What would you say is the most iconic incarnate soulmelds?

[EisenKreutzer]

Which soulmelds do you feel really define the incarnate class? I mean, besides Incarnate Weapon and Incarnate Avatar. Not just the bread and butter of the class, but the soulmelds that exemplify the feel and concept of the incarnate class for you.

[Aegis013]

AFB so forgive me if I forgot anything.

IMO:
Necrocarnum circlet, acid spittle for the evil Incarnate.
Vitality Belt, crystal helm, astral vambrace (I miss having web enhancements) for the good Incarnate.
Sighting Gloves, (wind cloak? I forget the meld name), airstep sandals for the chaotic incarnate.
With incarnate weapon unavailable, I guess nothing for the lawful Incarnate.

For evil, melee attack damage on the Incarnum Radiance isn't great for you personally, but necromancy is iconically evil, and if it's not a morale bonus you can share it with your minion once you get that feature. You can use your disposable minion to protect you while you melt foes with acid.

For good, AC boost on Incarnum radiance encourages being a meat wall, so defense boosting melds like vitality belt, crystal helm, and astral vambrace fit.

For chaos, increased speed on Incarnum radiance is great for keeping away from enemies and plinking away with ranged attacks. Sighting gloves, whatever the meld that gives miss chance against ranged attacks and mobility enhancers like the airstep sandals are a nice fit. Acid Spittle would do well here except the 30ft range limit leaves you too close to your foe, and your bonus to hit isn't as beneficial on touch attacks.

For law, you get a small chance to hit boost on melee attack rolls. It's not enough to make up for having poor BAB. There's no particular melds that looks better based on this class feature other than Incarnate weapon. You might say Mage's Spectacles or solvertongue mask are the most iconic skillmonkey melds, so they might go here just to fill the blank even though they're just as good for any Incarnate.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Sailor's Bracers. They're flavorful, they're weird, they're niche, and an Incarnate can equip them if they know they're going to need it to become competent to good at that niche, but doesn't have to worry about them otherwise.

[Hackulator]

Honestly I've seen so few Incarnates in my many years of D&D that it's hard for me to think of them having anything "iconic". I'm currently playing a character with a 2 level dip in Incarnate and it's pretty much the first time I've ever known anything about them.

[Kelb_Panthera]

For me, it's gotta be one of soulspark familiar, strongheart vest, or vitality belt.

Soulspark familiar is just one of the purest distillations of incarnum as a system. It has multiple essentia options, binding makes a -huge- diffrence, and the incarnate is the only class that can use it well.

Strongheart Vest is probably the most well known element of the whole book, thanks to hellfire warlock. It's effect is nice and the binds are pretty okay, although the heart is a bit late for what it does. You get to laugh at poison, although being con focused and having a good fort probably had you doing that anyway.

Vitality belt wins the incarnate the distinction of being the single most durable class in the game. Even a barbarian can't keep up with the sheer damage ablative ability of an incarnate that's determined to block swords with his face and laugh about it. The vitality belt is a key element of that.


If I absolutely -have- to pick just one, I gotta go with the soulspark familiar for the reasons I laid out above. Yeah, a soulborn can shape it too but soulborn is barely a meldshaper and his SSF is gonna be a pale shadow of an incarnate's.

And for whatever rhetorical weight it's worth, incarnum is probably my favorite subsystem. I actively look for places I can use it in most of my characters. My current character is absolutely drowning in it: totemist/warlock/incarnate/soulcaster. I can do -all- the skills even though my skill points are crap. :smallbiggrin:

[Venger]

in addition to those mentioned, the fellmist robe because of the art. very iconic image and instantly tells you what the thing actually does

[PoeticallyPsyco]

And for whatever rhetorical weight it's worth, incarnum is probably my favorite subsystem. I actively look for places I can use it in most of my characters. My current character is absolutely drowning in it: totemist/warlock/incarnate/soulcaster. I can do -all- the skills even though my skill points are crap. :smallbiggrin:

Yeah, incarnum is awesome. I remain bitter that WotC doesn't want to adapt it to new editions.

