Soulmeld damage scaling fixes?

[Coidzor]

Has anyone done any work on either a quick and dirty patch or a more complete fix of soulmelds in general for scaling the damage of soulmelds such as Dissolving Spittle?

An idea just occurred to me to have the damage scale based upon meldshaper level in a way similar to spells such as fireball scale based upon caster level. Either as a flat +meldshaper level to damage or as an extra die of damage every 3-4 meldshaper levels in addition to the damage dice added via essentia investment. Maybe have them be a smaller damage die size without invested essentia, even.

So I was curious to see if such an idea had occurred to anyone and motivated them enough to take a decent stab at it.

Or, hopefully, an even better one born from careful thought rather than being a spur of the moment flash of almost-inspiration that struck in the middle of making a steak sandwich.

[GutterFace]

you could:

go into Scout and Incarnate with a Race that has essentia.

you'll need Dissolving Spittle and Sighting Gloves

Bonus Essentia and Indigo Strike feats.


i would keep the dissolving spittle to 1d6 and jack up the essentia invested for Indigo Strike and sighting gloves

i dont have all the class info in front of me so i cant say what the best combo of classes/levels would be.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Doubling the scaling (2d6+2d6/2 essentia invested) ought to work OK for things like Dissolving Spittle that are supposed to just deal damage. Might be OP at low levels, though.

[Person_Man]

As is, both classes are solid Tier 3 choices which can fill various niches. It's just that neither is particularly good at racking up huge raw numbers at anything, with the exception of the Totemist's ability to deal crazy damage, and either classes ability to get amazing Skill checks when they multi-class. (Example: Factotum 3/Incarnate 3 makes most Skill checks with 1d20 + 9 from ranks + 10 from soulmelds + ability score + Int (if Str or Dex from Brains Over Brawn) + misc, which is pretty ridiculous for a ECL 6 character).

In particular, Incarnate with it's Necrocarnate Zombie is an amazing meat shield and backup Skill Monkey, with ok but meh melee and ranged damage options.


But if it's important to you:

1) RAW fix: Take 1 level of anything that grants a Familiar. Take the Share Soulmeld Feat. Now your Familiar gains the benefits of all of your soulmelds as long as it stays close to you, which basically doubles the effectiveness of all of your offensive soulmelds.


2) Houserule fixes to consider:

Essentia capacity is equal to 1/2 your Meldshaper class level + 1/4 your hit dice from all other sources (with the total rounded up, so 1 at first level, max of 10 at 19th level). It cannot be improved further by any Feats, spells, class abilities, or magic items. Starting at level 6, Incarnate gains 2 points of essentia per level, which means a 20th level Incarnate gets 36 points of essentia (instead of 26). Totemist uses the original Incarnate essentia progression (getting 26 points over 20 levels instead of 20).

Totemist opens up his Soul chakra at 19th level like the Incarnate (which makes his one Soul chakra bind, Threefold Mask of the Chimera, useful).

Incarnate's Planar Chasuble soulmeld bound to Brow chakra increases your Incarnum Radiance class ability by an an amount equal to the essentia invested in the soulmeld, instead of just +1. This makes Incarnum Radiance (bonus to-hit or damage or AC or movement) a lot more powerful, especially late in their progression when it can be shared and used multiple times per day.

When destroyed, an Incarnate's Soulspark Familiar can be re-spawned as a full round action. (Currently, it's gone until the next time you re-bind it). This adds some damage per round and utility of an at-will Summons.

Incarnate's Elder Spirit (Dragon Magic) soulmeld bound to Soul lets you Shapechange into a Dragon matching your alignment type for a number of rounds per day equal to your Meldshaper level (split up however you like, Standard Action to change into dragon, free action to dismiss). Currently it only grants Blindsense, which is completely pointless, since Keeneye Lenses grant True Seeing.

[Coidzor]

As is, both classes are solid Tier 3 choices which can fill various niches. It's just that neither is particularly good at racking up huge raw numbers at anything, with the exception of the Totemist's ability to deal crazy damage, and either classes ability to get amazing Skill checks when they multi-class. (Example: Factotum 3/Incarnate 3 makes most Skill checks with 1d20 + 9 from ranks + 10 from soulmelds + ability score + Int (if Str or Dex from Brains Over Brawn) + misc, which is pretty ridiculous for a ECL 6 character).

Mostly it just annoys me how Totemist especially has these breath weapons and rays, but there's no point in ever using them except for a brief 1 or 2 level period, maybe, when one first gets access to them. I dislike trap options and options that don't serve any purpose except to have been filler on a page.


2) Houserule fixes to consider:

Essentia capacity is equal to 1/2 your Meldshaper class level + 1/4 your hit dice from all other sources (with the total rounded up, so 1 at first level, max of 10 at 19th level). It cannot be improved further by any Feats, spells, class abilities, or magic items. Starting at level 6, Incarnate gains 2 points of essentia per level, which means a 20th level Incarnate gets 36 points of essentia (instead of 26). Totemist uses the original Incarnate essentia progression (getting 26 points over 20 levels instead of 20).

Totemist opens up his Soul chakra at 19th level like the Incarnate (which makes his one Soul chakra bind, Threefold Mask of the Chimera, useful).

Now this rings a bell. I'd remembered seeing some idea like this, mostly the increasing of essentia for both Incarnate and Totemist, but I couldn't recall where I'd run into it.

Makes sense.


Incarnate's Planar Chasuble soulmeld bound to Brow chakra increases your Incarnum Radiance class ability by an an amount equal to the essentia invested in the soulmeld, instead of just +1. This makes Incarnum Radiance (bonus to-hit or damage or AC or movement) a lot more powerful, especially late in their progression when it can be shared and used multiple times per day.

When destroyed, an Incarnate's Soulspark Familiar can be re-spawned as a full round action. (Currently, it's gone until the next time you re-bind it). This adds some damage per round and utility of an at-will Summons.

Incarnate's Elder Spirit (Dragon Magic) soulmeld bound to Soul lets you Shapechange into a Dragon matching your alignment type for a number of rounds per day equal to your Meldshaper level (split up however you like, Standard Action to change into dragon, free action to dismiss). Currently it only grants Blindsense, which is completely pointless, since Keeneye Lenses grant True Seeing.

Those all seem pretty nifty.