Magic of Incarnum.

[D4rkh0rus]

I've always read that Incarnates and stuff can do everything, they can get crazy bonuses to skills, fight epicly, etc. aparently they bind somethign with chakra... and transform into pure 'winning' sauce. I just don't get it... not even reading the entire book...

Could someone help me by explaining how people achieve these things? and if theyre all in the same character or multiple ones? Maybe explain the whole concept of incarnum?

thank you.

[Waker]

This (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1041916) is Incarnate by the numbers, a rather useful guide showing the actual numerical comparisons between Incarnate and Rogue.
This (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=215723) is a guide to Incarnum written by Shneeky, which is a rather handy guide for quick references.

Did you have any particular questions about Incarnum that you wanted me to answer?

[SiuiS]

Incarnum is weird. Fun but weird.

An incarnum class doesn't cast spells. They make magic items (soul melds) which occupy magic item slots (chakras). They can unlock, at certain levels, the ability to get extra powers out of those items by 'binding' them to that slot (a chakra bind). They can increase the power of those items by relocating a pool of points (essentia).

That's it.

Say an incarnate has three slots available (because your class limits how many soulmelds you can shape – instead of spells per day it's items per day), an essentia pool of 5, and a maximum essentia of 2. She makes three magic items from her list; a weapon, shoulder pads, and a cloak. The weapon gets a +1 for each point out into it, the shoulder pads give her DR 1/magic for each point put into them, and cloak gives her a 10% miss chance against ranged weapons for each point. She can only ever get a +2 from the weapon, DR 2 from the shoulder pads, and 20% miss chance though, because her maximum points per item is 2, and she can only ever have 2/2/1, and not max all the items, because her total points are only 5.

That's it. Today she has DR, magic weapon and a miss chance. Tomorrow, she can have levitation, skill boosts and healing. The day after, she can have weapons, a different skill boost, and healing. It all depends on which items she makes that day.

[D4rkh0rus]

Those two guides seem awesome, ill give them a read, and If i got more questions I'll ask. thanks waker.


SiuIs...
So you're saying that technically, an Incarnate can create any enchanted item as long as he had the essentia/max essentia to create it, and it lasts until the end of the day?


Do soulmends have a duration, or like permanent until changed?

[Kalaska'Agathas]

I dunno about "pure 'winning' sauce," but the Incarnate can put itself in as a mid level tier 3. Some sources you might find useful include the Incarnum Handbook (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=576), the Incarnate Guide (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=580), and the Incarnate by the Numbers (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1041916).

Edit:

So you're saying that technically, an Incarnate can create any enchanted item as long as he had the essentia/max essentia to create it, and it lasts until the end of the day?

Not quite - an Incarnate "shapes soulmelds" which provide specific bonuses and work kinda like magic items, but they can't make any item they please any time they want. If you want the ultimate magic item manufacturer, you want the Artificer.

Oh, and swordsaged.

[Waker]

SiuIs...
So you're saying that technically, an Incarnate can create any enchanted item as long as he had the essentia/max essentia to create it, and it lasts until the end of the day?


Do soulmends have a duration, or like permanent until changed?
Not quite. The soulmelds function as something of a cross between spells and magic items. They occupy a body slot in the same fashion that an item does.
Soulmelds have a permanent duration. They exist for as long as they remain shaped.

Once shaped, a soulmeld remains in effect until the character chooses to unshape it (typically to shape a new soulmeld in its place). A soulmeld can remain shaped for a day, a month, a year, or even a character’s entire life.


Oh, and swordsaged.
Umbral Disciple'd.

[Terazul]

SiuIs...
So you're saying that technically, an Incarnate can create any enchanted item as long as he had the essentia/max essentia to create it, and it lasts until the end of the day?


Do soulmends have a duration, or like permanent until changed?

Not exactly. Soulmelds are drawn from a specific list for the Incarnate, and aren't exactly magic items... unless you bind them to chakras, which is another step. Normally you shape some soulmelds, giving you a variety of different effects based on the number of essentia you invest in them. After a certain point in the character's career, they have the option of binding these soulmelds to a chakra. When you bind a soulmeld, it usually gets another secondary (and more powerful effect), but for the duration that it is shaped it takes up a magic item slot, preventing you from wearing something there unless you have a specific feat or whatnot. Only then do they take up slots; there's still gonna be a few things you're going to want to buy.

