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TheKeyofE
2018-07-18, 08:16 PM
Argent Blade

Argent Blades literally wield the power of the mind, in the form of their silvery mind blades. Their prowess with those blades is clear to see, but they can also use psionic powers both to improve that prowess and to disable their enemies. Many Argent Blades are defenders of the weak and oppressed, using their blades and powers to protect the downtrodden.
[Light blue text is for the creator’s thoughts and explanations. The Argent Blade is essentially a mixture of the Soulknife, Psion, Psychic Warrior, and Hexblade. It draws most strongly from the Soulknife, but loses the abilities Throw Mindblade, Psychic Strike, and Bladewind in exchange for the ability to manifest powers. Its manifesting ability is a mix between Psychic Warrior and Psion, and it also has a “curse” ability similar to the Hexblade.

I’m aiming for a balance level of Tier 3, similar to the Psychic Warrior. As of right now I think it might be a bit stronger than a Psychic Warrior, but still weaker than a Psion, which is Tier 2.

This class is based on a character named Tenmis I played in a custom homebrew game many, many years ago. Tenmis had a liquid metal blade (think of the T-1000’s body) which held its shape based on the user’s thoughts, sort of similar to the Soulknife’s mind blade, and he also had psychic powers which he could use to “cloud men’s minds” like The Shadow. I tried unsuccessfully many times to recreate Tenmis in D&D using existing classes, before finally deciding to just make my own homebrew class instead. Even though this class is based on a specific character, I tried hard to make the class generic enough that it will work for a variety of character builds and not be shoehorned into a specific build.]

Hit Die
d8


Weapon and Armor Proficiency
As an Argent Blade, you are proficient with all simple weapons and with your own mind blade. You are proficient with light armor and with light and heavy shields (but not tower shields).
[Same as the Soulknife.]

Skill Points
4 + Int modifier (x4 at first level).
[Same as the Soulknife. Argent Blades have Intelligence-based manifesting, so they will want to keep their Intelligence score high, giving them more skill points.]

Class Skills


Autohypnosis (Wis)

Hide (Dex)

Knowledge (Local) (Int)

Move Silently (Dex)



Bluff (Cha)

Jump (Str)

Knowledge (Nature) (Int)

Profession (Wis)



Climb (Str)

Knowledge (Arcana) (Int)

Knowledge (Nobility/Royalty) (Int)

Psicraft (Int)



Concentration (Con)

Knowledge (Architecture/Engineering) (Int)

Knowledge (Psionics) (Int)

Sense Motive (Wis)



Craft (Int)

Knowledge (Dungeoneering) (Int)

Knowledge (Religion) (Int)

Spot (Wis)



Diplomacy (Cha)

Knowledge (Geography) (Int)

Knowledge (The Planes) (Int)

Tumble (Wis)



Gather Information (Cha)

Knowledge (History) (Int)

Listen (Wis)





[This is all of the class skills for both Soulknife and Psion (Telepath).]


Advancement (Table 1)




Lvl

BAB

Fort

Ref

Will

Special

Mind Blade Enhancement

Power Level

Powers Known

Power Points


1

0

0

2

2

Mind Blade, Mind Blade Finesse, Weapon Focus (Mind Blade)

+0

1st

1

0



2

1

0

3

3

Argent Curse (3/Day)

+0

1st

2

1



3

2

1

3

3

Bonus Feat, Silvered Blade

+0

1st

3

3



4

3

1

4

4

Tempered Mind Blade, Free Draw

+1

2nd

4

5



5

3

1

4

4

Improved Argent Curse

+1

2nd

5

8



6

4

2

5

5

Sharpened Mind Blade, Argent Curse (4/Day)

+2

2nd

6

11



7

5

2

5

5

Bonus Feat

+2

3rd

7

15



8

6/1

2

6

6

Sudden Quicken (1/Day)

+3

3rd

8

20



9

6/1

3

6

6

Greater Weapon Focus (Mind Blade), Greater Argent Curse

+3

3rd

9

26



10

7/2

3

7

7

Argent Curse (5/Day)

