Incarnum: I don't Quite Understand it.

[AirGuitarGod32]

I know: BLASPHEMY!!!!!

but I seriously read the whole book and understand this much at heart.

New Mechanic: Something to do with the Spellweave and Pools of Magic
Races: None I'd ****ing use.
Classes:

Incarnate: Embodyment of one Non-Neutral Alignment
Soulborn: Non-Magic UA Paladin
Totemist: Non-Magic Druid without an animal companion or wildshape


the rest of it is fricken Greek to me!!!

can y'all PLEASE explain how this mechanic works and why my friend who plays EXCLUSIVELY Forgotten Realms keeps suggesting I try it?

I mean I get Psionics easily, but the system of Incarnum is, at least for now, well beyond my feeble mind's grasp.

[Solaris]

Easy. It is not a magic spellcasting system. It's a magic item creation system.

[AirGuitarGod32]

Easy. It is not a magic spellcasting system. It's a magic item creation system.

.........???

[sonofzeal]

"Incarnum" = soul magic

"Essentia" = soul energy (think... power points, except they generally aren't created or destroyed, only shifted around)

"Soulmeld" = item made out of incarnum; they give some bonus, and essentia powers them up farther

"Chakra Bind" = way to make Soulmelds more badass

The thing to remember is that Soulmelds work even if you don't "bind them to your chakra", and you can make a totally different set each day if you want to. The other thing is that you can shift Essentia as a (swift?) action, so you're even more adaptable.



Incarnate = skillmonkey/utility character, can be decent in melee

Soulborn = Paladin wannabe except sucky. Avoid.

Totemist = Think "Wildshape Ranger", but for magical beasts. Strong combat skills, some utility.

[AirGuitarGod32]

"Incarnum" = soul magic

"Essentia" = soul energy (think... power points, except they generally aren't created or destroyed, only shifted around)

"Soulmeld" = item made out of incarnum; they give some bonus, and essentia powers them up farther

"Chakra Bind" = way to make Soulmelds more badass

The thing to remember is that Soulmelds work even if you don't "bind them to your chakra", and you can make a totally different set each day if you want to. The other thing is that you can shift Essentia as a (swift?) action, so you're even more adaptable.



Incarnate = skillmonkey/utility character, can be decent in melee

Soulborn = Paladin wannabe except sucky. Avoid.

Totemist = Think "Wildshape Ranger", but for magical beasts. Strong combat skills, some utility.

slowly making sense. Kinda...

lets see:

Incarnate: Decent. some potential
Soulborn: Aww man! and thats the one that looked coolest!
Totemist: "Best one?" good if multiclassed into barbarian from what I was told.
Essentia: Makes sense. Makes LOTS of sense
Soulmeld: So like a "temporary" magical item?
Chakra Bind: So all of that Reiki stuff my Grandma does (she's a Reiki instructor)

So in retrospect, this is a simple system?

[sonofzeal]

slowly making sense. Kinda...

lets see:

Incarnate: Decent. some potential
Soulborn: Aww man! and thats the one that looked coolest!
Totemist: "Best one?" good if multiclassed into barbarian from what I was told.
Essentia: Makes sense. Makes LOTS of sense
Soulmeld: So like a "temporary" magical item?
Chakra Bind: So all of that Reiki stuff my Grandma does (she's a Reiki instructor)

But what EXACTLY is Incarnum?

Incarnum is the energy that dead souls possess when they're not in a body, or some such jazz.

Soulmelds, yeah, are kinda "temporarly magic items" that last 24 hours or so. There's ways to "re-shape" them earlier, but as a general rule you probably aren't do that often.

"Chakra Bind" has nothing really to do with Reiki, or actual "chakra". Basically, it's a re-labelling of the magic item locations. I believe (it's been ages since I've used it) that Soulmelds don't actually take up the magic item location, but do if you bind them. Someone can correct me on this if I'm wrong.

I find it's best to think of essentia like... counters. I'd write out my soulmelds on cards, lay them in front of me, and have a number of counters spread around. Each round I might shuffle them a bit, and everything's cool.

I wouldn't say Totemist is the "best". It's more combat-focused than the Incarnate, but the Incarnate has more flexibility. Incarnate is Factotum, Totemist is Wildshape Ranger. Personally, I prefer Factota, but in a fight my money's on the Ranger. Make sense?

[Zaq]

Okay. Every day, you get to make so many "soulmelds," which are like your own personal magic items that you can't give away or lose. This is called shaping them. You have access to every soulmeld on your class list (aside from the ones with alignment restrictions). Your class level determines how many melds you can shape every day, and you can change them every day (or keep them the same if you want).

You have a pool of "essentia," which powers your soulmelds. Your character level determines how much essentia you can put into any one soulmeld at once, though there are ways to increase this. Every soulmeld gets a benefit from essentia. All (ok, ALMOST all) soulmelds have a base effect without essentia, then they have another effect (either an increase of the base effect, or a second effect entirely) based on how much essentia you put into it. You can change your essentia whenever you want, as a swift action. Essentia comes primarily from class levels, but also from race, feats, and so on.

