Letting a anim mage use incarnate instead of arcane?

[CyberThread]

I know it isn't much and it would be a nerf, but if a anime mage was comboed to use Incarnate instead of a wizard, in what ways would you buff or change the dual progression PRC?

[NoACWarrior]

Exploit vestige should be changed to allow you to bind another soulmeld and get a free "dual" chakra / magic item bind for that bonus soulmeld.


The whole metamagic portion would have to be altered, but theres no incarnum equivalent I know of, so I might say that the essentia invested and the essentia limit for one soulmeld or feat doubles for a number of rounds equal to your Con Mod (emulating the expanded soulmeld capacity feat). This part I'm super worried about being balanced.

The vestige casting is a lot like a prepared quickened spell, and again, there is no incarnum equivalent, I might say something like the ability as an immediate action reshape a single soulmeld into another soulmeld and bind it if you have binds available or reallocate essentia from a feat to another feat or to a soulmeld.

[Vaz]

Requirements;
Alignment - any nongood
Skills - Intimidate 4 ranks, Knowledge (The Planes) 4 ranks
Special - be able to bind 2nd level vestiges, Incarnum Radiance 1/day

That's ECL6 entry like most PrC's. ECL4 entry if you limit the soulmelds to just the crown.

D6 hit die.

2+Int skills

Meldshaping: At each Anima Incarnate level, you increase your meldshaper level, the number of soulmelds you can shape, the number of chakra binds you can create, and your essentia pool as if you had gained a level in a meldshaping class to which you belonged prior to gaining the Anima Incarnate level. You do not, however, gain any other abilities of that class, such as new tiers of chakra binds. If you had more than one meldshaping class before becoming a Anima Incarnate, you must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining your essentia pool, meldshaper level, and the number of soulmelds and chakra binds available.

Soul Binding Bonus: At each anima mage level, your soul binding ability improves as if you had also gained a level in the binder class. Your anima incarnate levels and binder levels stack for the purpose of determining your bonus on binding checks, the effectiveness of your vestige-granted abilities, your ability to bind higher-level vestiges, and the number of vestiges you can bind. You do not, however, gain any other benefit a binder would have gained.

Exploit Vestige; Instead of gaining an additional Arcane Spell, you can Shape one more soulmeld than you're normally allowed. You can normally bind a number of soulmelds equal to your Constitution score -10, or the limit expressed in the Incarnate's class features. For example, an Incarnate 3/Binder 1/Anima Incarnate 2 has an effective Incarnate level of 5, and can shape 4 soulmelds. With Exploit Vestige, it can shape 5.

At 4th level, you may choose to use Exploit Vestige to gain access to the Arms Chakra, at 5th the Brow, at 7th the Shoulders, at 9th the throat, and at 10th the waist.

Vestigial Awareness - Unchanged

Vestige Meldshaping (Su): At 5th level, you can use a bound vestige to augment your bound soulmelds by temporarily giving up access to its powers. Using vestige meldshaping is a swift action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Choose one of the vestiges to which you are bound whenever you activate this ability. Choose one of your Incarnum receptacles - this receptacle is considered to have the maximum possible essentia invested in it for a number of minutes equal to your Anima Incarnate level. However, you lose access to all the abilities and powers granted by the chosen vestige upon activation and do not regain them for 5 rounds. You cannot use this ability if you do not have a vestige bound, or if you do not currently have access to its abilities (through the use of this ability, an antimagic field, or some other effect). Vestige meldshaping is usable once per day at 5th level, two times per day at 7th level, and three times per day at 9th level.

Vestige Chakra's; at 10th level, any Soulmeld bound to a Chakra gained through Exploit Vestige has its essentia capacity increased by 1.

[Gemini476]

Do remember that you can enter Anima Mage early without even taking a level of Binder - Bind Vestige and the improved version get around that requirement.
Also, Anima Mage increases our ability to bind vestiges as if you were a binder - but still increases it even if you aren't one.

You may or may not want to remedy those.

Also, if you want to open up the Incarnum Anima Mage to more than just the Incarnate, then you run into even more issues. These are both subsystems that are very easy to cheat your way into without class levels.