Abstractone13
2011-11-08, 12:37 AM
As others, I've read the class and love the concept but see the failings as the class stands. Some friends and I decided to put together another soulknife fix. After looking at several other sample fixes we decided to give this a shot. Now we would like some input. Let us know if this fix is underpowered, overpowered, tweaks, outright holes in the build...etc.
The Soulknife
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special
1st|0|0|2|2|Equipped Mind, Weapon Focus (mind blade), Awakened Soul
2nd|1 |0|3|3|Mind Equipment Enhancement (+1), Throw mind blade
3rd|2|1|3|3|Psychic strike +1d8, Mental Alacrity
4th|3|1|4|4|Mind Equipment Enhancement (+2), Reactive Mind, Bonus Feat
5th|3|1|4|4|Free Draw, Shape Mind Blade, Improved Defensive Equipment
6th|4|2|5|5|Mind Equipment Enhancement (+3), Psychic Strike +2d8, Stand Fast
7th|5|2|5|5|Mind of Steel (DR), Ablative Field
8th|6/1|2|6|6|Mind Equipment Enhancement (+4), Bonus Feat
9th|6/1|3|6|6|Bladewind, Greater Weapon Focus (Mind Blade), Psychic Strike +3d8
10th|7/2|3|7|7|Mind Equipment Enhancement (+5), Advanced Defensive Equipment
11th|8/3|3|7|7|Mind of Steel (alignment),
12th|9/4|4|8|8|Mind Equipment Enhancement (+6), Bonus Feat, Psychic Strike +4d8
13th|9/4|4|8|8|Knife to the Soul
14th|10/5|4|9|9|Mind Equipment Enhancement (+7)
15th|11/6/1|5|9|9|Psychic Strike +5d8, Mind of Steel (Regeneration)
16th|12/7/2|5|10|10|Mind Equipment Enhancement (+8), Bonus Feat
17th|12/7/2|5|10|10|
18th|13/8/3|6|11|11|Mind Equipment Enhancement (+9), Psychic Strike +6d8
19th|14/9/4|6|11|11|
20th|15/10/5|6|12|12|Mind Equipment Enhancement (+10), Bonus Feat[/table]
Hit Dice d10
Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level)
Autohypnosis (Wis), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive, Spot (Wis), Tumble (Dex).
Class Features
All the following are class features of the soulknife.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Soulknives are proficient with all simple weapons, with their own mind blades, and with light armor and shields (except tower shields).
Equipped Mind (Su): As long as the soulknife has one power point in his reserve he may, as a move action, create a semisolid blade or suit of armor composed of psychic energy distilled from his own mind. The blade is identical in all ways (except visually) to a short sword of a size appropriate for its wielder. For instance, a Medium soulknife materializes a Medium mind blade that he can wield as a light weapon, and the blade deals 1d6 points of damage (crit 19–20/×2). Soulknives who are smaller or larger than Medium create mind blades identical to short swords appropriate for their size, with a corresponding change to the blade’s damage. The wielder of a mind blade gains the usual benefits to his attack roll and damage roll from a high Strength bonus. The armor confers a +4 armor bonus to AC. If you take the Inertial Armor feat it will confer an additional +1 bonus and the protection from ethereal attacks.
If the soulknife expends one power point (without emptying their reserve) they may create a semisolid disk which functions as a light shield, granting a +1 shield bonus to their AC.
A soulknife may manifest his blade, armor, and shield (if power points are available) in one move action by expending their psionic focus and making an autohypnosis check DC 15.
The Equipment can be broken (it has hardness 10 and 10 hit points); however, a soulknife can simply create them again on his next move action. The moment he relinquishes his grip on his blade or shield, it dissipates (unless he intends to throw it; see below).
Equipment created in this way are considered the appropriate type (ex. Armor, weapon, or shield) for the purposes of all applicable feats, powers, spells, and abilities.
A soulknife’s mind equipment improves as the character gains higher levels. See mind equipment enhancements below.
Even in places where psionic effects do not normally function (such as within a null psionics field), a soulknife can attempt to sustain his mind equipment by making a DC 20 Will save. On a successful save, the soulknife maintains his mind equipment for a number of rounds equal to his class level before he needs to check again. On an unsuccessful attempt, the mind blade vanishes. As a move action on his turn, the soulknife can attempt a new Will save to rematerialize his mind equipment while he remains within the psionics negating effect.
