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“I thought my past had made me hard. As deadly in my own way as Wolverine.
But this is how I was BORN. My life merely served to temper and hone the steel that already existed.”
-- Psylocke
Soulcrafter is a flexible, front-line martial combatant, able reconfigure his feats, skills, and equipment to suit a variety of combat situations. A soulcrafter manifests soulcrafted weapons, armor, and tools to suit whatever enemy he faces or whatever obstacle he must overcome. Soulcrafter is a great class for players who want to play a powerful martial combatant who creates his own magical blade, but also want an extremely customizable class with many options. Soulcrafter is also a good choice for players who don’t want to be restricted by per-day or per-encounter limits on their powers such as power points, maneuvers, or spell slots. The soulcrafter replaces the soulknife class.
The soulcrafter recognizes that the world he perceives with his senses is merely a shadow of the idealized, true world, an existence populated by ideas in their truest and most perfect Forms. He devotes himself to contemplating the perfection of these Forms, which cannot be understood or observed, but must be grasped intuitively. Harnessing his psionic potential, he can manifest shadows of the true Forms of Creation, equipping himself with weapons, armor, and tools according to his needs.
Characteristics: A soulcrafter begins each day by readying a set number of augments, which are special properties he can grant to his conjured equipment. He then manifests one or more soulcrafts, which are psionically conjured masterwork weapons, armor, and equipment. Basic soulcrafts are just high-quality gear, but with the right augments, your soulcrafts become powerful magical items and may grant you enhanced sight, movement, skills, or bonus feats. An experienced soulcrafter can also manifest soulcrafts that can be used by others, although these lack the augments he applies to his own gear.
Alignment: Soulcrafters are a varied lot and can be of any alignment.
Role: A soulcrafter is a front-line martial combatant, able to go toe-to-toe with the toughest monsters his party faces. Depending on your augments and soulcrafts, you might be a traditional sword-and-board defender, or a striker who deals damage with paired melee weapons, a powerful two-handed weapon, or a ranged weapon. Outside of combat, a soulcrafter is a versatile character able to do a little bit of everything, much like a factotum, bard or rogue, although he lacks the bard's persuasive magic or the rogue's ability to handle traps. Experienced soulcrafters make decent scouts, and can almost always find a way to help out a party's specialists at any task that doesn't involve spellcasting.
1.0 Original version.
1.1 Reduced hit die from d12 to d10. Added a minimum Wisdom requirement to manifest augments or apply soulcrafts.
1.2 Added Move Silently as a class skill. Added the requirement to expend psionic focus to use fission, and the restriction that the focus cannot be regained while the fission lasts.
1.3 Replaced Shift Attunement with Whisper From the Soul, which includes all of the functionality of Sudden Attunement, plus the option to charge Psionic Strike instead. Added mass soulcraft as a greater augment.
1.4 Added augment crystal shard as a least augment. Added text to attune special property allowing you to use your manifester level, character level and/or Wisdom modifier to improve the level and save DC special properties.
1.41 Added some additional clarification describing what sort of items can and cannot be soulcrafted.
Class Variants:
Spoiler
08/27/2012 - Added the shadowcrafter class variant and some new feats to support the class variant. You'll find them in the third post, "Soulcrafter Extras".
GAME RULE INFORMATION
Soulcrafters have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Wisdom is a soulcrafter's most important ability, since it determines how powerful his augmented weapons and armor can be. Soulcrafters also tend to rely heavily on their physical abilities scores, since they relish combat. Intelligence and Charisma are not especially important for most soulcrafters.
CLASS SKILLS (4 + Int mod per level, x4 at 1st level)
A soulcrafter’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Autohypnosis (Wis), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).
CLASS FEATURES Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Soulcrafters are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, and with light armor and shields.
Augment Soulcraft (Su): A soulcrafter can attune his soulcrafts, granting them augments which make them more like the perfect Forms on which they are based. Augments come in six grades: least, lesser, greater, dark, fearsome, and epic. When you first learn to attune your soulcrafts, you can attune only least augments. As you advance in level, you can attune more powerful augments, as shown on Table: The Soulcrafter. Some of your more powerful augments even allow you to create unique creations similar to your soulcrafts. Your manifester level for using augments is equal to your soulcrafter level.
Readying your augments requires 5 minutes of meditation, during which you contemplate the perfection of the ideal. You may ready a number of augments equal to your level. Once you have selected your augments, you manifest the augments whenever you manifest a soulcraft. To augment a soulcraft, you must a have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + the number of augments the soulcraft will have. You can apply any augment you have readied, although no soulcraft can have more augments than your maximum number of soulcrafts. Applying augments to a soulcraft does not increase the time required to manifest it.
Designer's Note:
Spoiler
Augments are basically a simplified version of incarnum, special abilities that you can imbue into yourself or your gear. Augments are the true power of the soulcrafter, providing him with customized magic weapons and armor, skill bonuses, bonus feats, new forms of vision, new movement modes, and more. Augments offer a lot of choices, and may be a little overwhelming for new players or casual players. However, they're very forgiving of mistakes, since a soulcrafter can swap them out easily.
Soulcrafting (Su): By contemplating the ideal Forms of creation, a soulcrafter can manifest shadows of these Forms as soulcrafts. As a move action, you can manifest a soulcraft, which appears as semisolid object composed of psychic energy distilled from your own mind. A soulcraft must be a solid object or collection of related objects no more than 25 pounds in weight, and can be any weapon or armor or any mundane piece of gear, including tools and skill kits. To manifest a weapon or armor, you must be proficient in its use. To manifest a tool or skill kit, you must have at least 1 rank in its associated skill. For example, you might soulcraft a longsword, a crossbow, a tent (complete with stays and pegs), a portable ram, a set of thieves’ tools, a sunrod, or 200 ft of silk rope with an attached grappling hook. A soulcrafted item must be nonmagical, though it can be alchemical in nature. "Edible" soulcrafts have no taste and do not provide sustenance. You cannot soulcraft a gas, liquid, or powder, nor can you soulcraft items made from exotic materials, such as darkwood or mithril (but see the exotic soulcrafting augment, below).
How it works:
Spoiler
Soulcrafts are identical in all ways (except visually) to normal objects of their type, having normal weight, texture, hardness, and hit points. However, because they are shadows of the ideal Forms of Creation, they are always of the highest possible quality; weapons, armor, and tools are of masterwork quality, locks are of amazing strength, etc. Soulcrafts detect as psionic items of the Metacreativity (creation) discipline, with an effective manifester level equal to your own.
While you can soulcraft almost any device that you've seen and are familiar with, there are limits; you must know what you want (for example, you've handled or used one before), and if it is difficult to use (such as a sword, spyglass, or rope), you must know how to use it (have an appropriate proficiency or a rank in a relevant skill). You don't need to know how to craft the object yourself with the Craft skill, but you can't soulcraft an unknown or unfamiliar item. For example, you can soulcraft a copy of a key that you've handled before, or a set of masterwork lockpicks, but you can't soulcraft "the key that unlocks this lock" when confronted with a locked door whose key you've never seen. Likewise, if you have at least 1 rank in Knowledge (dungeoneering), you could soulcraft a scroll or book containing general advice on safely exploring a dungeon (the perfect tool for the job, granting a +2 circumstance bonus on your Knowledge checks), but you couldn't soulcraft "a map of this dungeon" if you haven't explored it yet and don't know what lies ahead. Your DM is the ultimate arbiter of what items you can and cannot soulcraft.
To manifest a soulcraft, you must have a Wisdom score of at least 11 + the number of augments you are already maintaining. At 1st level, you can only maintain one soulcraft at a time. As you advance in level, you learn to maintain additional soulcrafts, as shown on the table above. If you attempt to manifest a soulcraft when you are already maintaining your maximum number of soulcrafts, you must choose one of your existing soulcrafts which is automatically dismissed. A soulcraft lasts until you dismiss it (as a free action), but vanishes the moment it leaves your immediate possession (but see ranged soulcraft, below).
Even in places where psionic effects do not normally function (such as in a null psionics field) a soulcrafter can attempt to maintain his soulcrafts by making a DC 20 Will save. On a successful save, you maintain your forms for 1 minute before you need to save again. Once per round, you can also make a DC 20 Will save to manifest a new soulcraft within such an area.
