Incarnum soulmelds

[Renen]

Do I need to invest essentia into soulmelds when I shape them? Because it seems some soulmelds give good bonuses even without wasting essentia on them.

Example:
CRYSTAL HELM
Crystal in its many forms is frequently associated with mental
powers, hence its widespread use by characters with psionic
powers. With this soulmeld, you shape incarnum into a
crystalline form to draw on its protective qualities.
The soulmeld provides protection against mental effects,
granting you a +2 resistance bonus on Will saving throws
against charm and compulsion.
Essentia: You can increase the protective properties
granted by a crystal helm by investing essentia in the soulmeld.
You gain a deflection bonus to your Armor Class equal to
the number of points of essentia that you invest in the
crystal helm.

If I shape it, can I just have it empty, only for the bonus to will save?

If im not mistaken, the only limit I have on this is my Meldshaper level, and my Con?

[GutterFace]

the short answer; yes, you can have it empty (sans essentia invested)

melds go like this: Shaped > Invest Essentia > Bound >

you cant have more than 1 shaped to the same slot at any one time.
(unless you're a Totemist and that's a different animal)

But yes you get the base bonus for having the Meld, shaped.

[Fouredged Sword]

Shaping a meld and investing essence are two separate things.

You shape a meld at the start of the day. This forms the meld over a chakra and gives you the base benefits. All melds are shaped without essence invested.

When you shape a meld, you may ALSO choose to bind it. This makes it so you cannot equip a magic item into that slot, but give an additional bonus.

Then, anytime, as a swift action, you may choose to invest or reinvest your essence as you see fit.

[Yuki Akuma]

Think of Soulmelds as being glasses and Essentia being water. You can freely pour the water (Essentia) from one glass (Soulmeld) to another, to fill them up in exactly the way you want.

[Chronos]

And you can change it whenever you want with a swift action. So, for instance, you could start combat with your essentia invested in an offensive meld, attack, then shift it to a defensive meld before ending your turn; then on the next turn start by shifting it back to offense, then attacking again. Which would leave your defenses low for the next turn, but hopefully that's enough.

Or alternately, of course, you could do it the other way around, so you always have full power to defense and full offense half the time, or some mix.

[Person_Man]

The soulmeld, chakra bind, and essentia are essentially three separate things.

1) Each day you shape X soulmelds. Each soulmeld has a discrete ability that it grants. (Each of which is roughly equivalent to a Feat).

2) Each day you can make Y chakra binds. You can only bind soulmelds that you have shaped, and you can only do so in specific body slots that you are capable of binding (Totem, Crown, Hands, etc). Every chakra bind (with the exception of Totem) also closes off the corresponding magic item body slot. Making a chakra bind grants you one additional new ability, depending on which soulmeld you bound and which slot you bound it to. In general these abilities are progressively more awesome depending upon what slot you bind them to, since which slots you can bind to are limited by your class level.

3) You get a pool of Z essentia. As a Swift Action, you may invest any number of essentia into any soulmeld you have shaped, up to a maximum of your maximum essentia capacity. (Which is based on your hit dice plus bonuses from various sources). This grants you a numerical bonus of some kind and/or improves the power of your soulmeld and/or chakra bind.


Think of yourself as the Captain of the starship Enterprise. You might have weapons, shields, propulsion, etc, each represented by a different soulmeld. You can get chakra binds, which represent technology upgrades. And you have essentia, which represents power from the engine room. Once your ship is built (soulmelds and chakra binds) it's more or less locked in until the next day. But then you can shift power/essentia between the different parts as a Swift Action each turn, in reaction to whatever you think you need to do.

[Renen]

Also, are there any soulmelds listed in places other than MoI?
I know there are some dragon themed ones in online article about dragons, and some psionic ones in mind's eye. Any others?

[Karnith]

Also, are there any soulmelds listed in places other than MoI?
Dragon Magazine 350 contains three Totemist soulmelds - Brood Keeper's Heart, Chaos Roc's Span, and Gravorg Tail.

[Fouredged Sword]

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20060217a

This page is a wizards article that added some psionic flavored stuff for incarnum

[Renen]

Yeh. Thats the one I meant when i said mind's eye. And I found this one too: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060912a&page=4

Are there any others?

[Big Fau]

Yeh. Thats the one I meant when i said mind's eye. And I found this one too: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060912a&page=4

Are there any others?

Sadly, no. The book is criminally under-supported (only the Book of Nine Swords has less support), which is a shame since it is one of the most entertaining books for 3.5, at least IMO.

[Psyren]

Yeh. Thats the one I meant when i said mind's eye. And I found this one too: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060912a&page=4

Are there any others?

There's a couple in... Dragon Magic, I believe. And that's it.