Weapon Focus (Mind Blade): A soulknife gains Weapon Focus (mind blade) as a bonus feat.
Awakened Soul (Su): Your soul has awakened the dormant portion of your mind conferring upon you the designation of a psionic character. The soulknife gains one power point per class level, plus points gained by having a high Wisdom score. If you have or take a class that grants power points, the power points gained from awakened soul are added to your total power point reserve. The Soulknife has a manifester level equal to his Soulknife level, and Wisdom is the manifesting ability. When using a soulknife ability that requires expenditure of power points he may spend up to a maximum of his manifester level in power points on that ability. (1)
Throw Mind Blade (Ex): A soul knife of 2nd level or higher can throw a light one-handed mind blade as a ranged weapon with a range increment of 30 feet. A soulknife can throw a number of mind blades per round equal to the number of melee attacks he could make. The soulknife can empower the throw mind blade ability to hit additional targets by spending expending their psionic focus as well as paying 3 power points per additional target. An attack roll must be made to hit each additional target, if attack roll fails to hit no further targets are attacked with this use of throw mind blade though points for the additional targets are still spent. A target of this ability can only be hit once per use of this power.
Whether or not the attack hits, a thrown mind blade then dissipates. A soulknife of 3rd level or higher can make a psychic strike (see below) with a thrown mind blade and can use the blade in conjunction with other special abilities (such as Knife to the Soul; see below).
Mind Equipment Enhancement (Su): A soulknife at, 3rd level, gains the ability to enhance his mind equipment as he progresses in level. The total effective bonus of each of the Mind equipment is equal to 1/2 Soulknife level. In addition, the Mind Equipment can have any property applied to it, so long as it is still a legal property for the equipment type in question. Mind Equipment must have at least a +1 enhancement bonus before any properties can be assigned. A mind blade is now considered a magic weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Psychic Strike (Su): As a move action, a soulknife of 3rd level or higher can imbue his mind blade with destructive psychic energy. This effect deals an extra 1d8 points of damage to the next living, non-mindless target he successfully hits with a melee attack (or ranged attack, if he is using the throw mind blade ability). Creatures immune to mind-affecting effects are immune to psychic strike damage. (Unlike the rogue’s sneak attack, the psychic strike is not precision damage and can affect creatures otherwise immune to extra damage from critical hits or more than 30 feet away, provided they are living, non-mindless creatures not immune to mind-affecting effects.)
A mind blade deals this extra damage only once when this ability is called upon, but a soulknife can imbue his mind blade with psychic energy again by taking another move action.
Once a soulknife has prepared his blade for a psychic strike, it holds the extra energy until it is used. Even if the soulknife drops the mind blade (or it otherwise dissipates, such as when it is thrown and misses), it is still imbued with psychic energy when the soulknife next materializes it.
At every four levels beyond 3rd (7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th), the extra damage from a soulknife’s psychic strike increases as shown on the Table above.
Mental Alacrity: At 3rd level, a soulknife may, when wielding a mind blade in the form of a light weapon, rapier, whip, or spiked chain made for a creature of his size category, use his Dexterity modifier instead of his Strength modifier on attack and damage rolls. If he carries a shield, its armor check penalty applies to his attack rolls.
Reactive Mind (Su): At 4th level, a Soulknife’s perception is more attuned than others and is able to react more quickly. While psionically focused, he receives an insight bonus equal to 1/4 his Soulknife level on Initiative checks. He also gains the benefit of Uncanny Dodge while focused.
Bonus Feat: Bonus Fighter or Psionic Feat at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter. In addition, a Soulknife qualifies for feats as a Fighter, but only if applying those feats to his Mind Blade.
Free Draw (Su): At 5th level, a soulknife becomes able to materialize his mind blade as a free action instead of a move action. He can make only one attempt to materialize the mind blade per round, however.