Designer's Note:
Spoiler
Soulcrafting is the most basic and visible soulcrafter power. It's not very powerful by itself, since the gear created with it is basically the same as the mundane gear that other party members are carrying. However, soulcrafts are the gateway to accessing other class features such as augment soulcraft, psychic strike, bladewind, and knife to the soul. The chief strength of a soulcraft is convenience, since it takes very little effort to create.
Weapon Focus: A soulcrafter gains Weapon Focus as a bonus feat; it applies to any weapons he soulcrafts.
Wild Talent: A soulcrafter gains Wild Talent as a bonus feat.
Empty Mind (Ex): At 2nd level, a soulcrafter’s psionic discipline allows him to defend himself without thought. Add your Wisdom bonus to your AC when wearing light or no armor.
Free Draw (Su): At 2nd level, a soulcrafter gains the ability to manifest soulcrafts as a free action, instead of a move action. When combined with your ranged soulcraft ability (below), this allows you to use your full iterative attacks with thrown soulcraft weapons.
Ranged Soulcraft (Su): A soulcrafter of 2nd level or higher can throw his soulcraft weapons as ranged weapons with a range increment of 30 feet. Whether or not the attack hits, the thrown weapon then dissipates. If the soulcrafter is using a ranged soulcraft weapon that requires ammunition, the weapon now manifests masterwork ammunition for itself composed of the same semisolid psychic energy as his soulcraft items, and he no longer needs to spend actions to reload.
Psychic Strike (Su): As a move action, a soulcrafter of 3rd level or higher can charge himself with psychic energy. The next time you strike a living, nonmindless target with a soulcraft weapon, you can discharge your psychic strike to deal an extra 1d8 points of damage per point of enhancement bonus the weapon has.
At 13th level, when you discharge your psychic strike as part of a full attack action, the bonus damage affects every other strike you make that round, until the beginning of your next turn.
Bonus Feat: At 4th level, and again every four levels thereafter, you gain a bonus feat, which can be any psionic feat or any fighter bonus feat. You must meet any prerequisites, but you may take feats that require Weapon Focus as if you were a fighter with the weapon master fighting style of two levels lower than your soulcrafter level.
Designer's Note:
Spoiler
Since you can acquire many fighter bonus feats using the attune feat augment, try to use the bonus feats provided by your class to pick options that you couldn't get with attune feat. This maximizes your versatility.
Whisper From the Soul (Su): In times of duress, a soulcrafter of 5th level or higher can draw on his psionic reserve to suddenly focus his energies. As a swift action, you may expend your psionic focus to either charge your psychic strike or replace one of your readied augments with a different augment of your choice. If you replace a readied augment, you may immediately reselect augments for all of your currently manifested soulcrafts.
Bladewind (Su): At 7th level, a soulcrafter gains the ability to fragment his soulcraft weapons into numerous identical blades, each of which strikes at a nearby opponent.
As a full attack action while wielding one or more soulcraft weapons, you give up your normal attacks to fragment your soulcraft weapons and make one melee or ranged attack at your full attack bonus with each soulcraft weapon you wield against each opponent within reach, and one ranged attack with each weapon against each opponent within 30 ft whom you do not threaten. If you are wielding more than one weapon, you take the normal penalties for two-weapon fighting. Each fragment functions identically to the regular weapon. You forfeit any bonus attacks granted to you by effects such as haste, but you may still make additional attacks triggered by conditional effects such as the Cleave or Improved Trip feats.
Your soulcraft weapons immediately revert to their previous forms after the attack.
Knife to the Soul (Su): Beginning at 11th level, when a soulcrafter makes a psychic strike, he can forfeit any number of psychic strike bonus dice to deal Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma damage (his choice) equal to point per die forfeited. You gain 5 temporary hit points each time you deal ability damage in this fashion. These temporary hit points last for 1 hour.
You can decide on each successful psychic strike how many dice of damage and how many points of ability damage to deal, but you can’t deal ability damage to the same creature with knife to the soul more than once per round.
Evade Burst (Ps): Upon reaching 10th level, a soulcrafter can enhance his own Form, and gains the ability to manifest evade burst as an at-will psi-like ability.
Hustle (Ps): Upon reaching 14th level, a soulcrafter continues to strengthen his own Form, and gains the ability to manifest hustle as an at-will psi-like ability.
Bladestorm (Su): A soulcrafter of 17th level can now use bladewind as a standard action, although it still counts as making a full attack.
Fission (Ps): Upon reaching 19th level, a soulcrafter learns the greatest feat of manipulating his own Form: the ability to create a shadow of himself. You can expend your psionic focus to manifest fission as an at-will psi-like ability. Neither you nor your duplicate can regain a psionic focus until you have recombined. While fissioned, you divide your readied augments and your maximum number of soulcrafts between you and your duplicate. Your duplicate does not receive copies of your currently manifested soulcrafts. If the fission renders any of your augment choices on your current soulcrafts illegal, the illegal soulcraft is immediately dismissed.
Example:
Spoiler
For example, a 20th level soulcrafter uses fission. The soulcrafter's 20 readied augments are divided between the soulcrafter and his duplicate, 10 to each, however his player likes. If any of his soulcrafts are attuned to augments that have been given to his duplicate, they are immediately dismissed. The soulcrafter's maximum number of soulcrafts is divided between the soulcrafter and his duplicate, so both the original character and the duplicate can now maintain three soulcrafts. If the soulcrafter is currently maintaining more than three soulcrafts, excess soulcrafts (player's choice) are immediately dismissed. Because the soulcrafter now has a maximum of three soulcrafts, each of his soulcrafts can now only be modified with three augments as well. If any of his soulcrafts have more than three augments (his new maximum), they are immediately dismissed. Both the soulcrafter and his duplicate can manifest soulcrafts separately for the duration of the fission.
PLAYING A SOULCRAFTER
Advice for the novice soulcrafter.
Spoiler
As a soulcrafter, you have two primary strengths. The first is your combat prowess; with powerful magic weapons and armor, a full base attack bonus, a d10 hit die, two good saves, and access to many fighter bonus feats, you're one of the most capable and sturdy combatants in the party. The second is your versatility; you need only a few minutes to completely change your equipment and focus, which allows you to contribute to almost any situation if you have a little time to prepare.
All that versatility can actually be an obstacle, however, since you might easily become overwhelmed with all of the options available to you. If you play a soulcrafter, it's a good idea to prepare several standard tactics beforehand so that you don't slow down gameplay or leave your friends waiting for you while you try to decide which augments to ready.
SOULCRAFTS
Soulcrafts are the most visible manifestation of your abilities, although they aren't powerful by themselves; it's your augments that give them real strength. It's obvious enough to use your soulcrafts to create masterwork weapons and armor for yourself, but don't forget that you can create tools as well and gain a +2 circumstance bonus to most skill checks for having the perfect tool for the job. You can also create common dungeoneering items that to help overcome obstacles in a dungeon, such as a portable ram to help break down a door or a grappling hook attached to a length of knotted rope to aid in climbing out of a pit.
While your soulcrafts can reproduce almost any sort of gear you can imagine, don't rely on them too exclusively! At low levels, you can only maintain one or two at a time, so you'll still need a backpack full of adventuring gear, and perhaps some armor and a secondary weapon. Also, remember that the 25 lb. weight limit restricts what you can soulcraft, although that restriction is eased somewhat once you can attune the exotic soulcraft augment and make your gear out of darkwood or mithril.
AUGMENTS
Your augments are the real strength of your class, and the source of most of your power. Your first augment will probably be augment enhancement bonus, to provide your soulcrafted weapon with a +1 enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls, or perhaps soulcraft twin, to duplicate that weapon and provide yourself with a pair of masterwork-quality weapons for two-weapon fighting. Once you reach higher levels, you'll likely ready augment enhancement bonus again, this time selecting a +1 AC bonus to improve your soulcrafted armor (and shield as well, if you have one). As you advance in level and gain the ability to ready more augments, you'll likely ready several copies of attune feat, improving your weapon, armor, or shield so that it grants you advanced combat techniques.
Augments aren't all about combat, however. If you soulcraft a tool or kit associated with a particular skill, you can augment it with augment skill bonus to gain a substantial bonus to that skill, and augment it further with attune feat so that it grants you access to advanced skill-based feats. At lower levels, you'll have to choose between outfitting yourself for combat or readying yourself for skill use, but at higher levels, you have enough augments and soulcrafts to do both at once.