+4

4th

10

32



11

8/3

3

7

7

Bonus Feat

+4

4th

11

39



12

9/4

4

8

8

Soul Slicer

+5

4th

12

46



13

9/4

4

8

8

Dire Argent Curse

+5

5th

13

54



14

10/5

4

9

9

Argent Curse (6/Day)

+6

5th

14

63



15

11/6/1

5

9

9

Bonus Feat

+6

5th

15

72



16

12/7/2

5

10

10

Sudden Quicken (2/Day)

+7

6th

16

82



17

12/7/2

5

10

10

True Argent Curse

+8

6th

17

92



18

13/8/3

6

11

11

Argent Curse (7/Day)

+9

6th

18

103



19

14/9/4

6

11

11

Bonus Feat

+10

6th

19

115



20

15/10/5

6

12

12

Epic Mind Blade, True Soul Slicer

+11

6th

20

128






Class Features

Power Points/Day
As an Argent Blade, your ability to manifest powers is limited by the power points you have available. Your base daily allotment of power points is given in the table above. In addition, you receive bonus power points per day based on your Intelligence score as shown on pg. 18 of the Expanded Psionics Handbook. Your race may also provide bonus power points per day, as may certain feats and items.
[The Argent Blade’s progression of power points per day is very close to the Psychic Warrior’s progression, except that I adjusted the growth rate to be more smooth because the Psychic Warrior’s progression has some weird jumps in it and isn’t very smooth.]

Powers Known
At 1st level you know one Argent Blade power of your choice. Each time you achieve a new level in Argent Blade you unlock the knowledge of an additional power as shown in Table 1 above.

You choose your powers from the Psion power list or from the Telepathy discipline power list. Your manifester level is equal to your class level. You can manifest any power that has a power point cost equal to or lower than your manifester level.

The number of times you can manifest powers in a day is limited only by your daily power points. For example, a 15th-level Argent Blade (with a total of 72 power points) could manifest a power costing 1 power point seventy-two times in one day, a power costing 9 power points eight times in one day, or any other combination of manifestations that does not exceed 72 power points in total.

As an Argent Blade, you simply know your powers; they are ingrained in your mind. You do not need to prepare them (in the way that some spellcasters prepare their spells), though you must get a good night's sleep each day to regain all your spent power points.

The Difficulty Class for saving throws against your Argent Blade powers is 10 + the power's level + your Intelligence modifier. For example, the saving throw against a 5th-level power has a DC of 15 + your Int modifier.
[One power per level, the same as a Psychic Warrior. However, the Argent Blade chooses powers from the Psion/Telepath list instead of the Psychic Warrior list, and uses Intelligence instead of Wisdom for manifesting. This means that the Argent Blade will have a good selection of “mental manipulation” powers like a Psion, but will miss out on some of the really good Psychic Warrior powers like psionic lion’s charge or expansion unless she picks them up with Expanded Knowledge.]

Maximum Power Level Known
As a 1st level Argent Blade you have the ability to learn 1st level powers. As you attain higher levels, you gain the ability to master more complex powers, as shown in Table 1 above. For example, at 4th level you can learn powers of 2nd level or lower, at 7th level you can learn powers of 3rd level or lower, and so on.

To learn or manifest a power, you must have an Intelligence score of at least 10 + the power's level. For example, an Argent Blade with an Intelligence score of 15 can learn and manifest powers of 5th level or lower.

Mind Blade (Su)
As a move action once per turn, you can create a semisolid blade composed of psychic energy distilled from your own mind. Visually, the mind blade can appear as almost any shape and texture that you desire, but the most common shape and texture among Argent Blades is that of a sword with a blade that looks like silvery liquid metal.

Mechanically, the mind blade functions as a slashing or piercing weapon which can be wielded as if it were a normal manufactured weapon. You must have at least one hand empty to materialized your mind blade. Each time you use a move action to create your mind blade, you can choose to create either a one-handed mind blade (which counts as a light weapon) or a two-handed mind blade, and you can choose to deal either slashing or piercing damage. You can also spend a move action while your mind blade is already materialized to change its form or damage type.

