Warsoulbladeknife? Odd things to do with a dip.

[mabriss lethe]

It's no secret that I love the Soulknife, despite its flaws, and I'm always looking to find some unexplored tidbits that help to make them playable, without diving through homebrew fixes or 3rd Party. I've dug up a few tricks here and there, but I thought of another today.

One of the glaring problems the class has is its limited selection of weapons. I think I've stumbled upon a workaround for it. Dip Warblade to pick up Weapon Aptitude. Pick up those otherwise useless feats from Complete Psionics. You know the ones. Dwarven urgosh mindblade, Orc Double Axe Mindblade, Two bladed mindblade. Respec one or more of these to other, more useful weapon forms, picking up an appropriate Exotic Proficiency as a freebie from the feats when you do. Make yourself a spiked chain or a gnomish quick razor, or whatever.

It's still not exactly ideal, but hey, we're dealing with a Soulknife here.

[HaikenEdge]

It's no secret that I love the Soulknife, despite its flaws, and I'm always looking to find some unexplored tidbits that help to make them playable, without diving through homebrew fixes or 3rd Party. I've dug up a few tricks here and there, but I thought of another today.

One of the glaring problems the class has is its limited selection of weapons. I think I've stumbled upon a workaround for it. Dip Warblade to pick up Weapon Aptitude. Pick up those otherwise useless feats from Complete Psionics. You know the ones. Dwarven urgosh mindblade, Orc Double Axe Mindblade, Two bladed mindblade. Respec one or more of these to other, more useful weapon forms, picking up an appropriate Exotic Proficiency as a freebie from the feats when you do. Make yourself a spiked chain or a gnomish quick razor, or whatever.

It's still not exactly ideal, but hey, we're dealing with a Soulknife here.

You don't need EWP to use your mind blade; you're proficient with it by RAW. And Weapon Aptitude doesn't apply to the mind blade feats; they aren't like Weapon Focus or Weapon Specialization, feats that grant a static bonus to a designated weapon of choice, but are rather feats that add functionality to a class feature, namely, Shape Mind Blade.

[mabriss lethe]

Here's the relevant text, bolded for emphasis


You also have the flexibility to adjust your weapon training. Each morning, you can spend 1 hour in weapon practice to change the designated weapon for any feat you have that applies only to a single weapon


Any time you wish to reshape your mind blade using your shape mind blade class feature, you can add the two-bladed sword to your shape repertoire. You are proficient with your two-bladed sword mind blade. - you are treated as if you possess the Exotic Weapon Proficiency (two-bladed sword mind blade). The weapon is sized appropriately for you and deals damage as a two-bladed sword.

[HaikenEdge]

At best, you can say the feat applies to your mind blade, the designated weapon, by shaping it in a way that mimics another weapon, in this case, a two-bladed sword. The two-bladed sword, however, is not the designated weapon even by this interpretation. If this is the way this feat is being interpreted as, it simply means you'd be shaping another weapon into a Two-Bladed sword, and not your mindblade into another type of exotic weapon.

Furthermore, I would make the argument that, because the phrase "selected weapon" is not present within the feat, the way it is in Weapon Focus/Specialization/etc, which was used as an example under the class feature entry, it doesn't qualify for Weapon Aptitude, because no weapon was ever designated by the feat.

[Chronos]

Yeah, the Aptitude weapon property can work with specific-weapon feats, but the Weapon Aptitude class feature only works with feats that let you choose a weapon. On the other hand, if you could somehow get the Aptitude property onto your mindblade, and had one of those feats, that might let you reshape your mindblade into the weapon of your choice.

[Deophaun]

Here's the relevant text, bolded for emphasis
Questionable because there is other relevant text that can be bolded for emphasis.

Each morning, you can spend 1 hour in weapon practice to change the designated weapon for any feat you have that applies only to a single weapon (such as Weapon Focus).
It's fun to say that it let's you apply Lightning Mace with spiked chains, but it's not the only RAW interpretation, and I frankly don't know a DM that plays it that way.

[danzibr]

When you say you don't want to use homebrew or third party... how about PF Soulknife?

[Novawurmson]

When you say you don't want to use homebrew or third party... how about PF Soulknife?

Unfortunately, the PF Soulknife (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/soulknife) is 3rd party material. That being said, it's some of the best third-party material out there, but it isn't produced by Paizo or WotC.

[IAmTehDave]

Unfortunately, the PF Soulknife (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/soulknife) is 3rd party material. That being said, it's some of the best third-party material out there, but it isn't produced by Paizo or WotC.


I happen to like DSP. They sound like they have their <stuff> together for balance purposes, and FUN purposes. Haven't played using any of their material, but I'd like to one day. (The Marksman class looks fun, for instance. And also the 3.5 soulknife fix on their SRD)

[Nightraiderx]

I would say swordsage would fit better with a soulknife and grab shadow blade to get str/dex to damage. Also +wis to AC.
Kalastar also get some nice multiclass feats that boost your effective soulblade levels.
A soulblade 6/swordsage 14 would probably be the best bet

grab the wild talent alt so you can get a single 1st level power

Tome of Battle Feats:
Psychic Renewal - use power points and expend focus as a swift action to recover any maneuver
Instant Clarity - recover focus as a swift action after a sucessful strike 3/day
Shadow Blade - it's a shortsword

Magic of Incarnum Feats:
Psycarnum blade -expend focus +xd6 damage where x is invested essentia
Psicarnum Infusion- expend focus to fill a receptacle for a round
Azure Talent - gain 2x invested essentia as power points.

Races of Eberron Feats
Kalastar +6 effective soulblade lvl (does not grant abilities you do not previously have)
Kalastar +2 effective soulblade lvl for enhancement bonus)


I would grab a 1st lvl buff like inertia armor that lasts hr/lvl


This can also work with warblade/crusader but thematically fits best with swordsage for the wisdom bonuses. You can also add
psionic weapon tree for that extra oomph in power/touch attack

[HaikenEdge]

grab the wild talent alt so you can get a single 1st level power

Night means "Hidden Talent", not Wild Talent.

[Nightraiderx]

Night means "Hidden Talent", not Wild Talent.

Yea my bad I am with book so I couldn't look it up, I'll update the feat list when I get back to my house which will be within the half hour.