COMBAT
At low levels, your best tactic is to soulcraft and augment a magic weapon for yourself, charge yourself with psychic strike if you have it, and take the fight to the enemy. You may not have much AC at 1st level, but your large supply of hit points should help you survive until 2nd level. At 2nd level, you'll be able to add your Wisdom bonus to AC and augment both your weapon and your armor at the same time, so go ahead and take to the front line. As you move up in level, begin to think more tactically about what sort of special properties might help you against your foes. For example, consider readying attune special property (bane) if you know which type of monster you'll be facing, as it will greatly increase your effectiveness. Likewise, if you expect to face incorporeal opponents, attune special property (ghost touch weapon) is a strong choice.
Once you receive Whisper From the Soul at 5th level and the ability to attune lesser augments at 6th level, your options increase dramatically. You can ready feats such as Skill Focus or Weapon Specialization using your attune feat augment, and you can expend your psionic focus to change one of your readied augments in the middle of a fight when facing an unexpected challenge. At this point, you may want to consider taking the Psionic Meditation feat so you can recover your psionic focus more quickly; since it requires Concentration, you can attune it into an appropriate soulcraft using attune feat.
BOOKKEEPING
Because you can potentially attune almost any armor or weapon property in the game, and can attune many feats and skills as well, you have a lot of options to consider. To speed up game-play, keep lists of standard special properties and feat choices that you like. For example, if you have a 6th level soulcrafter who prefers to fight with a longbow, you might notate attune feat (weapon specialization: longbow), attune special property (distance), and augment enhancement as your "archery tree". Keeping these notes can streamline the process of choosing your augments, which ensures that other players aren't sitting around waiting for you to pick your augments every time the party rests.
Since you have so many special properties and feats to choose from, you might want to write the name, prerequisites, effects, and page reference of your commonly used choices on index cards. With these "augment cards", you won't need to slow down combat by paging through sourcebooks to find out how a special property works, and if your DM has a question about a particular choice, you can immediately provide the sourcebook and page number where it is found, or just pass the card over for the DM to read.
Readying your augments requires 5 minutes of contemplation, during which time you can do nothing else. If an augment requires you to select from a list of possible benefits, you make any decisions when you ready the augment. You may ready a particular augment more than once. Each time that you do, you must select a different benefit.
You can only apply an augment to soulcrafts for which it is a legal choice. For example, you cannot apply any special property to a nonmagical weapon or armor, apply an armor-specific special property to a weapon, or apply more than +10 in total enhancements to a non-epic soulcraft. If a special property requires a synergy property, sum the costs and benefits of all required synergies, and ready them as a single augment of the appropriate level. If a special property is usable a limited number of times per day, this limit is shared across all of your soulcrafts in common, regardless of how many soulcrafts you manifest or how many times you manifest a particular one.
Least Augments: Attune special property Attune vision Augment crystal shard Augment enhancement bonus Augment skill bonus Soulcraft twin
Greater Augments: Attune movement Dark way, psionic Mass soulcrafting Perfect hardness
Dark Augments: Wall of ectoplasm
Fearsome Augments: Major creation, psionic
Epic Augments: True creation, psionic
SOULCRAFTER AUGMENT DESCRIPTIONS:
Spoiler
ATTUNE FEAT (Lesser)
Select one feat whose prerequisites you meet. Special: If the feat requires one or more ranks in a skill or provides a bonus to a skill (such as Mounted Combat or Skill Focus), you may apply this augment to a tool or kit associated with that skill. If the feat requires a specific weapon or a specific class or type of armor or shield (such as Heavy Armor Optimization, Improved Shield Bash, or Weapon Specialization) you may apply it to a qualifying weapon, armor, or shield. You cannot select feats that do not require specific equipment (such as Combat Expertise or Power Attack). Your DM is the ultimate arbiter of whether a feat is sufficiently specific to a piece of equipment to qualify for this augment. Requires augment enhancement bonus or augment skill bonus, as appropriate.
Attune feat cannot be used to gain proficiency with a weapon or armor, since you must already be proficient with a piece of equipment in order to manifest it. Feats provided by attune feat cannot be used to meet prerequisites for any feat, prestige class, or other option, unless the feat is provided by another attune feat augment.
ATTUNE HEARING (Lesser)
Select blindsight 20 ft, blindsense 40 ft, or tremorsense 60 ft. You may apply this augment to a tool associated with the Listen skill. Requires augment skill bonus.
ATTUNE MOVEMENT (Greater)
Select Climb or Swim. You gain the indicated movement mode at a speed equal to your normal land speed. You may apply this augment to a tool or kit associated with Climb or Swim, as appropriate. Requires augment skill bonus.
ATTUNE SPECIAL PROPERTY (Least)
Select one armor, shield, or weapon special property whose value is limited by your manifester level, as shown on the table below. You cannot apply more than +10 in total enhancements to a non-epic soulcraft, or +20 in total enhancements to an epic soulcraft. Requires augment enhancement bonus.
Special properties that you attune are extremely potent. If you wish, special properties may use your manifester level instead of the item's manifester level or spellcaster level, and may use 10 + spell or power level + your Wisdom modifier (for effects based on spells and powers) or 10 + 1/2 your soulcraft level + your Wisdom modifier (for other effects) when determining save DC.
ML
armor or shield value
weapon value
5 or lower
+3,000 gp or a +1 bonus
+6,000 gp or a +1 bonus
6 to 8
+8,000 gp or a +2 bonus
+16,000 gp or a +2 bonus
9 to 11
+15,000 gp or a +3 bonus
+30,000 gp or a +3 bonus
12 to 14
+24,000 gp or a +4 bonus
+48,000 gp or a +4 bonus
15 to 17
+35,000 gp or a +5 bonus
+70,000 gp or a +5 bonus
18 or higher
+48,000 gp or a +6 bonus
+96,000 gp or a +6 bonus
ATTUNE VISION (Least)
Select all-around vision, darkvision 60 ft, or low-light vision. You may apply this augment to a tool associated with the Spot skill. Requires augment skill bonus.
AUGMENT CRYSTAL SHARD (Least)
Select a least weapon or armor augment crystal. When you attune a weapon or armor with this augment, the item bears a shard of crystal that bestows the augment power. Unlike normal augment crystals, this shard cannot be removed from the item.
If you have manifeser level 6th or higher, you can instead select a lesser augment crystal. If you have manifester level 9th or higher, you can instead select a greater crystal.
AUGMENT ENHANCEMENT BONUS (Least)
Select either an enhancement bonus to attack and damage, or an enhancement bonus to Armor Class. The augmented item receives a bonus equal to +1/3 manifester levels (minimum +1). Only weapons may receive a bonus to attack and damage. Only armors and shields may receive a bonus to Armor Class. Some items (such as shields and gauntlets), may be eligible for both variations of this augment. A soulcraft with this augment is a magic item, and a soulcraft weapon with this augment strikes as a magic weapon. A soulcraft with an enhancement bonus of +6 or greater is an epic item, and a soulcraft weapon with an enhancement bonus of +6 or greater strikes as an epic item.
AUGMENT SKILL BONUS (Least)
Select a skill in which you have at least 1 rank. You gain a competence bonus to this skill equal to your level. You may apply this augment to a tool or kit associated with the indicated skill.
DARK WAY, PSIONIC (Lesser)
While you have this augment readied, you can use psionic dark way as an at-will psi-like ability. Each use of this ability counts against the maximum number of soulcrafts you can maintain until the duration lapses or you dismiss the created object. Whenever you exchange this augment to ready another in its place, any objects you have created with it are dismissed immediately. Your dark way is composed of the same semisolid, distilled psychic energy as your soulcrafts.
EXOTIC SOULCRAFTING (Lesser)
A soulcraft attuned to this augment functions as if crafted from one or more of the following exotic materials: adamantine, alchemical silver, cold iron, darkwood, mithril. Depending on the campaign, you may be able to select additional exotic construction materials such as astral driftmetal, bronzewood, leafweave, soarwood, urdrukar, or other exotic materials. Check with your DM to see which materials are available. If the exotic material changes the weight of your soulcraft, use the adjusted weight when determining whether the object is light enough to manifest.
MAJOR CREATION, PSIONIC (Fearsome)
As dark way, psionic, except the psi-like ability gained is psionic major creation. Items you create are composed of the same semisolid, distilled psychic energy as your soulcrafts.
