Soulcasters: Best Incarnum Class?

[Rhaegar14]

The title pretty much sums it up. In your opinion, Playground, what is the best meldshaping class to use for the Soulcaster PrC? Totemist is typically the go-to for Incarnum, but a lot of Totemist's goodies are based on being in melee combat, and a Soulcaster build does not have a high enough BAB to support that approach. Thoughts?

[Snowbluff]

SOme of the Incarnate soulmelds give bonuses to certain spells, like the Illusion Veil, IIRC.

AS a rule, only ever use Totemist or Incarnate.

[Tvtyrant]

Totemist works if you want to go persistomancy melee (throw some levels of incantatrix at the end), while Incarnates are the best for being a batman type (use the spectacles meld to get a big bonus to UMD for instance).

[Big Fau]

Totemist works if you want to go persistomancy melee (throw some levels of incantatrix at the end), while Incarnates are the best for being a batman type (use the spectacles meld to get a big bonus to UMD for instance).

Right. NG or CN Incarnate into Soulcaster works best for a Battlefield Controller or a party buffer. But if you even think about Gishing it up, Totemist is the better option because of the Chakra bind progression and lack of soulmelds that rely on meldshaper level.

[Rhaegar14]

How would you even try to go gish-y on a build with 1/2 BAB? I'm really curious, because gish is my favorite character type. XD

[Big Fau]

How would you even try to go gish-y on a build with 1/2 BAB? I'm really curious, because gish is my favorite character type. XD

Arcane Disciple (War), or a Legacy Item that has Divine Power as an SLA.

[eggs]

Skillful Weapons automatically bump the BA to Rogue levels.
Knowledge Devotion cranks attack and damage boosts.
Natural Weapon/Morphing builds don't need to rely on BA for attacks/round.


On Incarnum classes, most Incarnate bonuses are Insight and most Totemist bonuses are Competence. This normally makes Incarnates more friendly to skillmonkey characters, because the bonuses stack with common +Competence skill-boosting items. But that flips for spellcasters, due to abilities like Divine Insight, Knowledge Devotion or pretty much any buff in the Divination school: Insight bonuses become much cheaper than comparable Competence boosts.

Add Totemist's Con-reliance for a Soulcaster's Soulmeld-based DCs, the relative versatility of the Totem bind compared to Crown and the wizard's spell-based access to Crown binds, and the Totemist becomes much more appealing, IMO.

[rot42]

How would you even try to go gish-y on a build with 1/2 BAB? I'm really curious, because gish is my favorite character type. XD

Lawful Incarnate Avatar, Bluesteel Bracers, and Vitality Belt let essentia fuel your attack, damage, and HP, respectively. Or, better, Incarnate Weapon, Knowledge Devotion, and Mauling Gauntlets give nice stacking attack/damage, attack/damage, and damage if you are not relying on your BAB iteratives for bonus attacks.

[Big Fau]

Lawful Incarnate Avatar, Bluesteel Bracers, and Vitality Belt let essentia fuel your attack, damage, and HP, respectively. Or, better, Incarnate Weapon, Knowledge Devotion, and Mauling Gauntlets give nice stacking attack/damage, attack/damage, and damage if you are not relying on your BAB iteratives for bonus attacks.

Mauling Gauntlets only work on Unarmed Strikes...

[Snowbluff]

Lawful Incarnate Avatar, Bluesteel Bracers, and Vitality Belt let essentia fuel your attack, damage, and HP, respectively. Or, better, Incarnate Weapon, Knowledge Devotion, and Mauling Gauntlets give nice stacking attack/damage, attack/damage, and damage if you are not relying on your BAB iteratives for bonus attacks.

I prefer Sapphire Hierophant for Gishing. Righteous Might, Divine Power, Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, Holy Transformation for spells. Holy Warrior, Knowledge Devotion, DMM Persist are standard CoDzilla feats. Battle Blessing can be used in coordination with Prestige Paladin to cast Paladin spells as swift action (Including Divine POwer, saving Turning for other spells).

You can also open more Chakra using Cleric Spells. ^^

Watch out for Insight Bonus, though. They don't stack with Knowledge Devotion.

[Godskook]

1.You spelled Soulmanifester wrong.

2.I prefer to go Totemist with Soulmanifester over Incarnate. With Ardent, you have generous leeway for dipping a little and things like Expansion(via feat or mantle substitution) synergizes really well with natural attacks.

[rot42]

Mauling Gauntlets only work on Unarmed Strikes...

Because Soulborn needed to suck more, blech. Thanks for pointing that out before I tried to work it into a real build.

[Psyren]

1.You spelled Soulmanifester wrong.

I lol'ed, but you're right :smalltongue:


2.I prefer to go Totemist with Soulmanifester over Incarnate. With Ardent, you have generous leeway for dipping a little and things like Expansion(via feat or mantle substitution) synergizes really well with natural attacks.

Totemist also gives you an additional chakra that SM/SC don't. But I think the Incarnate melds synergize more with a traditional caster myself; however, a Totemist/Soulcaster could easily represent a more tribal or shamanic mage.

Soul Manifester is also great with Wilder; Wild Surge + Psionic Investment gives almost all your powers a really big ML push, even before items. The Cha focus makes your Mage's Spectacls/Psion's Eyes much more powerful as well. And finally, the right soulmelds take pressure off your power choices - e.g. Airstep Sandals means you don't need psionic fly.