making a soulknife DSP style

[classy one]

I have had this campaign idea bouncing in my head for a while now and soulknives are a big part of it. This thread is just a quick reference to what I found to be useful ways to build a DSP variant (NOT PF) soulknife. The title is decieving as it will be incorporating psionic material from other books as well.

As always, feedback is more than welcome and please refrain from posting untill I can reserve a few more posts. Thank you

DSP Soulknife (http://dsp-d20-srd.wikidot.com/soulknife):
Chasis: 3/4 BAB and good will and ref saves are unchanged. Lowered HD from d10 to d8. Not sure why as they do not gain access to medium armor or anything to offset this defensive downgrade. They are proficient with any their mind blades, no matter what shape it is. This subtle change means he can use it as a bastard sword without taking EWP and use a longsword without taking matial weapon proficiency.

Skills: now you gain 6+INT per level and you get more class skills to spend them on.

Mind blade: Your enchancement bonuses and enhancement bonuses now stack with eachother. So if you had a +5 mind blade you could go for a straight up +5 mind blade or take a +3 holy (+2) mind blade instead. Your mind blades needs to have at least a +1 bonus on it. The list of enhancements you can apply on it is greatly expanded as well. Abilites that need to be up there as well are: speed, psychic, parrying, power/spell storing
Full list of abilities

Bane +1
Defending +1
Distance +1
Flaming +1
Frost +1
Ghost touch +1
Keen +1
Lucky +1
Merciful +1
Mighty cleaving +1
Psychokinetic +1
Shock +1
Sundering +1
Vicious +1
Anarchic +2
Axiomatic +2
Collision +2
Flaming burst +2
Frost burst +2
Holy +2
Mindcrusher +2
Psychokinetic burst +2
Shocking burst +2
Suppression +2
Unholy +2
Wounding +2
Bodyfeeder +3
Mindfeeder +3
Soulbreaker +3
Brilliant energy +4
Coup de grace +5
Compared to the XPH version:

Defending +1
Keen +1
Lucky1 +1
Mighty cleaving +1
Psychokinetic1 +1
Sundering1 +1
Vicious +1
Collision1 +2
Mindcrusher1 +2
Psychokinetic burst1 +2
Suppression1 +2
Wounding +2
Bodyfeeder1 +3
Mindfeeder1 +3
Soulbreaker1 +3
Makes the SK a bit like a mini artificer.
Bonus feats: you get a lot of them, at 2, 6, 10, 14, 18 the only thing you really traded for was Speed of thought, which you can still select if you should be inclinded. Now what is interesting here is that there are slew of now feats that a soulknife can benefit from both in dsp srd and in WotC material, making this change a very welcome one for players. More on feats later.

Bonus feat: every 4th level you get one. This is the biggest change since there are a bunch of new mindblade feats here to really give you a varity and potency.

Throw mindblade, psychic strike, free draw, bladewind, knife to soul and multiple throw are unchanged but can now be enhanced with new feats.

Shape mindblade: Your mind blade stays the same shape until you decide to change it. No longer do you have to spend full turn actions just to get a decent weapon. Free draw and now you have a long sword or bastard sword.

Double strike: New cap stone for SKs. It is a bit underwhelming for a lvl20 class feature but it basically lets you retain you psychic strike for another attack before being expended. The mantra feat Blade of champions let your psychic strike linger for another attack but at one less die than the last attack, which by level 20 is a full attack making this feature mostly pointless. The capstone being pointless is prolly a good thing though, as there are quite a few PrC that greatly enhance the SK and an underwhelming capstone liberates you to use them without guilt.

[classy one]

Feats:
There are a bunch of feats that deal exclusivily in mind blades and a fill list is found here (http://dsp-d20-srd.wikidot.com/mind-blade-feats). Here is quick review of them and just for completeness sake some from various books found in other sources which should retroactivily be added to this list.



All the feats here either have mind blade, shape mind blade, or psychic strike as a preq. For every 2 mind blade feats you select, your mind blade improves by +1 to a max of one half you ECL. It is unclear if the bonuses from a SK's levels are included in this cap or if it is calculated differently. Even if calulated seperatly, it bears mentioning that the enhancement bonuses from advancing your SK and feats don't stack. Only the highest applies.

