Question about Incarnum and chakra slots

[Grod_The_Giant]

Can you shape (but not bind) a soulmeld if you don't have the appropriate Chakra Bind ability? So if I'm, say, a 10th level Incarnate, could I shape a Vitality Belt and invest essentia to get the bonus health?

[Waker]

You can shape any soulmeld that you know (which if you take at least a level in one of the classes, grants the entire meld list) and attach it to the body slot that it corresponds to. The Chakra Bind is not required, though it obviously gives you extra bonuses if you do bind it.

So at level 1 an Incarnate can use any soulmeld from their list. However it isn't until level 2 that they can bind a soulmeld to a Chakra point.

[Grod_The_Giant]

So at level 1 an Incarnate can use any soulmeld from their list. However it isn't until level 2 that they can bind a soulmeld to a Chakra point.

D'oh! That should have answered my question right there. Thanks!

[Waker]

D'oh! That should have answered my question right there. Thanks!

It's alright. The book, while containing my favorite subsystem, could definitely have used a bit more editing and a better layout. If you have any other questions, just ask or you can peruse this guide made by Shneeky.

[KillingAScarab]

I agree that this is a bit easy to overlook when you're first looking into Magic of Incarnum. The relevant paragraphs are on page 5, which is not where anyone familiar with D&D books is ever looking for clear rules, just fluff and introductions.

One caveat to Waker's response, though. Since a soulborn doesn't have a meldshaper level until 4th level in the class, one level isn't sufficient to get access to their melds. Page 20 also notes a character's Constitution score - 10 is the equal to the absolute maximum number of melds a character can have simultaneously shaped. In a dipping situation a character with Incarnate 1/Totemist 1 would not be able to shape all four soulmelds allowed by the class tables if their constitution score was less than 14.

[Waker]

I agree that this is a bit easy to overlook when you're first looking into Magic of Incarnum. The relevant paragraphs are on page 5, which is not where anyone familiar with D&D books is ever looking for clear rules, just fluff and introductions.

One caveat to Waker's response, though. Since a soulborn doesn't have a meldshaper level until 4th level in the class, one level isn't sufficient to get access to their melds. Page 20 also notes a character's Constitution score - 10 is the equal to the absolute maximum number of melds a character can have simultaneously shaped. In a dipping situation a character with Incarnate 1/Totemist 1 would not be able to shape all four soulmelds allowed by the class tables if their constitution score was less than 14.

I also like how they hid the table on maximum essentia capacity on pg 19 in the class introduction, as opposed to the section detailing soulmelds. Really fun.
You are also technically correct about the Soulborn, the best kind of correct. However I try to do my best to forget the existence of the Soulborn, hence why I have two homebrew classes to replace it.