Biscuit
2021-09-22, 08:54 PM
D&D 3.5 - The Soulknife
(Expanded Psionics Handbook, p. 26)
A Soulknife recognizes their own mind as the most beautiful and the most deadly thing in all creation. With this understanding and through extended practice, a Soulknife learns to forge their mental strength into a shimmering blade of semisolid psychic energy.
Each Soulknife's personal blade, referred to as a mind blade, differs in color and shape according to his personality, mental strength, and even mood. Although no two mind blades look exactly alike, all share the same lethal qualities. Because the Soulknife turns the power of their minds to such weaponry, they are notorious for their violence.
More than any other psionic class, the Soulknife fights with psionic power directly in both melee and ranged combat. Strength, combat prowess, and psionic talent allow the Soulknife to claim equal footing, at least, with any other combat-oriented class on the field of battle.
Hit Dice: d10
Alignment: Any
Starting Gold: 5d4x10
Skill Points: 4 + Int
Class Skills: Autohypnosis, Balance, Climb, Concentration, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Psionics), Listen, Move Silently, Profession, Spot, Swim, Tumble
LevelBABFortReflexWillClass FeaturesMind Blade Shapes[/tr]
1+1+2+2+0Mind Blade, Blade Shape, Hidden TalentDefault Blade Shape
2+2+3+3+0+1 Mind Blade, Weapon FocusArrow Shape
3+3+3+3+1Psychic Strike (+1d8)-
4+4+4+4+1+1 Weapon Enhancement-
5+5+4+4+1Quick Manifest, Mind Over MatterBonus Blade Shape
6+6/+1+5+5+2+2 Mind Blade-
7+7/+2+5+5+2Psychic Strike (+2d8)-
8+8/+3+6+6+2+2 Weapon EnhancementBonus Blade Shape
9+9/+4+6+6+3Bladewind Attack, Greater Weapon Focus-
10+10/+5+7+7+3+3 Mind Blade, Serrated Edge-
11+11/+6/+1+7+7+3Psychic Strike (+3d8)Bonus Blade Shape
12+12/+7/+2+8+8+4+3 Weapon Enhancement-
13+13/+8/+3+8+8+4Knife to the Soul-
14+14/+9/+4+9+9+4+4 Mind BladeBonus Blade Shape
15+15/+10/+5+9+9+5Psychic Strike (+4d8)-
16+16/+11/+6/+1+10+10+5+4 Weapon Enhancement-
17+17/+12/+7/+2+10+10+5Mirage BladeBonus Blade Shape
18+18/+13/+8/+3+11+11+6+5 Mind Blade-
19+19/+14/+9/+4+11+11+6Psychic Strike (+5d8)-
20+20/+15/+10/+5+12+12+6+5 Weapon EnhancementBonus Blade Shape
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Soulknives are proficient with all simple weapons, and with light armor and shields (except tower shields).
Note: If using the 'Weapon Group feat' variation listed here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/weaponGroupFeats.htm), Soulknives have only start with the Basic Weapons group.
Mind Blade (Su): As a swift action, a Soulknife can create a semisolid blade composed of psychic energy distilled from their own mind. At level 1, a Soulknife selects a default Blade Shape for their mind blade, allowing them to manifest their own mind blades as the piercing or slashing martial weapon of their choice. Bonus Blade Shapes at higher levels are separate from any weapon proficiencies the character might have, and you are always considered proficient with your mind blade, regardless of the shape it takes.
For instance, a Medium Soulknife materializes a Medium mind blade that he can wield as a light weapon (no matter what the shape it takes is normally considered). The blade is identical in all ways (except the physical appearance and that fact that it is virtually weightless) to Blade Shape chosen at level 1, of a size appropriate for its wielder (see below) - the Mind Blade's damage and critical range is identical to the weapon selected. While a Mind Blade still gains a benefit to attack and damage rolls for having a high a Strength modifier (Or dexterity if used in conjunction with the Weapon Finesse feat), the bonus to damage uses the Wisdom modifier as a bonus to mind blade damage if it is higher than the Soulknife's Strength score.
Mind blades can be broken (it has hardness and hit points are both 10 +1 for every Soulknife level you possess); however, a Soulknife can simply create another on their next swift action. The moment they relinquish their grip on the mind blade, it dissipates (unless they intend to throw it; see below). A mind blade is always considered a magic weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
A mind blade can also be used as a thrown weapon with a range increment of 20 feet with no penalty for throwing a melee weapon. Doing so causes the mind blade to dissipate at the end of the Soulknife's turn, the same as if it were broken.
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. They can also choose mind blade for feats requiring a specific weapon choice, such as Weapon Specialization. Powers or spells that upgrade weapons can be used on a mind blade.
A Soulknife's mind blade improves as the character gains higher levels. At 2nd level and every four levels thereafter, the mind blade gains a cumulative +1 enhancement bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls (+2 at 6th level, +3 at 10th level, +4 at 14th level, and +5 at 18th level).
