Quick Incarnum Question

[The Rabbler]

when I shape a soulmeld into a chakra slot (but don't bind it) can I still equip a magic item into that slot?

[MeeposFire]

when I shape a soulmeld into a chakra slot (but don't bind it) can I still equip a magic item into that slot?

Yes

For example I shape impulse boots. I can still wear my boots of striding and leaping and put my essentia to boost my reflex saves. But if I bind it to my foot chakra to gain evasion I could not get the bonus from my boots.

[Coidzor]

However, there is a feat for allowing you to bind a soulmeld to a chakra and still use a magic item there, IIRC.

[The Rabbler]

Yes

For example I shape impulse boots. I can still wear my boots of striding and leaping and put my essentia to boost my reflex saves. But if I bind it to my foot chakra to gain evasion I could not get the bonus from my boots.

It's still shaped to a chakra slot, though, right?

[Zaq]

It's "shaped to a chakra slot" in that you can't have two melds occupying the same slot, bind or no binds. For instance, you can't have both the Airstep Sandals and the Impulse Boots shaped at once, regardless of what magic shoes you have or whether or not you have either meld bound. Does that answer your question?

[Darth Stabber]

It's still shaped to a chakra slot, though, right?

That is correct. Every soulmeld must sit on a chakra, and only 1 per chakra. Binding soulmelds is what gets you the stronger effects, and what turns off magic items.

As a note: the totemist's totem chakra is not a place for a meld to sit, your manticore belt still takes up your waist chakra for purposes of other soulmelds even if bound totem.

And the Split Chakra Feat makes one slot work for both an item and a bound soulmeld. However, it only works for one slot/chakra choosen when you take the feat. If you choose your throat chakra to allow you to throatbind a meld and wear a periapt of wisdom, you can't later decide that since your not binding a meld to your throat that you want it to instead apply to your waist. Now, I could see houseruling away that last part, but RAW once the feat is taken the chakra is set.

[Getsugaru]

It's still shaped to a chakra slot, though, right?

Here's how it works:
Quote from Magic of Incarnum:
Every soulmeld occupies a chakra, even if it is not bound to it. When a soulmeld occupies a chakra, the meldshaper can still wear and gain benefi t from a magic item that occupies the corresponding body slot. The soulmeld appears floating in the air around that part of the body or simply superimposed over it and any other gear the character might wear on that part of the body. You cannot shape two soulmelds that occupy the same chakra.
When you bind a soulmeld to a chakra, it usually fuses to your body in the location corresponding to that chakra. It prevents you from gaining any benefi t from a magic item that occupies the corresponding body slot. (In many cases, it also prevents you from physically wearing such a magic item, as dictated by common sense and the description of the soulmeld in question.)
To translate all that text, when you have a soulmeld active, it floats above or around the chakra it occupies. It isn't occupying the slot in the same sense as a magic item, however. For example, you can have both a manticore belt soulmeld active and be wearing (and getting the bonus of) a belt of battle. When a chakra is bound, it becomes a chakra bind, and is no longer floating around the chakra. It is instead stuck to your skin and occupies the same slot as a magic item. If, for example, you were to use the waist chakra bind on your manticore belt, the magic of the belt of battle is covered up, as the fur of the soulmeld fuses with your skin. Thus, if you use the chakra bind waist on your manticore belt, instead of getting an extra standard action, you get to fly at a speed of 30ft (good).

Does that make sense?