[Dreamscarred Press] Psionics Augmented: Soulknife

[ErrantX]

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?

Thanks for the heads up on the whip, I'll make it clearer - I operated under the common sense conclusion that "being proficient" with their own mind blades would make up for that but sometimes it's better to be overly clear.

You misunderstand the skill - it's a straight upgrade to Knife to the Soul. Knife to the Soul does 1 point of ability damage to mental attributes per psychic strike die you drop, where as Devastating Blade does 1d3 points of ability damage to ANY attribute per psychic strike die dropped. Clarifying it a bit more.

Nope, not in this book. Not my bag of bones. Soulknives are the stars of this book. Psionics Augmented: Psychic Warrior would be the place for that - TBA of course.

Reach is already an option from a current blade skills so I am not going to go over that road again. Expansion'll make it bigger! :P

-X

[Ilorin Lorati]

For Augmented Blade:

This overrides any enhancements that may already be on this weapon, but the weapon retains any material bonuses it may have.

Which would Masterwork be considered under?

For Pious Soul:

The pious soul may elect to take blade vows in blade of blade skills on even levels starting at 6th level.

Emphasis mine.

Why are Blade Vows a different thing from Blade Skills? You could accomplish the same thing simply by nothing they're unique to the archetype and have a 6th level prerequisite. It seems like this would keep you from taking them with Extra Blade Skill - is that what the intent is?

Would the spells count for Unsanctioned Knowledge?

[Mehangel]

One of my biggest disappointments with the War Soul was that it did not support the Dex-Based Soulknife Archetype 'Nimble Blade' I was wondering if the War Soul could be edited so that instead of War Soul replacing the Blade Skill at 10th, it replaces the blade skill granted at 8th?

[Kaidinah]

This is a pretty exciting project. I look forward to seeing how this unfolds!

Edit: In Psi Aug: Wilder, there was a feat that allowed characters to wild surge their mind blades. If you wanted to do a multiclass feat for wilders/soulknifes, you might want to look at it to make sure you don't tread the same ground.

[PsyBomb]

This is a pretty exciting project. I look forward to seeing how this unfolds!

Edit: In Psi Aug: Wilder, there was a feat that allowed characters to wild surge their mind blades. If you wanted to do a multiclass feat for wilders/soulknifes, you might want to look at it to make sure you don't tread the same ground.

Dangit, you're making me want to spend money I don't have...

[MilleniaAntares]

Telekinetic Athleticism - The psionic energies of the soulknife permeate her body, greatly enhancing her athletic prowess. She gains the benefits of the Mental Leap and Speed of Thought psionic feats while she maintains her psionic focus.

Does this mean that they cannot use the expend-psionic-focus aspects of those feats?

Telepathic Blade - The psychic potential within the soulknife opens up telepathic pathways in her mind, allowing her to reach out and connect to the minds of others. She gains telepathy out to 400 ft. and can communicate with any creature, regardless of Intelligence, so long as they have an Intelligence of 1 or higher. The range of her telepathy increases by 10 ft. every two soulknife levels after. Additionally, as long as she maintains psionic focus, she can detect other creatures within 30 ft. using telepath to communicate, although she cannot determine the content of the communication. The soulknife must be at least 10th level to select this blade skill.

To be honest, I find this to be quite a stretch for the flavor of the soulknife.

The way I see it, soulknife is more metacreation/psychokinesis/clairsentience (with feral heart trading out metacreation for psychometabolism)... However, the gifted blade does have a few telepathy powers, so this may not mean all that much.

Also, the second to last sentence has a grammar issue, and may not exactly make much sense in terms of game mechanics. I think you may be saying that the soulknife can detect the presence of non-mind affecting-immune creatures, maybe? Is it accurate enough to pinpoint their exact locations, or is it just "I know someone else is nearby"?

Guns don't surprise me. It's been brought up a lot before! How do people feel about multiclass feats or alt class features for some existing PrC's?

-X

While not a PrC, I'd like some support for the feral heart... (Feral heart + warsoul subarchetype when?)