Even in places where psionic effects do not normally function (such as within a null psionics field), a Soulknife can attempt to sustain his mind blade by making a DC 30 Concentration check. On a successful check, the Soulknife maintains his mind blade for a number of rounds equal to their class level before he needs to check again. On an unsuccessful attempt, the mind blade dissipates as if it were dismissed by the wielder. As a swift action on his turn, the Soulknife can attempt a new concentration check to rematerialize the mind blade while they remain within the psionics-negating effect.
Bonus Blade Shapes (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, a Soulknife can manifest their mind blade in the shape of an arrow that does piercing damage instead of a melee weapon. Instead of appearing in their hand like a melee weapon, a mind blade manifested with this shape hovers over the Soulknife's open hand for a brief moment before being launched at its target. The range increment is 100 feet + 10 feet for every four levels of Soulknife, and it deals 1d8 points of base piercing damage. You gain the usual benefit to your attack roll from a high Dexterity bonus, but unlike normal arrows, a mind blade in arrow shape deals extra damage equal to your Wisdom modifier, if positive. If your base attack bonus is high enough to grant you multiple attacks, you can create multiple mind blades in arrow shape as part of an attack. You must have one hand free to create and launch a mind blade in arrow shape.
Whether a mind blade in arrow shape hits or misses, it dissipates at the end of the turn it was shot. You can use feats such as Point Blank Shot or Precise Shot in conjunction with this shape for the mind blade. Any feats previously requiring specific weapon choice (such as Weapon Focus or Weapon Specialization) still apply, if applicable. Weapon ability enhancements (see below) are restricted to those that can be applied to ammunition, or thrown weapons when manifesting a mind blade in arrow shape.
At 5th level and every 3 levels afterwards, a Soulknife selects a new piercing of slashing martial weapon to add to the shapes that their mind blade can take when manifesting.
Starting at 8th level, any exotic weapons with your race's name in the weapon's name is considered a martial weapon when determining Bonus Blade Shape selections, so dwarves could choose Dwarven Battle Axe, Elves could choose Elven Lightblade, Gnomes could pick the Gnomish Quickrazor, etc.
Beginning at level 11, you can choose to select any exotic weapon instead of a martial one.
Weapon Focus: A Soulknife gains Weapon Focus (Mind Blade) as a bonus feat at 2nd level.
Hidden Talent: A Soulknife gains the Hidden Talent as a bonus feat. This lets you qualify for any psionic feat for which you meet the prerequisites, allows your to expend your psionic focus, allowing you to qualify for feats that use that mechanic, and it grants you a single 1st-level power from any psionic power list. If you have or later gain an actual manifesting class, these power points are combined with those of the actual manifester class. The most common powers chosen with this class ability are force screen and inertial armor since they fit the theme of a Soulknife, but many choose other powers. Wisdom determines any bonus power points that a Soulknife gets, as well as the DC of the power(s) selected by Hidden Talent, unless they also have levels in an actual manifesting class - in which case, their manifesting stat for that class applies to their Hidden Talent power(s). Unlike the feat, however, instead of granting you 2 additional power points, you gain 1 power point for every Soulknife level you possess. Additional iterations of the Hidden Talent feat being taken as an actual feat still only grant +2 power points, however.
Normally the Hidden Talent feat can be taken only once at 1st level, but a Soulknife with this class ability can take this feat multiple times, each time gaining an additional 2 psionic power points and another 1st-level power. When manifesting powers granted by Hidden Talent, a Soulknife without levels in a true manifester class counts as a manifester of equal level to their half their current Soulknife class level (rounded up) for the purposes of calculating Manifester level, bonus power points, and how many points can be spent on a power (including the amount of augmentation if applicable). If the Soulknife has levels in a true manifester class, they count as a manifester equal to their highest manifester class + half their Soulknife level (rounded up).
Mind Blade Enhancement (Su): At 2nd level, a Soulknife gains the ability to enhance his mind blade. He can add any one weapon special ability that has an enhancement bonus value of +1.
At every four levels beyond 4th (8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th), the value of the enhancement a Soulknife can add to his weapon improves to +2, +3, +4, and +5 respectively. A Soulknife can choose any combination of weapon special abilities that does not exceed the total allowed by the Soulknife's level.
For example, an 16th-level Soulknife could add two separate +2 weapon special abilities, or a single +1 weapon ability and also a single +3 weapon ability.
Psychic Strike (Su): As a move action, a Soulknife of 3rd level or higher can imbue his mind blade with destructive psychic energy. This effect deals an extra 1d8 points of damage to the next living, non-mindless target he successfully hits with a melee attack (or ranged attack, if he is using Arrow Shape). Creatures immune to mind-affecting effects are immune to psychic strike damage. (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, provided they are living, non-mindless creatures not immune to mind-affecting effects.)
A mind blade deals this extra damage only once when this ability is called upon, but a Soulknife can imbue his mind blade with psychic energy again by taking another move action.
Once a Soulknife has prepared his blade for a psychic strike, it holds the extra energy until it is used. Even if the Soulknife drops the mind blade (or it otherwise dissipates, such as when it is thrown and misses), it is still imbued with psychic energy when the Soulknife next materializes it.
