Soulknife Fix

[PallentisLunam]

Role: Martial Combatant
Abilities: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution
HD: d10
A Soulknife's class skills are Autohypnosis (Wis), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Psionics) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Spot (Wis), and Tumble (Dex)
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier


LevelBABFortRefWillSpecialMind Blade Maximum Enhancement Bonus

1st
+1
+0
+2
+2
Form Mind blade, Shape Mind blade, Wild Talent, Bonus Feat
-

2nd
+2
+0
+3
+3
Throw Mindblade, Psychic Strike +1d8
-


3rd
+3
+1
+3
+3
Enhanced Mind Blade +1
+1


4th
+4
+1
+4
+4
Speed of Thought
+1


5th
+5
+1
+4
+4
Enhanced Mind Blade +2, Free Draw
+1


6th
+6/+1
+2
+5
+5
Psychic Strike +2d8
+2


7th
+7/+2
+2
+5
+5
Enhance Mindblade +3
+2


8th
+8/+3
+2
+6
+6
Bladewind
+2


9th
+9/+4
+3
+6
+6
Enhanced Mind Blade +4
+3


10th
+10/+5
+3
+7
+7
Psychic Strike +3d8
+3


11th
+11/+6/+1
+3
+7
+7
Enhanced Mind Blade +5
+3


12th
+12/+7/+2
+4
+8
+8
Knife to the Soul
+4


13th
+13/+8/+3
+4
+8
+8
Enhanced Mind Blade +6
+4


14th
+14/+9/+4
+4
+9
+9
Psychic Strike +4d8
+4


15th
+15/+10/+5
+5
+9
+9
Enhanced Mind Blade +7
+5


16th
+16/+11/+6/+1
+5
+10
+10
Mastery of the Blade
+5


17th
+17/+12/+7/+2
+5
+10
+10
Enhanced Mind Blade +8
+5


18th
+18/+13/+8/+3
+6
+11
+11
Psychic Strike +5d8
+5


19th
+19/+14/+9/+4
+6
+11
+11
Enhanced Mind Blade +9
+5


20th
+20/+15/+10/+5
+6
+12
+12
Mastery of the Mind
+5



Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A soulknife is proficient with all simple weapons, with her own mind blade (regardless of form), with light and medium armor, and with shields (but not tower shields).

Form Mind Blade (Su): As a move action, a soulknife can form a semi-solid weapon composed of psychic energy distilled from her own mind.

A soulknife must choose the form of her mind blade at 1st level. She can either form it into a light weapon, a one-handed weapon, or a two-handed weapon. Once chosen, her mind blade stays in this form every time the soulknife forms her mind blade. The light weapon deals 1d6 points of damage, the one-handed weapon deals 1d8 points of damage, and the two-handed weapon deals 2d6 points of damage. All damages are based on a Medium-sized creature wielding Medium-sized weapons; adjust the weapon damage as appropriate for different sized weapons. In all forms, the mind blade has a critical range of 19-20/x2. A soulknife with powerful build or any similar ability forms an appropriately-sized mind blade dealing the size-appropriate amount of damage. If the soulknife's chosen form is a light weapon, she may choose to form two light weapons when forming her mind blade if she so chooses, but she suffers the standard penalties for two-weapon fighting.

Regardless of the weapon form a soulknife has chosen, her mind blade does not have a set damage type. When shaping her weapon and assigning abilities to it, the soulknife chooses whether it will deal bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage. The soulknife may change the damage type of an existing mind blade, or may summon a new mind blade with a different damage type, as a full-round action; otherwise, the mind blade retains the last damage type chosen every time it is summoned.

The blade can be broken (it has hardness 10 and 10 hit points); however, a soulknife can simply create another on her next move action. The moment she relinquishes her grip on her blade, it dissipates (unless she intends to throw it; see below). A mind blade is considered a magic weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction and is considered a masterwork weapon.

A soulknife can use feats such as Power Attack or Combat Expertise in conjunction with the mind blade just as if it were a normal weapon. She can also choose her mind blade for feats requiring a specific weapon choice, such as Weapon Focus and Improved Critical. Powers or spells that upgrade weapons can be used on a mind blade. The soulknife can use feats such as Weapon Finesse that work on light weapons with her mind blade, but such feats only work on mind blades in a light weapon form.

