Rules question + Magic of Incarnum + D.M. IN NEED!

[Thugorp]

Hello, I am D.Ming. a game and one of my players picked the Totemist class. I need some help as that I can't seem to find any beneficent to actually binding a chacra? Can someone help me out. From what I can tell a soulmeld bound to a chocra acts just like any other soulmeld except that you now can't wear a magic item in that space. So what's with this? Is there a benefit? What am I missing?

[WhatBigTeeth]

Hello, I am D.Ming. a game and one of my players picked the Totemist class. I need some help as that I can't seem to find any beneficent to actually binding a chacra?
See how the soulmelds are formatted with one paragraph detailing effects of a soulmeld, a quick blurb detailing the effects of investing essentia in a soulmeld and the paragraphs below with the various chakra's names as headings? Those last paragraphs are the benefits of binding the soulmeld to those particular chakras.

[Waker]

When a soulmeld is bound to a Chakra, you gain all the normal benefits of wearing a soulmeld in addition to the chakra benefit.
Impulse Boots for instance normally give you Uncanny Dodge and a bonus to Reflex equal to essential invested. If you have them bound to your Feet Chakra you get Uncanny Dodge, Reflex bonus and Evasion.
There are also feats that help get around the body slot limitation, namely Double Chakra and Split Chakra. The latter is what you may want, as it allows you to wear equipment and attach a bind to a specific body/chakra slot.

Did you have any other questions?

Edit: Incarnated! Curse you WhatBigTeeth.

[Glimbur]

See how the soulmelds are formatted with one paragraph detailing effects of a soulmeld, a quick blurb detailing the effects of investing essentia in a soulmeld and the paragraphs below with the various chakra's names as headings? Those last paragraphs are the benefits of binding the soulmeld to those particular chakras.

If you aren't seeing the benefit to the chakra bind, you might be accidentally giving your totemist all of the chakra bind effects for every soulmeld. That would make him somewhat more powerful than he should be RAW. So you might get some push back, but this is correct. Soulmelds are generally small numerical bonuses with the good stuff coming from binds.

[WhatBigTeeth]

Example Time!

Psion-Killer Mask (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20060217a)
Descriptor: None
Classes: Totemist
Chakra: Brow (totem)
Saving Throw: None
I assume this stuff is pretty straightforward. The basic limits of how the melds are used.

You craft incarnum into a red crystal mask that has sharp edges along its many facets. The crystal has an inner crimson glow that seems to intensify when near psionic energies.

Psion killers are constructs crafted to hunt and kill those who use psionics, and those deaths resonate within the incarnum. By shaping this soulmeld, totemists hope to gain the power to combat psionics -- particularly against foes armed with large number of psionic items.
Fluff!

You can use a detect psionics effect as the power, with a range of 10 feet. You can use this ability as often as desired, but no more than once per round (as a standard action).
Okay, here's where the benefits start. This is what you get for shaping the soulmeld. It doesn't matter which chakra you shape it on, it's the same benefit. Anyone with access to the soulmeld can shape it, you don't need to worry about any of that Open Chakra or "Chakra Binds (Crown, Feet, Hands)" nonsense for this stuff.

Essentia: For every point of essentia you invest in your psion-killer mask, the range of the detect psionics effect increases by 10 feet.
This is what you get for investing essentia in the soulmeld. Again, it doesn't require binding, and doesn't matter which chakra the soulmeld is shaped to.

Chakra Bind (Brow)

Your psion-killer mask binds to your forehead, and your eyes replace the red glow in the mask's sockets. Colors seem somehow more alive to your sight -- particularly the colors of psionic displays and items you know to be psionic.

When using this soulmeld's detect psionics ability, you can instantly determine the number, strength, and location of each psionic aura present as if you had been concentrating for 3 rounds. You must still make Psicraft checks as normal to determine the discipline of psionic power within each aura.
This is what happens when you bind the soulmeld to the brow slot. It has to be shaped to the brow to use this benefit, your character has to have the chakra available for binding (through feats, class features or spells) and your character loses access to the corresponding item slot. If you don't bind the soulmeld to this specific chakra, you don't get the benefit.

Chakra Bind (Totem)

Your face is covered in crystal facets that now grow down to your chest and shoulders. As the crystal covers your face, you can almost taste and smell the psionic energy in the air, and if you extend your crystal tongue, the air tastes sweet and strong -- almost like a liqueur.

You can emit a crimson ray from the mouth of your psion-killer mask to make a ranged touch attack as a standard action. The ray has a range of 10 feet and it uses your normal base attack bonus.

If you hit with the ray, you deal no damage but have a chance to temporarily suppress a psionic item that the target might have. Unless you choose a specific item held or worn by the target (such as "the sword he holds" or "his third eye"), you affect psionic items in the following order: shield, armor, helmet, item in hand, cloak, stowed or sheathed weapon, bracers, clothing, jewelry (including third eyes), and anything remaining.

To suppress the item, you must succeed on a meldshaper level check (1d20 + your meldshaper level) against a DC of 11 + the psionic item's manifester level. Success means that the item's psionic properties are suppressed for 10 minutes.

You can also use this ability to suppress a specific soulmeld temporarily, but you must specify the soulmeld to be affected; otherwise you affect a psionic item instead. Use the soulmeld's meldshaper level as its manifester level.
This is a second option for a bind. Again, not all meldshapers have automatic access to the ability, so you need to get to Totemist level 2 to bind it (or do some funky things with Totem Giants that we can ignore). Since the Totem bind doesn't have a corresponding item slot, this does not block any magic items, but it does count against your total binds.

Edit: Incarnated! Curse you WhatBigTeeth.
I knew that Umbral Disciple dip would pay off! :smallbiggrin:

[Lord Haart]

And totem chackra bind is somewhat wonky: it doesn't correspond to any body location (or, if you will, gives you a new body slot that can only be used for binding a soulmeld, not for wearing any item or even shaping a soulmeld). Therefore, first, it doesn't interfere with magic items (since there are no magic items you could wear "on your totem" to be blocked off) and second, you have to actually shape a soulmeld before binding it to chackra and you can't shape a soulmeld "on your totem", so you have to shape it somewhere else (as permitted by it) and then bind it to the totem chackra instead of its own slot (or in addition to, with eleventh level of Totemist).

P. S. I like meldshapers. Yes, both of them, why? Meldshapers are relatively low-powered (cheesable, like most things D&D, but worthless on their optimisation floor and somewhat better than out-of-the-box fighters, rogues and barbarians when not very optimized), versatile, and a lot of fun in "My character can do X things that you usually need an item or a spell for (flight, dimdoor, breath attacks, resistances, immunities, natural attacks etc. etc.) today (in an appropriately downscaled to level one yet functional way). Having those options when you need them for your role (and therefore don't care about downscaled effectiveness) is cool" sense.