At every four levels beyond 3rd (7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th), the extra damage from a Soulknife's psychic strike increases as shown on Table 1-1.
Weapon Ability Enhancement (Su): At 4th level, a Soulknife gains the ability to further customize and enhance their mind blade. They can add any weapon special abilities that has a listed enhancement bonus value of +1.
At every four levels beyond 4th (8th, 12th, and 16th, and 20th), the value of the enhancement a Soulknife can add to their weapon improves to +2, +3, +4 and +5, respectively. A Soulknife can choose any combination of weapon special abilities that does not exceed the total allowed by the Soulknife's level. For example, an 16th-level Soulknife could add two +2 weapon special abilities, or one +1 weapon ability and one +3 weapon ability.
A Soulknife can reassign the ability or abilities he has added to his mind blade. To do so, he must first spend 4 hours in concentration. After that period, the mind blade materializes with the new ability or abilities selected by the Soulknife. For example, an 8th-level Soulknife might have initially chosen to imbue his weapon with psychokinetic burst, a +2 weapon special ability. Every time he materializes the weapon, it is a +2 psychokinetic burst mind blade. However, on learning that he may face a mindflayer the next day, he could take 4 hours to change his mind blade's special ability from psychokinetic burst to mindcrusher - an entirely different +2 weapon special ability.
The weapon ability or abilities remain the same every time the Soulknife materializes his mind blade (unless he decides to reassign its abilities; see above). The ability or abilities apply to any form the mind blade takes including the use of the shape mind blade ability.
One exception however, is the arrow shape for the mind blade. Being so different than other blade shapes, the arrow shape occupies a separate place in the Soulknife's mind, retaining its own set of special weapon abilities that take an addition 4 hours of concentration to reassign if the Soulknife chooses to do so. The arrow shape can only be granted special weapon abilities that apply to ranged weapons that normally confer their abilities to their ammunition, abilities specifically for ammunition, and abilities that apply to thrown weapons. An arrow shape cannot be granted a melee-only special weapon ability.
Quick Manifest (Su): 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 (if, for example, he must make a Will save to materialize it within a null psionics field).
Mind Over Matter (Su): At 5th level, when a Soulblade manifests the power granted by their Hidden Talent class feature (but not the powers later gained via iterations of the Hidden Talent feat) that targets the Soulknife himself, and if that power can be augmented, it is considered to be augmented to the current limit a manifester of their level would be able to augment it with power points. Unlike when a power is normally augmented, this effect does not use up additional power points above the base manifesting cost.
At 10th level, powers effected by Mind over Matter are also considered Extended, as if by the metapsionic feat Extend Power, if applicable and targeting only the Soulknife - again at no additional power-point cost above the base manifesting cost.
At 15th level, powers effected by Mind over Matter are no longer considered Extended and are instead considered Persisted, as if by the metapsionic feat Persist Power, if applicable and targeting only the Soulknife - still incurring no additional power-point cost above the base manifesting cost.
At 20th level, powers effected by Mind over Matter are manifested as a swift action instead of a standard action.
Bladewind (Su): At 9th level, a Soulknife gains the ability to momentarily fragment their mind blade into numerous identical blades, each of which strikes at a nearby opponent.
As a full attack, when wielding a mind blade in a melee weapon shape, 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 their current mind blade shape's reach with a different attack roll for each fragment. Each fragment functions identically to the Soulknife's regular mind blade. (For example, if the mind blade were in the form of a +1 keen bastard sword, due to the Soulknife's mind blade enhancement and shape mind blade abilities, each fragment attacks and deals damage as a +1 keen bastard sword.)
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.
Serrated Edge (Su): At 10th level, a Soulknife's mind blade is treated as a weapon of one size category larger than would normally be appropriate for someone of their size. So a small Soulknife using a longsword shaped mind blade would do 1d8 points of damage instead of 1d6, and a medium Soulknife wielding a longsword shaped mind blade would do 1d10 instead of 1d8. This actual size of the weapon does not change, so the Soulknife takes no penalty for wielding it. This stacks with other things that increase weapon damage based on size, like a Goliath's powerful build feature.
Greater Weapon Focus (Mind Blade): A Soulknife gains Greater Weapon Focus (mind blade) as a bonus feat at 9th level.
Knife to the Soul (Su): Beginning at 13th level, when a Soulknife executes a psychic strike, they can choose to substitute damage to Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma damage (their choice) in exchange for dice of extra damage. For each die of extra damage they give up, the Soulknife deals 1 point of damage to the ability score they choose. A Soulknife can combine extra dice of Psychic Strike damage and Ability damage in any combination, so a 19th-level Soulknife could choose to strike for 3 points of Charisma damage and still also deal an extra 2d8 points of Psychic Strike damage.
The Soulknife decides which ability score their Psychic Strike deals damage to and the division of ability damage and extra Psychic Strike damage dice when they imbue their mind blade with the psychic strike energy.
