What can the totemist do out of combat?

[CyberThread]

Just overall what abilties does it have access too outside of combat?

[Tvtyrant]

Wild empathy, flying, jumping, hide and move silently, swimming, spot checks, bluff checks, hide checks, intimidate checks, short ranged teleportation.

[Psyren]

Just overall what abilties does it have access too outside of combat?

Scouting (stealth + various forms of movement), Tracking (+scent), wild empathy + speak with animals and magical beasts, telepathy, tremorsense/blindsense, detect evil at will, and Intimidate bonuses.

It is also only ever a feat away from picking up a useful Incarnate meld and using it at full power.

[AMFV]

Wild empathy, flying, jumping, hide and move silently, swimming, spot checks, bluff checks, hide checks, intimidate checks, short ranged teleportation.

Also Totemists get many vision and detection powers that are completely unique and may be difficult to get otherwise.

[Grod_The_Giant]

It is also only ever a feat away from picking up a useful Incarnate meld and using it at full power.
Or perhaps even better, a one-level dip to get all the Incarnate melds, though not the binds.

[CyberThread]

Or perhaps even better, a one-level dip to get all the Incarnate melds, though not the binds.



How so????

[Psyren]

How so????

Er, he just said. You dip 1 level of Incarnate and get all their melds :smalltongue:

[Grod_The_Giant]

How so????
Meldshaping is a bit like psionics in that you only ever have one essentia pool. A Totemist 19/Incarnate 1 can apply any of the Essentia he got through Totemist levels to his Incarnate melds. Unlike psionics, though, the only class-level dependant thing about meldshaping is chakra binds. You can shape any meld you know, and chakra investment is based on character level. Thus, you can shape and invest fully in any Incarnate meld you know, and you "know" all of them with a single dip.

The feat still has its uses, though-- if you want to bind Incarnate melds, you'll need it so you can use your Totemist chakras.

[MeeposFire]

However it is important ot note that the totemist will not be actually as good as an incarnate at using those melds (and vice versa the incarnate cannot use totemist melds at 100% full power either) as they lack the class feature sto do so.

In the totemists case his ability to add extra essentia (over an dabove what their level limit is) is based around what they bind to their totem chakra. Since generally incarnate melds cannot be bound there the totemist can only boost those melds with their level based amount in essentia plus things like feat or item bonuses. The totemist gets full use but he can't maximize his essentia as much as he can with his totem binds.

The incarnate on the other hand can boost all melds/ including totemist melds, to the max since thier class feature does not care where they are bound. However the incarnate cannot gain the totem chakra bind which limits the effectiveness of many totemist melds (where a big draw is that chakra bind specifically). The blink shirt is a classic exception of course. It is useful regardless of where it is bound.

[Chronos]

You also have a different meldshaper level (analogous to caster level) for incarnate melds and totemist ones. This isn't relevant nearly as often as caster level is, but it is for a few, such as Vitality Belt (which adds up to an insane number of HP if you have a high meldshaper level).

[Psyren]

You also have a different meldshaper level (analogous to caster level) for incarnate melds and totemist ones. This isn't relevant nearly as often as caster level is, but it is for a few, such as Vitality Belt (which adds up to an insane number of HP if you have a high meldshaper level).

If you pick up Vitality Belt with Shape Soulmeld it will use your Totemist MSL. If you pick it up with an Incarnate dip it will use your (tiny) Incarnate MSL.

[Segev]

Hm. I'm not actually sure...

Does anything say that, if you have access to (say) the Feet Chakra through Incarnate, that you can only bind Incarnate Soulmelds to your feet? Or can you bind any soulmeld you can Shape to it, as long as they can be bound to the Feet chakra?

[Psyren]

Hm. I'm not actually sure...

Does anything say that, if you have access to (say) the Feet Chakra through Incarnate, that you can only bind Incarnate Soulmelds to your feet? Or can you bind any soulmeld you can Shape to it, as long as they can be bound to the Feet chakra?

The only class-specific chakra is Totem - the rest don't care how you opened them, just that you opened them.

(*studiously ignores Incarnum Blade*)

[Troacctid]

If you pick up Vitality Belt with Shape Soulmeld it will use your Totemist MSL. If you pick it up with an Incarnate dip it will use your (tiny) Incarnate MSL.
Shape Soulmeld uses half your character level as your meldshaper level, regardless of any levels you have in Incarnum classes.