Feats that add abilities to selectable list are generally useless to a SK since they have most of them to begin with. It is implied that you can use psychic strike as resonant blade and mind blade class feature as form mindblade for the sake of qualifying for these feats.



From DSP SRD:
Form mindblade: This feat lets anyone with a PP reserve form a mindblade. Way to rob SK yet again. I always thought the point of having a variant SK was to avoid something like the soulbound warrior psywar? The only real difference between this feat and the DSP SK is the more restricted ability list, which can be expanded upon with feats. This feat is so banned at my table.

Aligned blade: You add some alignment enchancements (holy, unholy, axiomatic etc) to your list. You can only select enhancements that match your own alignment.

Blade of fury: for barbs, you get to add vorpal to your list and your threat range is doubled while you rage.

Blade of silence: for rogue types, add coup de grace to your list and +1 point of damage per mindblade feat on sneak attacks done with your mindblade. This stacks with craven and is untyped damage.

Blade of the Champion: a mantra feat that lets you gain psionic focus and slow the discharge of your psychic strike (-1d8 each attack per hand) for one minute or expend you focus to fully recharge. You will want to combine this with mind cleave (CPsi) which recharges your psychic strike if you fell an oppenent with psychic strike. Better yet mind empowerment adds another +1d8 on psychic strike cleave, and when combined with blade of the champion, will make you into a real beast.

Blade of the Slayer: extra damage to your smite for each mindblade feat you have, also increases the threat range while smiting.

bladewind--> bladestorm: the preq will be easy for a SK to meet but will need devotion by any other class. Blade storm functions just like blade wind but with a range of 30 feet.

Cognizance mind blade: lets you use your mind blade like a cognizance crystal. You can store to the max= #mindblade feat. Rather pointless unless you had a psywar pretending to be a SK by taking all mindblade feats.

Deceptive mindblade: When you materialize your mindblade you get a free feint and add bluff to your skill set. If you have Improved feint you can also charge your psychic strike in that action as well. That was 3 actions all rolled into one, making this rather worthwhile.

Dedication Of The Hunter: Mantra feat; gain focus to basically improved your favored enemy trait by 2. Expend your focus to get an equal bonus on attack rolls for # of rounds= your favored target level. Clearly for rangers but is it worth a feat when bane is clearly better?

Defender's blade: your AC bonus when using defender enhancement is doubled while focused, or you can expend your focus and get another +4 dodge bonus. Defender one of the better abilities as it is the only one that boosts defense, this feats makes it even better.

Dual weilder: make two mindblades in each hand and they don't suffer the -1 penalty.

Dueling blades: Another defensive feat and a good one at that. If anyone misses you while you are using combat expertise or fighting defensivily, you get an AoO without the penalty to hit.

Energy blades: select an energy type and your mindblade deals one point of damage of that type. You also can add the elemental abilities to your list.

Enlightented warrior: Use you WIS modifier for attack and damage rolls rather than STR.

Entwining Blade: on a successful melee attack, you get a free trip attempt with a +4 bonus. Limited to once per round.

Extended throw: increase the range increment from 30 to 100 feet. Might just completely replace Soulbow with this one feat (DSP SK already has most of soulbow's abilities already).

Fill the resonant blade: This requires either 4d8 psychic strike or taking the feat resonant blade 4 times. It let you charge your psychic strike as a swift action rather than a move action. For a SK this is easy to get but deceptive blade with improved feint, and blade of the champion both allow you to do the exact same thing and a bit extra making this redundant.

Ghost hunter: You add the ghost touch, undead bane, and disruption special abilities to your list of available special abilities. Another feat that makes a PrC, this time Illuminate soul (CPsi) redundant. Also makes ghostbreaker only good for the BAB.

Hunter's bane: add whatever type of bane you have a favored enemy for. Your mind blade will also alert you when your favored enemy is within 30 feet.

Material harmonics, and Improved version: this allows you to change the material of your mind blade. The improved version lets you maintain that material even if in a null psionics field and to change it in 1 minute or 1 full round by making a DC 30 concentration check. Very handy.

Improved shape mind blade: change the shape of your mind blade as swift action. Not too sure how useful this will be since the standard forms (short sword, long sword and bastard sword) all do the same type of damage. If you could make a hammer or morning star....

