Trying to wrap my brain around Incarnum

[Telonius]

I'm finally trying to get around to figuring out Magic of Incarnum. Unfortunately, I'm either having total brain lock or reading comprehension failure on a couple of points.

If you aren't going to change up any of your Soulmelds, do you still need to meditate each day?

When you Bind a Chakra, it still counts against the number of soulmelds you have shaped, correct?

Once you've Bound a Chakra, is it stuck there forever, or can you undo it the next day when you meditate?

[eggs]

Soulmelds remain shaped until they're specifically unshaped in meditation, so the meldshaper doesn't need to meditate to maintain shaped and bound soulmelds.

Bound soulmelds are still shaped, and count against the shaped soulmeld limits.

Characters bind soulmelds when they shape them, and the binds only last as long as the soulmeld is shaped. So every day, a totemist can pick to shape and bind a different soulmeld into its totem chakra.

[Glimbur]

I'm finally trying to get around to figuring out Magic of Incarnum. Unfortunately, I'm either having total brain lock or reading comprehension failure on a couple of points.

If you aren't going to change up any of your Soulmelds, do you still need to meditate each day? Nope.


When you Bind a Chakra, it still counts against the number of soulmelds you have shaped, correct?
Yep.


Once you've Bound a Chakra, is it stuck there forever, or can you undo it the next day when you meditate?

You can change it the next day when you reshape soulmelds.

There are a number of guides (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=215723) to incarnum, and I'm not the only person on these boards who likes it. Sadly, it is not very clearly written.

[Kelb_Panthera]

I'm finally trying to get around to figuring out Magic of Incarnum. Unfortunately, I'm either having total brain lock or reading comprehension failure on a couple of points.

If you aren't going to change up any of your Soulmelds, do you still need to meditate each day?No, pg 50, under unshaping a meld, "... a soulmeld remains shaped until the meldshaper chooses to unshape it...."


When you Bind a Chakra, it still counts against the number of soulmelds you have shaped, correct? Yes, that is correct.


Once you've Bound a Chakra, is it stuck there forever, or can you undo it the next day when you meditate?

You can change your binds from one day to the next. You simply have to take the 1 hour meditation period for shaping your melds as normal, since binding decisions are made as part of the shaping of your 'melds.

Double ninja'd. :smalltongue:

[Telonius]

Thanks all!

[Rejakor]

It's pretty simple, really.

You get a bunch of soulmelds. These are like all day buffs.

Then you get a bunch of points. Essentia points. As a swift action at any time you can invest essentia points into a soulmeld. This makes it more awesome. It does different stuff depending on the specific soulmeld.

You have to shape a soulmeld before you get the bonus from it, and before you can put essentia points into it. You get a certain number of these soulmelds that you can shape, depending on your level (like a wizard and spells), and you can change them out each day (or just leave them forever if you want).

You can only meldshape one soulmeld per 'slot', which is essentially the same as magic items and magic item slots. So one 'glove' soulmeld, one 'helm' soulmeld etc.

When you 'bind' a soulmeld, it basically just gives you an extra effect above and beyond the basic effect of the soulmeld. You usually get far less soulmelds 'bound' than you get soulmelds meldshaped, so you have to pick which one(s) you're gonna 'bind'. Essentia points invested in 'bound' soulmelds can have bigger effects than essentia points invested in regular ol' soulmelds. Example: Regular Girallon Claws Soulmeld gives you a +2 bonus on climb and grapple checks. If you invest 1 point of essentia into it, that bonus increases to +4 and so on. If you bind it to your Totem chakra (totem magic item slot - special totemist class thing), it gives you the bonus on climb and grapple AND you grow 2 new arms and gain 4 (!) new claw attacks. If you still had that 1 essentia point invested in the soulmeld, your 4 new claw attacks would count as +1 magic weapons(which is spelled out in the soulmeld entry).


And.. that's incarnum. Basically just a bunch of all day buffs that you can make stronger or weaker as swift actions.

[Zaq]

Right now, there are three things you need to be aware of. Soulmelds, chakras, and binds. They are related, but distinct.

You can have a certain number of soulmelds shaped at once, more or less based on your class level. Each soulmeld occupies a chakra. Some (most) soulmelds can only go in one chakra, and some have two or even three chakras you can shape them to. They still only take one chakra; when you shape the meld, you pick the chakra, and it stays there until you reshape it. As a general rule, a soulmeld occupies exactly one chakra, and you cannot have more than one soulmeld in a given chakra at once.

You have access to every soulmeld on your list . . . there aren't "levels" of soulmelds. One level of Incarnate gets you access to all Incarnate melds, and one level of Totemist gets you all Totemist melds. (There are some exceptions for alignment-based melds, but ignore that for now.)

You do not have to bind a soulmeld to have it shaped. I will repeat that. You do not have to bind a soulmeld to have it shaped. It will still provide you with some kind of benefit.

You also get a certain number of chakra binds at once. Once again, this is based on your class level, more or less. When you shape a meld, you may choose to bind it to a chakra, if you have chakra binds available. Your class level determines two things here: first, it determines how many binds you get, and second, it determines which binds you have available. Unlike soulmelds, binds are essentially divided by level. If you bind a soulmeld to a chakra, you lose the item slot associated with that chakra for as long as the soulmeld is bound, but you get a greater benefit out of the soulmeld. A soulmeld must occupy a chakra to be bound to it; if you could shape a meld to either your arms chakra or your hands chakra, you must have it in your hands chakra if you want to use its hands chakra bind. Since you can only have a soulmeld in one chakra at once, in this hypothetical scenario, you would not also get the benefit of the arms chakra bind for this meld, though you could theoretically have a different meld bound to your arms. If a soulmeld is bound, you still get the base (shaped) benefit of it, but you also get the bind benefit as well, which is different for each meld.

The totem chakra makes things weird, but I have to get going, so I'm sure you can get a good explanation of it from someone else. But basically, you get all the melds on your list, you shape them to your chakras, and you can bind them to get additional benefits.

[Glimbur]

The totem chakra makes things weird, but I have to get going, so I'm sure you can get a good explanation of it from someone else. But basically, you get all the melds on your list, you shape them to your chakras, and you can bind them to get additional benefits.

Honestly, with the explanation you gave the Totem chakra is simple. It's special: you can't shape soulmelds to it, but you can bind soulmelds to it. It typically grants natural attacks, but there are some exceptions. Only the totemist gets it. That's... about it for the Totem chakra.