Mirage Blade (Su): At 17th level, you can use a swift action to expend your psionic focus (see spoiler below) and all attacks made with your mind blade ignores nonliving matter for 1 round. Armor and shield bonuses to AC (including any enhancement bonuses to that armor) do not count against it because the weapon passes through armor. (Dexterity, deflection, dodge, natural armor, and other such bonuses still apply as do force effects such as the shield spell, the mage armor spell, or a wall of force.) While under this effect, your mind blade cannot harm undead, constructs, and objects, as it simply passes through them.
Gaining Psionic Focus
If you have 1 or more power points available, you can meditate to attempt to become psionically focused. The DC to become psionically focused is 20. Meditating is a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity. When you are psionically focused, you can expend your focus on any single Concentration check you make thereafter.
When you expend your focus in this manner, your Concentration check is treated as if you rolled a 15. It’s like taking 10, except that the number you add to your Concentration modifier is 15. You can also expend your focus to gain the benefit of a psionic feat—many psionic feats are activated in this way.
Once you are psionically focused, you remain focused until you expend your focus, become unconscious, or go to sleep (or enter a meditative trance, in the case of Elans), or until your power point reserve drops to 0.
Multiclassing: Being consummately versatile combatants, Soulknives can freely multiclass with every other class without the normal penalties.
High Psionics Variant: For high-powered psionic campaigns, or campaigns where the use of psionics and/or magic is in heavy use, the High Psionics Variant of the Soulknife class simply adds the Psionic Talent alternate class feature onto the base Soulknife class, without replacing the Hidden Talent, Mind Over Matter, Psychic Strike, & Knife to the Soul class abilities, but does keep the restriction on the Hidden Talent feat listed in its entry. As you do not give anything up, other alternate class features and racial substitution levels can still be used.
NOTE: The High Psionics Soulknife Variant is intended for campaigns where psionics is more prominent, or for when you want to give a bit of a boost to the Soulknife in order to keep up with the rest of the party but still enjoy this class's unique flavor. Consult your DM before usage.
I've kept the core of the Soulknife class true to form as well as spirit and simply incorporated some class features that everyone who plays a Soulknife usually adds in themselves with various sub-par feats and alternative class features. It was my firm belief that you shouldn't have to piece together a usable class from disparate parts just to do what the class was originally meant to do. I simply added those bits to the basic class itself, allowing people to spend their oh-so-precious feats on actually improving their combat potential, just like every other hack-and-slash class does.
All-in-all, when you compare this fix with the existing tier 4 classes... I believe that it still falls a bit short. But only a bit. And it feels a lot more comprehensive and well-balanced, which is generally more important to me than sheer power, so I'm satisfied with the new middle-ground this fix provides. I'd say it went from an inefficient mid tier 5 to a balanced high tier 5.
Below is the changelog, detailing the changes made to the class for ease of reference. I hope this straight-forward fix to the Soulknife class aids you on your adventures.
~ Biscuit
It was given full BAB. Because it was already a bottom-of-the-barrel tier 5 class. So why was Soulknife being extra shafted? It needed rectified.
Good Saves were changed from Reflex and Will to Fort and Reflex. If a Soulknife is using his willpower to manifest a mind blade in a myriad of ways, his willpower would already be taxed. Instead, as he is a consummate warrior, Will was replaced with Fort.
The enhancement and special ability progression was re-aligned to cap at the max pre-epic bonus at level 20 - having to resort to feat trickery to achieve what you should have been able to in the first place was ridiculous.
Mind Blade starts as a swift action instead of a move action - you shouldn't have to waste action economy to prepare to do the one thing your class can do at level 1 when a single kobold or dire rat is a legitimate threat to your survival.
Quick Draw was simply renamed Quick Manifest to avoid confusion with the feat of the same name.
Wild Talent was nixed altogether for the far more popular alternate class feature feat of Hidden Talent, which does the exact same thing, but with an extra goodie thrown in.
Throw Mind Blade was replaced with Arrow Shape. Why you would have to sacrifice progressing the one thing your class does just to switch from melee to ranged, and having to take a prestige class (Soulbow) to make that one change was just dumb.
Mind Over Matter was added as a means of providing the class with at least one neat, if limited ability, so it isn't seen as a complete one-trick-pony and had something going for it aside from Mind Blade + Psychic Strike.
Shape Mind Blade was replaced with Bonus Blade Shapes as a means to customize your Soulknife so not every single one is running around with a shortsword, longsword, or bastard sword. 'No two mind blades are exactly alike' after all.
Serrated Edge was added because it is simple, and by that late in the game, you really need the damage boost, however minor, to keep up with fighters and barbarians and stay competitive.
Multiple Throw was replaced with Mirage Blade, which is similar to the Soulbow's Phase Arrow capstone ability, and is more useful by far since they already have access to iterative attacks with their arrow shape.
Some language was updated to be more clear, but retained its original meaning.
Multiclassing the Original Soulknife was absolutely brutal, and in the spirit of this re-write's versatility, I've changed it to be freely multiclassed with any other classes.