Even in places where psionic effects do not normally function (such as within a null psionics field), a soulknife can attempt to sustain her mind blade by making a DC 20 Will save. On a successful save, the soulknife maintains her mind blade for a number of rounds equal to her class level before she needs to check again, although the mind blade is treated for all purposes as a non-magical, masterwork weapon while in a place where psionic effects do not normally function. On an unsuccessful attempt, the mind blade vanishes. As a move action on her turn, the soulknife can attempt a new Will save to rematerialize her mind blade while she remains within the psionics-negating effect. She gains a bonus on Will saves made to maintain or form her mind blade equal to the total enhancement bonus of her mind blade (see below).

The soulknife chooses the appearance of her mind blade, although its shape must reflect the selections the soulknife has chosen: a bludgeoning mind blade would be blunt, slashing would have an edge, etc.

Shape Mind Blade: The soulknife's mind blade retains the last chosen form every time it is formed until the soulknife reshapes it. If the soulknife chooses to reshape her blade, it requires a full-round action to do so. She may also re-assign the type of damage dealt as part of reshaping her mind blade if she so chooses. A soulknife can reassign the ability or abilities she has added to her mind blade; see below. To do so, she must first spend 8 hours in concentration. These cannot be the normal 8 hours used for rest, even if the soulknife does not require sleep. After that period, the mind blade materializes with the new ability or abilities selected by the soulknife.

Wild Talent: The soulknife gains Wild Talent as a bonus feat at 1st level. This provides her with the psionic power necessary to manifest her mind blade.

Bonus Feat: The soulknife may choose Power Attack or Two-Weapon Fighting as a bonus feat at 1st level.

Throw Mind Blade: All soulknives have some knowledge of how to throw their mind blades, though only the lightest forms of the blade can be thrown. A light mind blade has a range increment of 30 ft. Whether or not the attack hits, a thrown mind blade then dissipates. A soulknife can use psychic strike (see below) in conjunction with a thrown mind blade as well as other special abilities (such as Knife to the Soul; see below)

Psychic Strike (Su): As a move action, a soulknife of 2nd level or higher can imbue her mind blade with destructive psychic energy. This effect deals an extra 1d8 points of damage on any attack she wishes to activate it on (as long as the attack is made with her mind blade). A soulknife may hold the charge as long as she likes without discharging. It does not go off on any attack unless she chooses to use it, and the charge is not wasted if an attack misses. Mindless creatures are immune to this damage, although non-mindless creatures immune to mind-affecting effects are affected by this damage as normal. (Unlike the rogue's sneak attack, the psychic strike is not precision damage and can affect creatures otherwise immune to extra damage from critical hits or more than 30 feet away.) A mind blade deals this extra damage only once when this ability is called upon, but a soulknife can imbue her mind blade with psychic energy again by taking another move action. Additionally, she may recharge it as a swift action by expending her psionic focus.

Once a soulknife has prepared her blade for a psychic strike, it holds the extra energy until it is used (whether the attack is successful or not). Even if the soulknife drops the mind blade (or it otherwise dissipates, such as when it is thrown), it is still imbued with psychic energy when the soulknife next materializes it.

If the soulknife forms her mind blade into two weapons, she may imbue each mind blade with psychic strike as normal. If she reshapes her mind blade into a single weapon form, the additional psychic strike imbued into the additional weapon is lost. At every four levels thereafter (6th, 10th, etc), the extra damage from a soulknife's psychic strike increases by 1d8.

Enhanced Mind Blade: A soulknife's mind blade improves as the character gains higher levels. At 3rd level and every odd level thereafter, the mind blade gains a cumulative +1 enhancement bonus that she may spend on an actual enhancement bonus or on weapon special abilities. A soulknife's level determines her maximum enhancement bonus (see Table: The Soulknife). The soulknife may (and must, when her total enhancement is higher than her maximum bonus) apply any special ability from the table below instead of an enhancement bonus, as long as she meets the level requirements. A soulknife can choose any combination of weapon special abilities and/or enhancement bonus enhancement bonus before assigning any special abilities. If the soulknife shapes her mind blade into two items, the enhancement bonus of her mind blade (if any) is reduced by 1 (to a minimum of 0). If this would reduce the enhancement bonus on the mind blades to 0 and weapon special abilities are applied, the soulknife must reshape her mind blade to make the options valid. Both mind blades are not required to have the same selection of enhancement bonus and special abilities as long as the selections do not exceed the total allowed by the soulknife's level, but she must assign at least a +1 and weapon special abilities (if any).