[AmberVael]

SiuIs...
So you're saying that technically, an Incarnate can create any enchanted item as long as he had the essentia/max essentia to create it, and it lasts until the end of the day?


Do soulmends have a duration, or like permanent until changed?

Edit: Well, been a bit ninja'd (in fact, I think I was slow enough that I'm gonna say I got monk'd), but I think this break down is still thorough and helpful.

Incarnate and other meldshaping classes create soulmelds. A soulmeld is a magic-item like power.

The meldshaping classes have a certain number of soulmeld slots each day. They fill these slots in beginning of the day with any soulmeld on their class list. The shaped soulmelds last until the next day.

On their own, soulmelds give only minor bonuses. However, a meldshaper also has a pool of points called Essentia. As a swift action, a meldshaper can invest their essentia into any of their soulmelds to increase the bonuses and benefits of that soulmeld (the particulars being specific to each soulmeld). Once invested, essentia remains in the selected configuration until the meldshaper uses another swift action, at which point they can rearrange the essentia as they see fit.

It's worth noting that there is a limit to how much essentia you can invest in any given soulmeld, based on your level. (Though there are a few ways to increase it).

In addition, higher level meldshapers gain access to chakras, and a specific number chakra binds each day. When they shape their soulmelds, for each chakra bind slot they have they may bind one of their soulmelds to one chakra they have access to. This unlocks higher level abilities from their soulmeld, and often increases the benefit of investing essentia into that meld.

[Kelb_Panthera]

While incarnates can do those things, an incarnate generally has to choose amongst them, though he can change his mind from one day to the next unless the one he wants is restricted to incarnates of a given alignment that isn't the one he picked.


To understand how they do these things you have to understand how they work in the first place.

Premise 1: Every character has ten chakras. These are the least; crown feet and hands, lesser; brow, arms, and shoulders, the greater; waist and throat, and the epic; heart and soul.

Premise 2: meldshapers (the classes from MoI) can gather up soul-stuff called incarnum and shape it into pseudo magic items in these chakras. Doing so grants them special abilities and bonuses dependent on the ones they choose to shape.

Premise 3: meldshapers can tease more power, in the form of different, additional special abilities, out of their soulmelds by binding them to the chakras they occupy. Doing so, however, causes magic items that occupy the same portion of the body to cease functioning.

Premise 4: these soulmelds are empowered further by the character's own soul-energy, called essentia, which he funnels from within himself to some or all of his soulmelds to enhance the abilities and bonuses they grant him.

Let's do an example;

Marnath is a 2nd level incarnate with con 15. As such he's developed his skill in manipulating incarnum to the point that he can shape up to 3 soulmelds at a time and bind any one of those, though only the ones he shapes to his crown. He's also developed his ability to push his own essence into such things to the point that he has 2 points of essentia to divide amongst his soulmelds. This is all layed out on the class chart on pg 21.

Since all incarnates automatically know about all incarnate soulmelds he can shape -any- three of the soulmelds listed on pg 54-55, regardless of which chakra they occupy. He cannot, however, shape the same soulmeld to more than one chakra or shape more than one soulmeld to the same chakra.

Having heard that there's an enchanter in the town he's headed into today he decides to shape the enigma helm soulmeld to his crown chakra and bind it. This gives him a constant non-detection effect for shaping it and immunity to enchantment (charm) effects for binding it.

He also shapes the vitality belt to his waist chakra in case there's a fight. This grants him a +4 morale bonus on con checks and con based skill checks, though not fortitude saves.

Finally he shapes lightning gauntlets to his hands chakra so that he's armed. This gives him a touch attack that deals 1d6 electricity damage that he can use at will as a standard action.

Shaping these soulmelds and binding the one all take place during the hour of meditation Marnath took at the beginning of the day. Now that they're shaped and bound they'll stay that way unless he unbinds or unshapes them or unless someone else employs an effect capable of doing the same or if his con is damaged enough to dip below 13, since no one can have a number of soulmelds shaped greater than their con score -10.