MASS SOULCRAFTING (Greater)
While this augment is readied, you can use a single activation of psionic minor creation or psionic major creation (provided you also have those augments readied) to create up to one item or small collection of items per manifester level, no two of which may be more than 30 ft apart. The items must collectively remain within the normal volume limit of the effect and must be thematically related, such as a brace of swords, several quiversful of arrows, a table and chairs, a set of bowls and utensils, a forge and its various implements, and so forth. If you use psionic major creation to create objects of different durations (such as a wooden table topped with golden plates and cutlery), the entire effect uses the duration of the most perishable substance created. When you ready another augment in place of this one, any mass soulcrafts you are currently maintaining are immediately dismissed.
MINOR CREATION, PSIONIC (Lesser)
As dark way, psionic, except the psi-like ability gained is psionic minor creation. Items you create are composed of the same semisolid, distilled psychic energy as your soulcrafts.
PERFECT HARDNESS (Greater)
Regardless of its apparent construction, a soulcraft with this augment is immune to damage of all kinds. However, disintegrate immediately destroys it, as does a rod of cancellation, a sphere of annihilation, or a Mordenkainen’s disjunction spell.
SOULCRAFT TWIN (Least)
You may apply this augment to a light or one-handed soulcraft weapon. The weapon divides itself into two identical copies, both of which have the same augments. Your manifester level is reduced by 3 when determining the benefit you can receive from other augments on a soulcraft twin.
TRUE CREATION, PSIONIC (Lesser)
While you have this augment readied, you can use psionic true creation as an at-will psi-like ability. Items you create are normal items of their type and have their normal appearance. You must pay the xp cost as normal.
WALL OF ECTOPLASM (Greater)
As dark way, psionic, except the psi-like ability gained is wall of ectoplasm. Your wall of ectoplasm is composed of the same semisolid, distilled psychic energy as your soulcrafts.
EXPERT SHADOWCRAFTER [Shadow]
You can manifest and sustain more shadowcrafts than normal, and your shadowcrafts are more powerful.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Shadowcrafting, caster level 4th Benefit: Your maximum number of shadowcrafts is increased by 1. This also increases the maximum number of augments you can apply to a shadowcraft by 1. Special: You may take this feat more than once. Its effects stack.
EXPERT SOULCRAFTER [Psionic]
You can manifest and sustain more soulcrafts than normal, and your soulcrafts are more powerful.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Soulcrafting, manifester level 4th Benefit: Your maximum number of soulcrafts is increased by 1. This also increases the maximum number of augments you can apply to a soulcraft by 1. Special: You may take this feat more than once. Its effects stack.
POSITIVE ENERGY STRIKE [Psionic or Shadow]
Your midnight strike or psychic strike is dangerous to undead creatures.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Midnight Strike or Psychic Strike Benefit: Your midnight strike or psychic strike is imbued with positive energy, and deals damage normally against undead creatures. This feat does not allow you to heal creatures that are normally healed by positive energy. Special: This is a [shadow] feat if you have midnight strike and a [psionic] feat if you have psychic strike. If you have both strikes, this feat has both descriptors.
PSYCHOTOXIC STRIKE [Psionic or Shadow]
Your midnight strike or psychic strike is dangerous to mindless creatures.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Midnight Strike or Psychic Strike Benefit: Your midnight strike or psychic strike attacks the nervous system like a neurotoxin, and deals damage normally against mindless creatures. Special: This is a [shadow] feat if you have midnight strike and a [psionic] feat if you have psychic strike. If you have both strikes, this feat has both descriptors.
SOULCRAFT WARRIOR [Psionic]
You have learned to blend your soulcrafting talent with the martial psionics of your psychic warrior training.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Psychic Strike, ability to manifest 2nd level psychic warrior powers Benefit: Your psychic warrior and soulcrafter levels stack when determining your psychic warrior manifester level and maximum power level, and when determining your soulcrafter manifester level, the level augments you can ready (least, lesser, and so forth) and how many augments you can ready at once.
TAINTED ASCETIC [Shadow]
When you empty your mind, the taint within you rises to fill the void.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Midnight Strike, Ki Strike +1 Benefit: Your monk and shadowcrafter levels stack when determining your unarmed damage, AC, and Speed bonuses, and when determining your shadowcrafter manifester level and how many augments you can ready at once. You gain Bluff as a monk class skill and Autohypnosis as a shadowcrafter class skill. You may apply augments to your unarmed strike as if it was a shadowcrafted weapon.
TAINTED EIDOLON [Shadow]
Recognizing the taint of shadow within you, your deity has called you to abide in darkness.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Midnight Strike, Darkness domain, divine caster level 1st Benefit: Your avatar and shadowcrafter levels stack when determining your avatar caster level, and when determining your shadowcrafter manifester level and how many augments you can ready at once. You gain Hide and Move Silently as avatar class skills, and Concentration and Knowledge (religion) as shadowcrafter class skills. Whenever you would gain a domain enhancement, you may instead choose to encourage the taint of shadow within you to spread, and gain access to the next highest grade of shadowcrafter augment (lesser, greater, etc.). Special: If the avatar class is not used in your campaign, substitute the cleric class instead.
TAINTED FOOTPAD [Shadow]
Your training in stealth and deception has involved you in something darker, and you have become tainted by the essence of shadow.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Midnight Strike, sneak attack +2d6 Benefit: Your daring outlaw levels and cunning fighting style fighter levels stack with your shadowcrafter level when determining your sneak attack progression and your shadowcrafter manifester level and how many augments you can ready at once.
Additionally, whenever you strike a creature both with your midnight strike and your sneak attack you gain the ability to hide in plain sight until the beginning of your next turn. Special: If the above-mentioned classes are not used in your campaign, substitute the rogue and sneak attack fighter variant (from Unearthed Arcana) instead.
TAINTED SAVANT [Shadow]
You have learned to blend your shadowcrafting talent with the shadow magic of your shadowcaster training.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Midnight Strike, ability to manifest 2nd level shadowcaster mysteries Benefit: Your shadowcaster and shadowcrafter levels stack when determining your shadowcaster caster level and number of mysteries known and prepared, and when determining your shadowcrafter manifester level and how many augments you can ready at once. Whenever you would gain the Sustaining Shadow feature or an improvement to that feature, you may instead choose to encourage the taint of shadow within you to spread, and gain access to the next highest grade of shadowcrafter augment (lesser, greater, etc.). This delays your progression in the Sustaining Shadow feature (you don't skip over the feature you forfeited).
SOULCRAFTER ALTERNATE CLASS FEATURES AND CLASS VARIANTS
Unlike the soulcrafter, who learns to conjure equipment using meditation and innate psychic prowess, the shadowcrafter has an intuitive grasp of shadow magic. A shadowcrafter refers to his conjured equipment as ‘shadowcrafts’ rather than soulcrafts, and they appear as semisolid objects composed of darkness condensed from the surrounding shadows. A shadowcrafter’s spell-like and supernatural abilities function as written, but derive their power from shadow magic rather than from psionic energy.
A shadowcrafter has all of the standard soulcrafter class features, except as noted below. A shadowcrafter is not a psionic character and does not have a psionic manifester level.
Class Skills: A shadowcrafter loses Autohypnosis and Knowledge (psionics) as class skills. He gains Bluff, Knowledge (arcana), and Sleight of Hand as class skills.
Augment Shadowcraft (Su): This ability functions like Augment Soulcraft, but cannot be used to produce any effect with the [Light] descriptor. A shadowcrafter is not a spellcaster or a psionic character, but he does possess a shadowcrafter caster level, which is used whenever his mysteries or augments check for a caster level or manifester level.
Fundamental (Su): A shadowcrafter learns the basics of shadow magic, and can use a single fundamental as an at-will supernatural ability. This fundamental must be selected from the list of fundamentals available to shadowcasters.
Midnight Strike (Su): As psychic strike.
Bonus Feat: At 4th level, and again every four levels thereafter, you gain a bonus feat, which can be any [shadow] or [metashadow] feat or any fighter bonus feat. You must meet any prerequisites, but you may take feats that require Weapon Focus as if you were a fighter with the weapon master fighting style of two levels lower than your shadowcrafter level.
Whisper in the Night (Su): When cloaked by shadow, a shadowcrafter of 5th level or higher can steal nearby shadows to suddenly focus his energies. To use this ability, you must be within an area of darkness or shadowy illumination and must not be observed by any creature. As a swift action, you may either charge your midnight strike or replace one of your readied augments with a different augment of your choice. If you replace a readied augment, you may immediately reselect augments for all of your currently manifested shadowcrafts. You may not use the Hide skill or benefit from concealment until the beginning of your next turn.