Shape Mind Blade (Su): At 5th level, a soulknife gains the ability to change the form of his mind blade. As a full round action, he can change his mind blade to into any simple melee weapon or any martial melee weapon the Soulknife is proficient with without having to have points in reserve. Alternatively, if the soulknife maintains five points in reserve, he may shape it into any martial melee weapon or any exotic melee weapon they have proficiency with. Furthermore, with ten points in reserve the mind blade may be shaped into any exotic melee weapon. If formed as light weapons, it can be split into two of the same weapon. If a soulknife shapes his mind blade into the form of a two-handed weapon he adds 1-1/2 times his Strength bonus to his damage rolls.
However, if the mind blade is split into two mind blades both mind blades have an enhancement bonus 1 lower than the soulknife would otherwise create with a single mind blade.
Improved Defensive Equipment: At 5th level, a soulknife can focus his armor and shield into more concentrated versions of themselves. This increases the armor bonus to a +6 (or +7 with the inertial armor feat) and the shield bonus to a +2.
Stand Fast (Ex): Beginning at 6th level, a soulknife gains a +2 dodge bonus to his AC during any round in which he moves no more than 5 feet. This bonus only applies as long as the soulknife is psionically focused.
Mind of Steel (Su): At 7th level, a Soulknife has learned how to mimic substances with his Mind Blade. By spending one power point his Mind Blade is treated as the material of his choice for overcoming Damage Reduction, but not for any other purpose. He can change the emulated material when he reassigns his Mind Blade Enhancement. In addition, at 11th level, the Mind Blade may overcome alignment based damage reduction by spending 2 additional power points (a total of three power points are spent even if the material of the mind blade has not changed). At 15th level, his Mind Blade is capable of dealing lethal damage to creatures with regeneration at the cost of 5 additional power points (bringing the total required cost to eight power points even if the material and alignment have not changed).
Ablative Field (Su): At 7th level, as an immediate action in response to taking damage, a soulknife may create a field that reduces damage taken equal to the amount of power points spent for this ability. (1)
Bladewind (Su): At 9th level, a soulknife gains the ability to momentarily fragment his mind blade into numerous identical blades, each of which strikes at a nearby opponent.
As a full attack, when wielding his mind blade, a soulknife can give up his regular attacks and instead fragment his mind blade to make one melee attack at his full base attack bonus against each opponent within reach. Each fragment functions identically to the soulknife’s regular mind blade.
When using bladewind, a soulknife forfeits any bonus or extra attacks granted by other feats or abilities (such as the Cleave feat or the haste spell).
The mind blade immediately reverts to its previous form after the bladewind attack.
Greater Weapon Focus (Mind Blade): A soulknife gains Greater Weapon Focus (mind blade) as a bonus feat at 9th level.
Advanced Defensive Equipment: At 10th level, a soulknife can focus his armor and shield into more concentrated versions of themselves. This increases the armor bonus to a +8 (or +9 with the inertial armor feat) and the shield bonus to a +4.
Knife to the Soul (Su): Beginning at 13th level, when a soulknife executes a psychic strike, he can choose to substitute Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma damage (his choice) for extra dice of damage. For each die of extra damage he gives up, he deals 1 point of damage to the ability score he chooses. The target of Knife to the Soul makes a will save vs (DC 10 + ½ soulknife level + Wis mod), if target saves then no damage from Knife to the Soul is taken. A soulknife can combine extra dice of damage and ability damage in any combination.
The soulknife decides which ability score his psychic strike damages and the division of ability damage and extra dice of damage when he imbues his mind blade with the psychic strike energy.
After reading some of the posts on some other soul knife fixes, I was thinking about bumping the BAB to the fighters and adding in these.
Mind Over Matter: At 5th, a soulknife can expend their psionic focus in order to deal half psychic strike damage to a living or non-mindless creature.
Strength of Mind: A 10th level soulknife is capable bringing of the full might of his will to bear upon any opponent. If the soulknife expends his psionic focus and pays 1 power point per die of Psychic Strike damage, a non-living or mindless creature or both, take normal Psychic Strike damage and a living non-mindless target takes an additional point of damage per power point spent on Strength of Mind when hit with a Psychic Strike.
I want to acknowledge the other builds we looked at as references. Here are the links to the posts/sites where we found them:
http://www.myth-weavers.com/wiki/index.php/Soulknife_Fix%283.5_Class%29
http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Soul_Knight_%283.5e_Prestige_Class%29 (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Soul_Knight_%283.5e_Prestige_Class%29)
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=199960
(1) Thanks to Noctis Vigil for the suggestion.
