Incarnum... Can someone explain it to me?

[Rossebay]

I have no idea how it works. You can have multiple soulmelds up...

Can you have multiple Throat soulmelds up as long as they aren't bonded to Throat chakra?

When do you invest Essentia? At any time, do you just swap it around, or do you choose at the start of the day?

If I increase my Meldshaper level, what does that do for me? Like, if I took a homebrew feat, "Practiced Meldshaper", for +4 to Meldshaper level, would that give me access to new Chakras, give me more essentia, or what?

And can someone explain the Shaping/Binding process to me?

[Cwymbran-San]

1) No

2) Whenever you like, to adjust to the situation at hand

3) It matters for the amount of essentia you may invest in a single soulmeld, thus increasing the bonuses available

4) Much like preparing spells, could you specify?

[sonofzeal]

1) No. You can, however, have an unbound Throat Soulmeld and a magic item in the neck slot.

2) Swift action to invest.

3) Uh.... really not sure. I don't even think such a thing would make sense. The closest equivalent is taking a feat for bonus Essentia, and there's already feats like that.

4) Er, that's a pretty vague question. Are you asking about the in-game process, or the out-of-game rules?

[candycorn]

Shaping and binding:

At the start of a day, you shape melds. You may have a number of melds listed in the meldshaping class description shaped, or a your con score -10, whichever is less.

So, a level 2 incarnate may have 3 melds shaped (maximum for the class). If his Con score were 12, however, he'd only be able to shape 2.

When you shape a meld, you shape it to one of the chakra points. It's not bound there, but it is shaped there. You may have only one meld shaped to any one chakra slot at a time.

For example, the Incarnate Weapon meld shapes to the Arms slot. If you shape it, you may not shape any other meld to the arms slot.

If you have chakra binds, you may also bind a meld that you have shaped to the bind you have access to. For example, the level 2 incarnate has 1 chakra bind per day, and may bind to the crown slot. Therefore, if an incarnate shapes a Diadem of Pure Light to the crown slot, and binds it to his chakra, he gets both the benefits for shaping the meld, and the benefit for binding the meld.

On Meldshaper level: Not generally very useful, but meldshaper level is used in making SR penetration rolls, resisting meld dispelling, and the like. Otherwise, increasing meldshaper level doesn't really make your melds any better.

Essentia can be altered as a swift action among any bound soulmeld, as often as you like. Some abilities, such as feats that can receive essentia, require you keep the essentia in them all day.

For example: I have Astral Vambraces shaped, and I have Incarnate Weapon shaped. I have an essentia capacity of 1, and 1 essentia. I can shift my essentia to the weapon in one round, for +1 to hit and damage, and then to the vambraces in the next, for an extra 2 DR.

[Gotterdammerung]

I have no idea how it works. You can have multiple soulmelds up...

Can you have multiple Throat soulmelds up as long as they aren't bonded to Throat chakra?

When do you invest Essentia? At any time, do you just swap it around, or do you choose at the start of the day?

If I increase my Meldshaper level, what does that do for me? Like, if I took a homebrew feat, "Practiced Meldshaper", for +4 to Meldshaper level, would that give me access to new Chakras, give me more essentia, or what?

And can someone explain the Shaping/Binding process to me?


1. Normally, no. I believe you can with a feat.

2. Investing essentia is different for different receptacles. In some receptacles, usually soulmelds, the investment is more fluid. You take a swift to allocate essentia and it stays there until you decide to spend a swift to reallocate.

In other receptacles, usually incarnum feats, the essentia is invested once, and is then locked in for a period of time and can not be moved or shuffled during that time, usually a 24 hour period.

In other receptacles, usually class features, the essentia is invested once and then locked in for a period of time and can not be moved or shuffled during that time, usually a 24 hour period, however once the ability is used, the essentia is freed and moved back into the open essentia pool.

It is important when using incarnum, to understand which kind of receptacle you are dealing with.

3. meldshaper lvl does not do much. There are a very small amount of melds that work off of meldshaper lvl. Most of them work off of essentia invested. A higher meldshaper lvl will make your melds harder to dispel. And will cause a small amount of powers to be stronger (Example, there is a belt meld, I think it is called life belt, it can give bonus HP equal to meldshaper lvl x invested essentia. A higher manifester lvl would increase these bonus hp).
It will not increase your essentia pool, or grant you more melds.
It will not increase the maximum essentia capacity. MEC is based on character lvl, not meldshaper level.

