[3.5] What do you think are the best Incarnate soulmelds?

[KillianHawkeye]

I'm playing an Incarnate of the Evil variety in my group's new Evil character game (because I can't resist a good pun). I'm planning on going into Necrocarnate eventually, but I'm only level 5 right now.

While I've had a couple ideas for soulmelds to use (Enigma Helm to hide my alignment when infiltrating a city or passing by Paladins without getting noticed, for example), but I could really use some advice on which ones or combinations people have had the best experiences with. In the first session I played last Sunday, I mostly used ones that enhanced melee combat (Blood War Gauntlets, Bluesteel Bracers), and Acrobat Boots for general utility, but I'm sure there's better things I could be doing.

Any advice?

[undead hero]

Crystal Helm to make your melee damage have the sweeeeet force descriptor.

Incarnate Avatar might be nice for evil along with incarnate weapon.


Also isn't that the PrC that you have to kill to get ? Make sure you can kill ants or you won't have enough essentia to function.

Spell ward shirt and air step sandles are fun as hell.

[KillianHawkeye]

Also isn't that the PrC that you have to kill to get ? Make sure you can kill ants or you won't have enough essentia to function.

Yeah, you do have to kill things (or at least have things around which are recently deceased) to turn their soul energy into necro-EVIL-essentia or whatever, but I don't expect it to be that much of a problem given the campaign parameters. And if you have enough dead bodies, I think you can end up with WAY more essentia than a normal guy would have. You just have to be careful during the first encounter of the day.

Also, I'm not sure ants even HAVE souls. :smallamused:

[Piggy Knowles]

My personal favorite is the Necrocarnum Circlet.

And Necrocarnate's not nearly as bad as people seem to imply. Your harvested essentia lasts 24 hours, so you can usually stagger things to always have a decent amount.

[Waker]

What soulmelds are "best" is dependent on what you want to accomplish. That being said, I can list some of my favorites.
Crystal Helm- Small Will Boost, Deflection AC if you want it and most importantly, Force descriptor on melee attacks.
Impulse Boots- Uncanny Dodge, Reflex Boost and Evasion. Very handy.
Mage's Spectacles- Boosts to several useful skills. Most importantly UMD.
Airstep Sandals- Cheap all-day flight.
Fellmist Robes- Good miss chance.
Bluesteel Bracers- Small initiative boost and extra damage.

As far as going Necrocarnum, it's an odd class. It doesn't really make necrocarnum all that much better, rather it is just a way to hoard absurd amounts of essentia. It is however a good idea to carry around a few corpses so you can make necrocarnum zombies whenever you need them, since it requires no investment.

[undead hero]

Yeah, you do have to kill things (or at least have things around which are recently deceased) to turn their soul energy into necro-EVIL-essentia or whatever, but I don't expect it to be that much of a problem given the campaign parameters. And if you have enough dead bodies, I think you can end up with WAY more essentia than a normal guy would have. You just have to be careful during the first encounter of the day.

Also, I'm not sure ants even HAVE souls. :smallamused:

As a DM I so would have them have souls... When you kill to much you get attacked by Formians (err giant ant creatures) cause their god is pissed at you for the genocide of her people err ants...

Also why wouldn't a living creature have a soul, specifically in a fantasy setting?

[Talionis]

I am a big fan of share Soulmeld. That way you can let your familiar/mount/animal companion (sadly not Soulspark familiar?) double up. It could even work with Necrocarnum Circlet to give you two zombies.

Remember Necrocarnum Zombies are a little better than normal zombies.

Also don't forget that you can pick up a Totemist Soulmeld if you think it will go with your motif. Many of those Soulmelds go really well with share Soulmeld since they double the number of natural attacks your Soulmelds provide.