The Soulknife
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special
1st|0|0|2|2|Equipped Mind, Weapon Focus (mind blade), Awakened Soul
2nd|1 |0|3|3|Mind Equipment Enhancement (+1), Throw mind blade
3rd|2|1|3|3|Psychic strike +1d8, Mental Alacrity
4th|3|1|4|4|Mind Equipment Enhancement (+2), Reactive Mind, Bonus Feat
5th|3|1|4|4|Free Draw, Shape Mind Blade, Improved Defensive Equipment
6th|4|2|5|5|Mind Equipment Enhancement (+3), Psychic Strike +2d8, Stand Fast
7th|5|2|5|5|Mind of Steel (DR), Ablative Field
8th|6/1|2|6|6|Mind Equipment Enhancement (+4), Bonus Feat
9th|6/1|3|6|6|Bladewind, Greater Weapon Focus (Mind Blade), Psychic Strike +3d8
10th|7/2|3|7|7|Mind Equipment Enhancement (+5), Advanced Defensive Equipment
11th|8/3|3|7|7|Mind of Steel (alignment),
12th|9/4|4|8|8|Mind Equipment Enhancement (+6), Bonus Feat, Psychic Strike +4d8
13th|9/4|4|8|8|Knife to the Soul
14th|10/5|4|9|9|Mind Equipment Enhancement (+7)
15th|11/6/1|5|9|9|Psychic Strike +5d8, Mind of Steel (Regeneration)
16th|12/7/2|5|10|10|Mind Equipment Enhancement (+8), Bonus Feat
17th|12/7/2|5|10|10|
18th|13/8/3|6|11|11|Mind Equipment Enhancement (+9), Psychic Strike +6d8
19th|14/9/4|6|11|11|
20th|15/10/5|6|12|12|Mind Equipment Enhancement (+10), Bonus Feat[/table]
Hit Dice d10
Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level)
Autohypnosis (Wis), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive, Spot (Wis), Tumble (Dex).
Class Features
All the following are class features of the soulknife.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Soulknives are proficient with all simple weapons, with their own mind blades, and with light armor and shields (except tower shields).
Equipped Mind (Su): As long as the soulknife has one power point in his reserve he may, as a move action, create a semisolid blade or suit of armor composed of psychic energy distilled from his own mind. The blade is identical in all ways (except visually) to a short sword of a size appropriate for its wielder. For instance, a Medium soulknife materializes a Medium mind blade that he can wield as a light weapon, and the blade deals 1d6 points of damage (crit 19–20/×2). Soulknives who are smaller or larger than Medium create mind blades identical to short swords appropriate for their size, with a corresponding change to the blade’s damage. The wielder of a mind blade gains the usual benefits to his attack roll and damage roll from a high Strength bonus. The armor confers a +4 armor bonus to AC. If you take the Inertial Armor feat it will confer an additional +1 bonus and the protection from ethereal attacks.
If the soulknife expends one power point (without emptying their reserve) they may create a semisolid disk which functions as a light shield, granting a +1 shield bonus to their AC.
A soulknife may manifest his blade, armor, and shield (if power points are available) in one move action by expending their psionic focus and making an autohypnosis check DC 15.
The Equipment can be broken (it has hardness 10 and 10 hit points); however, a soulknife can simply create them again on his next move action. The moment he relinquishes his grip on his blade or shield, it dissipates (unless he intends to throw it; see below).
Equipment created in this way are considered the appropriate type (ex. Armor, weapon, or shield) for the purposes of all applicable feats, powers, spells, and abilities.
A soulknife’s mind equipment improves as the character gains higher levels. See mind equipment enhancements below.
Even in places where psionic effects do not normally function (such as within a null psionics field), a soulknife can attempt to sustain his mind equipment by making a DC 20 Will save. On a successful save, the soulknife maintains his mind equipment for a number of rounds equal to his class level before he needs to check again. On an unsuccessful attempt, the mind blade vanishes. As a move action on his turn, the soulknife can attempt a new Will save to rematerialize his mind equipment while he remains within the psionics negating effect.