Shield of thought, and improved version: Shield of thought exists in WotC books already but this one is much better since the shield can have abilities as well while the RoE version cannot. It's a shame Dancing is not one of the options. Improved version lets you manifest a tower shield, and if combined with soulblade warrior let's you manifest both mindblade and sheild as one swift action.

Inner focus: This feat doesn't make much sense, suppossedly this feat lets you keep your mindblade's special abilities even if you are no psionically focused. But no where have I seen that you lose these abilities in the first place. Clarification needed here.

Knife to soul: the class feature that is now a feat. Useful if you decided to multiclass but still wanted to have this feature in a timely manner.

Mental armory: each time you pick this feat you get an extra mindblade stored and ready to use. Great as a back up since you don't need to spend 8 hours reapplying all your weapon abilities, just switch out you back up.

Mind blade cleave: very similar to the mind cleave found in CPsi. In fact I suspect some cross pollenation going on here. Kill or drop an opponent and your psychic strike is completely recharged.

Mind blade finesse: your mind blade is now finessed no matter what shape it takes. Makes your SK less MAD.

Monatic blade: add unarmed damage to your mindblade damage. Combined with psychic strike and flurry this could add up to alot of damage.

[classy one]

more feats:

Oversized blade: Your mindblade is now one size larger without any penatlies to wield it. It's monkey grip with no drawbacks and a must for any SK.

Reckless blade wielder: power attack that subtracts your AC (up to your DEX bonus) rather than BAB. It's like a mini combat brute for your mindblade but much less feat intensive.

Reforge mind blade: lets you change your mindblade abilities in 10 minutes rather than 8 hours. Make a DC 25 concentration check (provoking an AoO)to reduce that time to a full round. Very useful.

Resonant blade: basically is psychic damge in all but name. you can take this feat once for every 3 ranks in concentration you have. More benefial to SK who can stack this with psychic strike, most PrC don't advance this feature either and having it as feat could prevent this from falling to the wayside.

Song and dance: you will need the thoughtsong class ability which is exclusivily found in the Thoughtsinger (AKA psionic bard). This is one of the rare feats that adds an ability that SKs don't have: Dancing. This ability only functions while the user is using thought song.

Soul armor: you form an armor of pure thought, too bad you can't apply speical abilities on it.

Soulblade warrior: a preq to many of the feats listed here, it gives you a +2 on init and let you draw your mind blade as a swift action rather than a move action. You will need this if you are going with TWF since free draw only lets you draw one weapon. With this and free draw you will still have a move action and standard action to use.

Throw mindblade: just like the class ability.

Xeph bladestorm: you can make another attack at your full BAB but all attacks suffer a -2 penalty. Personally I think Xeph celerity is better. If you have spring attack you can move up to our full speed before and after your attack.

Feats that should have the mind blade descriptor but don't:
DSP SRD:

Exotic mindblade: you can form your mind blade into an exotic weapon.

Mindblade kensei: this is the soulknife version of practised mainfester/caster. Adds 4 to your effective SK level to determine your Mind blade enchantment bonus. Useful if you multiclass into another class. Very similar Soulbound warrior, which is found in Races of Eberron.

Poisoned blade: you hold the poison in your mindblade and it is undetectable until the moment of delivery. The poison master feat lets you make a rough estimate about the target's chance of failing.

Shuriken mind blade: rather pointless as shurikens deal pitiful damage and the range is poor.

Other sources:
CPsi:
Mind cleave: same as mindblade cleave, drop an opponent and auto recharge your psychic strike.
Mind empowerment: if you recharge your psychic strike via mind cleave your psychic strike is increased by 1d8 past it's max. Better to pick resonate blade which gives you a flat +1d8 at all times.
Focused mind strike: expend your focus to boost your psychic strike by one d8. Again, resonant blade is just better.
Swift mind strike: once per day you can charge your psychic strike as a swift action. There are lots other ways to do this without being limited to once a day making this pointless.
Orc double axe, dwarven urgosh, and two bladed mindblade: already included in exotic mindblade which increases selection to all exotic weapons.