Shadow Apprentice (Sp): At 10th level, a shadowcrafter learns one of the terrible secrets of shadow magic, and can use a single apprentice mystery as an at-will spell-like ability. This apprentice mystery must be selected from one of the following paths: Cloak of Shadows, Dark Snare, Ebon Whispers, or Eyes of Darkness. If the effect has a duration other than instantaneous, invoking it a second time while a first casting is still active automatically dismisses the prior casting.
Knife in the Dark (Su): Beginning at 11th level, when a shadowcrafter makes a midnight strike, he can forfeit any number of midnight strike bonus dice to deal Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution damage (his choice) equal to point per die forfeited. You gain 5 temporary hit points each time you deal ability damage in this fashion. These temporary hit points last for 1 hour.
You can decide on each successful midnight strike how many dice of damage and how many points of ability damage to deal, but you can’t deal ability damage to the same creature with knife in the dark more than once per round.
Shadow Initiate (Sp): At 14th level, a shadowcrafter learns a deeper and more unsavory secret of shadow magic, and can use a single initiate mystery as an at-will spell-like ability. This initiate mystery must be selected from one of the following paths: Body and Soul, Dark Journey, Shadow’s Shield, or Umbral Mass. If the effect has a duration other than instantaneous, invoking it a second time while a first casting is still active automatically dismisses the prior casting.
Shadow Master (Sp): At 19th level, a shadowcrafter learns an unspeakable secret of shadow magic, and can use a single master mystery as an at-will spell-like ability. This master mystery must be selected from one of the following paths: Castle of Darkness, Darkness Undying, Ebon Walls, or Endless Void. If the effect has a duration other than instantaneous, invoking it a second time while a first casting is still active automatically dismisses the prior casting.
NEW POWERS
Spoiler
DARK WAY, PSIONIC
Metacreativity (Creation) Level: Psion/wilder 2 Display: Material, Visual: see text Manifesting Time: 1 standard action Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level) Effect: One bridge of hardened ectoplasm 5 ft. wide, 1 in. thick, and up to 20 ft./level long Duration: 1 round/level Saving Throw: None Power Resistance: Yes
As dark way (Spell Compendium p.58), except as noted here.
Really liking this, but i feel like i need to make sure of something: so the augments can only be attached to soulcrafts, right? Assuming I'm reading this right, a level 16 Soulcraft can have 6 Soulcrafts manifested at a time, and each one can be under the effect of up to 6 Augments (though of course, he has 20 augments and not 36).
As always, your power level is a bit higher than I prefer, so I can't really be a fan of the d12 HD (I don't see why they need anything higher than a d8/d10), and the at-will psi-like abilities are currently the things I'm not liking. An extra move action as a swift action, and a constant double, are just a bit too much for me.
Dark Way, Psionic makes mention of readying maneuvers.
Dark Way, Psionic says it functions as Psionic Minor Creation instead of Dark Way spell.
If an Augment requires another Augment, I assume this means functioning on the same item? e.g. You can only Attune Vision a pair of Spectacles that's also under the effect of Augment Skill Bonus (Spot)?
It feels, to me, like Blindsense is superior in every way to tremorsense. It seems like it'd be better to arrange Attune Hearing as 20' blindsight, 40' blindsense, or 60' tremorsense. But that's also me feeling like at will 30' blindsight/60 blindsense is a bit much for those levels, too (can only be snuck up on by a Darkstalker).
I would like to see a way to make higher numbers of mundane items. I'm extremely happy you included "...or collection of related objects, though. Perhaps a feat to let you create a few more things that you can't apply augments to, or a way to have an augment that splits one soulcraft slot into several, unaugmentable soulcrafts... I guess this is pretty far down the list. You can do a lot of utility with just a handful of slots.
Final question: Why Dark and Fearsome? It makes sense for the Warlock invocation grades, but I'm not getting a fearsome vibe from this class.
Really liking this, but i feel like i need to make sure of something: so the augments can only be attached to soulcrafts, right? Assuming I'm reading this right, a level 16 Soulcraft can have 6 Soulcrafts manifested at a time, and each one can be under the effect of up to 6 Augments (though of course, he has 20 augments and not 36).
Correct, although a 16th level soulcrafter has 16 augments, not 20. So, for example, you could fully "magic up" your soulcraft sword by applying augment enhancement bonus and attune special property x5 (for 5 different +1 equivalent properties), producing a +10 equivalent weapon but allocating 6 of your 16 augments to do so. You'd have 10 other augments to play with in filling out your other 5 soulcrafts (although you can apply the same augment to several qualifying items, if you're dual-wielding, for example).
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Originally Posted by Pechvarry
As always, your power level is a bit higher than I prefer, so I can't really be a fan of the d12 HD (I don't see why they need anything higher than a d8/d10), and the at-will psi-like abilities are currently the things I'm not liking. An extra move action as a swift action, and a constant double, are just a bit too much for me.
Well, you tend to have a better nose for balance than I do, so let's toss the ball around on this one. I set a d12 hit die because I envision the soulcrafter as a front-line fighter like the barbarian, warblade, or my knight-paladin or remixed fighter. All of those classes have a d12 hit die (although the barbarian lags behind the others). The soulcrafter is intended to be a stronger class than typical d8 or d10 classes like ranger, paladin, hexblade, regular fighter, or samurai. Still, with psychic strike, bladewind, and a better weapon, the soulcrafter does have a more offensive tilt than most d12 classes. I could see a d10 working. Crusader gets by fine with a d10, after all. Opinion?
I'll admit that hustle and fission are pretty much shots in the dark. Still, I felt hustle was at least a well-founded shot, since it closely emulates Perpetual Options, the bonus standard action a swiftblade gets around ECL 14-15. At-will hustle is less powerful, although available more freely, and it competes with two othe class features that have a swift-action activation: psychic strike and shift attunement. What am I missing?
I figured fission is reasonably limited since the soulcrafter has to divide his available soulcrafts and augments between himself and his double, but it's true that a fissioned soulcrafter can still produce hella DPS. What if fission required expending the psionic focus, and it couldn't be regained until after the doubles rejoined? This would further reduce a soulcrafter's options while fissioned.
OTOH, if these at-will abilities can't be nerfed into balance, then I guess I'll need to scrap them and replace them with something else. I'd like to avoid any sort of limited-use mechanic. Any suggestions?
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Originally Posted by Pechvarry
Dark Way, Psionic makes mention of readying maneuvers.
Dark Way, Psionic says it functions as Psionic Minor Creation instead of Dark Way spell.
Typos corrected.
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Originally Posted by Pechvarry
If an Augment requires another Augment, I assume this means functioning on the same item? e.g. You can only Attune Vision a pair of Spectacles that's also under the effect of Augment Skill Bonus (Spot)?
Correct. The "attune x" series of augments are all pretty powerful, so they require an investment of at least 2 specific augments readied and 2 specified augments applied against a soulcraft's augment cap.
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Originally Posted by Pechvarry
It feels, to me, like Blindsense is superior in every way to tremorsense. It seems like it'd be better to arrange Attune Hearing as 20' blindsight, 40' blindsense, or 60' tremorsense. But that's also me feeling like at will 30' blindsight/60 blindsense is a bit much for those levels, too (can only be snuck up on by a Darkstalker).
Good point. I've adjusted to the ranges you mentioned. Even nerfed, do you think this augment would be more appropriate as a greater (9th level) augment rather than a lesser (6th level) augment?
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Originally Posted by Pechvarry
I would like to see a way to make higher numbers of mundane items. I'm extremely happy you included "...or collection of related objects", though. Perhaps a feat to let you create a few more things that you can't apply augments to, or a way to have an augment that splits one soulcraft slot into several, unaugmentable soulcrafts... I guess this is pretty far down the list. You can do a lot of utility with just a handful of slots.
Reasonable desire, and appropriate for the class. I had hoped that access to major creation and minor creation would fill this need. What sorts of things would you want to do that couldn't be accomplished with those two?
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Originally Posted by Pechvarry
Final question: Why Dark and Fearsome? It makes sense for the Warlock invocation grades, but I'm not getting a fearsome vibe from this class.
Umm, lack of creativity, mostly. Can you suggest better names? I was tempted to just number them, but I didn't want the various grades of augments to feel like spell levels.