[Aegis013]

I've been a fan of the subsystem since I learned about it. Though I've never paid serious attention to soulspark familiar. I vaguely recall looking it over and thinking it wasn't worth the meld slot, though I could be wrong.

I've been toying with the idea of an Incarnate who gets a familiar, animal companion, and psicrystal and abuses share soulmeld feat but haven't found a game to try it. Soulspark Familiar can't share melds or it would be a must have for the concept.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I've been toying with the idea of an Incarnate who gets a familiar, animal companion, and psicrystal and abuses share soulmeld feat but haven't found a game to try it. Soulspark Familiar can't share melds or it would be a must have for the concept.

Soulspark Familiar is a great meld for Share Soulmeld shenanigans, though, because each recipient gets their own attack spewing soulspark. On the subject, you can also get share spells with a Paladin Mount (Prestige Paladin is the way to go for this if you can swing it) and with Wild Cohort if you're willing to put 5 levels in Silverwood Arcanist (web archive is still down, but it's a 5 level class that fully advances casting and gives you some perks related to your Wild Cohort).

[Aegis013]

Soulspark Familiar is a great meld for Share Soulmeld shenanigans, though, because each recipient gets their own attack spewing soulspark. On the subject, you can also get share spells with a Paladin Mount (Prestige Paladin is the way to go for this if you can swing it) and with Wild Cohort if you're willing to put 5 levels in Silverwood Arcanist (web archive is still down, but it's a 5 level class that fully advances casting and gives you some perks related to your Wild Cohort).

You make a strong case for Soulspark Familiars being good just for helping to obliterate anything that gets close to you with a ton of extra attacks. I've probably been a bit tunnel visioned on Acid Spittle for that, since even your familiars can probably land the touch attacks a good deal of the time.

The draw for psicrystal, animal companion, and familiar are that they can each be gained with 1 level or less (psicrystal is two feats or a class level and a feat). From what I've gathered, the strongest meld to share among your menagerie would probably be the Necrocarnum Circlet for a gaggle of disposable zombies. If you go that route, losing more meldshaper levels hurts since meldshaper level = max HD per zombie.

Losing three more for the mount is questionable. Though, in gestalt, it'd pretty well be a must-have for the concept since you can avoid the ML loss.

[Buufreak]

Vitality belt wins the incarnate the distinction of being the single most durable class in the game. Even a barbarian can't keep up with the sheer damage ablative ability of an incarnate that's determined to block swords with his face and laugh about it. The vitality belt is a key element of that.

Holy CRAP, somehow I've never read this one. I recently put together a totemist and grabbed pauldrins, but now I need to rethink damn near everything about face tanking.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Holy CRAP, somehow I've never read this one. I recently put together a totemist and grabbed pauldrins, but now I need to rethink damn near everything about face tanking.

Yup. You've already got con as a primary ability and the vitality belt will get you up to 8 times your class level in extra HP at peak; 4 from character level, 2 from the expanded soulmeld capacity feature, 1 from the expanded soulmeld capacity feat, and 1 from an incarnum focus. If you then also shape the adamant paudrons for 6 or 7 points of DR/Alignment, you get impressively tough.

[Fouredged Sword]

Holy CRAP, somehow I've never read this one. I recently put together a totemist and grabbed pauldrins, but now I need to rethink damn near everything about face tanking.

Astral Vambrances are even worse at low levels. DR 4 or 6/magic is able to simply ignore a surprising number of threats in levels 1-6. The fact that it can also give you a fly speed, swim speed, or energy resist 5 for a chosen energy is just icing on the cake.

[The Viscount]

I'd say Strongheart Vest best embodies soulmelds because it's probably most famous for general use, typifying that almost all characters can benefit from soulmelds.

I'd second the motion that vitality belt is the most iconic for an incarnate, since it lets you tank very well, one of the things incarnate is best at. I love that because of how essentia can move around, you can modulate your hitpoints to only tank when you need to and take advantage if anybody has healing that triggers when below half health.