(Expanded Psionics Handbook, p. 26)
A Soulknife recognizes their own mind as the most beautiful and the most deadly thing in all creation. With this understanding and through extended practice, a Soulknife learns to forge their mental strength into a shimmering blade of semisolid psychic energy.
Each Soulknife's personal blade, referred to as a mind blade, differs in color and shape according to his personality, mental strength, and even mood. Although no two mind blades look exactly alike, all share the same lethal qualities. Because the Soulknife turns the power of their minds to such weaponry, they are notorious for their violence.
More than any other psionic class, the Soulknife fights with psionic power directly in both melee and ranged combat. Strength, combat prowess, and psionic talent allow the Soulknife to claim equal footing, at least, with any other combat-oriented class on the field of battle.
Hit Dice: d10
Alignment: Any
Starting Gold: 5d4x10
Skill Points: 4 + Int
Class Skills: Autohypnosis, Balance, Climb, Concentration, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Psionics), Listen, Move Silently, Profession, Spot, Swim, Tumble
LevelBABFortReflexWillClass FeaturesMind Blade Shapes[/tr]
1+1+2+2+0Mind Blade, Blade Shape, Hidden TalentDefault Blade Shape
2+2+3+3+0+1 Mind Blade, Weapon FocusArrow Shape
3+3+3+3+1Psychic Strike (+1d8)-
4+4+4+4+1+1 Weapon Enhancement-
5+5+4+4+1Quick Manifest, Mind Over MatterBonus Blade Shape
6+6/+1+5+5+2+2 Mind Blade-
7+7/+2+5+5+2Psychic Strike (+2d8)-
8+8/+3+6+6+2+2 Weapon EnhancementBonus Blade Shape
9+9/+4+6+6+3Bladewind Attack, Greater Weapon Focus-
10+10/+5+7+7+3+3 Mind Blade, Serrated Edge-
11+11/+6/+1+7+7+3Psychic Strike (+3d8)Bonus Blade Shape
12+12/+7/+2+8+8+4+3 Weapon Enhancement-
13+13/+8/+3+8+8+4Knife to the Soul-
14+14/+9/+4+9+9+4+4 Mind BladeBonus Blade Shape
15+15/+10/+5+9+9+5Psychic Strike (+4d8)-
16+16/+11/+6/+1+10+10+5+4 Weapon Enhancement-
17+17/+12/+7/+2+10+10+5Mirage BladeBonus Blade Shape
18+18/+13/+8/+3+11+11+6+5 Mind Blade-
19+19/+14/+9/+4+11+11+6Psychic Strike (+5d8)-
20+20/+15/+10/+5+12+12+6+5 Weapon EnhancementBonus Blade Shape
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Soulknives are proficient with all simple weapons, and with light armor and shields (except tower shields).
Note: If using the 'Weapon Group feat' variation listed here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/weaponGroupFeats.htm), Soulknives have only start with the Basic Weapons group.
Mind Blade (Su): As a swift action, a Soulknife can create a semisolid blade composed of psychic energy distilled from their own mind. At level 1, a Soulknife selects a default Blade Shape for their mind blade, allowing them to manifest their own mind blades as the piercing or slashing martial weapon of their choice. Bonus Blade Shapes at higher levels are separate from any weapon proficiencies the character might have, and you are always considered proficient with your mind blade, regardless of the shape it takes.
For instance, a Medium Soulknife materializes a Medium mind blade that he can wield as a light weapon (no matter what the shape it takes is normally considered). The blade is identical in all ways (except the physical appearance and that fact that it is virtually weightless) to Blade Shape chosen at level 1, of a size appropriate for its wielder (see below) - the Mind Blade's damage and critical range is identical to the weapon selected. While a Mind Blade still gains a benefit to attack and damage rolls for having a high a Strength modifier (Or dexterity if used in conjunction with the Weapon Finesse feat), the bonus to damage uses the Wisdom modifier as a bonus to mind blade damage if it is higher than the Soulknife's Strength score.
Mind blades can be broken (it has hardness and hit points are both 10 +1 for every Soulknife level you possess); however, a Soulknife can simply create another on their next swift action. The moment they relinquish their grip on the mind blade, it dissipates (unless they intend to throw it; see below). A mind blade is always considered a magic weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
A mind blade can also be used as a thrown weapon with a range increment of 20 feet with no penalty for throwing a melee weapon. Doing so causes the mind blade to dissipate at the end of the Soulknife's turn, the same as if it were broken.
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. They can also choose mind blade for feats requiring a specific weapon choice, such as Weapon Specialization. Powers or spells that upgrade weapons can be used on a mind blade.
A Soulknife's mind blade improves as the character gains higher levels. At 2nd level and every four levels thereafter, the mind blade gains a cumulative +1 enhancement bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls (+2 at 6th level, +3 at 10th level, +4 at 14th level, and +5 at 18th level).