Weapon Focus (Mind Blade): A soulknife gains Weapon Focus (mind blade) as a bonus feat.
Awakened Soul (Su): Your soul has awakened the dormant portion of your mind conferring upon you the designation of a psionic character. The soulknife gains one power point per class level, plus points gained by having a high Wisdom score. If you have or take a class that grants power points, the power points gained from awakened soul are added to your total power point reserve. The Soulknife has a manifester level equal to his Soulknife level, and Wisdom is the manifesting ability. When using a soulknife ability that requires expenditure of power points he may spend up to a maximum of his manifester level in power points on that ability. (1)
Throw Mind Blade (Ex): A soul knife of 2nd level or higher can throw a light one-handed mind blade as a ranged weapon with a range increment of 30 feet. A soulknife can throw a number of mind blades per round equal to the number of melee attacks he could make. The soulknife can empower the throw mind blade ability to hit additional targets by spending expending their psionic focus as well as paying 3 power points per additional target. An attack roll must be made to hit each additional target, if attack roll fails to hit no further targets are attacked with this use of throw mind blade though points for the additional targets are still spent. A target of this ability can only be hit once per use of this power.
Whether or not the attack hits, a thrown mind blade then dissipates. A soulknife of 3rd level or higher can make a psychic strike (see below) with a thrown mind blade and can use the blade in conjunction with other special abilities (such as Knife to the Soul; see below).
Mind Equipment Enhancement (Su): A soulknife at, 3rd level, gains the ability to enhance his mind equipment as he progresses in level. The total effective bonus of each of the Mind equipment is equal to 1/2 Soulknife level. In addition, the Mind Equipment can have any property applied to it, so long as it is still a legal property for the equipment type in question. Mind Equipment must have at least a +1 enhancement bonus before any properties can be assigned. A mind blade is now considered a magic weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Psychic Strike (Su): As a move action, a soulknife of 3rd level or higher can imbue his mind blade with destructive psychic energy. This effect deals an extra 1d8 points of damage to the next living, non-mindless target he successfully hits with a melee attack (or ranged attack, if he is using the throw mind blade ability). Creatures immune to mind-affecting effects are immune to psychic strike damage. (Unlike the rogue’s sneak attack, the psychic strike is not precision damage and can affect creatures otherwise immune to extra damage from critical hits or more than 30 feet away, provided they are living, non-mindless creatures not immune to mind-affecting effects.)
A mind blade deals this extra damage only once when this ability is called upon, but a soulknife can imbue his mind blade with psychic energy again by taking another move action.
Once a soulknife has prepared his blade for a psychic strike, it holds the extra energy until it is used. Even if the soulknife drops the mind blade (or it otherwise dissipates, such as when it is thrown and misses), it is still imbued with psychic energy when the soulknife next materializes it.
At every four levels beyond 3rd (7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th), the extra damage from a soulknife’s psychic strike increases as shown on the Table above.
Mental Alacrity: At 3rd level, a soulknife may, when wielding a mind blade in the form of a light weapon, rapier, whip, or spiked chain made for a creature of his size category, use his Dexterity modifier instead of his Strength modifier on attack and damage rolls. If he carries a shield, its armor check penalty applies to his attack rolls.
Reactive Mind (Su): At 4th level, a Soulknife’s perception is more attuned than others and is able to react more quickly. While psionically focused, he receives an insight bonus equal to 1/4 his Soulknife level on Initiative checks. He also gains the benefit of Uncanny Dodge while focused.
Bonus Feat: Bonus Fighter or Psionic Feat at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter. In addition, a Soulknife qualifies for feats as a Fighter, but only if applying those feats to his Mind Blade.
Free Draw (Su): At 5th level, a soulknife becomes able to materialize his mind blade as a free action instead of a move action. He can make only one attempt to materialize the mind blade per round, however.
Shape Mind Blade (Su): At 5th level, a soulknife gains the ability to change the form of his mind blade. As a full round action, he can change his mind blade to into any simple melee weapon or any martial melee weapon the Soulknife is proficient with without having to have points in reserve. Alternatively, if the soulknife maintains five points in reserve, he may shape it into any martial melee weapon or any exotic melee weapon they have proficiency with. Furthermore, with ten points in reserve the mind blade may be shaped into any exotic melee weapon. If formed as light weapons, it can be split into two of the same weapon. If a soulknife shapes his mind blade into the form of a two-handed weapon he adds 1-1/2 times his Strength bonus to his damage rolls.