Well, you tend to have a better nose for balance than I do, so let's toss the ball around on this one. I set a d12 hit die because I envision the soulcrafter as a front-line fighter like the barbarian, warblade, or my knight-paladin or remixed fighter. All of those classes have a d12 hit die (although the barbarian lags behind the others). The soulcrafter is intended to be a stronger class than typical d8 or d10 classes like ranger, paladin, hexblade, regular fighter, or samurai. Still, with psychic strike, bladewind, and a better weapon, the soulcrafter does have a more offensive tilt than most d12 classes. I could see a d10 working. Crusader gets by fine with a d10, after all. Opinion?
"Fearless knight with thick armor and a thicker will" "Trained soldier and master of many battles" "unstoppable hulking berserker" ...
"magical crafter"
One of these does not sound like a d12 class. I don't know where it is, balance-wise (it's just a few HP, afterall). But I'm not a fan of giving d12s to classes that don't feel truly devoted to melee above all else.
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I'll admit that hustle and fission are pretty much shots in the dark. Still, I felt hustle was at least a well-founded shot, since it closely emulates Perpetual Options, the bonus standard action a swiftblade gets around ECL 14-15. At-will hustle is less powerful, although available more freely, and it competes with two othe class features that have a swift-action activation: psychic strike and shift attunement. What am I missing?
I figured fission is reasonably limited since the soulcrafter has to divide his available soulcrafts and augments between himself and his double, but it's true that a fissioned soulcrafter can still produce hella DPS. What if fission required expending the psionic focus, and it couldn't be regained until after the doubles rejoined? This would further reduce a soulcrafter's options while fissioned.
OTOH, if these at-will abilities can't be nerfed into balance, then I guess I'll need to scrap them and replace them with something else. I'd like to avoid any sort of limited-use mechanic. Any suggestions?
For Hustle, you make a good argument. And I'd rather see at-will Hustle than At-will pounce, for example. I look at it and think "I don't see what this class needs swiftblade mobility for". You look at it and say "all melee need help with mobility." So it's a hard thing to balance without stepping on the toes of classes designed for high end mobility. I think your best bet is really going to be what not-Pechvarries think on this one. Bring it up to your players by means of comparison ('cuz obviously saying "would you like free stuff" is going to push them into the affirmative) if need be.
Bee Tee Dubs, you have Psychic Strike as a move action, which seems ok to me due to the level 13 feature. And at-will Hustle.
For Fission, this comes down to preference at the table. It's a fine capstone (it's close enough to be its capstone). I could just see myself at 18th level saying "if I progress a level, I have to double my campaign awareness and double all of my decisions. If I take a level elsewhere, I'm severely nerfing myself for missing out on all those hot doublings."
I would consider tracking down a couple other powers that are powerful and thematically appropriate to let players choose from... but it's really hard to match just how good of a fit Fission really is.
One thing you could do: give them more than the PP they get from Wild Talent -- probably just 1 per class level. Then allow Knife to the Soul to grant you PP instead of HP, which you would use to manifest Hustle, Fission, etc (as free powers known instead of at-will psi-like abilities). It would be a neat dynamic, having to charge up your uses instead of watching them count down, but I can definitely understand it being just too much work for a class with so much going on already. That would also be a more ideal solution for Fission than Hustle.
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Good point. I've adjusted to the ranges you mentioned. Even nerfed, do you think this augment would be more appropriate as a greater (9th level) augment rather than a lesser (6th level) augment?
See, I want to say "Greater is a better fit" but this requires 2 augments stacked up. At level 6, 1/3rd of your augments. I feel like that is probably a big enough penalty.
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Reasonable desire, and appropriate for the class. I had hoped that access to major creation and minor creation would fill this need. What sorts of things would you want to do that couldn't be accomplished with those two?
My understanding is objects created through the use of augments (such as the creations) count against your soulcraft maximum. But really, I just liked the idea of having a character with a slew of semi-real objects at their disposal. Like a furnished bedroom (or at least the leisure to make yourself a foot stool without un-shaping the glowing weapons strapped to your back to make you look intimidating). Hmm. for that matter, the ability to not have to touch an item might be nice. But this sends us deeper into the "cool for RPing, but could have disastrous ramifications for combat" hole.
As-is, the class is chalked full of RP possibilities, and I absolutely love the direction you've taken with it. I had mentioned at one point wanting to see a soulknife who would prepare and manifest weapon special qualities similarly to how a wizard would prepare spells, but the idea was half-assed and chalked full of contradictions. You have made a robust system which encompasses all I wanted the class to achieve and more. So mad props, sir.
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Umm, lack of creativity, mostly. Can you suggest better names? I was tempted to just number them, but I didn't want the various grades of augments to feel like spell levels.
Nope.
Last edited by Pechvarry : 09-12-2011 at 10:38 PM.
"Fearless knight with thick armor and a thicker will" "Trained soldier and master of many battles" "unstoppable hulking berserker" ...
"magical crafter"
One of these does not sound like a d12 class. I don't know where it is, balance-wise (it's just a few HP, afterall). But I'm not a fan of giving d12s to classes that don't feel truly devoted to melee above all else.
Point made. D10 it is. I'm considering whether it needs further nerfing, but I'm a little leery of d8. If it needs further nerfing, I think I'd rather slow the progression of augments to 2/3 levels.
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Originally Posted by Pechvarry
For Hustle, you make a good argument. And I'd rather see at-will Hustle than At-will pounce, for example. I look at it and think "I don't see what this class needs swiftblade mobility for". You look at it and say "all melee need help with mobility." So it's a hard thing to balance without stepping on the toes of classes designed for high end mobility. I think your best bet is really going to be what not-Pechvarries think on this one. Bring it up to your players by means of comparison ('cuz obviously saying "would you like free stuff" is going to push them into the affirmative) if need be.
Fair enough. I'll give this some more thought, as well.
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Originally Posted by Pechvarry
Bee Tee Dubs, you have Psychic Strike as a move action, which seems ok to me due to the level 13 feature. And at-will Hustle.
Derp derp. That was supposed to be a swift action. How did I screw that up? And yet... I think that was a fortuitous accident. Gonna leave it that way for now. So, somewhat reduced, the hustle does create a cycle of decisions. You can take a swift action to cycle an augment, but then you lose your psionic focus. You can hustle to regain focus as a move action if you have Psionic Meditation, but then you can't cycle an augment in the same turn. You can alternately hustle to charge your psychic strike, but that precludes either cycling or regaining focus with that action.
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Originally Posted by Pechvarry
I would consider tracking down a couple other powers that are powerful and thematically appropriate to let players choose from... but it's really hard to match just how good of a fit Fission really is.
Hmm. I was alternately considering shadow body, flavored as embracing the fact that you are really just a shadow of the ideal Form of yourself. I had picked fission because it was lower-level, but when used at will, maybe the ability to sneak around or avoid harm is less potent than the ability to be in two places at once. Thoughts?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pechvarry
One thing you could do: give them more than the PP they get from Wild Talent -- probably just 1 per class level. Then allow Knife to the Soul to grant you PP instead of HP, which you would use to manifest Hustle, Fission, etc (as free powers known instead of at-will psi-like abilities). It would be a neat dynamic, having to charge up your uses instead of watching them count down, but I can definitely understand it being just too much work for a class with so much going on already. That would also be a more ideal solution for Fission than Hustle.
Yeah, this is already more complicated than I'd like it to be. I was originally just going to give a bonus pool and say "hey, go spend it!", but that didn't give me a good way to assign costs and benefits to other options. In fact, I still need to add one or two minor adjustments to this, like an augment for weapon and armor crystals, and some Wis-dependency.
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Originally Posted by Pechvarry
My understanding is objects created through the use of augments (such as the creations) count against your soulcraft maximum. But really, I just liked the idea of having a character with a slew of semi-real objects at their disposal. Like a furnished bedroom (or at least the leisure to make yourself a foot stool without un-shaping the glowing weapons strapped to your back to make you look intimidating). Hmm. for that matter, the ability to not have to touch an item might be nice. But this sends us deeper into the "cool for RPing, but could have disastrous ramifications for combat" hole.
Huh. I had thought that the creation spells allowed you to create multiple items per casting, up to the volume limit, but now that I'm looking at them, they don't. I'll write an augment for that.