Even in places where psionic effects do not normally function (such as within a null psionics field), a Soulknife can attempt to sustain his mind blade by making a DC 30 Concentration check. On a successful check, the Soulknife maintains his mind blade for a number of rounds equal to their class level before he needs to check again. On an unsuccessful attempt, the mind blade dissipates as if it were dismissed by the wielder. As a swift action on his turn, the Soulknife can attempt a new concentration check to rematerialize the mind blade while they remain within the psionics-negating effect.
Bonus Blade Shapes (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, a Soulknife can manifest their mind blade in the shape of an arrow that does piercing damage instead of a melee weapon. Instead of appearing in their hand like a melee weapon, a mind blade manifested with this shape hovers over the Soulknife's open hand for a brief moment before being launched at its target. The range increment is 100 feet + 10 feet for every four levels of Soulknife, and it deals 1d8 points of base piercing damage. You gain the usual benefit to your attack roll from a high Dexterity bonus, but unlike normal arrows, a mind blade in arrow shape deals extra damage equal to your Wisdom modifier, if positive. If your base attack bonus is high enough to grant you multiple attacks, you can create multiple mind blades in arrow shape as part of an attack. You must have one hand free to create and launch a mind blade in arrow shape.
Whether a mind blade in arrow shape hits or misses, it dissipates at the end of the turn it was shot. You can use feats such as Point Blank Shot or Precise Shot in conjunction with this shape for the mind blade. Any feats previously requiring specific weapon choice (such as Weapon Focus or Weapon Specialization) still apply, if applicable. Weapon ability enhancements (see below) are restricted to those that can be applied to ammunition, or thrown weapons when manifesting a mind blade in arrow shape.
At 5th level and every 3 levels afterwards, a Soulknife selects a new piercing of slashing martial weapon to add to the shapes that their mind blade can take when manifesting.
Starting at 8th level, any exotic weapons with your race's name in the weapon's name is considered a martial weapon when determining Bonus Blade Shape selections, so dwarves could choose Dwarven Battle Axe, Elves could choose Elven Lightblade, Gnomes could pick the Gnomish Quickrazor, etc.
Beginning at level 11, you can choose to select any exotic weapon instead of a martial one.
Weapon Focus: A Soulknife gains Weapon Focus (Mind Blade) as a bonus feat at 2nd level.
Hidden Talent: A Soulknife gains the Hidden Talent as a bonus feat. This lets you qualify for any psionic feat for which you meet the prerequisites, allows your to expend your psionic focus, allowing you to qualify for feats that use that mechanic, and it grants you a single 1st-level power from any psionic power list. If you have or later gain an actual manifesting class, these power points are combined with those of the actual manifester class. The most common powers chosen with this class ability are force screen and inertial armor since they fit the theme of a Soulknife, but many choose other powers. Wisdom determines any bonus power points that a Soulknife gets, as well as the DC of the power(s) selected by Hidden Talent, unless they also have levels in an actual manifesting class - in which case, their manifesting stat for that class applies to their Hidden Talent power(s). Unlike the feat, however, instead of granting you 2 additional power points, you gain 1 power point for every Soulknife level you possess. Additional iterations of the Hidden Talent feat being taken as an actual feat still only grant +2 power points, however.
Normally the Hidden Talent feat can be taken only once at 1st level, but a Soulknife with this class ability can take this feat multiple times, each time gaining an additional 2 psionic power points and another 1st-level power. When manifesting powers granted by Hidden Talent, a Soulknife without levels in a true manifester class counts as a manifester of equal level to their half their current Soulknife class level (rounded up) for the purposes of calculating Manifester level, bonus power points, and how many points can be spent on a power (including the amount of augmentation if applicable). If the Soulknife has levels in a true manifester class, they count as a manifester equal to their highest manifester class + half their Soulknife level (rounded up).
Mind Blade Enhancement (Su): At 2nd level, a Soulknife gains the ability to enhance his mind blade. He can add any one weapon special ability that has an enhancement bonus value of +1.
At every four levels beyond 4th (8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th), the value of the enhancement a Soulknife can add to his weapon improves to +2, +3, +4, and +5 respectively. A Soulknife can choose any combination of weapon special abilities that does not exceed the total allowed by the Soulknife's level.
For example, an 16th-level Soulknife could add two separate +2 weapon special abilities, or a single +1 weapon ability and also a single +3 weapon ability.
Psychic Strike (Su): As a move action, a Soulknife of 3rd level or higher can imbue his mind blade with destructive psychic energy. This effect deals an extra 1d8 points of damage to the next living, non-mindless target he successfully hits with a melee attack (or ranged attack, if he is using Arrow Shape). Creatures immune to mind-affecting effects are immune to psychic strike damage. (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, provided they are living, non-mindless creatures not immune to mind-affecting effects.)
A mind blade deals this extra damage only once when this ability is called upon, but a Soulknife can imbue his mind blade with psychic energy again by taking another move action.
Once a Soulknife has prepared his blade for a psychic strike, it holds the extra energy until it is used. Even if the Soulknife drops the mind blade (or it otherwise dissipates, such as when it is thrown and misses), it is still imbued with psychic energy when the Soulknife next materializes it.
