Soulknife optimization using Iaijutsu focus

[Soranar]

Alright so I'm creating a soulknife with the following tricks so far

be an Aerenal elf
take the aereni focus feat to gain Iaijutsu focus as a skill

Since drawing your mind blade becomes a free action by level 5, you can draw your weapon each round and simply let it go to dissipate it once you're done attacking

combine this with

tashalatora (soulknife) + flowing blade and you have a fairly decent damage output

to get around the battlefield, I intend to use the hidden talent ACF to gain the power dimension hop (10 ft movement as a swift action, combined with a 5 ft step you can usually reach a target each round and full attack)

So far my build used up the following

Race: (Locked into being an elf, no way around it. Being a human paragon could do it but the point of the build is to be a soulknife 20)

Templates: Up for grabs, if one is decent I can go for it (was considering dragonborn of bahamut for wings or the aspect that grants better vision)

Feats : so far the build uses Aereni focus (Iaijutsu focus), monastic training , tashalatora and flowing blade

Note that I'm using the hidden talent and bonus feat ACF found in the Mind's eye article so I still have quite a few options open. My DM is also granting me 2 flaws since I'm playing such a terrible class


So my progression looks like this

Level 1 Aereni focus (Iaijutsu focus), monastic training (soulknife), tashalatora (soulknife)
class feature : hidden talent (dimension hop )
Level 2 throw mind blade
Level 3 bonus feat: flowing blade
Level 5 free draw

Thus, by level 5, I can draw my weapon to trigger Iaijutsu focus as a free action and attack my target twice (due to flurry of blows + flowing blade) and (if my opponent is flat-footed) I get Iaijutsu focus on each attack

So far I intend to shape my mind blade into a bastard sword (1d10 damage) and wield it 2 handed (for 1.5 times my str)

Since I don't have pounce I don't think I'll go for a charging build (so no shock trooper) though power attack is probably going to be worth it

[Kevingway]

According to one of the FAQs (which the RAW neither agrees nor disagrees with), shaping your blade is a full-round action and it isn't "saved" from the previous shaping you made whenever you let your weapon dissipate, so you have to shape it every time you draw it.

Of course, most sane DMs will ignore that little detail, so moving on: according to Complete Psionic, Free Draw counts as the Quick Draw feat for any prerequisites, so while I know you want to stay Soulknife 20, going into Iajutsu Master (is that its name?) wouldn't be too difficult for you, and your shaping the blade as a katana meets everything else if that's a direction you're considering.

[Soranar]

According to the SRD section on the soulknife

shaping your blade is a move action

at level 5 shaping your blade is a free action.

I don't see the full round action thing you mention anywhere

I didn't know free draw = quick draw though, that could be useful for skill tricks

[Petrocorus]

Instead of Aereni Focus, you can take Skill Knowledge from UA (p81 i think). No +3 to check but let you choose 2 skills.
So you don't need to be an Elf.
Elf are cool anyway.

[mabriss lethe]

You'll want to snag sapphire nightmare blade, in some fashion or another. It's by far the easiest way to make someone flatfooted. I've been working on a Kalashtar build that uses the ToB psionic feats to constantly recycle SNB without dipping into an initiator class. I forget the name at the moment. One lets you refresh a maneuver by burning PP and your focus, the other refreshes your focus X/day when you hit with a martial strike.

[Taveena]

Skill Knowledge isn't intended for use with the normal class system, though.

[Kevingway]

According to the SRD section on the soulknife

shaping your blade is a move action

at level 5 shaping your blade is a free action.

I don't see the full round action thing you mention anywhere

I didn't know free draw = quick draw though, that could be useful for skill tricks

You're confusing creating/drawing the mindblade with shaping the mindblade. When you "shape" the mindblade, you're changing its original form from short sword (I think?) to whatever shapes you have access to, either from advancing in the class or from the Complete Psionic feats that give you more options. To shape your mindblade (after drawing it) from its default form to whatever form you choose is a full-round action, which allegedly must be repeated every time you create/draw your mindblade.

Read the class feature that you receive at level 5.

[Soranar]

I'm afraid the skill knowledge alternative is not an option in my campaign (especially with obscure skills like Iaijutsu focus)

as for the mindblade shaping, I never realized that meant you had to do this every time, I guess I'll have to draw a shortsword to trigger Iaijutsu focus then I'd be better off using unarmed strikes to deliver attacks. This also cripples my use of power attack even further (since I don't even have a 2 handed weapon to use), so I might as well stick to Iaijutsu focus for damage (at least it works against everything that can be flat-footed, unlike precision damage).