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Originally Posted by Pechvarry
As-is, the class is chalked full of RP possibilities, and I absolutely love the direction you've taken with it. I had mentioned at one point wanting to see a soulknife who would prepare and manifest weapon special qualities similarly to how a wizard would prepare spells, but the idea was half-assed and chalked full of contradictions. You have made a robust system which encompasses all I wanted the class to achieve and more. So mad props, sir.
Thank you! If I am able to create material that is even halfway good, it is only because I have learned so much from the feedback and advice I've received here in the Homebrew forum.
Your "Playing a Soulcrafter" advice section has not been updated to your new d10 HD.
Positive Energy Strike has me hesitating...it's not an unbalanced feat but fluff-wise it seems like it would be healing everyone healed by positive energy from the feat on...so perhaps adding a clause that says "this does not affect how it damages other creatures" or something would be appropriate.
Free Draw comes so early in this class! I approve.
The Soulbow picture is decidedly Quincy-like. Very awesome.
I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that psi-like abilities are (Psi), not (Sp). Again, if I'm wrong, I'm sorry.
Knife to the Soul is listed as 11th level on the table and 12th level in the text.
In light of the infinitely superior Hidden Talent Alternate Class Feature I suggest you give this soulcrafter Hidden Talent instead of Wild Talent, or at least offer it as an ACF.
I don't really have a precedent, but in my personal opinion, any character who has Hide as a class skill should have Move Silently as well.
This class looks really good, and I owe you a lot for all the help you've given me, so I hope some of what I offered was useful.
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Awesome Haseo avatar by Ceika
Wrote a 10 page research paper titled "Servants of Heaven: The Symbolism of the Angel in Modern Spirituality and Morality". Got a B+. Stupid English professor.
Am I the only one reminded of a certain Master in the Holy Grail War? Or a certain Servant.
Another hint:
"I am the bone of my sword..."
I like it quite well; at-will Fission is at 19th level; the game broke down 4 levels ago, and it isn't as if a person without anything else than crafting, really, will be able to do anything hellishly broken with a double at that level.
Corrections, clarifications, and additions made. KttS is granted at 11th level. Turns out the correct abbreviation is (Ps). And Move Silently should have been in there. My bad. Also added the expend-your-focus nerf to fission. This will prevent the soulcrafter and his duplicate from readying new augments for the duration of the fission, so a soulcrafter who wants to really benefit from fission will have to ready a lot of duplicate augments ahead of time - I think this should serve to place some restraint on abuse of fission.
Haven't looked at the augments yet, but the biggest issue I have: Why leave Psychic Strike as a move action to charge? At the very least it should be able to become a swift action at some point down the line. It's really really not worth the move action to get a little extra damage.
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If my text is blue, I'm being sarcastic. No, really. Don't bite my head off for saying the Fighter is way overpowered, or how Wizards need more spells per day to keep up.
I wonder. Could you somehow come up with/squeeze in Hustle at a much lower level with limited use, and then turn it into at-will at level 14? This would allow pre-charging of psychic strike and occasional use of it in combat without much action cost. Once they get to level 14 and they have both, full attack psychic strike and at-will hustle, the player's decision-making shifts from resource expenditure to action expenditures.
I'd avoid per-day, so something as simple as 3/encounter or <Wisdom>/encounter or maybe more weird like Hustle once/encounter with a caveat that this use is refreshed whenever you obtain a new psionic focus.
It would probably just be easier to change psychic strike charging to a swift action, but if it can be made into a more interesting dynamic, seems like it should be pursued.
I suppose I really don't see psychic strike as a major feature the way sneak attack or skirmish is. In my mind it's more like favored enemy: a nice source of extra damage when the situation warrants, but not your workhorse damage creator. Still, there's no harm in stirring the soup a little. I've upgraded Shift Attunement and renamed it to Whisper From the Soul. Now you can expend your psionic focus to charge your psychic strike as a swift action. I'm also considering some upgrade to knife to the soul at higher levels that might allow you to regain your psionic focus instead of picking up the temporary hit points. This could create a nice dynamic where you expend your psionic focus to charge a psychic strike, then hit with it to regain your focus. However, with hustle in the mix at high levels, this might not be necessary and might actually harm that action expenditure dynamic we've got going. Thoughts?
Also also, forgot to mention it earlier but I implemented Hidden Talent as an ACF, as suggested. Pechvarry, you'll find mass soulcraft on the augment list. Does this suit the angle you were going for? Can anybody think of a way mass soulcraft might be abused or broken?
I suppose I really don't see psychic strike as a major feature the way sneak attack or skirmish is. In my mind it's more like favored enemy: a nice source of extra damage when the situation warrants, but not your workhorse damage creator. Still, there's no harm in stirring the soup a little. I've upgraded Shift Attunement and renamed it to Whisper From the Soul. Now you can expend your psionic focus to charge your psychic strike as a swift action. I'm also considering some upgrade to knife to the soul at higher levels that might allow you to regain your psionic focus instead of picking up the temporary hit points. This could create a nice dynamic where you expend your psionic focus to charge a psychic strike, then hit with it to regain your focus. However, with hustle in the mix at high levels, this might not be necessary and might actually harm that action expenditure dynamic we've got going. Thoughts?
Do it anyway, look back on it when proven OP? That's what I'm leaning towards.
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Also also, forgot to mention it earlier but I implemented Hidden Talent as an ACF, as suggested. Pechvarry, you'll find mass soulcraft on the augment list. Does this suit the angle you were going for? Can anybody think of a way mass soulcraft might be abused or broken?
Probably broken somehow. Don't care. Makes me giddy >> Breaks my balance button. I've never felt so useless in the homebrew forums.
Rock'n'roll. One of my players jumped on this class right away, so playtest begins tomorrow with a 9th level soulcrafter.
Updates:
Added the following text to attune special property. Many weapon and armor special properties have low, non-scaling caster levels or save DCs that render them more or less worthless in high-level play. This addition ensures that those abilities will scale effectively, and also makes the soulcrafter's manifester level and Wisdom score more relevant to the effectiveness of his augments.
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Special properties that you attune are extremely potent. If you wish, special properties may use your manifester level instead of the item's manifester level or spellcaster level, and may use 10 + spell or power level + your Wisdom modifier (for effects based on spells and powers) or 10 + 1/2 your soulcraft level + your Wisdom modifier (for other effects) when determining save DC.
I also added attune soulcraft shard, a new augment allowing you to apply the effects of augment crystals to your soulcrafted weapons and armor.
It seems interesting enough, but I see some major balance issues.
I'm worried about the psychic strike ability and how it interacts with other abilities. You could deal between 5d6 to 7d6 with these strikes to every other strike in a fullround action by level 20. While not extreme in itself, combined with the damage of power attack and the at will ability of knife to the soul which allows you to deal up to 14 ability damage each turn instead of that extra damage (assuming only 3 hits), augments, and full damage from your attack, is where I see a problem.
None of the abilities in themselves are overpowered individually, but...
It's actually considerably more potent than you think.
Psychic strike uses a d8 die, not a d6, although it's likely capped at 6 dice, since the soulcrafter will find it difficult to achieve a manifester level of 21+ at pre-epic levels. At 13th level, it's applicable to every hit a soulcrafter scores in a full attack, not every other hit. And Bladewind counts as a full attack, so a soulcrafter can easily deliver a psychic strike (or ability damage) to every opponent in a 30-ft. radius. Even on a regular full attack, a 20th level soulcrafter with the right build could hope to hit as many as 10 to 12 targets, gaining up to 60 temporary hit points in the process. But then, that's D&D at 20th level for you.
The primary limiter on this is AC and miss chance, since the soulknife has to hit. Also, the soulknife can't use knife to the soul against the same target more than once per round. However, it's true that a soulknife is also very accurate. I can think of a few ways we might nerf this, if it seems over-the-top.
You can’t deal psychic strike damage to the same creature more than once per round.
Knife to the soul offers a saving throw of 10 + 1/2 soulcrafter level + Wisdom modifier.
This would make the soulcrafter stronger against crowds of weak opponents (like a barbarian) rather than single strong opponents (like a warblade). Thoughts?
With a little jimmying with items a 20k ring can be made to +1 ML instead of +1 Arcane CL, and an Orange Ioun Stone would probably do it without much finagling due to Transparency. So with a DM that isn't super anal you can totally hit ML 21 before epic.