4. Shaping, is like prepping your spells in a way. You are choosing out of the meldshapes you know, which ones to actually shape on your body.

Binding, is a little tricky. Each meld does something without any essentia in it. And then does something stronger with essentia in it.
When you bind it to a chakra, it takes up a magic item slot and gains a new benefit specific to each meld. Some of these extra benefits get stronger with invested essentia. You can recover the lost magic item slot from binding via a feat.











Overall, incarnum basically turns your character into a mini mythal (essentially a magic battery).

You have a renewable power source (your soul).

Your soul has a finite amount of this renewable power (essentia). As you increase in incarnum based classes your soul gets stronger and develops more renewable power (more essentia).

This power can only be plugged into receptacles designed to receive soul energy (soulmelds, incarnum feats, incarnum class features). As you train in incarnum based classes you learn ways to create more available receptacles.

Each receptacle can only hold so much power at one time (max essentia capactiy). Even if you have more soul power, each receptacle has a limit of how much power it can take. As you lvl up (in any class), your receptacles become sturdier, and able to receive more and more soul power at one time (increasing max essentia capacity). Some class abilities and feats allow for sturdier receptacles (increase essentia capacity feat, totemists totem chakra class feature, ect ect).

If you bind a receptacle closer to your soul, it gains added benefits from the soul power.

[Big Fau]

You have a renewable power source (your soul).

Your soul has a finite amount of this renewable power (essentia). As you increase in incarnum based classes your soul gets stronger and develops more renewable power (more essentia).

Incorrect. Essentia is not your soul itself, but the stuff that makes up souls of the living, the dead, and those yet to be. Your own soul does not provide 20 Essentia, it provides 1 at most. That's all it can spare.

Necrocarnum Meldshaping is the act of extracting more Essentia from a single soul than that soul would normally provide. This damages the soul, and is an Evil act (even if you do it to your own soul).

[Gotterdammerung]

Incorrect. Essentia is not your soul itself, but the stuff that makes up souls of the living, the dead, and those yet to be. Your own soul does not provide 20 Essentia, it provides 1 at most. That's all it can spare.

Necrocarnum Meldshaping is the act of extracting more Essentia from a single soul than that soul would normally provide. This damages the soul, and is an Evil act (even if you do it to your own soul).

I am trying to make it easy to understand and your bashing me on semantics?

[Psyren]

3) It matters for the amount of essentia you may invest in a single soulmeld, thus increasing the bonuses available


This is incorrect - your max essentia per [soulmeld/feat/item] is dependent on your character level, not your meldshaper level. Certain class features and feats can increase this amount but simply multiclassing does not affect it.

The table explaining this is on pg. 19.

[Chronos]

There's also a feat (Double Chakra, IIRC) that lets you shape two melds on the same chakra.

[Manateee]

Manifester level is most relevant in overcoming Spell Resistance and countering dispels. It really doesn't affect anything else (though those are a pretty big deal, and one of the reasons that eg. Thunderstep Boots aren't an awesome soulmeld/feat).

[Psyren]

There are a couple of good ones that do have MSL-related benefits. Cerulean Sandals for instance, bases the range of the dimension door effect on MSL. Enigma Helm's nondetection is based on MSL. Vitality Belt and Lifebond Vestments also base their effect on MSL.

@Manatee: I think you meant meldshaper level above, rather than manifester level.

[Rossebay]

Alright... New question, then.

For totemist, it says something about your Totem-bound soulmeld being harder to unshape. Do they simply mean harder to dispel, or literally harder for me to pry off of myself?

I assume the former, though the latter could be cool. Haha.

[Psyren]

Alright... New question, then.

For totemist, it says something about your Totem-bound soulmeld being harder to unshape. Do they simply mean harder to dispel, or literally harder for me to pry off of myself?

I assume the former, though the latter could be cool. Haha.

The former. Though some effects (like negative levels) have no extra trouble unshaping your totem meld.