Need help making a playable half-orc soulknife.

[The Sparrower]

First of all, I've been lurking the Playground for probably about six years now. I want to start off by saying that I appreciate everything the community has done for me. I'm a habitual lurking, but it occurred to me today that since I use the Playground so often, I should contribute to it. So thanks to all of you who have been here contributing for so long! Now, with that out of the way...

A member of my gaming group wants to shake things up a bit. I think we as players do a good job of playing diverse characters, but one of our players has started to become rather cynical of those of us (myself included) who pre-build our characters. I think that it's perfectly reasonable to pre-build a character, and that in fact it's pretty obvious that the game is designed for you to plan ahead. He believes that pre-building your character limits character development and good roleplaying, and while I disagree that the two are mutually exclusive, a member of my gaming group has come up with an idea for a game that is meant to please everyone.

The rules are simple: all players must roll a d100 on both a list of races and a list of classes. After that, we are allowed some freedom with building our characters. The idea is that this way we are limited in our ability to optimize our characters, or at least everyone is on equally uneven footing. As someone who appreciates challenges, I was pretty excited about taking this on. So, I rolled my character and got... half-orc soulknife.

While I appreciate a challenge, I'm pretty stumped on this one. Playing an orc is something that I have wanted to do for a while, as there are many types of orc that look intriguing, but half-orc doesn't really appeal to me. Furthermore the soulknife is a class that I've never felt any particular affinity to and am having a hard time trying to design. The class just seems like it isn't really that great at anything, and even if the crunch was there, the fluff isn't my thing.

So as you can see, I need some help! My questions for you all, in no particular order:


How can I make this character both fun and playable? This is a call for optimization, even though I know that word can't every truly be applied to a soulknife. My best guess right now is soulbow, but that's really as far as I've gotten and I am by no means married to the idea. Multiclassing is more than likely out of the question, but prestige classes are open as far as I can tell, and from all Wizards sources. Rules from 3rd party sources will likely make my DM hesitant, but he's known for accepting them on a case-by-case basis. If it helps, my raw ability scores are 15, 13, 13, 13, 12, 8.
What kind of fluff could make this character interesting? Currently, I know that another character in our party will be an elf fighter, and we were thinking we could be a good-aligned yet ultimately misguided duo, since we're more than likely going to be forced to dump our mental stats. For my character, I'm thinking that he might be a bounty hunter (if I go the soulbow route). The campaign will be loosely based on Eberron.


I'll stop rambling. Thank you in advance for any and all suggestions!

[Seerow]

What are the actual rules as far as the class and race go? Variant races allowed? (not sure if there are any for Half-Orc but it's worth considering). How many class levels do you need to have in Soulknife to meet the minimum requirements?

[The Sparrower]

What are the actual rules as far as the class and race go? Variant races allowed? (not sure if there are any for Half-Orc but it's worth considering). How many class levels do you need to have in Soulknife to meet the minimum requirements?

Anything is on the table, pending DM approval. Variant races are allowed, but to my knowledge there are no variant half-orcs, only variant humans and orcs. And Soulbow I can take right at level 6 as it has very easy prereqs. The difficulty here is finding a prestige class that meshes well with Soulknife; psionics classes have limited support as is, but the Soulknife has a very unique set of mechanics that don't progress with most prestige classes. :smallbiggrin:

[Bluydee]

Unearthed Arcana exists, though the only real variant in ability scores are desert ones.

I suggest taking all the nice variant and ACFs for soulknife.

[Seerow]

Anything is on the table, pending DM approval. Variant races are allowed, but to my knowledge there are no variant half-orcs, only variant humans and orcs. And Soulbow I can take right at level 6 as it has very easy prereqs. The difficulty here is finding a prestige class that meshes well with Soulknife; psionics classes have limited support as is, but the Soulknife has a very unique set of mechanics that don't progress with most prestige classes. :smallbiggrin:

So the rule is that you have to use Soulknife as your only base class, but can use any prestige class you want? Have you considered War Mind? Soulknife gives you Kn(Psionics) as a class skill, and a Power Point pool, so you qualify at level 5. A pseudo-barbarian melee focus fits the Half-Orc better than Soulbow, IMO.

[Seerow]

Unearthed Arcana exists, though the only real variant in ability scores are desert ones.

I suggest taking all the nice variant and ACFs for soulknife.

Name a few? I'm not familiar with any decent ACFs for Soulknife.

[Rubik]

How about one of the variant pyrokineticists (acid/cold/electricity/sonic) from The Mind's Eye? There's some synergy with the soulknife, as anything that can affect a weapon can also affect the mind blade.

How about kensai? Or warmind/elocater?

[The Sparrower]

Unearthed Arcana exists, though the only real variant in ability scores are desert ones.

I suggest taking all the nice variant and ACFs for soulknife.

Unearthed Arcana is definitely my go-to book for situations like this. The only half-orc in there isn't particularly useful, but it's not out of the realm of possibility to ask for a Desert Orc adaptation. I'm also unfamiliar with the ACFs, are these Mind's Eye enhancements? I just figured out how to access the Wizards 3.5 Archives again the other day so I admit I haven't checked there yet. Any in particular that you would recommend?