[Sayt]

Cleave space: very cool, the only problem is the "Fold Space Ends Your Turn" thing, seeing as dimensional agility doesn't technically work with it.

Devastating Space: Maybe make the 1d3/die thing a little more clear. But this made me freaking drool. Can't believe I'm saying this, maybe a bit too strong, 5d3 Con damage is gonna be nasty.

Metapsionic blade: Feels like the language needs to be cleaned up. Doesn't actually say you manifest a power, you just inflict the effects of the power. Do you provoke for manifesting? Does it cost power points? Can it be augmented? Suggested reword under the cut:

Spoiler

Show

"As a full round action, the soulknife may make a single attack and expendhis psionic strike. If this attack hits, the soulknife may manifest a single power targeting the enemy hit by the attack as a free action."

Psychic Toolkit: Bravo! A nice bit of out of combat utility.

Stunning Blade: Things I would do: Make this count as stunning fist for pre-req's. Also, redundancy: "he target must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 class level + Wisdom modifier) or be stunned for 1 round. A defender who fails this saving throw is stunned for 1 round (until just before your next turn)."
You probably don't also need to reiterate the stunned condition, and those creatures which are immune to it.

Tactile Telekinesis: as far as I can tell, this isn't in UPsi. What do?

Telepathic Blade: Maybe pushing it a little as is. Something I could forsee is 'throwing' a mindbolt at someone for 0 damage that has a message encoded.

Augmented Blade looks very cool

[tekevil]

If a gifted Blade Soul Knife took

Power Reserve - The soulknife’s innate psychic essence is stronger than others of her kind, growing more powerful as she advances in level. The power point pool granted by the Wild Talent that the soulknife receives at 1st level increases in size by two points per soulknife level (the soulknife does not gain bonus power points for having a high ability score). If the soulknife receives the Psionic Talent feat at 1st level instead, this feature adds to that power pool instead. These points may be used to manifest powers (if any are known) and support other abilities that require use of a power point pool. This blade skill may only be selected once.

would bolded text keep them from receiving bonus power points? Since specific generally trumps general rules.

[Ilorin Lorati]

Yeaaah, that should probably have "from this ability".

[tekevil]

Vow of Destruction - Once per day, the pious soul may expend their psionic focus as a swift action and align their faith blade to the annihilation of an enemy of their faith. When attacking this target, the psious blade adds their Wisdom modifier to attack rolls and 1/2 of their class to damage rolls. The pious soul may use this an additional time per day at 12th level, and again at 18th level.

A commonly taken Blade SKill is

As long as the soulknife maintains psionic focus, she adds her Wisdom modifier to her attack and damage rolls instead of her Strength modifier.

So I think it may be best if Vow of Destruction worked with Focused Offense instead of competing with it.

Alternative bonuses to bolted text
-Ignore DR (This is like Smite Right?)
-Ignore miss chance
-Text saying that if you already have Focused Offense to double it

nd the pious soul may expend his psionic focus to subject the target to the effects of a calm emotions spell using the pious soul’s class level as their caster level (DC 11 + Wisdom modifier).

Since this is a SLA I think it you would be able to buff it to 10+1/2 level+wis modifier. Otherwise this blade skill is mostly useless.

saving throws against evil creature’s abilities or evil spells and abilities.

"abilities" is pretty non-specific and can be read as "Anything an evil creature does that can cause a save" such as a Succubus casting Charm Person or an evil Wizard casting Slow. If so then this Vow is the strongest save bonus Vow. I wouldn't mind all the other vows being brought up to its level.

[tekevil]

Well now that feedback is out of the way I have this to say

I like the breadth of options presented in this book and I gotta say that it's super cool! The Blade Skills feel like stuff that would be at home among Ultimate Psionics and some of the particularly nice ones (such as form soul bolt) can do a lot for increasing Soul Knife Viability.

My only wish is that a 2WF+Archery Soulknife didn't take so long to turn on! Any chance of a early or mid level blade skill to give you some related bonus feats?

[Ilorin Lorati]

So I think it may be best if Vow of Destruction worked with Focused Offense instead of competing with it.