I guess I could draw another weapon to trigger Iaijutsu focus then fight with the mindblade but that seems convoluted and rather ridiculous.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Honestly, unless your STR is quite high, the vast majority of your damage will be coming from Iaijutsu Focus anyways so I would not worry about being stuck with short sword. I second getting nightmare blade somehow; easy flatfooting is best flatfooting.

[Kevingway]

I'm afraid the skill knowledge alternative is not an option in my campaign (especially with obscure skills like Iaijutsu focus)

as for the mindblade shaping, I never realized that meant you had to do this every time, I guess I'll have to draw a shortsword to trigger Iaijutsu focus then I'd be better off using unarmed strikes to deliver attacks. This also cripples my use of power attack even further (since I don't even have a 2 handed weapon to use), so I might as well stick to Iaijutsu focus for damage (at least it works against everything that can be flat-footed, unlike precision damage).

I guess I could draw another weapon to trigger Iaijutsu focus then fight with the mindblade but that seems convoluted and rather ridiculous.

As I said, most DMs will probably ignore the FAQ, as the RAW neither agrees nor disagrees with the ruling that you have to reshape it every time you draw it. It suggests you'd have to reshape the blade, but never explicitly states that.

Look up Mau-jehe, too. It's a weapon from Weapons of Legacy that supplements Soulknifes pretty nicely. It pretty much allows you to become a dual wielder without sacrificing a full-round action to do so, but that also means less Power Attack goodness.

[Soranar]

Wow, there's an actual weapon of legacy for soulknives that worth the trouble.

So, if you combine a terrible class (soulknife) with another terrible class (monk/tashalatora) and arm it with a weapon from a subpar book (weapon of legacy) you can get a half decent class...

[Soranar]

As for recharging sapphire nightmare blade: you need to spend a swift action (so no teleport that round), your psionic focus and a power point to do so. That seems overpriced for what it does. Though having it once an encounter isn't bad either, might be worth a feat.

If free draw counts as quick draw, then I could use hidden blade (sleight of hand 5 requirement) or sudden strike (sleight of hand 8 requirement) for the same result. Since I threaten with my unarmed strikes (due to tashalatora) I should be able to pull that off fairly easily (pretty sure my DM would give me a circumstance bonus to the sleight of hand thing to conceal my weapon since I actually make it disapear).

[mabriss lethe]

As for recharging sapphire nightmare blade: you need to spend a swift action (so no teleport that round), your psionic focus and a power point to do so. That seems overpriced for what it does. Though having it once an encounter isn't bad either, might be worth a feat.

If free draw counts as quick draw, then I could use hidden blade (sleight of hand 5 requirement) or sudden strike (sleight of hand 8 requirement) for the same result. Since I threaten with my unarmed strikes (due to tashalatora) I should be able to pull that off fairly easily (pretty sure my DM would give me a circumstance bonus to the sleight of hand thing to conceal my weapon since I actually make it disapear).

That's why it only really works well on a kalashtar with the companion feat(name escapes me.), and only if you can't/won't dip in an initiator class. You hit with SNB on the first round, next round you use your swift/blow focus/pp to refresh it. When it connects, the other feat kicks in and you automatically regain your focus, allowing you to pull the trick again later.

[Kevingway]

You have to pay a cost in Power Points equal to the level of maneuver you're trying to recover. As a Soulknife, I believe you have a total of 1, unless Tash-a-ta-dora-la-explora gives you more. I never bother with Eberron stuff.

[Ethelesin]

Maybe im getting something wrong here but dont you need atleast a single level of monk for Tashalatora to work?

[mabriss lethe]

You have to pay a cost in Power Points equal to the level of maneuver you're trying to recover. As a Soulknife, I believe you have a total of 1, unless Tash-a-ta-dora-la-explora gives you more. I never bother with Eberron stuff.

It's generally 2, though there are a few ways to increase a soulknife's pp reserve to moderately useful levels. Kalashtar gain a reserve of 1pp/level, that's why it's the best way to get more. Soulknives, in general, have very little use for power points. But we're getting a bit far afield from the OP.

Now some general soulknife advice. Feel free to cherrypick anything that catches your eye.

-ACFs: Both Mind's Eye ACFs are very useful for a soulknife. You're already using the Hidden Talent variant, which is good. I'd also suggest ditching Psychic Strike for the Bonus Feat ACF as well. It's a good way to snag those combat feats you'll want, especially things like Martial Study if you plan on using Sapphire Nightmare Blade. (assuming you aren't doing so already, though you only have one feat listed at 3rd level) While P.strike has decent damage, the constant action juggling to get the most out of it is problematic.

