Helpless incarnate and his soulmelds

[ZatriX]

Hi all!

Mighty google did not help, reading the book (MoI) either.

Can an Incarnate use his soulmelds, while, say, paralyzed? Blink Shirt? Ok, maybe. But what about Dissolving Spittle? Or is he helpless and cannot use anything at all?

[Troacctid]

You can take purely mental actions while paralyzed. Are soulmeld abilities purely mental? Well...some of them might be. It doesn't say. With Blink Shirt, probably, yeah, that should work. With Dissolving Spittle, you're gonna have problems aiming, so probably not. With something like Adamant Pauldrons, it's 100% passive and requires no action from you, so obviously it works fine. Airstep Sandals, not a chance.

[ZatriX]

My thoughts exactly, but is there anything official on this matter? Or just common sense rules?

[Fouredged Sword]

As a DM, I would allow the incarnate to move his essence around if he wanted. I would also allow blink shirt (it is based loosely on DD, and DD has no somatic components). All passive bonuses would still be in effect. A lot of stuff requiring actions would be a no-go though.

[Red Fel]

Per the SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#paralyzed):
A paralyzed character has effective Dexterity and Strength scores of 0 and is helpless, but can take purely mental actions.(Emphasis added.) There's your RAW.

So, any soulmeld that requires no action (e.g. provides a passive benefit) still functions normally; nobody says that you lose the benefits of buffs or magic items when paralyzed, and passive soulmelds are the same. The only issue, as noted by Troacctid, is whether activated soulmelds are activated by mental command or by some action. And that, in the absence of decent editing in MoI, is up to the DM.