Speed of Thought: A soulknife gains Speed of Thought as a bonus feat at 4th level

Free Draw: At 5th level, a soulknife becomes able to materialize his mind blade as a free action instead of a move action. He can make only one attempt to materialize the mind blade per round, however, unless he is throwing his mind blade in which case he may do so as many times as his base attack bonus allows.

Bladewind (Su): At 8th level, a soulknife gains the ability to momentarily fragment his mind blade into numerous identical blades, each of which strikes at a nearby opponent.

As a full attack, when wielding his mind blade, a soulknife can give up his regular attacks and instead fragment his mind blade to make one melee attack, at his full base attack bonus, against each opponent within double his natural reach. Each fragment functions identically to the soulknife’s regular mind blade.

When using bladewind, a soulknife forfeits any bonus or extra attacks granted by other feats or abilities (such as the Cleave feat or the haste spell).

The mind blade immediately reverts to its previous form after the bladewind attack.

Knife to the Soul (Su): Beginning at 12th level, when a soulknife executes a psychic strike, he can choose to substitute Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma damage (his choice) for extra dice of damage. For each die of extra damage he gives up, he deals 1 point of damage to the ability score he chooses. A soulknife can combine extra dice of damage and ability damage in any combination.

The soulknife decides which ability score his psychic strike damages and the division of ability damage and extra dice of damage when he imbues his mind blade with the psychic strike energy.

Mastery of the Blade: At 16th level a soulknife gains mastery over one form of his mind blade. He chooses one form of his mind blade (light, one handed, or two handed) and is treated as having the feats Weapon Focus, Greater Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, Greater Weapon Specialization, and Improved Critical (All Mind Blade) when wielding that form of mind blade.

Mastery of the Mind: At 20th level, a soulknife reaches the pinnacle of her art and her connection to her blade is so strong it cannot be severed. She no longer requires a Will save to maintain her mind blade in a null psionics field, although it still loses any enhancement bonus and special abilities. In addition, she may change the configurations of her mind blade's special abilities at will as a full-round action and she can alter its form (as well as changing its damage type) as a swift action.

Mind Blade Enhancements



Special Ability
Enhancement Value Bonus
Minimum Required Level


Corrosive
+1
5


Defending
+1
5


Distance1
+1
5


Dueling2
+1
5


Flaming
+1
5


Frost
+1
5


Ghost Touch
+1
5


Keen/Impact3
+1
5


Lucky
+1
5


Merciful
+1
5


Mighty Cleaving
+1
5


Psychokinetic
+1
5


Shock
+1
5


Sundering
+1
5


Vicious
+1
5


Anarchic4
+2
7


Axiomatic4
+2
7


Collision
+2
7


Corrosive Burst
+2
7


Flaming Burst
+2
7


Holy4
+2
7


Icy Burst
+2
7


Mindcrusher
+2
7


Psychokinetic Burst
+2
7


Shocking Burst
+2
7


Suppression
+2
7


Unholy4
+2
7


Wounding
+2
7


Bodyfeeder
+3
9


Mindfeeder
+3
9


Soulfeeder
+3
9


Speed
+3
9


Brilliant Energy
+4
12


Vorpal
+5
15


1 - Can only be applied to light blades
2 - See below
3 - As appropriate to the weapon's damage type
4 - A soulknife must be of the appropriate alignment to use this special ability

Dueling Weapon Enhancement:

This special ability can only be placed on melee weapons. A dueling weapon gives the wielder a +4 enhancement bonus on initiative checks, provided the weapon is drawn and in hand when the Initiative check is made. It provides a +2 bonus on disarm checks, including the opposed attack roll to avoid being disarmed if such an attempt fails, and Bluff checks used to feint. It also grants a +2 to the Sense motive check resist the effects of an opponent's feint.

[ThePurple]

A soulknife must choose the form of her mind blade at 1st level. She can either form it into a light weapon, a one-handed weapon, or a two-handed weapon. Once chosen, her mind blade stays in this form every time the soulknife forms her mind blade.

Is there a compelling reason for this instead of simply allowing the Soulknife to change the type of mind blade in addition to the damage type when using Shape Mind Blade? It's not going to provide much of a benefit over how you have it now because you would still require the feats to use two weapons at the same time, but it's not as if Soulknife has ever really been accused of being a particularly powerful class.