Technically speaking, it should. One adds Wis modifier, and the other replaces the Str modifier with it. Giving it a specific bonus type (Read: a Sacred bonus) might clean clean it up, though.

[PsyBomb]

I'd like to reiterate the Soulknife/Aegis/Akasha Poverty-themed PrC from a page or so ago (I believe it was Segev who suggested it first?) Thing's going to be a bear to define and write, but I might never play anything else if it comes out. Given archetypes and newer abilities coming out, it might be possible to squeak entry there in a very great number of ways.

Spoiler: Mental meandering...

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Intended entry Soulknife 1, Aegis 2, Veilweaver 2 or similar. Basically, able to form the Mind Blade/Soul Bolt, Astral Suit, and some veils.

Class swears off material wealth, abiding by the Monk's Vow of Poverty. In return, it (rapidly) progresses significant chunks of the prior classes, plus gives a couple of essentials and stat bonuses as innate abilities.

Chassis would also have to be very solid. Full BAB, d10, all good saves, probably 4+Int skills.

[Prime32]

Still hoping for a way to stab your mind blade into the ground and impale everyone around you on solid walls of blades. Or a way to have a mind blade so sharp that it bypasses DR/hardness, and lets you attempt to counter attacks by sundering the attacker's weapon. Or a psionic power that lets you absorb your mind blade to increase in size and sprout blades all over your body.

Suggested magic items: A bow that lets you draw "mind arrows" as a free action while gripped, with all the properties of your normal mind blade. A rod powered by slotting a mind blade into it as a move action, providing a number of charges equal to the mind blade's total enhancement bonus (its stronger effects cost large numbers of charges to use, making it an item that can be gained at low levels and scale with your character).

Telekinetic Bolt - (Cannot be taken by soulbolts) The soulknife learns to manifest her mind blade as a variety of ranged weapons as well as the forms her mind blade normally may take. The soulknife is always considered proficient with her telekinetic bolt. Selection of this blade skill grants the form mind bolt and launch mind bolt class features (see soulbolt archetype). The mind bolt gains the enhancement bonus of the soulknife’s mind blade and may select its own enhancements (such as distance or flaming) as if it were a separate weapon from her mind blade.The soulknife must be at least 4th level to select this blade skill.

Could probably use a note that you can select blade skills from the soulbolt list, but can only apply them to your mind bolt (giving Telekinetic Blade the reverse is unnecessary). Also the restriction should be "Cannot be taken if you have the Form Mind Bolt class feature".

Augmented Blade - Most soulknives rely on the idealized weapon-form that is created by their concentrated will and effort. Some soulknives however, are unable to physically manifest a solid-thought weapon into existence and use this for war. These soulknives have overcome their handicap by introducing a psicrystal to the equation. By focusing this weapon-manifesting energy into their psicrystal, they can cause it to bind to a weapon and augment its abilities in combat just like more traditional soulknives.

You need both a weapon and a psicrystal as physical anchors? I honestly think it would be cooler if either your psicrystal changed shape into a weapon, or you had another spirit/personality in your head that scaled like a psicrystal and could possess weapons you touch.

Also, I notice that an lv1 Psicrystal Augment does not treat your weapon as magic or masterwork - using it with blade skills is of no benefit until lv2.

[Chimmon]

-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.

This is a Soulknife concept that I've given a lot of thought to. You can do it with Focused Offense right now, if you just adjust the fluff of the class to let the mindblades float. Having it as it own archetype would be better, and you wouldn't have to try and force telekinetic weaponmaster into the build.

Personally, I think it would be a lot of fun to be able to use the weaponmaster's "my sword is floating here" ability as a focus point of a base class. Letting it flank, take AoOs, and grant a pseudo reach from a much earlier level.

[Nihilarian]

Augmented Blade's Psicrystal Augment: can this attach to the weapon created by Call the Soul's Blade?

[ErrantX]

One of my biggest disappointments with the War Soul was that it did not support the Dex-Based Soulknife Archetype 'Nimble Blade' I was wondering if the War Soul could be edited so that instead of War Soul replacing the Blade Skill at 10th, it replaces the blade skill granted at 8th?

