Balance Question (Modified Soulknife)

[TechnOkami]

Heya guys. I've got a question for you all.

I've heard and even asked why the soulknife isn't that good of a class, and well, I have my answer and understand why. My question is thus: would it be overpowering to allow the soulknife to, instead of creating a blade from the mind, simply empowering a blade to float beside him? It would have rules for saving against that sword's destruction (like if it breaks roll 1d20 + will/int or something like that + 1/2 the sword's bonuses to try and reform it if it breaks), how far the blade could extend, any bonuses that could be placed upon the blade (and perhaps another check to put more bonuses on a blade that already has bonuses).

Would that render the class overpowered, or would it actually balance it?

Just a note: I'm not much of a homebrewer. Math & ratios & spells and whatnot is hard to do, and making classes interesting and unique is, well, difficult.

[Person_Man]

No. That seems like a fairly mild addition, in the variety of low grade summoning magic.

More specifically, just "adding" additional damage or attacks (or any numerical bonus) will never "fix" a low Tier class (one with few resources, which allow the class to do a variety of things well).

A Tier 4 or lower class will never be able to get out of Tier 4 without a subsystem of abilities which can be changed each day, selected from a broad list, and allow you to fill a variety of roles. In 3.5, those options are magic, psionics, incarnum, vestiges, and maneuvers, plus the various homebrew systems floating around.

Soulknife's are one of the most homebrewed/fixed classes out there. A brief survey of the the forum here will probably give you dozens (hundreds?) of fixes. The one offered by Dreamscarred Press (for Pathfinder) is pretty good. (And I'm partial to my War Soul (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=156441), if you're willing to listen to a shameless plug and learn Incarnum).

[Psyren]

Link to the Pathfinder Soulknife (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/soulknife) that was mentioned. It's pretty easy to take back to 3.5 if you wish to use it there.

As Person_Man said however, even this version won't make it past T4. But if you pick up Psionics Expanded, you can grab the Gifted Blade archetype (which should do the trick.)