I do love astral vambraces as a close second, especially for providing flight, which incarnates usually have to sort-of get through airstep sandals or get (if they're Good or Evil) via incarnate avatar's soul bind late in the game.

[Buufreak]

Astral Vambrances are even worse at low levels. DR 4 or 6/magic is able to simply ignore a surprising number of threats in levels 1-6. The fact that it can also give you a fly speed, swim speed, or energy resist 5 for a chosen energy is just icing on the cake.

... did you mean better?

[Aegis013]

Astral Vambrances are even worse at low levels. DR 4 or 6/magic is able to simply ignore a surprising number of threats in levels 1-6. The fact that it can also give you a fly speed, swim speed, or energy resist 5 for a chosen energy is just icing on the cake.

Too bad the web archives are down, presumably forever. I suspect a lot of DMs will not allow their use without being able to reference the material.

[The Viscount]

Fear not, my friend. All is not lost (https://web.archive.org/web/20180516093730/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20060217a)

[Fouredged Sword]

... did you mean better?

Less balanced mostly. DR 6/magic is game breaking when many threats are dealing 1d4+2 damage and magic attacks are rare. Admittedly being able to give yourself 120 extra HP on demand is more powerful in later levels, but it mostly just expands how long you can do things rather than render vast swaths of the game "unless this rolls 20 I ignore it".

It pairs VERY well with the Fighter 1 / Incarnate 4 / Ironsoul forgemaster class in that you can swiftly find yourself rocking DR 8-10/magic and resistances in the 10-20s for most energy types in the 6-10 level range. Really fun for a Psionic Drauger with LA buyoff.

It maintains a pretty smooth curve of being tough as balls. Levels 1-2 you rely on heavy armor, then as AC stops being a great defense you can rely on your DR/magic. Then in mid levels when energy damage becomes really common you have heaps of energy resistance. Then in late levels you have DR 3-7/- (adamantine plate and armor bond), tons of HP due to vitality belt, and are dealing decent damage and save VS daze every round due to your weapon bond.

This is even MORE fun in gestalt where you can be have the other side be artificer.

[The Viscount]

If you want to get really funky fresh, trade that level of fighter for one or more levels of crusader. Healing and the delayed damage pool on top of the rest makes you ready to tank anything.

[KillianHawkeye]

The only time I've played an Incarnate, I think the soulmeld that lets you make a necrocarnum zombie was my most iconic ability. I called him "Tommy", no matter what kind of zombie it was.

[Kelb_Panthera]

None of the melds I suggested are even my favorite. My go-to is the lighning gauntlets. Level appropriate damage for a touch attack, all day, every day? Yes please.

Of my last three characters that could actually shape soulmelds, all three of them have used it at least some of the time if not for their primary attack.

One was a neanderthal incarnate/ shaman/ sapphire hierarch but I used soulspark familiar a lot more with that one. Urban companion (DM okayed) and share soulmeld combined with a soulgem I got a bit earlier than I really ought to have so the twin laser glow-balls was a better option.

One was an changeling rogue/ incarnate/ chameleon that could be a new character every day. I used them to fake a shocking grasp when I was being a wizard but I'd bounce all over the list to match up skills and abilities with my aptitudes.

The one I'm currently on is the one I described above and I've been having great success combining the lightning gauntlets with kruthik claws for big hits once a round. Turned one poor halfling scout into a rain of viscera that splattered all over a couple of his friends.

I was ahead of the group, scouting, and the halflings were waiting in ambush (though not for us, it turns out). One of theirs saw me at the same time I saw him, I win init and drop him instantly with an eldritch blast. I charge foward on the next round and absolutely -obliterate- one of the remaining foes with my shcocking, acidy claws and demand the others flee if they value their lives, which they do. Turns out, they were defenders of a nearby city-state and I now have something of a reputation.

[Aegis013]

None of the melds I suggested are even my favorite. My go-to is the lightning gauntlets. Level appropriate damage for a touch attack, all day, every day? Yes please. ...snip

These are especially fantastic if you can pick up a strong standard action ToB maneuver, since you can't full attack with the lightning gauntlets, but the hand bind can let you add their damage to a solid standard action attack.