Soulknife and Automatic Bonus Progression from Unchained

[AoiEMT]

Hi all,

I am making a Soulknife at level 8 for a campaign using automatic bonus progression and this got me thinking about how these interact.

Since automatic bonus progression removes any flat +X bonuses, does this simply allow me to use the plus on Mindblade for abilities?

If so are the last +4 simply wasted for a high level Soulknife?

Or is there another way to handle this that wouldn't involve keeping it the same. I feel thst keeping it the same would give me an advantage over other classes without this option.

I am also using the gifted blade archetype, if we stepped the progression of enhanced mind blade down so it only came in to effect from level 9 onwards (at level 9 gaining a +1 that can be put into abilities only) do you think it would be a fair exchange to go from gifted blades 4th level casting to Psychic Warriors 6th level casting?

Any and all feedback and suggestions welcome. I play with a group more about fun than optimization so I am trying to find the most balanced exchange so my character doesn't feel OP to anyone else.

[Psyren]

The easy way to handle this is to only let them add attributes to the weapon and remove their ability to add enhancement bonus (which they get back via attunement.) You could then choose whether to either reduce the total enhancement of the mind blade by 5, or leave it at +10 to let them pile on abilities.

Either way, attuning to the mind blade should work no matter what form you have it in, including dual-wielding. The enhancement reduction for splitting the mind blade would still apply.

[AoiEMT]

The easy way to handle this is to only let them add attributes to the weapon and remove their ability to add enhancement bonus (which they get back via attunement.) You could then choose whether to either reduce the total enhancement of the mind blade by 5, or leave it at +10 to let them pile on abilities.

Either way, attuning to the mind blade should work no matter what form you have it in, including dual-wielding. The enhancement reduction for splitting the mind blade would still apply.

I agree with most of this but I am not a huge fan of just piling up abilities (as this breaks the usual power caps on abilities) and in regards to reduction:

If it is reduced down, what do you think is a fair trade for the soul knife to receive in return?

[Psyren]

I agree with most of this but I am not a huge fan of just piling up abilities (as this breaks the usual power caps on abilities) and in regards to reduction:

If it is reduced down, what do you think is a fair trade for the soul knife to receive in return?

Well, the thing is that abilities generally tend to be weak anyway. The ones with saves don't scale, and the ones that do bonus damage are static (e.g. holy never scales) and don't get multiplied on a crit etc.

But if you're worried about it even so, reducing the enhancement does the trick. Give them +5 worth of enhancement instead of +9 and you're good to go. And if you're not worried about it, leave it at +9, which means they'll functionally have a +14 weapon (or pair of +13s) to swing around, i.e. a +5 weapon with +9 worth of enhancements. It's not going to break the bank either way.

As for what to give them in return - my honest answer is nothing. The whole point of ABP is to make wealth matter less, but even though soulknives don't care as much to begin with, they're not being much more impacted by using it than any other martial class would be.

[Milo v3]

I have automatic bonus progression bonuses stack with class bonuses up to 1.5 times the highest of those two bonuses.

[ICN]

An option could be to let the Soulknife use weapon special abilities without consuming enhancement bonuses, as is normally the case with automatic bonus progression.

[AoiEMT]

An option could be to let the Soulknife use weapon special abilities without consuming enhancement bonuses, as is normally the case with automatic bonus progression.

And reduce the total progression to a max of +5, that could work pretty well.

Seems like the concensus is that trading the bonus is definitely not worth an increased casting progression for a gifted blade.