At every four levels beyond 3rd (7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th), the extra damage from a Soulknife's psychic strike increases as shown on Table 1-1.
Weapon Ability Enhancement (Su): At 4th level, a Soulknife gains the ability to further customize and enhance their mind blade. They can add any weapon special abilities that has a listed enhancement bonus value of +1.
At every four levels beyond 4th (8th, 12th, and 16th, and 20th), the value of the enhancement a Soulknife can add to their weapon improves to +2, +3, +4 and +5, respectively. A Soulknife can choose any combination of weapon special abilities that does not exceed the total allowed by the Soulknife's level. For example, an 16th-level Soulknife could add two +2 weapon special abilities, or one +1 weapon ability and one +3 weapon ability.
A Soulknife can reassign the ability or abilities he has added to his mind blade. To do so, he must first spend 4 hours in concentration. After that period, the mind blade materializes with the new ability or abilities selected by the Soulknife. For example, an 8th-level Soulknife might have initially chosen to imbue his weapon with psychokinetic burst, a +2 weapon special ability. Every time he materializes the weapon, it is a +2 psychokinetic burst mind blade. However, on learning that he may face a mindflayer the next day, he could take 4 hours to change his mind blade's special ability from psychokinetic burst to mindcrusher - an entirely different +2 weapon special ability.
The weapon ability or abilities remain the same every time the Soulknife materializes his mind blade (unless he decides to reassign its abilities; see above). The ability or abilities apply to any form the mind blade takes including the use of the shape mind blade ability.
One exception however, is the arrow shape for the mind blade. Being so different than other blade shapes, the arrow shape occupies a separate place in the Soulknife's mind, retaining its own set of special weapon abilities that take an addition 4 hours of concentration to reassign if the Soulknife chooses to do so. The arrow shape can only be granted special weapon abilities that apply to ranged weapons that normally confer their abilities to their ammunition, abilities specifically for ammunition, and abilities that apply to thrown weapons. An arrow shape cannot be granted a melee-only special weapon ability.
Quick Manifest (Su): 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 (if, for example, he must make a Will save to materialize it within a null psionics field).
Mind Over Matter (Su): At 5th level, when a Soulblade manifests the power granted by their Hidden Talent class feature (but not the powers later gained via iterations of the Hidden Talent feat) that targets the Soulknife himself, and if that power can be augmented, it is considered to be augmented to the current limit a manifester of their level would be able to augment it with power points. Unlike when a power is normally augmented, this effect does not use up additional power points above the base manifesting cost.
At 10th level, powers effected by Mind over Matter are also considered Extended, as if by the metapsionic feat Extend Power, if applicable and targeting only the Soulknife - again at no additional power-point cost above the base manifesting cost.
At 15th level, powers effected by Mind over Matter are no longer considered Extended and are instead considered Persisted, as if by the metapsionic feat Persist Power, if applicable and targeting only the Soulknife - still incurring no additional power-point cost above the base manifesting cost.
At 20th level, powers effected by Mind over Matter are manifested as a swift action instead of a standard action.
Bladewind (Su): At 9th level, a Soulknife gains the ability to momentarily fragment their mind blade into numerous identical blades, each of which strikes at a nearby opponent.
As a full attack, when wielding a mind blade in a melee weapon shape, 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 their current mind blade shape's reach with a different attack roll for each fragment. Each fragment functions identically to the Soulknife's regular mind blade. (For example, if the mind blade were in the form of a +1 keen bastard sword, due to the Soulknife's mind blade enhancement and shape mind blade abilities, each fragment attacks and deals damage as a +1 keen bastard sword.)
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.
Serrated Edge (Su): At 10th level, a Soulknife's mind blade is treated as a weapon of one size category larger than would normally be appropriate for someone of their size. So a small Soulknife using a longsword shaped mind blade would do 1d8 points of damage instead of 1d6, and a medium Soulknife wielding a longsword shaped mind blade would do 1d10 instead of 1d8. This actual size of the weapon does not change, so the Soulknife takes no penalty for wielding it. This stacks with other things that increase weapon damage based on size, like a Goliath's powerful build feature.
Greater Weapon Focus (Mind Blade): A Soulknife gains Greater Weapon Focus (mind blade) as a bonus feat at 9th level.
Knife to the Soul (Su): Beginning at 13th level, when a Soulknife executes a psychic strike, they can choose to substitute damage to Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma damage (their choice) in exchange for dice of extra damage. For each die of extra damage they give up, the Soulknife deals 1 point of damage to the ability score they choose. A Soulknife can combine extra dice of Psychic Strike damage and Ability damage in any combination, so a 19th-level Soulknife could choose to strike for 3 points of Charisma damage and still also deal an extra 2d8 points of Psychic Strike damage.
The Soulknife decides which ability score their Psychic Strike deals damage to and the division of ability damage and extra Psychic Strike damage dice when they imbue their mind blade with the psychic strike energy.