Races of Eberron
Soul blade warrior: It has the same name as the DSP one but this one is for Kalashtar only. It also let's you draw your mindblade as a swift action but rather than give you a +2 on init, it increases your SK level by 2 for enhancement bonuses. If you are a Kalashtar, there is no reason to take this over the DSP version.

Shield of thought: another Kalashtar exclusive, this version doesn't let you apply shield abilities to it, making it completely inferior to the DSP version.

Spiritual force: expend focus to add your CHA bonus to your attacks for one round. I'm sure there are better thing to do with your psionic focus.

Kalashtar thought shifter: another Kalashtar exclusive, this tactical feat lets you either ignore shield bonuses, gain a modest bonus to your attack and damage rolls or change your damage type (ie slashing, piercing).


Let me know if I missed any.

[classy one]

PF Soulknife:

I put up a lo of resistance in including this mainly because it isn't 3.5 but the fact is that the title did say "DSP" and they did do this version of Soulknife as well.

Basic chassis: HD back to d10, 4+INT skills per level, full BAB progression, good Will and reflex saves. It advances a bit faster than both other versions of SK but the enhancement bonuses and psychic strike damage is all the same in the end.

Bonus feat: at level one, they can select power attack, TWF or weapon focus.

Form mindblade: the main weapon of the SK now has a more general feel to it. It is either light (1d6) medium (1d8) or two handed (2d6). They differ in damage and what they can do, such as light can be used for TWF, two handed gets to add more damage due to STR and PA but can't be thrown. The interesting thing is that you can select what the damage type it will deal when you first manifest the mindblade.

Shape mindblade: You get this at level one now and can change the damage type it deals as well as a full round action.

Throw mindblades: range increment is determined by what type of mindblade you have. Light is 20 ft, medium is 15 ft, and you can't throw two handers. It is curious why DSP felt to nerf this feature, at least a XPH could have fun throwing bastard swords at people 30 ft away, while a DSP 3.5 SK could throw large Bastard swords (or any other exotic weapon). That was one of the fun things about SK wasn't it?

Blade skills: at every even level you get somethig called a blade skill which let you do more things with your mindblade. While the 3.5 DSP had bonus feats and loads of mindblade feats PF soulknife has these. Most have minimum level to use as well.
Alter blade: you can shape your mind blade each time you draw it rather than have it stay in it last form. I guess this is useful if you were fighting were fighting something with DR that could only be overcome with a type of damage. Changing type of weapon you have on the fly seems less useful since most build will devote themselves to either TWF, two handed fighting or range.

Bladewind--> Bladestorm: same as before, blade storm comes a bit late at level 16. Compared to the DSP version which is only level 12 (15 ranks in concentration).

Combat slide: make a free 5fs whenever you make a melee attack or when ever someone misses you. Excellent mobility here, the 3.5 DSP version has nothing that can replicate it.

Deadly blow: increase your crit multiplier by one step. Not a big fan of crit builds myself but if you are this is worth considering since crits are viable with the keen ability.

Duel imbue: charge your psychic strike for all your mindblade at the same time, with a -1d8 for each one past the first. Mainly for TWFers. A 3.5 DSP soulknife can replicate this with better results but will need 3 feats to pull it off (soul lads warrior, deceptive blade and improved feint). The PF version is certeinly more straightforward, if less impressive.

Enhanced range: double the range increment on thrown minblades. Not sure why they nerfed ranged attacks but this certeinly helps. It is still inferior to Extended range which increases range increment to 100 feet.

Exploding critical: once you confirm a crit, you expend your focus to deal psychic strike damage. Critical hit builds are certeinly viable since you can put keen on your weapons and many abilities trigger on a confirmed crit. Should be combined with Reaping blade, the PF version of mindblade cleave, to give you free psychic strike charges on a regular basis.

Extended strike: expend your focus to increase the threat range of your next attack by 5feet. You will need something like trip, disarm or sundering to make that one attack count. Luckily other blade skills let you do just that.

Fluid blade: expend your psychic strike to add another special ability to your mindblade. Each change costs -1 enhancement bonus. Improved fluid blade removes the enhanment penalty. The feat Reforge mindblade let's you do all of the above without need to waste your psychic strike.

Full enhancement: make many mindblades with no penalty. Unless you are using a race with more than 2 arms this is the same as Duel wielder.