Everyone has ten "chakras," which are basically body parts or places where soulmelds can go. The ten chakras are the crown, feet, hands, arms, brow, shoulders, waist, throat, heart, and soul. (Totemists also have the totem, which is different.) Each chakra can hold one soulmeld, no more. For example, you can't shape both the diadem of purelight and the necrocarnum circlet at the same time, because both of those use the crown chakra.

As you increase in level, you have access to "chakra binds," which greatly increase the power of your soulmelds. When you shape your soulmelds, you can bind some of them to different chakras. The number of total binds you have is based on your class level, and which binds you have access to is also based on your class level. When you bind a soulmeld to a chakra, you cannot use a magic item in that chakra slot (so if you bind the cerulean sandals to your feet chakra, you can't also wear your boots of speed.) However, you also unlock an ability in that soulmeld which is usually much more powerful than the base effect. Investing essentia in this soulmeld also increases the strength of this ability.

So, notice that shaping and binding are two very different animals. You do not have to bind a soulmeld that you shape. You can shape X soulmelds per day, and of those soulmelds, up to Y can be bound. Binding closes off a chakra slot for magic items, and shaping does not. Essentia improves both shaped melds and bound melds.

So, for example, a 6th level Incarnate could shape 4 different soulmelds (each in a different chakra slot). She can shape any soulmelds on her list, as long as she meets the alignment restrictions. She could bind two of those soulmelds to a chakra slot. She can't bind them to just any slot, though... she can only bind them to the crown, feet, or hands slots. She has 6 essentia from her class levels (she may have more from feats or another source), and she can shift it around to different soulmelds as a swift action whenever she likes.

Does that make sense? Incarnum isn't intuitive, but it's easy once you figure out what you have to do. The biggest stumbling block, I find, is that people confuse shaping and binding, but they're two totally different things.

EDIT: Fluffwise, incarnum is soulstuff. It's made up of the souls of all creatures, whether they're living, dead, or not yet born. When you shape a soulmeld, you draw on the souls of those with the quality you want to use... for example, theft gloves are made from the souls of accomplished thieves, rogues, trapsmiths, and similar folks. You have the power of the greatest locksmiths in history, the best rogues alive, and the most cunning thieves to be born in the future, all there in your gloves. Soulmelds do not harm the souls that they use, except for necrocarnum melds, which are irredeemably evil and draw power from the torture and consumption of innocent souls. Bad stuff. Anyway, essentia is your own personal soul power. You use some of the potential in your own soul to energize your soulmelds. The more in tune with your own soul power you are, the more essentia you have available to shift around.

Also, blue. Blue blue blue blue blue. Blue.

[AirGuitarGod32]

I see...

I meant with the whole reiki thing is that a lot of the chakras mentioned are Reiki chakras.

so you put essentia points into your soulmelds, and certain soulmelds work better on certain chakras when bound, but they don't have to be bound to a chakra, and cretain feats give you more essentia and cool abilities to boot...OW MY HEAD!!!


and as for Incarnate vs. Totemist: because I come from melee-based PCs, the totemist probably is my cup of Irish Coffee, right?

[Grumman]

You've basically got two stages: the shaping and binding Soulmelds step and the assigning Essentia step.

Each day you can take an hour to swap out which soulmelds you have shaped. By default you can only have one soulmelds fitted to a single slot. Also, you can choose to bind some of these soulmelds more closely to their slots, but at the cost of not letting you use a magic item that would normally overlap with that slot.

Essentia can be diverted from one soulmeld to another as a swift action, as often as you like.

To put it in sci-fi terms:
The soulmelds are like components for a modular starfighter, and before you go out each day you can choose to uninstall your old ones and put in a new components. You can't fit two of the same sort of soulmeld to the same slot, but you can fit a soulmeld and a magic item side-by-side without problems. If you don't have a magic item, you can bind the soulmeld by borrowing the magic item connector and plugging both into your soulmeld to make it work better.

Essentia is like power. You can divert more power to your shields or your guns during battle, as the situation requires.

[AirGuitarGod32]

so how do the feats, such as the Cobalt Charge feat play in?

Because I don't get the feats

[sonofzeal]

I see...

I meant with the whole reiki thing is that a lot of the chakras mentioned are Reiki chakras.

so you put essentia points into your soulmelds, and certain soulmelds work better on certain chakras when bound, but they don't have to be bound to a chakra, and cretain feats give you more essentia and cool abilities to boot...OW MY HEAD!!!


and as for Incarnate vs. Totemist: because I come from melee-based PCs, the totemist probably is my cup of Irish Coffee, right?

If you go for the Irish Coffee, heck yes! Incarnate can be surprisingly decent in melee for a 1/2 BAB class, but they do rather cap out at "decent". Totemist, meanwhile, isn't about to give the Swordsage a run for his money, but will scare the bajeezus out of your average Fighter when he grows half a dozen natural weapons and starts ripping things to shreds.