During the course of the day Marnath gets his pocket picked and, after chasing the brigand into an alley, engages the thief in combat. This guy looks pretty tough so Marnath expends a swift action to move his essentia around, putting one point each into his lightning guantlets and his vitality belt, increasing the damage from the gauntlets to 2d6 and giving him 2 extra HP's as layed out in the descriptions for those soulmelds. During the course of the fight he gets hurt pretty bad, so he takes another swift action to move his essentia around again; pulling the point out of his lightning gauntlets and putting it into his vitality belt, increasing his current and maximum HP's by another 2 points and decreasing his gauntlets damage back to its minimum 1d6.

After that fight and the ensuing heal-up via potion Marnath continues about his day until he finds himself in the enchanter's home. Being a paranoid sort, Marnath goes ahead and takes a swift action to move his essentia around once more, pulling the points from his vitality belt and moving them into his enigma helm; granting himself a +2 enhancement bonus to will saves and reducing his HP's by 4. He knows he can't be charmed but there are other ways for an enchanter to attack a fellow's mind.

I think this should adequately illustrate how incarnum works.



Now then, as for how incarnates can do all the things they can do, it's simply a function of good soulmeld selection.

Most incarnate soulmelds grant insight bonuses to multiple skills as their basic function before chakra binds. This allows them to not only play the role of skill-monkey but to shift their skills around from day to day. The theft gloves soulmeld's chakra bind allows them to play trap-springer by granting them the trap-finding class feature and a boost to the disable device skill.

For fighting, an evil incarnate's incarnum radiance ability and several of its exclusive soulmeld options give it serious damage dealing ability while the same features of a lawful incarnate give them very solid to-hit.

And so on.

[tiercel]

Is the main strength of the Incarnate when you know what specialization you want to sink shaping your soulmelds into today?

Because the guides seem to indicate that if you throw the kitchen sink at combat, you can be OK at combat, or if you throw the kitchen sink at being a skillmonkey, you can be a decent skillmonkey. But can you reliably be a good skillmonkey and decent combatant on the same day? (You can move essentia around freely on the fly, which is great, but you can't reshape melds nearly so freely.)

Say for instance you're going to play a 2nd-line, light-fighter skillmonkey, and you're 4th level. Why Incarnate (+2BAB, 4 soulmelds, 1 bind crown/hands/feet, radiance 1/day, 2+Int skill points per level) as opposed to, say, Bard (+3BAB, Inspire Courage at +3 if using inspirational boost and badge of valor, self-buff+utility spell such as alter self, 6+Int skill points per level), much less even Ranger (or Swift Hunter), or Rogue (or Daring Outlaw) or Swordsage?

If nothing else it just seems like a lot of work to keep plates spinning when there are other options to handle both skills and combat (without being high-tier full-spellcasting "I Win" classes).

[Kelb_Panthera]

Is the main strength of the Incarnate when you know what specialization you want to sink shaping your soulmelds into today?

Yes. That's it exactly.


Because the guides seem to indicate that if you throw the kitchen sink at combat, you can be OK at combat, or if you throw the kitchen sink at being a skillmonkey, you can be a decent skillmonkey. But can you reliably be a good skillmonkey and decent combatant on the same day? (You can move essentia around freely on the fly, which is great, but you can't reshape melds nearly so freely.)

Say for instance you're going to play a 2nd-line, light-fighter skillmonkey, and you're 4th level. Why Incarnate (+2BAB, 4 soulmelds, 1 bind crown/hands/feet, radiance 1/day, 2+Int skill points per level) as opposed to, say, Bard (+3BAB, Inspire Courage at +3 if using inspirational boost and badge of valor, self-buff+utility spell such as alter self, 6+Int skill points per level), much less even Ranger (or Swift Hunter), or Rogue (or Daring Outlaw) or Swordsage?

If you want to consistently occupy the same role then incarnate likely makes a better dip than a primary class. For example, as a skillful type most of the bonuses that incarnate 'melds grant are insight bonuses, a type that's otherwise not so easy to come by.