Furious charge: Deal more damage on attacks made from a charge. Improved version lets you make an extra attack.

Gruesome riposte: if anyone hits you with a melee attack you can expend your focus to hit them back on their turn. It is like deuling blades but doesn't require you fight defensively but does use up your focus.

Improved Enhancement: flat +1 enhamcement bonus on your mindblade. Always a good choice.

Knife to soul: same as always. will need a decent amount of psychic strike (at least +4d8) to be potent, especially if your target is using psychic bastion.


Mind daggers: throw dagger versions of your mindblade with range increment of 30 feet. The main change is that you can change your between your mindblade and your mind daggers in the same round as a free action. So you can melee attack twice and end with a thrown dagger at the end of your full attack.

Mind shield: only provides bonus to AC, no abilities can be applied to this.

Multiple throw: throw mindblades as often as you can make melee atacks. Finally some perks for ranged attackers.

Reaching Blade: it is almost completely like extended blade but you can also hit adjacent foes as well. It requires you to be level 8 to aquire compared to level 12 for extended blade and does work with twin strike.

Repeaper's blade: Kind of like mindblade cleave but your psychic strike will automatically charge itself if you drop a target below 0 hp, you don't need to have it charged but if you did then your next attack gains a 50% bonus on the psychic strike.

Rending hooks: gain a bonus on climb speed and deal bleeding damage on crit. The climb speed is the real winner here since there are so much more interesting things to do with a crit (soulbreaker, wounding, bodyfeeder etc).

Toppling strike: single trip attempt that doesn't provoke AoA on a successful melee hit. This requires another blade skill to give the mindblade the ability to trip their targets. The improved version lets you chain your trip attempts to foes that are within reach.

Trade blows: similar to dueling blades, if anyone tries to melee you, you get to hit them back with your full attack bonus. Unlike dueling blades these are not AoO but you cannot use it with the more defensive combat expertise.


Twin strike: as a standard action you make an attack with 2 mindblade at the same time. You use this with extended strike, trade blows and AoOs.

Two handed throw: as the name implies you can throw your 2 hander with a range increment of 10 feet.

Weapon special: You weapon can now brace (not sure what that is), trip or disarm. Take it multiple times to make your mindblade more special.

Wing clip: its basically stand still but for number of rounds equal to your STR bonus. They need to make a fort save to or continue not have a move action.

[classy one]

reserved for the time being #4

[sonofzeal]

First, why all the reserved posts?


Second... it still seems seriously underwhelming to me. It suffers from pretty much all the same problems - namely, that "I have a weapon" is not a valid concept for a class. And that it needs a 17th lvl class feature to do what everyone else could have done at lvl 1 with Rapid Shot. It's still 3/4 BAB, it's even flimsier, and it still doesn't really do anything. Knife to the Soul is still its only particularly effective ability, and it's still too little too late.

The extra skills are nice though, I guess.

[classy one]

First, why all the reserved posts?


Second... it still seems seriously underwhelming to me. It suffers from pretty much all the same problems - namely, that "I have a weapon" is not a valid concept for a class. And that it needs a 17th lvl class feature to do what everyone else could have done at lvl 1 with Rapid Shot. It's still 3/4 BAB, it's even flimsier, and it still doesn't really do anything. Knife to the Soul is still its only particularly effective ability, and it's still too little too late.

The extra skills are nice though, I guess.

I was thinking the same thing until I saw the feats. DSP has gone out of its way to make psychic strike beefier, please hold your judgement until after all the feats and stuff are out.

[CTrees]

I'm honestly really not trying to be snarky or mean, here, but...

I like this Soulknife fix, published by DSP, a lot more. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/soulknife)

[classy one]

I'm honestly really not trying to be snarky or mean, here, but...

I like this Soulknife fix, published by DSP, a lot more. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/soulknife)

I like it too but, am trying to get an Eberron game where soulknifes are key elements and is going to need it to stay strictly 3.5. PF is just different enough to cause headaches on the conversation that I as a DM don't feel is worthwhile. DSP didn't alter the Soulknife that much but rather gave it the support in the way of feats and PrC needs be decent.

[Greenish]

PF soulknife to 3.5.
A conversion guide.

Class Skills:
The soulknife’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Autohypnosis* (Wis), Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Spot (Wis), and Tumble (Dex).