I've always felt that customization and adaptability should be the hallmark of the Soulknife, made viable by the weapon specific feats that are basically required to be a good martial combatant applying to the Soulknife's mind blade regardless of form. If the mind blade is supposed to represent a specific object coalesced from the Soulknife's mind, why are all mind blades effectively restricted to the same 3 forms?

To go along with this, I would recommend tweaking Shape Mind Blade so that, as part of the same full round action, they can change certain mundane attributes, such as reducing threat range (minimum 20/x2) or damage (effectively reducing the die by 1 size category) in order to provide reach, increase damage (increasing the die by 1 size category), increase threat range (max 18-20), or increase crit multiplier (max x4) in any combination they wish.

Examples of this would include creating a "scimitar" mind blade by decreasing damage die of your standard d8/19-20/x2 mindblade from d8 to d6 (one step down) to increase threat range from 19-20 to 18-20. A "battleaxe" mindblade could be created by decreasing threat range from 19-20 to 20 in order to increase crit modifier from x2 to x3. A "heavy pick" mindblade could be created by taking a "battleaxe" mindblade and decreasing the damage die from d8 to d6 and further increasing the crit modifier to x4. Light mind blades could be turned into kukri by decreasing damage die to increase threat range or whips by decreasing damage die to provide reach. None of the mind blades would be more powerful than any of the equivalent martial weapons, so it's not like you're providing a huge advantage; you're just providing customization (just to a greater extent than you already are).

You could even have an "Improved Shape Mind Blade" feature (or features) that gives you a greater allotment of these options that can be applied to your mind blade (either by simply increasing weapon damage die or stating that the Soul Knife can get one of the "advantages" for free) as you get higher in level (representing mastery in shaping your mindblade to turn it into a progressively more dangerous weapon, such that, even without any psionic enhancements, it's more effective than any mundane weapon could possibly be).

In effect, a level 1 Soulknife might be using the equivalent of a longsword, but a level 20 Soulknife would use a physical manifestation of the platonic ideal of the longsword (the perfect form in our minds from which we derive the imperfections of examples of real world examples of that object), which fits with the whole idea of "weapon created from the mind" (since the platonic ideal is a mental construct).

Examples for this might include learning to turn your "longsword" mindblade (d8/19-20/x2) into a "bastard sword" mindblade (d10/19-20/x2) or a "battleaxe" into a "war axe" (effectively giving Exotic Weapon Proficiency for free, except you get to create your own exotic weapon) or any of a number of other improvements upon existing forms.

I'd also recommend the ability for Shape Mind Blade to turn an offhand mind blade into a light or heavy shield (maybe not at level 2, but at some point), so that they have a defensive option available to them, since, without that, there's not much reason to go with a one-handed non-light mind blade.

Another tweak I would consider providing would be distributing the Master of the Blade feats across multiple levels rather than dumping all of them on the class at once, perhaps giving Focus at level 2 and an additional feat every 3-4 levels after that (Specialization at 5, Greater Focus at 9, Improved Critical at 13, Greater Specialization at 16), which gives a Soulknife all of them at level 16 while making the progression upwards easier and access to those feats later than a fighter.

The overall effect would be a class that learns to customize, adapt, and improve upon every aspect of their weapon as they level up. Such customization and adaptation would still require the expenditure of some resources (full round action to change mundane properties; 8 hours to change psionic properties) so it's not completely over the top, but it fits very well with the mechanical and narrative theme of the Soulknife and provides distinct advantages that aren't just refluffed versions of existing feats.

[PallentisLunam]

Is there a compelling reason for this instead of simply allowing the Soulknife to change the type of mind blade in addition to the damage type when using Shape Mind Blade? It's not going to provide much of a benefit over how you have it now because you would still require the feats to use two weapons at the same time, but it's not as if Soulknife has ever really been accused of being a particularly powerful class.

That was lifted directly from the PF soulknife.


I've always felt that customization and adaptability should be the hallmark of the Soulknife, made viable by the weapon specific feats that are basically required to be a good martial combatant applying to the Soulknife's mind blade regardless of form. If the mind blade is supposed to represent a specific object coalesced from the Soulknife's mind, why are all mind blades effectively restricted to the same 3 forms?

To go along with this, I would recommend tweaking Shape Mind Blade so that, as part of the same full round action, they can change certain mundane attributes, such as reducing threat range (minimum 20/x2) or damage (effectively reducing the die by 1 size category) in order to provide reach, increase damage (increasing the die by 1 size category), increase threat range (max 18-20), or increase crit multiplier (max x4) in any combination they wish.