As for combat, incarnates do occupy a niche that's otherwise hard to find. They have a number of options for touch attacks and AoE's that would otherwise require a spellcaster and can use them at will. This is fairly unique. Careful soulmeld selection, "throwing the kitchen sink at it," is only necessary for being a -front line- melee combatant.

[tiercel]

If you want to consistently occupy the same role then incarnate likely makes a better dip than a primary class. For example, as a skillful type most of the bonuses that incarnate 'melds grant are insight bonuses, a type that's otherwise not so easy to come by.

I think this is my main perspective problem with Incarnum generally; every time I look at the book I think "oh a dip or even just Shape Soulmeld might really help with [blah]" but rarely do I get a sense of when I'd actually want to play an Incarnate/Totemist, rather than just dip 1-2 levels or a feat or two. (e.g., Shape Soulmeld: Blink Shirt is a pretty tasty feat at low to mid levels even with no incarnum or other investments)


As for combat, incarnates do occupy a niche that's otherwise hard to find. They have a number of options for touch attacks and AoE's that would otherwise require a spellcaster and can use them at will. This is fairly unique. Careful soulmeld selection, "throwing the kitchen sink at it," is only necessary for being a -front line- melee combatant.

So it sounds like in THIS regard, the real competition isn't so much the classes I mentioned as, for instance, Warlock or Dragonfire Adept (which can't switch up their abilities every day, admittedly).

I find that often until higher levels (with divinations to spare or the infamous "15 minute adventuring day") in practice a PC doesn't know necessarily how to "set up," which leads to the danger of a "jack of all trades" setup that, without solid broad-utility choices, can wind up as a "six of all trades" character, that's all.

[Kelb_Panthera]

I think this is my main perspective problem with Incarnum generally; every time I look at the book I think "oh a dip or even just Shape Soulmeld might really help with [blah]" but rarely do I get a sense of when I'd actually want to play an Incarnate/Totemist, rather than just dip 1-2 levels or a feat or two. (e.g., Shape Soulmeld: Blink Shirt is a pretty tasty feat at low to mid levels even with no incarnum or other investments)

You could always just build one to give it a shot and see what you think. *shrug*

Totemist, on the other hand, has pretty unique flavor and a unique perspective on the "punches in bunches" style of combat; very "Bad guy face, meet this mass of claws and teeth with a person in the middle."




So it sounds like in THIS regard, the real competition isn't so much the classes I mentioned as, for instance, Warlock or Dragonfire Adept (which can't switch up their abilities every day, admittedly).

More or less.


I find that often until higher levels (with divinations to spare or the infamous "15 minute adventuring day") in practice a PC doesn't know necessarily how to "set up," which leads to the danger of a "jack of all trades" setup that, without solid broad-utility choices, can wind up as a "six of all trades" character, that's all.

Even with higher level divinations you can only really get the future painted in very broad strokes. It's true enough that you can't know exactly what each day of adventuring will bring but you can make educated guesses for what to -generally- expect. If you're planning on going into a dungeon complex, a trap-springer setup is probably a decent idea. Use a scouting loadout for a day of overland travel. Go with a melee combat setup when you're supposed to defend the village from raiders, providing you're lawful or evil, and so on.

Unless you're just spending every day doing completely random things you should have -some- idea what the day will bring.

[Waker]

So it sounds like in THIS regard, the real competition isn't so much the classes I mentioned as, for instance, Warlock or Dragonfire Adept (which can't switch up their abilities every day, admittedly).

I find that often until higher levels (with divinations to spare or the infamous "15 minute adventuring day") in practice a PC doesn't know necessarily how to "set up," which leads to the danger of a "jack of all trades" setup that, without solid broad-utility choices, can wind up as a "six of all trades" character, that's all.
Well, Incarnates can make fairly competent tanks as well, even if tanking isn't always a needed role. Because of Vitality Belt, Spellward Shirt...and several other melds can greatly increase survivability by upping HPs, AC, Saves and so on. Also unlike the majority of other "tanks", because they have access to flight/teleportation/speed boosts they are mobile enough that enemies can't get around them as easily.
As for choosing soulmelds, unless you have a particular goal in mind for the day, you generally want to go with whichever set-up plays to your intended playstyle. A mix of combat and skill melds is often the best route, having the majority of essentia invested in skills until combat starts, shifting them over at the first opportunity.