Hm. I'm not actually sure...

Does anything say that, if you have access to (say) the Feet Chakra through Incarnate, that you can only bind Incarnate Soulmelds to your feet? Or can you bind any soulmeld you can Shape to it, as long as they can be bound to the Feet chakra?

Page 20: "Similarly, your chakra binds are limited by class—if your incarnate levels allow you to bind soulmelds to your crown chakra but your totemist levels allow you to bind soulmelds only to your totem chakra, you cannot bind totemist soulmelds to your crown chakra."

Note that soulmelds gained from Shape Soulmeld are not affected by this limitation, as the feat explicitly says the meld may be bound to any chakra you have access to.

[Segev]

Page 20: "Similarly, your chakra binds are limited by class—if your incarnate levels allow you to bind soulmelds to your crown chakra but your totemist levels allow you to bind soulmelds only to your totem chakra, you cannot bind totemist soulmelds to your crown chakra."

Note that soulmelds gained from Shape Soulmeld are not affected by this limitation, as the feat explicitly says the meld may be bound to any chakra you have access to.

Presumably, any chakra opened via feat or psionic power likewise can have any soulmeld, regardless of class, bound to it.

[Piggy Knowles]

Here are a few of the things totemists can do out of combat (some of them apply in combat as well):


Handle and raise animals and magical beasts with the best of them, including both Animal Diplomacy (er, Wild Empathy) and actual animal rearing via the Handle Animal skill. (Note that totemists are also some of the only folks that can deal with magical beasts in this method, and that they have better Wild Empathy than a druid.)
Speak with animals.
Hypnotize animals and magical beasts so that they do nothing but watch you (handy when, say, trying to get past a bunch of guard dogs, or sneak into a roc's nest to steal one of its eggs).
Endure elements, as per the spell.
Resist cold.
Follow tracks like a boss (with scent!).
Speak telepathically.
Avoid being mentally influenced.
Search for things.
Move really, really fast.
Scare enemies.
Jump tall buildings.
Sense the vibrations of the earth (tremorsense).
Get a bunch of extra hit points (I'm sure you can find SOMETHING to use hit points for out of combat).
Balance on ice.
Sneak around like a ninja.
Spot a speck of dust on a fly's nose from a hundred yards away. (Seriously, totemists might have the best Spot checks in all of D&D.)
Move really heavy things.
Climb the Empire State Building...
...and then out-wrestle King Kong.
Resist the machinations of evil beings.
Help your allies resist the machinations of evil beings.
Start fires.
Ride an ornery horse without a saddle through a fireball without so much as burning a hair on its mane.
See in the dark really, really far.
Turn things to stone.
Detect magic, without having to wait around for results.
Suppress and dispel magic with a touch.
Walk through an incendiary cloud without taking damage.
Bully people into doing what you tell them.
Frighten enemies.
Detect evil.
Listen to a conversation waaaaay on the other side of the restaurant.
Sense things when blind.
Go fuzzy around the edges.
Creepy tentacle hugs!
Walk through acid without being burned.
Repel summoned creatures.
Fly.
Turn friggin' ethereal at will from level 9. (I cannot stress enough how insanely useful the Phase Cloak's shoulder bind is, especially for the level you get it.)
Create magical darkness that actually blocks vision, instead of creating stupid "shadowy illumination."
Gain blindsight in said magical darkness.
Stick your finger in an electrical socket without being harmed.
Jumpstart a car.
Make everyone around you sleepy.
Chill drinks.
Lie, lie, lie.
Take standard actions as you fly.
Set yourself on fire and actually heal from the flames.
Create poison that you can harvest and craft during your downtime.
Teleport everywhere, all the gods-damned day.
Resist spells.
Resist damage.
Look really cool while doing it.

[Chronos]

Druids might be able to get higher Spot checks, thanks to being more Wis-focused and Owl's Insight. And dragons can get higher checks just by having huge heaping piles of HD and thus skill ranks.

[Piggy Knowles]

Without specialized feats beyond ESC (which a Totemist will want regardless), a Totemist can take the Great Raptor Mask, Bloodtalons and Manticore Belt for a +40 bonus on top of his ranks, Wis bonus and items (and Spot is a trained skill for Totemists to boot). A specialized build can do quite a bit better than that. A dragon would have to have 63 HD just to keep up with a non-specialized Totemist who randomly decided to focus on spotting for a day.