guys! This is going to help me and the team immeasurably for getting a product together.

-X

[Fax Celestis]

...y'all want help? <_<

[PsyBomb]

Soulknives are my favorite Psionic system, and Incarnum was my favorite subsystem (and I'm probably the most active single person in the Akashic Mysteries thread here). I was already begging Ssalarn for that particular crossover, and the amount of ideas I have could probably fill a book on their own. I'm ALL KINDS of in on anything in that fusion.

[Thealtruistorc]

A friend of mine had an idea for a soulknife hybrid class with 6 levels of manifesting. Working on it right now.

[squiggit]

So tried to come up with some weird/bad ideas to toss around

So for archetypes and stuff...
-Soullord Take the idea of 'weird soulknives' to the extreme, the Soullord uses traditional weaponry and actually manifests a psionic construct cohort as his mind 'blade'. If the Aegis is the synthesist with less dumb the Soullord could be the Eidolon focused Summoner with less dumb. Blade skills instead apply to the cohort's melee attacks and the soulknife itself.. I'm not sure. The idea isn't admittedly fully fleshed out yet. Bladeskills that change the weapon's shape can be off limits... or you could do something like manifest mind daggers, chuck them, then have the construct reform itself now adjacent to the enemy... cuz you literally threw them.

-A natural attack themed soulknife. Wild soul? Brutal soul? Soulgore? I don't know. Think 3.5 totemist though, being able to shape a bunch of psionic natural attacks and change between your configurations rapdily. Very spiffy.

and for hybrid/multiclass feat ideas...

-Soulchemist - Alchemist/Soulknife hybrid feat, levels stack for bomb and blade enhancement progression maybe? The soulchemist can essentially enchant his chemist bombs (or maybe natural attacks if hyde) with blade shenaniganry.

-Soulterror - So if you haven't noticed by now, I'm bad with names, but Soulknife and Dread almost feel like they require a hybrid between them. Spooky mind blades that you can channel terrors through. Yes. I will go to your headquarters and throw dollar bills at you.

-Probably the worst idea of the lot, but a Soulbard in the vein of the skald who tosses psychic strike and blade enhancements to allies. This could actually maybe be a soul-tactician themed archetype too.

-A Soulgus that spellstrikes(psionistrikes?) with a mindblade. I actually like this idea more the more I think about it. But these are getting silly... to PrCs

-Floating Mindblade admittedly not a weird idea, but when you mentioned stuff about synergy with PrCs, the idea of a soulknife whose weapon(s, maybe he could have several) manifest instead as floating blades around him seemed kind of badass. Especially as some sort of gifted blade too. So... telekinetic weaponmaster soul knife.

-Like I already asked, stuff for Pyrokineticist and soulknife. Seeing how they both use psychic power to create weapons to fight with and don't use traditional psionic powers some sort of crossover seems almost like a given.

-I pretty much like the Dark Tempest as is so no real comment there. Other than holy **** the dark tempest you have drawn in UPsi looks exactly like a sith assassin in that new star wars MMO. Like, dangerously similar. He even has the right kind of (silly) helmet and lightsaber.

Less weird:
-The Soulknife and Stalker almost demand a crossover between them.
-Soulgun
-More items like the Dark Tempest's weapon that lets you do weird things with your mind blade if you 'wield' them.
-More FCBs

As an unrelated aside, while mulling over the Technology Guide and Psionics, I've decided I really want to see a "Cryptech" archetype. The name is just too perfect and the themes just line up too well.

[Greenish]

Something focused on being unarmoured and finessing a two-handed weapon wouldn't go amiss. Soulknife can do both as is, but it's a bit tricky.

[Shinken]

Don't you mean...
(•_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)

Psylocke?

＼(｀Д´)／ YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Well played.

[malonkey1]

-A natural attack themed soulknife. Wild soul? Brutal soul? Soulgore? I don't know. Think 3.5 totemist though, being able to shape a bunch of psionic natural attacks and change between your configurations rapdily. Very spiffy.

In my opinion, the Soulknife should have been an Incarnum class from day 1.

[JusticeZero]

Soulknife who uses weapons, but augments them psychically.

[Seerow]

In my opinion, the Soulknife should have been an Incarnum class from day 1.

Soulknife was written quite a few years before the concept of Incarnum even came around.

[Segev]

Before I really read Incarnum, and all I knew was the Essentia-investment mechanic, I thought Incarnum+Psionics would be interesting. Especially if Incarnum was somehow a condensed version of power points, such that you could "congeal" the latter into the former (or "break apart" the former into the latter) and invest Essentia into those psi feats which, in 3.0, took pp investment. (In 3.5, they all take "maintaining a psionic focus," which isn't a bad mechanic, but is a lot flatter. I admit to not being familiar enough with DSP's psionics to know how that works in PF.)

[Psyren]

Before I really read Incarnum, and all I knew was the Essentia-investment mechanic, I thought Incarnum+Psionics would be interesting. Especially if Incarnum was somehow a condensed version of power points, such that you could "congeal" the latter into the former (or "break apart" the former into the latter) and invest Essentia into those psi feats which, in 3.0, took pp investment. (In 3.5, they all take "maintaining a psionic focus," which isn't a bad mechanic, but is a lot flatter. I admit to not being familiar enough with DSP's psionics to know how that works in PF.)

Psionic Focus works mostly the same way in PF that it did in 3.5. The primary changes are:
- You no longer need a check to become psionic focus - as long as you can take the action to do so, it is automatic.
- You don't need to have at least one power point left in order to gain focus anymore, so you can continue using your psionic feats even after you've run dry.

Some psionic feats provide a benefit for maintaining focus, some for expending it, and some have benefits for both.

[Fax Celestis]

Also you set the element for most of your blasty powers when you set focus, don't you?

[Psyren]

Also you set the element for most of your blasty powers when you set focus, don't you?

Yes, though Kineticists can change their element on the fly (as part of the action for manifesting a power) and Wilders can change it while surging.

[malonkey1]

Soulknife was written quite a few years before the concept of Incarnum even came around.

I am aware. I just think that, if I could go back and change it, I'd have had them not include the Soulknife, and then have them make it for MoI later.

[PsyBomb]

I am aware. I just think that, if I could go back and change it, I'd have had them not include the Soulknife, and then have them make it for MoI later.

yeah, the Incarnum Blade just wasn't up to snuff... ANY snuff...

[Fax Celestis]

yeah, the Incarnum Blade just wasn't up to snuff... ANY snuff...

I kind of feel like if you gestalted core Soulknife and core Soulborn, and then gave them free Incarnum Blade stuff at 10+, it might actually approach worthwhile.

[ErrantX]

Re-Opening this project now that Expanded is largely over and I can afford to spend attention on it. Check the OP for updated information. Keep in mind everything in this is being added as it is written (I will announce when adds are made) and the document is very mutable based on feedback. Have at it!

-X

[Ilorin Lorati]

Permissions.

[ErrantX]

Permissions.

Fixed. Mea culpa.

-X

[Thealtruistorc]

The Mindflayer skill may want to mention that it grants proficiency with both the whip and scorpion whip. Penalties exist for lack of simultaneous proficiency.

Destructive Blade's 1d3 ability damage seems really low for 16th level. I assume that's a typo.

Will psywar gain any mind blade abilities? I know people liked that in 3.5.

Are there going to be any blade skills that make your weapon bigger, or possibly give it reach?