So the rule is that you have to use Soulknife as your only base class, but can use any prestige class you want? Have you considered War Mind? Soulknife gives you Kn(Psionics) as a class skill, and a Power Point pool, so you qualify at level 5. A pseudo-barbarian melee focus fits the Half-Orc better than Soulbow, IMO.

I hadn't considered Warmind, but that could be a great idea! I would still be abandoning my mindblade progression, but the Warmind would be a great way to overcome a lot of the Soulknife's weaknesses. I like it! Still open to suggestions, as well. :smallbiggrin:

[The Sparrower]

How about one of the variant pyrokineticists (acid/cold/electricity/sonic) from The Mind's Eye? There's some synergy with the soulknife, as anything that can affect a weapon can also affect the mind blade.

How about kensai? Or warmind/elocater?

Elocator is a class that always looked very fun, but the loss of manifester levels always kept me away. But in this scenario, Warmind/Elocater sounds entirely plausible! Rather than thinking of the lost manifester levels as lost, it would make sense to think of any manifesting levels gained as a bonus. I like it!

Thanks for the ideas so far! Keep 'em coming. :smallcool:

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

There are at least five Half-Orc variants in UA (http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/variantRaces.htm), and one in Dragon Magic.

If possible, go Soulknife 2/ Swordsage 3/ Soulbow 4+, and I would pick up more Swordsage at the right levels to get choice maneuvers/stances.

Otherwise start with Half-Orc Paragon (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/racialParagonClasses.htm#halfOrcParagon) at 1st level, take Soulknife 2 after that, and then whatever two levels you want to use to qualify for Soulbow. Use the Half-Humans and Humanlike Races variant in Races of Destiny p150 so you'll count as a Human for prerequisites, and take Dreadful Wrath from PGtF at 1st level. Consult the Fear Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3809) for further advice, as it's one of the best things to add onto a character that's not going to be a primary spellcaster.

[The Sparrower]

There are at least five Half-Orc variants in UA (http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/variantRaces.htm), and one in Dragon Magic.

If possible, go Soulknife 2/ Swordsage 3/ Soulbow 4+, and I would pick up more Swordsage at the right levels to get choice maneuvers/stances.

Otherwise start with Half-Orc Paragon (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/racialParagonClasses.htm#halfOrcParagon) at 1st level, take Soulknife 2 after that, and then whatever two levels you want to use to qualify for Soulbow. Use the Half-Humans and Humanlike Races variant in Races of Destiny p150 so you'll count as a Human for prerequisites, and take Dreadful Wrath from PGtF at 1st level. Consult the Fear Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3809) for further advice, as it's one of the best things to add onto a character that's not going to be a primary spellcaster.

Wow, I had no idea there were so many half-orc variants. I guess it's not something that I've ever really looked for. So thank you for that!

Actually, I think my character just came together from your recommendations. My DM just approved racial paragon levels, so if I do some combination of Half-Orc Paragon/Orc Paragon/Soulknife then I can jump into Champion of Gwynharwyf for maximum fear effects. The soulknife level would mostly be a dead level, but I'm sure the ability to summon any weapon will end up being useful/hilarious. I would feel slightly guilty about this potentially compromising the essence of the campaign, but this is a character I could really see myself enjoying. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for the pure gold, Biffoniacus_Furiou!

I really appreciate all of the creative ideas I've gotten from you all! I have a lot to think about now, and as always I'm still open for suggestions!

[Red Fel]

Name a few? I'm not familiar with any decent ACFs for Soulknife.

As I recall, the only ACFs for Soulknife are here (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070214a). There's also some Kalashtar substitution levels, but those wouldn't be available to a Half-Orc.

That said, the ones on the link are good upgrades. Hidden Talent is strictly better than Wild Talent ("gain 2 PP" versus "gain 2 PP and a 1st-level power of your choice from any list"). Psychic Strike may be useful for damage boosts, but it's situational and requires charging time; by contrast, depending on your build, you may get more use out of bonus feats.

As an aside, if the loss of ML bothers you, remember that the Practiced Manifester feat lets you treat your ML as +4 (up to a max of your HD). It doesn't give you extra powers or PP, but it does ratchet up your augment cap.

[Nihilarian]

Half-Orc Soulknife? Crissakes, sacrifice something on the altar to the dice gods.

Some ACFs (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070214a).

Whether you go ranged or melee, try to get away with as few levels in Soulknife as you can. Seriously, it sucks. You can get a better magic weapon in half the levels by going Kensai.

The Practice Mind Blade feat from Dragon 341 can also give you a bit of wiggle room, and Reshape Mind Blade from the same will let you get a two handed weapon if you're going melee. War Mind is also good for melee.

For ranged you want Soulbow. You probably don't need more than 4 levels, though.

Casting or manifesting is good for either, see if you can pick it up. In particular, you might be able to finagle yourself into Chameleon, which is good.