For a Medium-size Argent Blade, the weapon deals 1d6 damage (crit 19-20/x2) in the one-handed form or 1d10 damage (crit 19-20/x2) in the two-handed form. Argent Blades who are larger or smaller than Medium-size will create mind blades which do more or less damage than this as shown in Table 2 below.

Your mind blade can be broken (it has hardness 10 and 10 hit points); however, you can simply create another one on your next move action. The moment you relinquish your grip on your mind blade, it dissipates. Your mind blade is considered a magic weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

You can choose your mind blade for feats which require a specific weapon choice, such as Improved Critical, and those feats will apply to your mind blade no matter which form it is in. Powers or spells which improve manufactured weapons, such asmagic weapon, can be used on your mind blade.

Your mind blade improves as you gain higher levels. At 4th level and higher, your mind blade gains an enhancement bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls as shown in Table 1 above. You can also exchange some of your enhancement bonus in order to apply weapon special abilities to your mind blade (pick abilities from Table 3 below). You can choose any combination of enhancement bonuses and weapon special abilities as long as you do not exceed the total allowed by your level, with two caveats: you cannot have an enhancement bonus lower than +1 (except when splitting your mind blade, see Tempered Mind Blade below), and you cannot have an enhancement bonus higher than +5 (except at 20th level, see Epic Mind Blade below). For example, a 14th level Argent Blade could have an enhancement bonus between +1 and +5 and any combination of weapon special abilities totaling between +1 and +5, as long as the total of enhancement bonuses plus special abilities does not exceed +6.

To assign weapon special abilities, you must first spend 8 hours in concentration. After that period, the mind blade materializes with the new combination of enhancement bonuses and special abilities you selected. From then on, every time you manifest your mind blade, no matter the form, it will have the same enhancement bonuses and weapon special abilities until you spend another 8 hours in concentration to change them again.

If you gain a level in a prestige class which gives you +1 level of manifesting ability as if you had gained a level in Argent Blade, your mind blade enhancement total also improves as if you had gained a level in Argent Blade.

Even in places where psionic effects do not normally function (such as within a null psionics field), you can attempt to sustain your mind blade by making a DC 20 Will save. On a successful save, you maintain your mind blade for a number of rounds equal to your class level before you need to make another Will save. On an unsuccessful save, your mind blade vanishes. As a move action on your turn you can attempt a new Will save to reform your blade while you remain within the psionics-negating effect.
[This ability is very similar to the Mind Blade ability from the Soulknife, but I made several important changes:


I reworded some of the text to be more clear and concise.

The Argent Blade can use a two-handed mind blade at 1st level instead of waiting until 5th level like the Soulknife.

The Argent Blade can choose to use slashing or piercing damage, as opposed to the Soulknife, where the short sword form can only deal piercing damage and the longsword and bastard sword forms can only deal slashing damage.

The mind blade progression speeds up at higher levels so the Argent Blade gets a +11 equivalent weapon at 20th level instead of just a +9 equivalent weapon at 20th level like the Soulknife. See the Epic Mind Blade ability below for more details.

I changed the Soulknife’s Mind Blade Enhancement ability so the Argent Blade can choose to reduce the mind blade’s enhancement bonus in exchange for more weapon special abilities, or vice versa, giving the Argent Blade more flexibility in customizing her mind blade (this idea comes from the third-party book [I]Untapped Potential by Dreamscarred Press).

Prestige classes which enhance manifesting ability will also improve the mind blade. This gives Argent Blades a wider variety of prestige classes available to them compared to Soulknives (this idea also comes from Untapped Potential).


Regarding that last point, having prestige classes advance both the manifesting progression AND the mind blade progression may not be appropriate for all games. At the DM’s discretion, it may be better to have the player choose to have any prestige class(es) improve either the manifesting progression or the mind blade progression instead of both.]

