Incarnum feats and timing

[Particle_Man]

Does the decision to lock essentia into an incarnum feat have to be made at the same time of day for all one’s incarnum feats? Or could one put essentia into feat A at 8 am, and essentia into feat B at noon? Could one also put more essentia into an incarnum feat at noon that already had some essentia in it at 8 am?

[Darg]

No. It's a swift action at any time to invest essentia into any kind of receptacle. Feats in particular cannot have the essentia be used for anything else for 24 hrs unless they get forcefully removed from the receptacle. After the 24 hours, you don't need to rest to reinvest the regained essentia. Also, incarnum feats can only be invested in once per day, so think carefully on if you actually want to invest the essentia or how much.

[Particle_Man]

I was thinking if you had the points in the pool mid day and suddenly needed to invest some essentia in the feat or die. So not an option to regularly exercise but nice to have in a pinch.

This also means that instead of needing to invest at the beginning of the day like a cleric choosing their spells, one could leave feats empty until and unless one needs them, given a swift action’s notice.

Would it be one swift action per feat?

[Darg]

I was thinking if you had the points in the pool mid day and suddenly needed to invest some essentia in the feat or die. So not an option to regularly exercise but nice to have in a pinch.

This also means that instead of needing to invest at the beginning of the day like a cleric choosing their spells, one could leave feats empty until and unless one needs them, given a swift action’s notice.

Would it be one swift action per feat?

You can invest any number of essentia in any number of receptacles with one swift action. Just remember that while you can leave them open to be more flexible in the moment, you might hamper your future flexibility by waiting.

[Particle_Man]

Huh I just noticed that unlike most of the incarnum feats, sapphire smite specifically says you need to put the essentia in at the beginning of the day instead of once per day. I wonder why it has that extra temporal restriction?

[Darg]

Huh I just noticed that unlike most of the incarnum feats, sapphire smite specifically says you need to put the essentia in at the beginning of the day instead of once per day. I wonder why it has that extra temporal restriction?

Because under the essentia section of the book it says you need to invest in incarmum feats at the start of the day. However, there is no explanation of what that actually means.

[Particle_Man]

Oh I see it says “ it is a particular quality of these feats that you must invest essentia into them at the start of the day.”

So I guess that makes incarnum feats less flexible than I had hoped. More like, say, cleric spells that must be chosen, with metamagic feats as appropriate, once per day and not with empty spell slots that could later be filled.

Fair enough.