[Chronos]

Quoth Waker:

This is Incarnate by the numbers, a rather useful guide showing the actual numerical comparisons between Incarnate and Rogue.
More precisely, it shows the numerical comparisons between a highly optimized Schrödinger's Incarnate (who has maxed cross-class ranks in whichever skill you're interested in, despite only having 2+Int skill points per level) and a poorly-optimized rogue. Put the same level of optimization on the rogue, and he'll do significantly better than the incarnate at most skills. Combine them, with a single level in incarnate and all the rest in rogue (plus maybe some umbral disciple), and you'll do far better than either.

[SiuiS]

SiuiS...
So you're saying that technically, an Incarnate can create any enchanted item as long as he had the essentia/max essentia to create it, and it lasts until the end of the day?


Not unless you take the dwarven soul crafter prestige class (and even that might be arms and armor only?), no. It's that the soul melds are functionally identical to magic items most of the time. A wizard prepares spells. An incarnate shapes magic into an item to get bonuses. Alternately, the incarnate gets bonuses and grows an item as a symptom.

But like a wizard, the incarnate is limited to his list of melds. He gets the whole list. The balance comes from having a limited amount you can 'cast' per day, and from their best abilities being locked behind level gates.


Do soulmends have a duration, or like permanent until changed?

Permanent until changed.


Not exactly. Soulmelds are drawn from a specific list for the Incarnate, and aren't exactly magic items... unless you bind them to chakras, which is another step. Normally you shape some soulmelds, giving you a variety of different effects based on the number of essentia you invest in them. After a certain point in the character's career, they have the option of binding these soulmelds to a chakra. When you bind a soulmeld, it usually gets another secondary (and more powerful effect), but for the duration that it is shaped it takes up a magic item slot, preventing you from wearing something there unless you have a specific feat or whatnot. Only then do they take up slots; there's still gonna be a few things you're going to want to buy.

Aye. A slip on my part; they only take up the slots as concerns other soulmelds. You can't have four different Arms melds going at once, with technicalities.


Is the main strength of the Incarnate when you know what specialization you want to sink shaping your soulmelds into today?


Yes. And yes; while you're going to maintain broad usefulness across the board, you can shoot yourself in the foot. I had a fun low level run in where we were captured by slavers (... Yeah, typical right?) and the DM randomly generated whether it would be a fight, or courtyard training, or what that day.

I had flight, ranged miss chance and a speed boost for escape from the courtyard, and I had melee boosts for combat, and I never seemed to have the right ones on the right day. It was funny, but also kind of sucked.

Foremost has less of this problem, in that totemism exists so that you can have athe natural attacks. All of them. You could in theory use melds which give you other abilities rather than natural attacks, but why would you do that?

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Incarnates can do a really good job of being a Front-Line Dude. Dip into something with Heavy Armor proficiency (like say Crusader), then go into Ironsoul Forgemaster. Now you've got some pretty sizable DR/-, high levels of Energy Resistance: YES, and you can pick up soulmelds like Adamantine Pauldrons and Enigma Helm to be able to shut down a lot of the more dangerous conditionals.

Incarnates can also be a decent 'bard' by giving the party useful benefits via Bluesteel Bracers and Incarnum Radiance.

He can also do pretty well at doing both of these simultaneously, making him a good 'leader' type character.

Totemists are really good at beating things down. They can add on a whole -pile- of natural attacks, and can boost natural attacks surprisingly well. A dip into Spirit Lion Totem Barbarian will make their life much easier as they won't need to devote a chakra Bind to Sphinx Gloves.

However, they also can make a passable tracker and have a decent skill selection. Picking up a dip in Ranger might make this easier.

Totemists can also do a fair job at being an 'archer', depending on the GM's ruling on the Manticore Belt's spines being considered a 'natural attack' or not. Due to volley rules, Sneak Attack is not an effective multiplier for this build.