Mind Blade Finesse
You can use your Dexterity modifier in place of your Strength modifier when making attack rolls with your mind blade, as if you had the Weapon Finesse feat. This applies to all forms your mind blade can take, both one-handed and two-handed.
[This ability is here because I really like the concept of using finesse instead of might to guide your weapon attacks. I feel that because the mind blade is only semisolid and formed from the Argent Blade’s own mind, she should be able to use finesse with it more easily than she could with a normal weapon. This also lets her use Weapon Finesse with a two-handed weapon, which usually isn’t possible except in a few niche cases. On top of that, Weapon Finesse is very useful when combined with two-weapon fighting because TWF requires a high Dexterity for the feat requirements.

That said, I’m not sure if this ability is balanced or not. On the one hand, it’s basically like getting Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat, and Weapon Finesse is not a particularly strong feat unless your racial ability score modifiers result in you having a Dexterity score much higher than your Strength score. On the other hand, being able to use Weapon Finesse with a two-handed mind blade is actually more like getting two bonus feats instead of one (Weapon Finesse plus Exotic Weapon Proficiency [elven court blade]).]

Weapon Focus (Mind Blade)
At 1st level, you gain Weapon Focus (mind blade) as a bonus feat.
[No change from the Soulknife. This helps make up for the Argent Blade’s ¾ BAB.]

Argent Curse
Starting at 2nd level, you can unleash a mental curse upon a foe as a swift action once per round. The target must be visible to you and within 60 feet. The target of the Argent Curse takes a -2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, ability checks, skill checks, and weapon damage rolls for 1 hour thereafter. A successful Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your Argent Blade manifester level + your Intelligence modifier) negates the effect.

This ability is usable 3 times per day at 2nd level. If the target makes their Will save then that use of your Argent Curse is not expended. At 6th level, 10th level, 14th level, and 18th level you gain one additional use per day, as shown in Table 1 above.

Multiple Argent Curses do not stack, nor does this ability stack with a Hexblade’s Curse. Any foe that successfully resists the effect cannot be affected again by the same Argent Blade’s curse for 24 hours. Any effect that removes or dispels a curse eliminates the effect of an Argent Curse.
[This ability is based on the Hexblade’s Curse, but is usable more often. It lets the Argent Blade disrupt her foes without having to spend from her limited power point pool. However, it’s not mind-affecting so it can still affect creatures immune to mind-affecting effects such as undead, constructs, and plants.

I added this ability because it strongly reflects the mental disruption abilities that Tenmis had in the custom homebrew game I played in years ago.]

Improved Argent Curse: At 5th level, the penalty to attack rolls, saving throws, ability checks, skill checks, and weapon damage rolls from your Argent Curse increases to -3.

Greater Argent Curse: At 9th level, the penalty to attack rolls, saving throws, ability checks, skill checks, and weapon damage rolls from your Argent Curse increases to -4.

Dire Argent Curse: At 13th level, the penalty to attack rolls, saving throws, ability checks, skill checks, and weapon damage rolls from your Argent Curse increases to -5.

True Argent Curse: At 17th level, the penalty to attack rolls, saving throws, ability checks, skill checks, and weapon damage rolls from your Argent Curse increases to -6.
[The Argent Curse ability gets stronger at higher levels just like the Hexblade’s Curse does, but I changed it so the increase was more gradual compared to the Hexblade (which jumps from -2 to -4 at 7th level then from -4 to -6 at 19th level).]

Bonus Feats
At 3rd level, you gain a psionic feat as a bonus feat. You must meet the prerequisites of the chosen feat. You gain additional psionic bonus feats at 7th level, 11th level, 15th level, and 19th level.
[Bonus feats are always useful, and they help fill up the Special column of the Advancement table so there are no “dead levels.” I personally really like the Psionic Weapon > Greater Psionic Weapon > Deep Impact feat tree, for both mechanical and fluff reasons.]

