Pathfinder Soulknife Ideas/Questions, Need Opinions

[Emparawr]

Okay so Im brand new to Pathfinder, pretty experienced in 3.5 and im making a character for a new campaign. Its mostly Soulknife based but is going to be pretty damn multiclassed. Anyways I have come across several unanswered questions and although I have my own thoughts on them I was curious to see what some of you might think. thanks in advance for any help.

1)Can a Soulknife's Enhanced Soul Blades enchantments go past the standard +5 enchantment to Attack and Damage, and the +5 spent on abilities like flaming?

I know that normal magic weapons cannot but nowhere in the description for this Soul Knife ability does it say that it is limited to a cumulative +10. I am guessing that it is though simply because it only goes up to +9 and then there is a blade skill to get that last point taking it up to 10 but for example

Cause Total
19 levels in Soulknife = +9
Improved Enhancement Blade Skill = +10
+3 Crystaline Focus Hilt = +13

So would it be a +5 Mind Blade with 8 points worth of abilities. Or do you think that it maxes at 10 so the crystalline focus items are just to make up for enhancement points not gained due to not taking enough points in Soulknife because with Improved Enchantment and a Crystalline Focus even a level 13 Soulknife could be maxed at +10.


2) The second interesting thought is a bit more complicated. My thought was using the Metaphysical weapon power to boost the enchantment bonus of a Mind Blade so that the Mind Blade's points could be spent on abilities. Hence

Cause Total
5 levels in Soulknife = +2
Improved Enhancement Blade Skill = +3
+2 Crystaline Focus Hilt = +5
17 Point Metaphysical weapon = +10

The idea would be that even if the Mind Blade did have a +10 total limit, 5 points could be put into abilities upon forming, then the Metaphysical Weapon power would add on the +5 Enchantment bonus. This idea is based off of the fact that nowhere in the Enhanced Mind Blade ability description does it say that you HAVE to put in even a single point into an enhancement bonus, only that

The soulknife may (and must, when her total enhancement is higher than her maximum bonus) apply any special ability from Table: Weapon Special Abilities instead of an enhancement bonus, as long as she meets the level requirements.

I know that normally Magic Weapons have to have at least +1 in enchantment before it can be given abilities but the mindblade isn't a normal magic weapon either. Anyways I have more ideas as well but its late and I need to get something to eat so ill follow up with the rest later.

[Psyren]

So would it be a +5 Mind Blade with 8 points worth of abilities.

This is correct.



2) The second interesting thought is a bit more complicated. My thought was using the Metaphysical weapon power to boost the enchantment bonus of a Mind Blade so that the Mind Blade's points could be spent on abilities.

This will not work. The specific wording of the PF Soulknife's ability pool is that it is also treated as an enhancement bonus - you cannot use Metaphysical Weapon, magic weapon or similar spells/powers to boost it further because enhancement bonuses don't stack.

And your math is off as well - a 17-point Metaphysical Weapon is +5 total, not +10.

[Emparawr]

Can you show me where it says that Weapon Abilities are treated as an enhancement bonus, cuz im not seeing that anywhere.

As far as I know Enhancement bonus is a separate classification then the ability pool. That's why the +1 Enhancement bonus to Atk and Dmg on weapons is called and Enhancement Bonus and the Weapon Abilities aren't. Just like Insight bonuses, armor bonuses, shield bonuses, deflection bonuses, dodge bonuses etc. I know that bonuses of the same type dont stack, with some exceptions such as dodge. So it makes complete sense to me.

Also the +10 was a total of all previous numbers, IOW 2+3+5 =10. The numbers didnt line up visually however because apparently the message board removed all the spaces I put between the cause and the modifier and just made it into one space. Looking forward to more opinions :)

[meemaas]

First off. Where psionics are concerned, Psyren is always right. But, to answer your question. You can't turn the bonus given by metaphysical weapon into special abilities. The mind blade requires eight hours of meditation to manipulate it's special abilities.

On the flip side, a +1 blade with 12 points of special abilities is technically possible, with metaphysical weapon then overlapping the +1 with a +5. Although I could be wrong.

Edit: since I passed over it. Yes, you do still need a +1 on a mind blade before you can put special abilities on it. It is still considered and treated like a magic weapon.

[Psyren]

First off. Where psionics are concerned, Psyren is always right.

I'm very flattered, but don't know if I'd go that far :smallredface: I've learned as much as I've taught on these boards.



As far as I know Enhancement bonus is a separate classification then the ability pool. That's why the +1 Enhancement bonus to Atk and Dmg on weapons is called and Enhancement Bonus and the Weapon Abilities aren't. Just like Insight bonuses, armor bonuses, shield bonuses, deflection bonuses, dodge bonuses etc. I know that bonuses of the same type dont stack, with some exceptions such as dodge. So it makes complete sense to me.

Ah, I misread you; I thought you meant buffing a blade to get more points to play with, rather than taking an already high-level blade, allocating all but one of the points to abilities, then using metaphysical weapon to overwrite the +1 enhancement with something higher. Yes, that should be doable, though to get any benefit out of it you'd need to be pretty high level yourself as well as have a pretty high-level Metaphysical Weapon (from Gifted Blade or having a friendly manifester handy.)



Also the +10 was a total of all previous numbers, IOW 2+3+5 =10.

Let me see if I understand you clearly then. Soulknife 5 has a +2 blade with an ability cap of 1, meaning you can have +1 on your blade and +1 for abilities. IEB gives you an additional +1 you can put towards either of these, I assume you want that to go to abilities as well - so you have a +1 blade with +2 worth of abilities. Finally, a +2 crystal hilt (how are you affording this at 5th level?) can also go to abilities, so now you have a +1 blade with +4 worth of abilities. You can then use Metaphysical Weapon to overwrite your +1 with a higher number - though again, at 5th-level you're not likely to get much use out of this tactic.

[Emparawr]

Yeah Gifted Blade was the route I've been planning on taking. Also since Bonus PP in Pathfinder are friggin awesome, as opposed to piddly and useless like in 3.5 my DM is letting me take the Practiced Manifester Feat to bump up my Manifester level so that I can burn up my PP on buffs.

As far as the requring a +1 enchantment bonus it made sense to me since the ability is essentially replicating a magic weapon, but then at the same time normal magical weapons have a total bonus cap of +10, whereas this ability seemingly doesnt. But yes that was my idea was to pump all the points into abilites and then use Metaphysical weapon to override the enhantment bonus and bring it up to full strength, hence either creating a full strength magic weapon that doesnt require anywhere near as many Soulknife levels, or creating a magic weapon that has the strength of an insane legacy weapon or artifact. Not really sure which route I want to go yet but at this point I think I'd like to tell you guys about the concept for this char.