Hell, I could even see a line of feats to give ML bonuses (small ones, mind you) to individual augments. Feat wouldn't do much for most of the Augments, but its an interesting thought.
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Never can find my towel...
So it goes.
Healing is like accounting, but with life and death.
-Self
One thing I would like to clarify about the augments, for as far as I can tell this isn't addressed in the main write-up itself. (correct me if I'm wrong)
Say if a level 1 Soulcrafter readies "Augment Enchantment Bonus" and applies it to a longsword that he creates through Soulcrafting. Then, halfway through the day, he runs into a bunch of skeletons. So, he soulcrafts a Warhammer to deal with them, dismissing his longsword in the process. Does he regain the use of "Augment Enchantment Bonus", thus allowing it to be used on his Warhammer, or is it expanded when it was used on the Longsword, like a spell slot?
Yeah, I haven't really explained that well in the writeup. Augments aren't assigned to a particular soulcraft, nor are they expended or "used up" when you manifest a soulcraft and attune it with a particular augment. In your example, the soulcrafter never lost the use of augment enhancement bonus (attack and damage). It remained readied and available for use even after he attuned his longsword to it.
This works like so:
1. Ready your augments. You can ready as many as you wish, up to a maximum equal to your soulcrafter level. For example, a 7th-level soulcrafter can ready 7 augments. He might choose augment enhancement bonus (attack and damage), attune special property (collision), attune special property (wounding), exotic soulcraft, and up to two other augments.
2. Manifest a soulcraft. You can attune your soulcraft to as many of your readied augments as you want, up to a maximum determined by your soulcrafter level, as shown in Table 1. For example, a 7th-level soulcrafter can manifest a longsword and attune it with the four augments mentioned above, creating an adamantine +2 collision longsword of wounding. Your readied augments aren't expended or limited in any way when you attune a soulcraft to them. The example soulcrafter still has his four augments available and can apply them to other items he soulcrats, without even needing to dismiss the longsword.
3. Keep manifesting more soulcrafts and attuning them to your readied augments according to your needs, up to a maximum simultaneous number of soulcrafts determined by your soulcrafter level, as shown in Table 1. For example, a 7th-level soulcrafter can sustain up to 4 simultaneous soulcrafts. In addition to his longsword, he might manifest a cold iron +2 collision shortsword of wounding and a mithril breastplate, while still having the option of manifesting one more soulcraft of his choice whenever the need arose.
Edit: Added some additional clarification to the OP describing what sort of items can and cannot be soulcrafted.
I adore this class, but recently I've been thinking that the ability to "attune" a physical object to treat it as a soulcraft for augments would be a nice class feature or feat. It fits the fluff of the class and while it might up the power level of the character with the ability to add more to your magic sword, it also gives a nice reason to sink money in to things other than stat boosting trinkets.
I was thinks as the attuned item is physical you can't readily use blade wind or throw it. Though those abilities could easily be added on as some advancements. It also stands to reason to keep the current limit on max enchantments with attuned weapons. How ever this opens up the ability to one or two perfered weapons that you can just load feats and more specialist proprieties as needed.
I'm temped to have it as a feat, with the ability to throw and bladewind as an advancement to the feat to make it take up some of the bonus feats that a soulcrafter gets.
SOULCRAFT TALISMAN [Psionic]
You can designate one of your items as a soulcraft talisman.
Spoiler
Prerequisite: Soulcrafting Benefit: At any time, you may spend an hour meditating on an item in your possession to designate it as your soulcraft talisman (replacing any previous talisman). Whenever you would manifest a soulcraft, you can instead manifest a semisolid shell of psychic energy over your talisman. This works just like manifesting a soulcraft, but the soulcrafted talisman gains the benefits of being a soulcrafted item while retaining all of its own qualities.
You can designate a magic item (such as an enchanted sword) as a talisman, but not an item that couldn't normally be soulcrafted (such as a quantity of water). You may not be able to designate certain artifacts as talismans.
If a soulcrafted talisman leaves your possession, the shell of semisolid psychic energy dissipates. You can't use Ranged Soulcraft, Bladewind or Bladestorm with a talisman. You can't attune soulcraft twin, exotic soulcrafting, or perfect hardness to a talisman.
Special: You may take this feat more than once. Each time you do, the number of talismans you may designate at once increases by one.
SOULCRAFT FORM [Psionic]
You can designate one of your items as a soulcraft form.
Spoiler
Prerequisites: Soulcrafting, Soulcraft Talisman Benefit: When you would designate one of your items as a soulcraft talisman, you may instead designate it as a soulcraft form. The item vanishes, becoming a psychic construct within your own mind. You can manifest the form just as you would any other soulcraft, and it gains all the benefits a soulcrafted talisman would receive.
You may use Ranged Soulcraft, Bladewind and Bladestorm with a soulcrafted form. You may attune exotic soulcrafting or perfect hardness to a soulcrafted form. However, the form is unique; you can't manifest more than one copy of it at a time, nor can you attune soulcraft twin to it.
When not manifested, the form effectively does not exist. However, spells such as true seeing and locate object will reveal the object as a misty outline within your own form, and if the form is magical, you radiate magic of the same type and strength as it does. In addition, a properly worded commune, contact other plane, or similar magic can reveal that the item is in your possession, as will a DC 50 Sense Motive check. If you are slain or you designate a different item as your soulcraft form, the item reappears in your possession.
Special: You may take this feat more than once. Each time you do, the number of soulcraft talismans you may designate at once increases by one.
I like the base mechanics of the feats, I'm a bit unsure on one talisman per feat taken. Though allowing to many will lead to it's own problems but still eat up wealth so it's not that huge an issue. The only other option would be using some faction of Soulcrafter or character level.
Then at most I can't see most characters "needing" more than 3-4 armour, shield or (offhand), main-hand and ranged weapon. Allowing a character to fully add customisation to all their major soulcraft "slots" easily with out a major expenditure in some other areas might make them too versatile. Plus those 2 used feats can easily allow the Soulcrafter to attune at least 4 to both their talismans and still let them swap out some qualities as and when needed.
The only other issue is I would possibly change time to reassign a talisman works to requiring a longer onetime meditation in exchange for a much shorter time to swap talismans likely just the same 5 minuets it takes to chose arguments.
Say a one off 4-8 hour meditation getting to know the item and from then on while assigning augments you can also assign witch items you can use as talismans out of the items you understand. It's a bit more book keeping but lets you keep a limit on the number of talismans up at once while still allowing mid dungeon/adventure "load-out" changes.
Under the "Soulcrafter Extras" post, I have added rules for a variant soulcrafter called the shadowcrafter. The shadowcrafter is not psionic, but draws his power from elemental shadow, the same power source used by the shadowcaster. Extra feat support for the class variant is included in the same post. Enjoy!
When I first looked at this class, my thoughts were, in order a) I can be Psylock! b) I can be EZREAL. c) SOUL REAVER.
I haven't finished reading the mechanics, as of yet, but I do like how this class is shaping up. It seems like a very, very, VERY VARYING class that fits the player, rather than the game (Whatever that means).
I hope that I can make better comments later, but for now, goodnight. And goodluck. You deserve it.
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The more I consider Bladewind and Bladestorm, the more I wonder if they shouldn't require expending the psionic focus. Thoughts?
By the current text they don't require you to expend focus and while a tad powerful when utterly swamped with foes bar those situations it works just fine. Requiring focus in my eyes might call for a regaining focus mechanic to deal with the extra drain on it.
Also in the Shadowcrafter variant you don't explain midnight strike at all, while I'm assuming a physic strike clone. Same with Wispier of the Night with no description and pisonic focus seemingly no longer available. These just need more rounding out at best.
I'd like some clarification on soulcraft twin, if you will.
Suppose you're level 20 or whatever. You make a soulcraft kukri and choose to augment it with augment enhancement bonus, attune special property and soulcraft twin. So then... due to soulcraft twin you're treated as ML 17 for both weapons and both weapons have to have the same special properties from attune special property (and augment enhancement bonus)? But this doesn't affect anything else.
Yes. soulcraft twin is mostly useful for TWF builds at very low levels where you don't have enough soulcrafts available to manifest a secondary weapon while still doing everything else you want to do. For example, without soulcraft twin you can't do TWF at 1st level without using a mundane weapon in your off hand.
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[3.5] Soulcrafter: a soulknife remix
If I am able to create material that is even halfway good, it is only because I have learned so much from the feedback and advice I've received here in the Homebrew forum.