Silvered Blade
At 3rd level and higher, your mind blade is considered a silver weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction (see the Dungeon Master’s Guide, pg. 284), but without any penalty to the damage roll.
[Visually, the mind blade can appear as almost any shape and texture that the user desires, but most Argent Blades have mind blades which look like silvery metal. Because of that, I decided to have the mind blades behave like actual silver weapons. I originally put this ability at 2nd level, but I decided to move it to 3rd level to avoid too much front-loading.]

Tempered Mind Blade
As your mental focus improves, so too does your mind blade improve. At 4th level and higher, your mind blade deals more damage. For a Medium-sized Argent Blade, the one-handed form of your mindblade now deals 1d8 damage instead of 1d6 damage, and the two-handed form now deals 1d12 damage instead of 1d10 damage. Argent Blades who are larger or smaller than Medium-size will create mind blades which do more or less damage than this as shown in Table 2 below.

In addition, you gain the ability to split your mind blade into two identical blades, suitable for two-weapon fighting. Normal penalties for fighting with two weapons apply. You must have two hands empty to materialize your mind blade in the dual blades form. Once split, each mind blade is a light weapon which deals 1d6 damage (crit 19-20/x2) for a Medium-size Argent Blade, and each blade will possess the same weapon special abilities (if any) that you had selected previously. However, your enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls for each mind blade is one less than normal. Alternately, you can choose to give up a +1 equivalent special ability instead of reducing your enhancement bonus. For example, if a 6th level Argent Blade with a +1 keen mind blade decided to split her mind blade into two then she could choose to create either two +1 mind blades or two +0 keen mind blades (note that this is an exception to the rule which states that a weapon with a special ability must have at least a +1 enhancement bonus, Dungeon Master’s Guide, pg. 223). If she later reforms her mindblade into a one-handed or two-handed form then it would revert to a +1 keen mind blade.

If you use spells or powers to enhance your mind blade while it is in the dual blades form, each blade is treated as a separate weapon and must be enhanced separately. If your mind blade is in a one-handed or two-handed form and is affected by one or more active spells or powers, when you change your mind blade to the dual blades form then the blade in your primary hand will continue to be affected by those spells or powers. Conversely, if your mind blade is in the dual blades form and both blades are affected by one or more active spells or powers, when you change your mind blade back to a one-handed or two-handed form then the durations will end for any active spells or powers affecting the blade in your off-hand.
[This replaces the Shape Mind Blade class feature that the Soulknife gets at 5th level. Compared to the Soulknife, the one-handed and dual blade forms will deal the same amount of damage (1d8 and 1d6, respectively), but the two-handed version will be stronger (1d12 instead of 1d10). Also, the Argent Blade doesn’t have to use a full round action to reshape her mind blade the way the Soulknife does.

The one downside here is that the Argent Blade can’t take the Exotic Weapon Proficiency (bastard sword) feat to use her 1d10 mind blade in one hand like a Soulknife can. However, because Exotic Weapon Proficiency (bastard sword) is not a very good feat I don’t think it’s a huge loss.]

Free Draw
At 4th level, you gain the ability to materialize your mind blade as a free action instead of as a move action. You may only materialize your mind blade once per round.

When you materialize your mind blade as a free action, it appears in the same form (two-handed, one-handed, or dual blades) and deals the same damage type (slashing or piercing) as when you last held it. For example, if your mind blade was in the two-handed form and dealt slashing damage when you last released your grip on it (causing it to dissipate), then the next time you materialize your mind blade as a free action it will still be in the two-handed form and deal slashing damage.

If you want to change your mind blade’s form or damage type, you can choose to use a move action instead of a free action to materialize your mind blade, and it will materialize in its new form. You can also spend a move action while your mind blade is already materialized to change its form or damage type.
[This is based on the Free Draw class feature that the Soulknife gets at 5th level. It clarifies that the mind blade materializes in the same form the character last had it in. This is in contrast to the Soulknife, where by RAW it seems that the character’s mind blade always materializes in short sword form and she has to spend a full round action to change its shape after materializing it.]

