Incarnum?

[nhbdy]

I recently got the book, called the magic of incarnum, and i haven't found anything remotely useful, i can't find things that seem to actually do anything on par with the other classes. am i missing something, or are they just weak.

[Darrin]

I recently got the book, called the magic of incarnum, and i haven't found anything remotely useful, i can't find things that seem to actually do anything on par with the other classes. am i missing something, or are they just weak.

Incarnum is a bit hard to get your head wrapped around it at first. Once it clicks, though, Incarnates and Totemists are some of the strongest and most flexible classes in the game. (Soulborns are weak. Just ignore them.)

Incarnates with the right soulmelds lined up can outperform some of the best damage-dealers in the game... yeah, sure, maybe it's a lot of +1 or +2 here and there, but they add up quickly. And when you're done beating things into a pulp, you can redistribute your essentia into your non-combat soulmelds and help out with some of the skillmonkey stuff.

Totemists completely pwn natural attacks. And they get pounce so they can charge and use them all. If you're looking for examples of optimized incarnum builds, here's a thread with four totemist builds:

http://forums.gleemax.com/wotc_archi...x.php/t-789365

What else? How about a soulmeld that buffs UMD: Mage's Spectacles or Elder Spirit. How about a feat that reduces metamagic costs: Midnight Metamagic. Do you have to be an Incarnate or Totemist to use this stuff? No, you can pick up Shape Soulmeld and Open Least/Lesser/Greater Chakra as feats. Ask your friendly neighborhood Hellfire Warlock if Strongheart Vest is weak (still legal by RAW, although the Sage disagrees).

Oh, and the Chameleon PrC gets that "floating feat". You can use this to pick up Shape Soulmeld once a day. Once shaped, soulmelds are pretty much permanent until they are dispelled. So a Chameleon with a Constitution of 20 can shape up to 10 soulmelds pretty much for free.