Wasn't my intent to seal the deal on that blend. I'll add it to the PoW errata document. I personally find no issues with this.

This is a pretty exciting project. I look forward to seeing how this unfolds!

Edit: In Psi Aug: Wilder, there was a feat that allowed characters to wild surge their mind blades. If you wanted to do a multiclass feat for wilders/soulknifes, you might want to look at it to make sure you don't tread the same ground.

I'm not going to do wilder/soulknife feat because we already have that. Gareth made sure to alert me to its existence and I kept it open on my desk while writing brutality blade archetype.

Does this mean that they cannot use the expend-psionic-focus aspects of those feats?

To be honest, I find this to be quite a stretch for the flavor of the soulknife.

The way I see it, soulknife is more metacreation/psychokinesis/clairsentience (with feral heart trading out metacreation for psychometabolism)... However, the gifted blade does have a few telepathy powers, so this may not mean all that much.

Also, the second to last sentence has a grammar issue, and may not exactly make much sense in terms of game mechanics. I think you may be saying that the soulknife can detect the presence of non-mind affecting-immune creatures, maybe? Is it accurate enough to pinpoint their exact locations, or is it just "I know someone else is nearby"?

While not a PrC, I'd like some support for the feral heart... (Feral heart + warsoul subarchetype when?)

1 - I'll adjust this; burn psychic strike instead!
2 - The soulknife is actually pretty neutrally written. I feel that they have a boatload of psionic potential that does not immediately lend itself to actual powers, but a potential wealth of psionic talent. The potency is there, it just manifests differently.
3 - I grabbed that directly from the telepathy ability of psions, so... I hope not?
4 - I'll see what I can do. You're looking for a martial initiator feral heart though?

Cleave space: very cool, the only problem is the "Fold Space Ends Your Turn" thing, seeing as dimensional agility doesn't technically work with it.

Devastating Space: Maybe make the 1d3/die thing a little more clear. But this made me freaking drool. Can't believe I'm saying this, maybe a bit too strong, 5d3 Con damage is gonna be nasty.

Metapsionic blade: Feels like the language needs to be cleaned up. Doesn't actually say you manifest a power, you just inflict the effects of the power. Do you provoke for manifesting? Does it cost power points? Can it be augmented? Suggested reword under the cut:

Spoiler

Show

"As a full round action, the soulknife may make a single attack and expendhis psionic strike. If this attack hits, the soulknife may manifest a single power targeting the enemy hit by the attack as a free action."

Psychic Toolkit: Bravo! A nice bit of out of combat utility.

Stunning Blade: Things I would do: Make this count as stunning fist for pre-req's. Also, redundancy: "he target must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 class level + Wisdom modifier) or be stunned for 1 round. A defender who fails this saving throw is stunned for 1 round (until just before your next turn)."
You probably don't also need to reiterate the stunned condition, and those creatures which are immune to it.

Tactile Telekinesis: as far as I can tell, this isn't in UPsi. What do?

Telepathic Blade: Maybe pushing it a little as is. Something I could forsee is 'throwing' a mindbolt at someone for 0 damage that has a message encoded.

Augmented Blade looks very cool

1 - Cleave Space runs into the fold space problems - I dunno. I'll see what I can get away with here without becoming ridiculously overpowered.
2 - I think I may tone it back to just 2 points, still teetering on too strong with all attributes but damn fun and high level.
3 - Thank you for the wording help, that's much better.
4 - I felt it was needed, especially for those with Covert Training.
5 - Done.
6 - Wait and see, it's a new power for this book.
7 - That's kind of lol-worthy.
8 - Thanks! :)

If a gifted Blade Soul Knife took

would bolded text keep them from receiving bonus power points? Since specific generally trumps general rules.

Well now that feedback is out of the way I have this to say

I like the breadth of options presented in this book and I gotta say that it's super cool! The Blade Skills feel like stuff that would be at home among Ultimate Psionics and some of the particularly nice ones (such as form soul bolt) can do a lot for increasing Soul Knife Viability.