[Person_Man]

Offense:

Necrocarnum Circlet: Your most important and powerful soulmeld. This lets you summon a necrocarnum zombie (much more useful then a normal zombie) with hit dice limited by your meldshaper level, with a range of 30 ft (unlike Animate Dead, which has a range of touch), at-will, at no cost. It basically gives you a second Tier 4 character to control, which you can use as a tackle dummy, mount, door opener/"trap finder," etc.
Arcane Focus: Add a Daze effect to a spell, which is a very potent lockdown effect (since almost nothing is immune). Also, the Save DC is based on the soulmeld, and not your spell. So you can use a Quickened Acid Splash or something similar to great effect. There's also the Psionic Focus soulmeld, which does the same thing for psionics.
Illusion Veil: Increase duration of Illusion spells by +1 round per point of essentia (with certain restrictions). Useful for certain Illusion buffs and debuffs.
Elder Spirit or Mage's Spectacles: UMD bonus. Important if you want to use Illusion Veil or Arcane focus.
Dissolving Spittle: Fairly good ranged touch attack. This is boring, but it's often the "bread and butter" attack for Incarnates who don't want to get their hands dirty in melee or burn through wand/staff charges.


Defense:

Theraputic Mantle: Increases the effectiveness of any "spell or effect that heals hit point damage" on you. The overlooked trick with this soulmeld is that it specifically works on any effect that heals hit points, and not just spells. Fast Healing 1 becomes Fast Healing 1 + essentia invested, an investment in the Divine Spirit stance would mean that every melee attack you make would heal you 2 + essentia invested, a Vampiric Weapon enhancement would heal 1d6 + essentia on each attack, and so on. Stack 3-4 different sources of healing on yourself, throw a couple other defensive soulmelds, and you'll often be at full hit points at the end of every turn.
Vitality Belt: Bonus hit points, massively so at higher levels.
Spellward Shirt: Fairly impressive Spell Resistance. If you invest in a Feat and/or a magic item to boost it, you should be able to resist 70-90%ish of most spells.
Wind Cloak: Impressive DR vs ranged weapons, and you can Deflect Arrows multiple times per round (basically making you immune-ish to ranged attacks) without needing a free hand
Apparition Ribbon gives you the incorporeal subtype (for meldshaper rounds per day) and Crystal Helm gives your attacks the Force descriptor.


Tricks:

Get a Familiar. (I prefer 1 level of Sorcerer, which also mostly negates the need for UMD). Take the Share Soulmeld feat. Now your Familiar gains the benefits of all of your Soulmelds, which (as you can see above) can be quite impressive.
Take at least 1 level of Necrocarnate. Now whenever you come across a recently dead creature (like the ones your party kills) you gain +1 essentia for 24 hours. the essentia stacks, so you'll often have full essentia for every soulmeld.
Flame Cincture: Fire Resistance 10 + (5 * essentia invested). If the soulmeld is bound to your Waist Chakra, then after resisting damage with flame cincture, on your next turn you can release a blast that deals the same damage as a Swift Action ranged touch attack. Have an ally dump fireballs on you, or just buy an Explosive melee weapon (Comp Warrior, IIRC) which deals fire damage to everyone in a 5 ft radius on each hit.

[Bonzai]

Early on?

Disolving Spittle, Mantle of flame, Necrocarnum Circlet. A 3rd level evil Incarnate could be doing 4d6 ranged touch acid damage with a 3d6 Fire shield, and 3 hd zombie minion.

Spellward Shirt is nice early on, but doesn't scale well. When it starts struggling to keep up, swap it for a Strong Heart vest to make you immune to most ability damage.

Planar Ward is an easy way to get protection to mind control, but it does compete with dissolving spittle for the throat slot.

Wind Cloak is also a nice source of protection to swap out to when Mantle of flame starts losing steam (pun intended).

Once you have your basic offense and defense set, it really comes down to what you want to do with your character. Want to use wands and magic items? Shape Mage Spectacles. Party needs a trap finder/disabler? Use Theft gloves.

Incarnum is a really versatile system. The problem is that it is really front loaded, and then scales at a slow, even progression. Most builds and classes tend to accelerate in power faster, and over take them in the late levels.