Mirage Blade (Su): At 17th level, you can use a swift action to expend your psionic focus (see spoiler below) and all attacks made with your mind blade ignores nonliving matter for 1 round. Armor and shield bonuses to AC (including any enhancement bonuses to that armor) do not count against it because the weapon passes through armor. (Dexterity, deflection, dodge, natural armor, and other such bonuses still apply as do force effects such as the shield spell, the mage armor spell, or a wall of force.) While under this effect, your mind blade cannot harm undead, constructs, and objects, as it simply passes through them.
Gaining Psionic Focus
If you have 1 or more power points available, you can meditate to attempt to become psionically focused. The DC to become psionically focused is 20. Meditating is a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity. When you are psionically focused, you can expend your focus on any single Concentration check you make thereafter.
When you expend your focus in this manner, your Concentration check is treated as if you rolled a 15. It’s like taking 10, except that the number you add to your Concentration modifier is 15. You can also expend your focus to gain the benefit of a psionic feat—many psionic feats are activated in this way.
Once you are psionically focused, you remain focused until you expend your focus, become unconscious, or go to sleep (or enter a meditative trance, in the case of Elans), or until your power point reserve drops to 0.
Multiclassing: Being consummately versatile combatants, Soulknives can freely multiclass with every other class without the normal penalties.
High Psionics Variant: For high-powered psionic campaigns, or campaigns where the use of psionics and/or magic is in heavy use, the High Psionics Variant of the Soulknife class simply adds the Psionic Talent alternate class feature onto the base Soulknife class, without replacing the Hidden Talent, Mind Over Matter, Psychic Strike, & Knife to the Soul class abilities, but does keep the restriction on the Hidden Talent feat listed in its entry. As you do not give anything up, other alternate class features and racial substitution levels can still be used.
NOTE: The High Psionics Soulknife Variant is intended for campaigns where psionics is more prominent, or for when you want to give a bit of a boost to the Soulknife in order to keep up with the rest of the party but still enjoy this class's unique flavor. Consult your DM before usage.
I've kept the core of the Soulknife class true to form as well as spirit and simply incorporated some class features that everyone who plays a Soulknife usually adds in themselves with various sub-par feats and alternative class features. It was my firm belief that you shouldn't have to piece together a usable class from disparate parts just to do what the class was originally meant to do. I simply added those bits to the basic class itself, allowing people to spend their oh-so-precious feats on actually improving their combat potential, just like every other hack-and-slash class does.
All-in-all, when you compare this fix with the existing tier 4 classes... I believe that it still falls a bit short. But only a bit. And it feels a lot more comprehensive and well-balanced, which is generally more important to me than sheer power, so I'm satisfied with the new middle-ground this fix provides. I'd say it went from an inefficient mid tier 5 to a balanced high tier 5.
Below is the changelog, detailing the changes made to the class for ease of reference. I hope this straight-forward fix to the Soulknife class aids you on your adventures.
~ Biscuit
It was given full BAB. Because it was already a bottom-of-the-barrel tier 5 class. So why was Soulknife being extra shafted? It needed rectified.
Good Saves were changed from Reflex and Will to Fort and Reflex. If a Soulknife is using his willpower to manifest a mind blade in a myriad of ways, his willpower would already be taxed. Instead, as he is a consummate warrior, Will was replaced with Fort.
The enhancement and special ability progression was re-aligned to cap at the max pre-epic bonus at level 20 - having to resort to feat trickery to achieve what you should have been able to in the first place was ridiculous.
Mind Blade starts as a swift action instead of a move action - you shouldn't have to waste action economy to prepare to do the one thing your class can do at level 1 when a single kobold or dire rat is a legitimate threat to your survival.
Quick Draw was simply renamed Quick Manifest to avoid confusion with the feat of the same name.
Wild Talent was nixed altogether for the far more popular alternate class feature feat of Hidden Talent, which does the exact same thing, but with an extra goodie thrown in.
Throw Mind Blade was replaced with Arrow Shape. Why you would have to sacrifice progressing the one thing your class does just to switch from melee to ranged, and having to take a prestige class (Soulbow) to make that one change was just dumb.
Mind Over Matter was added as a means of providing the class with at least one neat, if limited ability, so it isn't seen as a complete one-trick-pony and had something going for it aside from Mind Blade + Psychic Strike.
Shape Mind Blade was replaced with Bonus Blade Shapes as a means to customize your Soulknife so not every single one is running around with a shortsword, longsword, or bastard sword. 'No two mind blades are exactly alike' after all.
Serrated Edge was added because it is simple, and by that late in the game, you really need the damage boost, however minor, to keep up with fighters and barbarians and stay competitive.
Multiple Throw was replaced with Mirage Blade, which is similar to the Soulbow's Phase Arrow capstone ability, and is more useful by far since they already have access to iterative attacks with their arrow shape.
Some language was updated to be more clear, but retained its original meaning.
Multiclassing the Original Soulknife was absolutely brutal, and in the spirit of this re-write's versatility, I've changed it to be freely multiclassed with any other classes.