Blade Skills:
Rending Blades: Hooks extend from the soulknife's mind blade. Critical hits with the mind blade cause the soulknife's target to take 1d6 damage each round until they receive a DC 15 heal check or are healed at least one point of HP with magical healing. The mind blade also gives a competence bonus on Climb checks equal to the enhancement bonus of the mind blade.


There, I did it for you. :smallamused:

[classy one]

PF soulknife to 3.5.
A conversion guide.

Class Skills:
The soulknife’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Autohypnosis* (Wis), Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Spot (Wis), and Tumble (Dex).

Blade Skills:
Rending Blades: Hooks extend from the soulknife's mind blade. Critical hits with the mind blade cause the soulknife's target to take 1d6 damage each round until they receive a DC 15 heal check or are healed at least one point of HP with magical healing. The mind blade also gives a competence bonus on Climb checks equal to the enhancement bonus of the mind blade.


There, I did it for you. :smallamused:

I'd rather not. PF PCs will always be better just by sheer number of feats and feat like class features. Most of the blade skills they list are doable with the mindblade feats listed above, which is no surprise since they made both versions of the soulknife the first place.

PF honestly seems like a mess from my point of veiw. Feats every 2 levels, and more varied class features than you can point a stick at. I dislike dead levels, but I don't like how DSP handled it here. A blade skill every even level on top of a feat every odd level is just a book keeping nightmare, especially when each one does something different rather than build or advance an existing class feature.

I know having loads of options is great in theory but it does bog down playtime. So while PF maybe more "optimal" I just don't find it to be much fun.


Anyway, more feats from other sourcebooks to come.

[Gavinfoxx]

Uhm. We are presuming that if you port the PF class to 3.5e, you don't get 'lots of weak feats every two levels', and you just use the normal 3.5e rules? Why do you think you would still use the PF stuff with that port??

[Greenish]

PF PCs will always be better just by sheer number of feats and feat like class features.…PF Soulknife is somewhere in tier 4 range or so. It will not "always be better". :smallconfused:


A blade skill every even level on top of a feat every odd level is just a book keeping nightmare, especially when each one does something different rather than build or advance an existing class feature.A grand total of 10 things you choose when you level up and never change is a book-keeping nightmare? I recommend you never play a caster. Or a manifester. Or a martial adept. Or anything from MoI. Or anything from ToM. Or fighter. :smallamused:

[classy one]

Uhm. We are presuming that if you port the PF class to 3.5e, you don't get 'lots of weak feats every two levels', and you just use the normal 3.5e rules? Why do you think you would still use the PF stuff with that port??

Oh the feats are hardly weak, if anything the mindblade feats are quite strong and IMO can replicate the blade skills of the PF version. This isn't surprising since they were both created by DSP. I just prefer the 3.5 version that they cooked up because, well I'm working on a 3.5 game.

Maybe I am being rigid, but I feel the 3.5 is adequate. I might change some things about it like give it full BAB and up the HD to d10 but nothing quite as major as what PF did. All those blade skill makes my head spin.

[classy one]

…PF Soulknife is somewhere in tier 4 range or so. It will not "always be better". :smallconfused:

A grand total of 10 things you choose when you level up and never change is a book-keeping nightmare? I recommend you never play a caster. Or a manifester. Or a martial adept. Or anything from MoI. Or anything from ToM. Or fighter. :smallamused:

Honestly I would like to keep thing simple, teir 4 is fine since this will be gestalt game. I don't play prepared casters or manifesters because I don't like book keeping or the fact that i have keep track what i have and i picked for the next 14 hours. Spontaneous caster are fine for me. ToB is on the fence since they can (or should) change their their maneuvers every so often.

You may like it but it's not my style. I certainly don't think my level of enjoyment would invalidate others people's definition of fun. You like keep track or all the cool things you can do every few hours then more power to you, I personally feel differently. Especially in a play by post game.

[Gavinfoxx]

What are you gestalting it with?

[classy one]

What are you gestalting it with?

Im DMing it. One of the rules are: race Kalashtar and PrC: one level of atavist and soulknife one one side of //. My players can select what they feel like. I'm writing this in part to anticipate what tricks they could come up with.

