Giving soulknifes psychic warrior psionic progression?

[redking]

Is giving soulknives, supposedly a tier 5 class, psychic warrior psionic progression an insane idea? If so, what would be the resultant tier? I am trying to think of ways to beef up the soulknife.

[Ramza00]

Dreamscarred Press had the high psionic option for soulknives so at level 9 they know 4 powers known (2 2nd and 2 1st), and 9 pp plus bonus PP.

And that class is still Tier 4ish. Other Soulknife archetypes, prestige classes, and multiclass feats can get the class around a weak tier 3 but that is radically changing the Soulknife chassis by lots of swaps and add ons.

[Particle_Man]

I have heard that gestalting (sort of) soulknife and soulborn can work fairly well.

Here are some versions of that:

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?156441-3-5-War-Soul-(Soulborn-Soulknife)

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?100035-Two-Fixes-wth-One-Class

[Drelua]

I don't think it would make for an imbalanced class, but I don't really like the idea of turning Soulknife in PsyWar but better. PsyWar's already a solid tier 3 class, so I'd go with a somewhat slower progression. Maybe just delay their manifesting by like 2 levels so it isn't strictly better? Or just use the PF version, I've played it a couple times. It's a fun class.

[AnonJr]

Playing this "fixed" Soulknife in a play-by-post campaign right now, and it seems pretty solid.

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?636784-Biscuit-s-Straight-Forward-Soulknife-Fix

I'm using the ACF that trades in some of the Soulknife special stuff for Psi Warrior powers, and it really does seem to fit nicely as written.

[Darg]

Psychic warrior already has the soul bound weapon alternate class feature.

A few things I recommend is making it a full BAB class, change the enhancement bonus progression to 4/7/10/13/16, enhancement progression to 6/9/12/15/19, and give them the hidden talent feat at first level and at 4th and every 4 levels.

Also allow mindblade progression to continue if you take psionic prestige classes.

[Arkain]

Dreamscarred Press had the high psionic option for soulknives so at level 9 they know 4 powers known (2 2nd and 2 1st), and 9 pp plus bonus PP.

And that class is still Tier 4ish. Other Soulknife archetypes, prestige classes, and multiclass feats can get the class around a weak tier 3 but that is radically changing the Soulknife chassis by lots of swaps and add ons.

That's basically adding the Gifted Blade (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/alternative-rule-systems/psionics-unleashed/classes/soulknife/archetypes/dreamscarred-press/gifted-blade) archetype's schtick, yeah. Looking at the archetype, you give up psychic strike and gain access to your own little power list, with up to 4th level powers and a pool of power points. While 7 powers at 17+ isn't a lot, you can actually change these around, so you're basically a kind of prepared manifester in that regard. It mostly mimics martially inclined half casters like Paladin/Ranger.
That said, DSP's take on the Souknife (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/alternative-rule-systems/psionics-unleashed/classes/soulknife) is very decent by itself.

[StSword]

Dreamscarred Press did a rebuild of the Soulknife in which the mindblade is a series of feats and the Soulknife is basically the psychic equivalent of a fighter- The Mind Unveiled: Mind Blade Feats (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/51740/The-Mind-Unveiled-Mind-Blade-Feats?cPath=1779_20065).

Since you are thinking that soulknives don't cut it, you could use these rules to allow not only psychic warrior soulknives but paladins or rangers or barbarians or rogues etc.