Please tell me I'm miss reading this (MoI question)

[Emperor Tippy]

So I was paging through Magic of Incarnum earlier and came across something.



Necromancy
Level: Assassin 2, hexblade 2, sorcerer/
wizard 2
Components: V
Casting Time: 1 swift action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One creature
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes

By delivering a jolt of magical energy
to your target, you scramble his
personal essence, causing all essentia
he has currently invested (with some
exceptions; see below) to return to his
essentia pool as if the target had set his
essentia investment to 0. This doesn’t
prevent the target from reinvesting
essentia normally on his next turn,
but it might make him vulnerable in
the meantime.
Essentia invested in an incarnum
feat or other receptacle that can’t be
reallocated by the target as a swift
action can’t be affected by this spell.

And


Abjuration
Level: Cleric 4, Incarnum 4, sorcerer/
wizard 4
Components: V, S, F/DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Target: One creature
Duration: 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes

When you cast essentia lock, you freeze
the subject’s current allocation of
essentia in place. The target is unable to
shift essentia to or from any soulmelds,
feats, or other essentia receptacles he
might possess, and must maintain
his current allocation of essentia for
the duration of the spell. Creatures
without essentia are unaffected by
this spell.
Arcane Focus: A tiny padlock made
of silver (10 gp).

Can you really practically shut down any Incarnum class with two no save spells at level 7?

Unless I'm missing something, anyone who can use them should just pick up a Wand of each. For 25,500 GP you can pretty much kill 50 Incarnum users without a problem. That's a mere 510 GP per enemy.

Or just have the wizard in your party if you know you are going to be facing an Incarnum user.

Ugh, why in the world are those no save spells?

[Psyren]

"Shut down" is a bit extreme. You empty their essentia, sure, but their soulmelds stay shaped - it's not like you're turning them into commoners or anything.

[Lateral]

Still pretty vicious, though, considering that most of the stronger effects come from binds- Totemists in particular are likely to lose most to all of their natural weapons and be left with some bonuses to a few skills and maybe one or two useful abilities; that totem bind is pretty damn important for 'em.

[KillianHawkeye]

Still pretty vicious, though, considering that most of the stronger effects come from binds- Totemists in particular are likely to lose most to all of their natural weapons and be left with some bonuses to a few skills and maybe one or two useful abilities; that totem bind is pretty damn important for 'em.

The spells don't appear to have any effect on binds.

[Emperor Tippy]

Still pretty vicious, though, considering that most of the stronger effects come from binds- Totemists in particular are likely to lose most to all of their natural weapons and be left with some bonuses to a few skills and maybe one or two useful abilities; that totem bind is pretty damn important for 'em.

Nah, this doesn't touch chakra binds. Although it makes most of them next to worthless, or at least a lot less useful.

[Lateral]

The spells don't appear to have any effect on binds.

Oh, you're right. Never mind, it really isn't that bad. A lot of chakra binds require essentia to be decent, but a lot (especially most of the natural attack ones) don't; it's painful, sure, but to many Incarnum builds it isn't crippling.

[Darrin]

Unless I'm missing something, anyone who can use them should just pick up a Wand of each. For 25,500 GP you can pretty much kill 50 Incarnum users without a problem. That's a mere 510 GP per enemy.


Check MoI p. 98:

"Only casters who have selected the Incarnum Spellshaping feat can cast these spells. Characters without that feat cannot cast such spells, even as part of spell completion or spell trigger items (such as scrolls or wands)."

Granted, one feat is still a fairly low bar, but how many spellcasters do you know who would blow a feat on something that does absolutely nothing against non-meldshapers?

Nevermind. Neither of those spells has the [incarnum] tag, so... yeah. Sucks to be a meldshaper.

[Emperor Tippy]

Check MoI p. 98:

"Only casters who have selected the Incarnum Spellshaping feat can cast these spells. Characters without that feat cannot cast such spells, even as part of spell completion or spell trigger items (such as scrolls or wands)."

Granted, one feat is still a fairly low bar, but how many spellcasters do you know who would blow a feat on something that does absolutely nothing against non-meldshapers?

Nevermind. Neither of those spells has the [incarnum] tag, so... yeah. Sucks to be a meldshaper.

Except neither of those spells have the Incarnum tag.

[Big Fau]

Yeah. Those spells are an example of why WotC doesn't understand Game Balance.

Even worse, there's a magic item version of the Divest Essentia spell that acts as an AoE, thus making Chain Spell+Essentia Lock an encounter-wide Debuff in a meldshaper-heavy campaign.

Think someone at WotC missed a few memos on balance.