My only wish is that a 2WF+Archery Soulknife didn't take so long to turn on! Any chance of a early or mid level blade skill to give you some related bonus feats?

Oops. Fixed oopsies there and also made adjustments to those skills / vows. Two weapon fighting and archery soulknife? *boggles* Okay. We talking mind-handcrossbows here?

Thanks for the feedback, tek!

Still hoping for a way to stab your mind blade into the ground and impale everyone around you on solid walls of blades. Or a way to have a mind blade so sharp that it bypasses DR/hardness, and lets you attempt to counter attacks by sundering the attacker's weapon. Or a psionic power that lets you absorb your mind blade to increase in size and sprout blades all over your body.

Suggested magic items: A bow that lets you draw "mind arrows" as a free action while gripped, with all the properties of your normal mind blade. A rod powered by slotting a mind blade into it as a move action, providing a number of charges equal to the mind blade's total enhancement bonus (its stronger effects cost large numbers of charges to use, making it an item that can be gained at low levels and scale with your character).

Could probably use a note that you can select blade skills from the soulbolt list, but can only apply them to your mind bolt (giving Telekinetic Blade the reverse is unnecessary). Also the restriction should be "Cannot be taken if you have the Form Mind Bolt class feature".

You need both a weapon and a psicrystal as physical anchors? I honestly think it would be cooler if either your psicrystal changed shape into a weapon, or you had another spirit/personality in your head that scaled like a psicrystal and could possess weapons you touch.

Also, I notice that an lv1 Psicrystal Augment does not treat your weapon as magic or masterwork - using it with blade skills is of no benefit until lv2.

I have some ideas on that front actually. Some psionic powers, the brutality blade has a few abilities that fall under "eruption of blades" thing. I also have another archetype that's getting some of the other stuff you're looking for. Not sure if I'll make those mainstream blade skills or specialist ones yet.

A crystal bow focus sounds awesome. Really all of these items. As usual, you're a wealth of good ideas.

Agreed on telekinetic bolt.

Yes, you do. Reason being for that is that it allows you to slap it to pretty much any weapon you want to pick up so you're never limited by what weapon you use. Slap to the greatsword and rock out. Pull it off the sword and slap it to that crossbow or longbow. Go to town. I avoided the psicrystal blade thing because it steps into something else I wanted to do and it also steps into something I think one of the Bosses is doing. I have added that it makes the weapon masterwork at 1st level as well. Thanks for that!

This is a Soulknife concept that I've given a lot of thought to. You can do it with Focused Offense right now, if you just adjust the fluff of the class to let the mindblades float. Having it as it own archetype would be better, and you wouldn't have to try and force telekinetic weaponmaster into the build.

Personally, I think it would be a lot of fun to be able to use the weaponmaster's "my sword is floating here" ability as a focus point of a base class. Letting it flank, take AoOs, and grant a pseudo reach from a much earlier level.

I'll see what I can do - this is neat and may fit into something I'm doing with what I'm dubbing currently "psionic attack constructs".

Augmented Blade's Psicrystal Augment: can this attach to the weapon created by Call the Soul's Blade?

Negative - needs to be a real and permanent weapon.

-X

[ErrantX]

A couple new blade skills, Blade Rush and Telekinetic Edge, are added. Tweaks to a few blade skills like Cleave Space.

Added the Brutality Blade archetype and some tweaks based on feedback to Augmented Blade and Pious Soul.

-X

[phlidwsn]

Blade Rush: is that a Swift to move and then you can Full attack, or spend a Swift to move and perform a full attack, and then potentially make a regular full attack?

Telekinetic Edge:

Instead of

While psionically focused, the soulknife may expend her psychic strike charge and instead of inflicting additional damage to ignore a target’s damage reduction or an object’s hardness until her next turn.

cleaner phrased as?:

While psionically focused, the soulknife may expend her psychic strike charge to ignore a target’s damage reduction or an object’s hardness until her next turn instead of inflicting additional damage.