However, if the mind blade is split into two mind blades both mind blades have an enhancement bonus 1 lower than the soulknife would otherwise create with a single mind blade.
Improved Defensive Equipment: At 5th level, a soulknife can focus his armor and shield into more concentrated versions of themselves. This increases the armor bonus to a +6 (or +7 with the inertial armor feat) and the shield bonus to a +2.
Stand Fast (Ex): Beginning at 6th level, a soulknife gains a +2 dodge bonus to his AC during any round in which he moves no more than 5 feet. This bonus only applies as long as the soulknife is psionically focused.
Mind of Steel (Su): At 7th level, a Soulknife has learned how to mimic substances with his Mind Blade. By spending one power point his Mind Blade is treated as the material of his choice for overcoming Damage Reduction, but not for any other purpose. He can change the emulated material when he reassigns his Mind Blade Enhancement. In addition, at 11th level, the Mind Blade may overcome alignment based damage reduction by spending 2 additional power points (a total of three power points are spent even if the material of the mind blade has not changed). At 15th level, his Mind Blade is capable of dealing lethal damage to creatures with regeneration at the cost of 5 additional power points (bringing the total required cost to eight power points even if the material and alignment have not changed).
Ablative Field (Su): At 7th level, as an immediate action in response to taking damage, a soulknife may create a field that reduces damage taken equal to the amount of power points spent for this ability. (1)
Bladewind (Su): At 9th level, a soulknife gains the ability to momentarily fragment his mind blade into numerous identical blades, each of which strikes at a nearby opponent.
As a full attack, when wielding his mind blade, a soulknife can give up his regular attacks and instead fragment his mind blade to make one melee attack at his full base attack bonus against each opponent within reach. Each fragment functions identically to the soulknife’s regular mind blade.
When using bladewind, a soulknife forfeits any bonus or extra attacks granted by other feats or abilities (such as the Cleave feat or the haste spell).
The mind blade immediately reverts to its previous form after the bladewind attack.
Greater Weapon Focus (Mind Blade): A soulknife gains Greater Weapon Focus (mind blade) as a bonus feat at 9th level.
Advanced Defensive Equipment: At 10th level, a soulknife can focus his armor and shield into more concentrated versions of themselves. This increases the armor bonus to a +8 (or +9 with the inertial armor feat) and the shield bonus to a +4.
Knife to the Soul (Su): Beginning at 13th level, when a soulknife executes a psychic strike, he can choose to substitute Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma damage (his choice) for extra dice of damage. For each die of extra damage he gives up, he deals 1 point of damage to the ability score he chooses. The target of Knife to the Soul makes a will save vs (DC 10 + ½ soulknife level + Wis mod), if target saves then no damage from Knife to the Soul is taken. A soulknife can combine extra dice of damage and ability damage in any combination.
The soulknife decides which ability score his psychic strike damages and the division of ability damage and extra dice of damage when he imbues his mind blade with the psychic strike energy.
After reading some of the posts on some other soul knife fixes, I was thinking about bumping the BAB to the fighters and adding in these.
Mind Over Matter: At 5th, a soulknife can expend their psionic focus in order to deal half psychic strike damage to a living or non-mindless creature.
Strength of Mind: A 10th level soulknife is capable bringing of the full might of his will to bear upon any opponent. If the soulknife expends his psionic focus and pays 1 power point per die of Psychic Strike damage, a non-living or mindless creature or both, take normal Psychic Strike damage and a living non-mindless target takes an additional point of damage per power point spent on Strength of Mind when hit with a Psychic Strike.
I want to acknowledge the other builds we looked at as references. Here are the links to the posts/sites where we found them:
http://www.myth-weavers.com/wiki/index.php/Soulknife_Fix%283.5_Class%29
http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Soul_Knight_%283.5e_Prestige_Class%29 (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Soul_Knight_%283.5e_Prestige_Class%29)
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=199960
(1) Thanks to Noctis Vigil for the suggestion.