Examples of this would include creating a "scimitar" mind blade by decreasing damage die of your standard d8/19-20/x2 mindblade from d8 to d6 (one step down) to increase threat range from 19-20 to 18-20. A "battleaxe" mindblade could be created by decreasing threat range from 19-20 to 20 in order to increase crit modifier from x2 to x3. A "heavy pick" mindblade could be created by taking a "battleaxe" mindblade and decreasing the damage die from d8 to d6 and further increasing the crit modifier to x4. Light mind blades could be turned into kukri by decreasing damage die to increase threat range or whips by decreasing damage die to provide reach. None of the mind blades would be more powerful than any of the equivalent martial weapons, so it's not like you're providing a huge advantage; you're just providing customization (just to a greater extent than you already are).

You could even have an "Improved Shape Mind Blade" feature (or features) that gives you a greater allotment of these options that can be applied to your mind blade (either by simply increasing weapon damage die or stating that the Soul Knife can get one of the "advantages" for free) as you get higher in level (representing mastery in shaping your mindblade to turn it into a progressively more dangerous weapon, such that, even without any psionic enhancements, it's more effective than any mundane weapon could possibly be).

In effect, a level 1 Soulknife might be using the equivalent of a longsword, but a level 20 Soulknife would use a physical manifestation of the platonic ideal of the longsword (the perfect form in our minds from which we derive the imperfections of examples of real world examples of that object), which fits with the whole idea of "weapon created from the mind" (since the platonic ideal is a mental construct).

Examples for this might include learning to turn your "longsword" mindblade (d8/19-20/x2) into a "bastard sword" mindblade (d10/19-20/x2) or a "battleaxe" into a "war axe" (effectively giving Exotic Weapon Proficiency for free, except you get to create your own exotic weapon) or any of a number of other improvements upon existing forms.

I'd also recommend the ability for Shape Mind Blade to turn an offhand mind blade into a light or heavy shield (maybe not at level 2, but at some point), so that they have a defensive option available to them, since, without that, there's not much reason to go with a one-handed non-light mind blade.

Another tweak I would consider providing would be distributing the Master of the Blade feats across multiple levels rather than dumping all of them on the class at once, perhaps giving Focus at level 2 and an additional feat every 3-4 levels after that (Specialization at 5, Greater Focus at 9, Improved Critical at 13, Greater Specialization at 16), which gives a Soulknife all of them at level 16 while making the progression upwards easier and access to those feats later than a fighter.

The overall effect would be a class that learns to customize, adapt, and improve upon every aspect of their weapon as they level up. Such customization and adaptation would still require the expenditure of some resources (full round action to change mundane properties; 8 hours to change psionic properties) so it's not completely over the top, but it fits very well with the mechanical and narrative theme of the Soulknife and provides distinct advantages that aren't just refluffed versions of existing feats.

My main issue with most soulknife fixes is that they add way too much complexity, besides this is a tailored fix for a campaign that I'm running here so at least for now nobody will ever play the class from 1st level.

[ThePurple]

That was lifted directly from the PF soulknife.

And you're trying to "fix" it. Is there a compelling reason to keep that limitation or is it just there because of inertia?


My main issue with most soulknife fixes is that they add way too much complexity, besides this is a tailored fix for a campaign that I'm running here so at least for now nobody will ever play the class from 1st level.

I don't think it's as complicated as you might think, since all it's really doing is allowing the Soulknife to create their own weapons using the exact same weapon creation guidelines that are used for pretty much every other weapon in 3.X. It's pretty verbose, because you have to explain all of the steps, but, once you realize what the pattern/system is, it's going to be very fast.

[nonsi]

Given that the soulknife is probably the weakest base class you could find in any official 3e materials, and given that your fix amounts to elevated BAB + bonus feat + postponed Weapon Focus (Mastery of the Blade comes so late that it doesn't matter anymore), I think you could and should aim higher.
You could for instance (just as a measuring tool) dissolve the official 3e Soulknife into the official 3e Psychic Warrior and you'd still have a balanced Tier-3 class.

[digiman619]

Is there any reason not to just back-port DSP's soulknife to 3.X? Just change the skills back and remember you get feats every 3 levels rather than 2 and you should be fine. Yeah, PF's a bit strong compared to 3.X, but it's not enough to make it Tier 2.