[Dusk Eclipse]

There is some copy-paste errors in the Blade Rage Psychic Enervation entry, it references the Wilder

[meemaas]

This is a Soulknife concept that I've given a lot of thought to. You can do it with Focused Offense right now, if you just adjust the fluff of the class to let the mindblades float. Having it as it own archetype would be better, and you wouldn't have to try and force telekinetic weaponmaster into the build.

Personally, I think it would be a lot of fun to be able to use the weaponmaster's "my sword is floating here" ability as a focus point of a base class. Letting it flank, take AoOs, and grant a pseudo reach from a much earlier level.

I've actually had some serious idea concepts for something like that n only wielding more weapons. I intended on writing it up but found that the mechanics I had come up with were a violation of Grods Law.

[Mehangel]

Wasn't my intent to seal the deal on that blend. I'll add it to the PoW errata document. I personally find no issues with this.

Thankyou so very much, that was my only complaint about the War Soul, and had I seen the War Soul before it was published, I am sure I would've spoken up..

[MilleniaAntares]

4 - I'll see what I can do. You're looking for a martial initiator feral heart though?

Yes. I consider maneuvers more fun than rage. Probably wouldn't be too hard, given that you'd just have to cut out the rage, graft war soul maneuvers with primal fury instead of solar wind and veiled moon, and add a primal fury blade skill.

Oh, don't forget to add a sidebar for any new blade skills you want compatible with feral heart, given that the archetype relies on whitelisting rather than blacklisting.

[Ilorin Lorati]

Added the Brutality Blade archetype and some tweaks based on feedback to Augmented Blade and Pious Soul.

-X

Looks like fun. Psychic Enervation is referencing wilders and wild surge, though.

[ErrantX]

Yes. I consider maneuvers more fun than rage. Probably wouldn't be too hard, given that you'd just have to cut out the rage, graft war soul maneuvers with primal fury instead of solar wind and veiled moon, and add a primal fury blade skill.

Oh, don't forget to add a sidebar for any new blade skills you want compatible with feral heart, given that the archetype relies on whitelisting rather than blacklisting.

Well, that's a lot more indepth than I planned for this. It sounds to me like you've got it mostly worked out. I'd suggest posting it as a homebrew thing here or get it written up and looking good, submit it on dreamscarred.com as a submission.

Looks like fun. Psychic Enervation is referencing wilders and wild surge, though.

Fixed. Oops!

-X

[Ilorin Lorati]

Fixed. Oops!

-X

I think it would be really cool to have a feat or Wrath Augment that let Brutality Blades / Gifted Blades use rounds of Rageblade as an actual wild surge. Any chance of that happening?

Also, I asked a question earlier that I still feel is important: If a Pious Blade takes Paladin spells, should they be counted as such for Unsanctioned Knowledge? Situations like this are always wonky to me because while you're pulling the feature straight from them you're still not a paladin.

[ErrantX]

I think it would be really cool to have a feat or Wrath Augment that let Brutality Blades / Gifted Blades use rounds of Rageblade as an actual wild surge. Any chance of that happening?

Also, I asked a question earlier that I still feel is important: If a Pious Blade takes Paladin spells, should they be counted as such for Unsanctioned Knowledge? Situations like this are always wonky to me because while you're pulling the feature straight from them you're still not a paladin.

Hmm, maybe a feat. That's more a feat than not.

I am cool with using unsanctioned knowledge, to be honest. It's not an overpowered feat, it's a great one, but it opens options.

-X

[Nihilarian]

Do Wrath Augments replace Blade Skills, or are they Blade Skills that can only be taken by the Brutality Blade?

[ErrantX]

Do Wrath Augments replace Blade Skills, or are they Blade Skills that can only be taken by the Brutality Blade?

They are brutality blade specific, like blade vows are specific for the pious soul.

-X

[tekevil]

Ohh, sorry I should have been more specific!

I meant literally 2wf and archery like Archer from FSN.

mah bro Archer

Right now the two best methods I can think of involve a Mind Knight Psychic Warrior and a Soulknife who manages to get above level 11ish. Was hoping for some Blade Skills to help the process.