- Master of Poisons works very well with most low powered combat classes. If you do go that route, consider picking up another Hidden Talent for Psionic Minor Creation (a poisoner's best friend), or swapping out Dimension Hop. (Craft poison also becomes a bit more of a priority skill, along with being a very good way to make money if you "know a guy")

- If you want a higher PP base, find a way to get a real manifester level somehow. The easiest way for a soulknife to get one without committing a huge portion of your levels to it is to pick a psionic race with a psi-like ability. That's out of the question here, but you can pull off a similar trick by taking one of the host feats from Complete Psi. It will boost the effectiveness of any Hidden Talent based powers you have because Hidden talent can be coupled to any manifester level you have, including ones gained from PLAs, which is a nice little goodie. The real kicker, though, When you have the ability to manifest a power, you gain bonus PP based on your key ability modifier and your ML. (which you now have) Getting your manifesting score high-ish will net you a sizable reserve of PP over the character's career, at least for smaller tricks like low level powers or using psionic renewal. (Since you're already going Tashalatora, choose wisdom.) Once you have a ML and a power, you can qualify for feats like Expanded Knowledge and/or Illithid Legacy to gain higher level powers.

-In addition, the host feat, or any other method of acquiring an proper ML, will allow you to qualify for acquiring a psi-crystal, (Go with the "nimble" personality because Iaijutsu Focus loves bonuses to Initiative), which you can then load up with useful feats. Most of the usual feat swapping antics won't be useful to you. I like to give it something like a devotion feat at 1st, usually Healing Devotion, because your psicrystal pass it on to others, allowing the whole party to sandbag instances of the feat. (Note: H.Dev doesn't immediately grant fast healing to others when you give it to someone, it grants the benefit of the feat to that person, i.e. The ability to activate fast healing as a swift action with auto activation if the person dips into negative HP. When you pass it on to others, it doesn't expire until it is used and there is no limit on the number of instances a person can receive and hold onto.) After that, picking up Draconic Aura is a good choice. While DA: Vigor is a good choice if you want to be a box of band-aids for the party, I'd think DA: Senses would be a better choice for yet another boost to initiative.

-If you don't do anything else, do this: Get your hands on an Adamantine Mindblade Gauntlet ASAP. It is a soulknife's best friend. You don't want it for the adamantine quality, though that can be a decently useful perk. The real reason you want the gauntlet is because it fixes one of the soulknife's more craptastic mechanics. When you create a mindblade while wearing it, you can effectively rewrite your chosen enhancements as you form it, instead of taking 8 freaking hours of downtime. It's cheap, too, around 2K gold, I believe.

[mabriss lethe]

Maybe im getting something wrong here but dont you need atleast a single level of monk for Tashalatora to work?

Nope! Not by RAW anyway.

[Ethelesin]

Tashalatora states that it "stacks with" monk levels to determine effectiveness of ac bonus, flurry and unarmed damage, it does not, anywhere state that it provides those abillities on it's own.

[Soranar]

My monk level is 0
my soulknife level is x

0+x (stacks remember) = x

The same trick can be used with a swashbuckler and the daring outlaw feat (you don't actually need rogue levels, you just need to meet the prerequisites for the feat)

As for my manifester level, another RAW argument can be used :

according to the expanded psionic book, a manifester level is equal to your level in a psionic class (page 54)

a soulknife is a psionic class ( page 14 or 17, not sure anymore)
a soulknife's manifester level is thus equal to his class level ...

hosts feats are a good idea though

[Ethelesin]

Yes, they stack, but you're missing the abillities in the first place, you cannot add to something that isn't there. To be fair though, the Soulknife as a class needs all the help it can get in the first place, im not disputing the build per say, just questioning your (generously loose in this case) interpretation of the RAW.

[Vaz]

Your monk level is n/a, n/a+x = n/a +x, no 0+x or x.

[Vaz]

I know, I was agreeing with you ;).

[Ethelesin]

I know, I was agreeing with you ;).

I... I need more coffee all this opti-fu is finally getting to me. Sorry for the overly defensive posting.

[Vaz]

Nay worries. We've all had them days.

[Petrocorus]

To be fair though, the Soulknife as a class needs all the help it can get in the first place, im not disputing the build per say, just questioning your (generously loose in this case) interpretation of the RAW.

Ah... the Soulknife! Another very good idea very poorly executed.