[Greenish]

Honestly I would like to keep thing simple, teir 4 is fine since this will be gestalt game. I don't play prepared casters or manifesters because I don't like book keeping or the fact that i have keep track what i have and i picked for the next 14 hours. Spontaneous caster are fine for me. ToB is on the fence since they can (or should) change their their maneuvers every so often.

You may like it but it's not my style. I certainly don't think my level of enjoyment would invalidate others people's definition of fun. You like keep track or all the cool things you can do every few hours then more power to you, I personally feel differently. Especially in a play by post game.A level 20 sorcerer has 43 different spells known, over 10 different levels with different amount of uses per day. They learn new ones every level (usually several), and can swap their old ones at even levels. That, you say, is easy to handle.

A level 20 PF Soulknife has 10 Blade Skills, and you don't have to track how often you've used them, and a great many of them are passive abilities. Once chosen, you keep them to grave (unless your DM allows retraining). And that's too much to keep track of?


I just can't understand that, is all.

[classy one]

I am going to stop fielding questions about PF soulknife. This thread isn't a compare and contrast between the two, merely a review of the 3.5 DSP variant.

I am a bit disappointed that no one even bothered to read any of my initial posts, especially the mindblade feats, given the derailment that took place. If you wish to compare and contrast them then please do so in another thread.

[Arundel]

I am not really too sure what I'm looking at here. Or what you're looking for really.

Its a bunch of 3rd party information reprinted from their wiki. We don't do too much with 3rd party (my reason being that there is more than enough official things to try and learn), and my recollection of DSP is their productions are inconsistent from a balance perspective. I could very easily have them confused with another random 3rd party however.

From what I see here, you posted a rather build/reprint using that material and asked for critique (why you reserved more posts than most handbooks is beyond me). In response people have been contrasting your fix with the PF fix. And you got angry.

Last I checked, comparisons was a perfectly valid, understandable, and accepted form of critique. So if you're scoffing at critiques, then I am back to not understanding what you're doing or want. :smallconfused:

[classy one]

From what I see here, you posted a rather build/reprint using that material and asked for critique (why you reserved more posts than most handbooks is beyond me). In response people have been contrasting your fix with the PF fix. And you got angry.

Last I checked, comparisons was a perfectly valid, understandable, and accepted form of critique. So if you're scoffing at critiques, then I am back to not understanding what you're doing or want. :smallconfused:

Why did I reserve 4 posts? Because I will need two of them to do a PF one now.

I posted this so that players from my potential game could get a brief overview of what kind of soulknife they will be building. I was using the 3.5 version because I felt it was 1)powerful enough (gestalted game afterall) and 2) more streamlined but still versatile enough.
I did get upset because I felt those reasons were enough.

You know maybe I should just go a post on the recruitment section and let my players figure all this out themselves. Yet the conversation that followed my reserved posts compels me to consider making a quick overview of the PF and let them pick.
Way to increase my workload guys.

[playswithfire]

Honestly I would like to keep thing simple, teir 4 is fine since this will be gestalt game. I don't play prepared casters or manifesters because I don't like book keeping or the fact that i have keep track what i have and i picked for the next 14 hours. Spontaneous caster are fine for me. ToB is on the fence since they can (or should) change their their maneuvers every so often.

I haven't really had a chance to playtest it, and I don't know if it's quite what you want, since it's ToB homebrew, but I made a swordsage variant,the soulsword (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10181095&postcount=6) that was an attempt to upgrade the soulknife archetype to around T3.

[gkathellar]

If you're absolutely committed to actually running the Soulknife class, more power to you. But ... if I may make a suggestion? Psychic Warriors with the Soulbound Weapon (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070214a) are basically the in-house fix for Soulknives. I'm pretty sure there are even Psychic Warrior powers that imitate most Soulknife abilities.

Incarnates using Incarnate Weapon also serve as fantastic stand-ins for the class, doing everything it can do while also providing you with other options.

[Manateee]

I hope when someone tries to make a 3.5 Rogue guide, every post is "Play a Factotum/Sworsage/Beguiler/PF Ninja instead."

[Greenish]

I hope when someone tries to make a 3.5 Rogue guide, every post is "Play a Factotum/Sworsage/Beguiler/PF Ninja instead."Sorry to disappoint you. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8711233)