Sharpen Mind Blade
As your mental focus sharpens, so too does your mind blade become sharper. At 6th level and higher, the critical threat range of your mind blade improves from 19-20/x2 to 18-20/x2. This improvement applies to all your mind blade forms.
[This ability combos very well with the keen weapon special ability. I feel like it’s well a balanced ability because it’s basically like getting Exotic Weapon Proficiency as a bonus feat, and then using that feat to pick an exotic weapon with a high critical threat range.]

Sudden Quicken
At 8th level and higher, you can expend your psionic focus to manifest as a swift action a psionic power which normally requires a manifesting time of 1 round or less, just as if you had used the Quicken Power feat but without increasing the power point cost of the power. This ability is usable once per day.

At 16th level and higher, you can use this ability twice per day.


Greater Weapon Focus (Mind Blade)
At 9th level, you gain Greater Weapon Focus (mind blade) as a bonus feat.
[No change from the Soulknife. This helps make up for the Argent Blade’s ¾ BAB.]

Soul Slicer
At 12th level, you gain the ability to damage the minds of your enemies when you strike them in melee. Once per round when you successfully hit an opponent with your mind blade, you can deal 2 points of ability score damage to their Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma (your choice). This ability is mind-affecting, so creatures immune to mind-affecting effects (such as undead, constructs, and plants) are immune to this ability damage.
[This ability is based on the Knife to the Soul ability from the Soulknife, except that the Argent Blade doesn’t have to spend a move action to charge a psychic strike like the Soulknife does. I’m not completely satisfied with it so I may end up changing it at some point.]

Epic Mind Blade
At 20th level, your mind blade becomes a +11 equivalent weapon, as shown in Table 1 above. Normal magical weapons can only be enhanced up to +10 equivalent, so as a +11 weapon your mind blade becomes an epic weapon. Your mind blade’s maximum enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls is now +6 instead of +5. For example, a 20th level Argent Blade could have an enhancement bonus between +1 and +6 and any combination of weapon special abilities totaling between +5 and +10, as long as the total of enhancement bonuses plus special abilities does not exceed +11.
[The mind blade progression speeds up at higher levels. This is important because most melee-focused characters can afford a +10 equivalent weapon by 18th level or so and we don’t want the Argent Blade to fall behind in that regard. My first idea was to have the progression go up to +10 at 20th level, but then I changed the high-level progression slightly because I felt like getting a +11 equivalent weapon at 20th level makes for a unique and interesting “capstone” ability for the class.]

True Soul Slicer
At 20th level, when you use your Soul Slicer ability you now deal 4 points of ability score damage to your target’s Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma (your choice).
[Like with Soul Slicer, I’m not completely satisfied with True Soul Slicer so I may end up changing it at some point.]


Mind Blade Damage (Table 2)



Tiny

Small

Medium

Large

Huge



1d3

1d4

1d6

1d8

2d6



1d4

1d6

1d8

2d6

3d6



1d6

1d8

1d10

2d8

3d8



1d8

1d10

1d12

3d6

4d6




Weapon Special Abilities (Table 3)



Weapon Special Ability

Enhancement Bonus Value

Weapon Special Ability

Enhancement Bonus Value

Weapon Special Ability

Enhancement Bonus Value


Adamantine †

+1

Psychokinetic *

+1

Psychokinetic Burst *

+2



Bane (specific creature type)

+1

Shock

+1

Shocking Burst

+2



Cold Iron ‡

+1

Sundering *

+1

Suppression *

+2



Defending

+1

Vicious

+1

Unholy

+2



Flaming

+1

Anarchic

+2

Wounding

+2



Frost

+1

Axiomatic

+2

Bodyfeeder *

+3



Ghost Touch

+1

Collision *

+2

Mindfeeder *

+3



Keen

+1

Flaming Burst

+2

Soulbreaker *

+3



Lucky *

+1

Frost Burst

+2

Brilliant Energy

+4



Merciful

+1

Holy

+2

Coup de Grace *

+5



Mighty Cleaving

+1

Mindcrusher *

+2






* See the Expanded Psionics Handbook for the description of this ability.
† Your mind blade is considered an adamantine weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction, and also ignores hardness of less than 20 when striking objects (see theDungeon Master’s Guide, pg. 283). As long as you have this ability assigned to your mind blade, your mind blade is no longer considered a silver weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction (see the Silvered Blade class feature above). This ability is mutually exclusive with the cold iron weapon special ability; you cannot have both assigned to your mind blade at the same time.
‡ Your mind blade is considered a cold iron weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction (see the Dungeon Master’s Guide, pg. 284). As long as you have this ability assigned to your mind blade, your mind blade is no longer considered a silver weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction (see the Silvered Blade class feature above). This ability is mutually exclusive with the adamantine weapon special ability; you cannot have both assigned to your mind blade at the same time.
[This list of mind blade special abilities is based on the one in [I]Untapped Potential by Dreamscarred Press. It is much more complete than the tiny list of mind blade abilities in the Expanded Psionics Handbook, giving Argent Blades far more customization options than their Soulknife cousins. I also created the new adamantine andcold iron abilities to give the Argent Blade more options for overcoming damage reduction. The adamantine and cold iron abilities also “overwrite” the Silvered Blade ability.

Adaptation

If you would like the Argent Blade to have a stronger martial focus, choose your powers from the Psychic Warrior power list instead of the Psion (Telepath) power list. Also reduce the number of daily uses of Argent Curse by 1.

If you don’t like the Sudden Quicken ability then it can easily be replaced with something slightly weaker, such as Sudden Empower (manifest a power as if you used the Empower Power feat but without increasing the power point cost), Sudden Maximize (manifest a power as if you used the Maximize Power feat but without increasing the power point cost), or similar.

Maat Mons
2018-07-19, 02:05 AM
I feel I should point out that Ardent and Wilder are both classes 3/4 base attack bonus, access to 9th-level powers, and way more power points than Psychic Warrior, yet they're also commonly considered tier 3. Admittedly, Wilder suffers from few powers known, and Ardent suffers from weird restrictions on which powers it can learn.

Anyway, the point I'm working around to is, I never liked how few power points Psychic Warriors get, and it's possible to give a class more of them without going out of tier 3.

One thing that has proven to be a sticking point in soulknife fixes is the existence of weapon special abilities that are not priced as enhancement bonuses. So the question is, do you make it so mind blades can never have those properties, or do you make the class feature substantially more complicated?

Are you sure you don't want to allow the mind blade to be shaped into arbitrary weapons? So you could have a mind blade with reach? Or a mind blade that can trip?

Also, you know how you can deliver a touch spell with an unarmed strike, or a natural weapon, and deal damage at the same time? Well, since your mind blade is basically an extension of yourself, maybe it could have the same option.

I like how you let mind blades bypass DR/silver. Using a mind blade rules out using an actual silver weapon, like everybody else can. So it's good to eventually be able to overcome that. That said, what about adamantine and cold iron?

The mind blade enhancement stuff duplicates magic items. Which, I'm not sure how I feel about that. In a low-wealth campaign, you'll rock. But in a high-wealth campaign, your weapon won't be as good as everybody else's.

I'd move the ability to have two mind blades active at the same time to 1st level. I don't see why people who want to two-weapon fight shouldn't be able to do it from the get-go.

I don't see why you should only be able to materialize your mind blade once per round. At best, it lets you change between weapon types between attacks. I guess you could maybe attack two handed, then make off-hand attacks?

nonsi
2018-07-19, 12:42 PM
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Curses don't mesh well with psionics.
I suggest changing the name "Argent Curse" to "Argent Mind Stab".

For the same reason, I'd change the name "Mind Blade" to "Argent Blade". This would give more validity to the name of the class.

Epic Mind Blade: To remove doubt, you should note that the blade overcomes damage reduction as an epic weapon.