As to the other issue.... yeah, Grumman's nailed it better than I could. Soulmelds have two modes: "shaped" and "bound". "Shaped" gives the basic benefit, "bound" gives a boosted one but you can't wear an item there. Essentia move around independently of that, like the whole divert-power-to-forward-shields thing.

[sonofzeal]

so how do the feats, such as the Cobalt Charge feat play in?

Because I don't get the feats

Honestly, I don't get the feats either. They don't really make much sense. Closest I can come is....


If shifting essentia is like diverting power to forward shields, then a lot of the feats are like some heavy outlay of power that gives you something useful, but the power's now invested permanently and can't be diverted. Or somesuch.

[AirGuitarGod32]

I'm almost tempted to tell my DM to ban this instead of psionics...

He set our newest campaign (in my ***) as an "achievement system" where we "unlock" certain races, classes, ect. He's considering banning either Incarnum or Psionics. I understand psionics, and now am slowly getting Incarnum. however, to save my DM a headache or two, I may have him (for now) ban Incarnum

[Keld Denar]

You are correct, Mr Zeal. If you bind a soulmeld to a chakra, it does take up a magic item slot, which means you can't wear a magic item in that slot while you have it bound.

Think of it this way...

Melds exist in 3 forms.

Unshaped: ALL of the melds your class is capable of melding exist in this form. They aren't doing ANYTHING for you if they are unshaped, kinda like wizard spells in your spellbook. They don't do anything if you don't shape them, but they are ALWAYS there. You can never assign essentia to them.

Shaped: These are melds that are shaped to you. The highest number of melds you can shape at any given time is limited by your levels in meldshaper classes (or Shape Soulmeld feats), or your Con score -10, whichever is lower. Thus, even if you were a level 20 Incarnate, if you have an 11 Con, you can only shape one meld. These shaped melds provide you the abilities that are listed first in their respective descriptions. Typically you are able to shape soulmelds once per day, and they last all day unless something causes them to unshape. Shaped soulmelds can have essentia assigned to them.

Bound: These are a special catagory of shaped soulmelds. You pick from the list of soulmelds you've shaped, and bind some of them to any chakra slots you have open. The number of chakra slots and the body slots open are dependant on your class levels in meldshaping classes, along with Open X Chakra feats. Chakras are generally grouped in tiers, Least, Lesser, and Greater, along with a few specials like Totem.

For example, lets take a look at Bob the Totemist. Bob is level 6 and has a 15 Con score. A 6th level totemist can shape 4 soulmelds, 2 of which he can bind to the chakras he has open (Totem, Crown, Feet, Hands). He also has 4 Essentia.

Today, Bob binds Girallon Arms, Sphinx Claws, Dread Carapace, and Kraken Mantle. Of these, he binds Girallon Arms to his Totem, and Sphinx Claws to his Hands.

The result of this gives Bob 4 claw attacks and pounce with any natural attacks (like the claws) when he charges. He also gets a +2 bonus on Climb and Grapple checks, +1 on Str based checks, the ability to take penalities to hit to gain bonus damage, and a +8 on swim checks and an effective swim speed of half his movement speed.

When Bob gets into combat, he invests his essentia. For each point Bob invests in his Girallon Claws, he gets +2 to Climb and Grapple checks, along with +1 to hit and damage with his claws. For each point he invests in Sphinx Claws, he gets another +1 on all Str checks. For each point in Dread Carapace, he can increase the amount of penalty he can take by 1, and increase his damage accordingly. For each point in Kraken Mantle he increases his swim speed by 5'.

Essentia spending is capped by character level. Bob is level 6, and thus can spend a maximum of 2 essentia at any given time in any one meld, even though he has 4 essentia to spend. Thus, he could invest 2 points in his Girallon Claws for +2 to hit and +2 to damage and 2 points in Dread Carapace, allowing him to take a -3 to hit but gaining +3 damage per hit. Later, he might want to lift something really heavy, so he shifts 2 points from Dread Carapace to Sphinx Claws for a total of +3 on Str checks. Etc.

EDIT:
Feats are like pseudo-melds. They don't count against the number of melds you can shape, but they serve as essentia recepticals just the same as melds do. If you invest essentia into a feat, it isn't available to use in other melds. Do note that some melds lock down essentia for the whole day. This is notated in the description of the feat. If it doesn't say that, though, then you are free to shift essentia in and out of it as often as you'd like.

[sonofzeal]

I'm almost tempted to tell my DM to ban this instead of psionics...

He set our newest campaign (in my ***) as an "achievement system" where we "unlock" certain races, classes, ect. He's considering banning either Incarnum or Psionics. I understand psionics, and now am slowly getting Incarnum. however, to save my DM a headache or two, I may have him (for now) ban Incarnum

Oh yeah, if it's a choice between the two, I'd go for Psi. And you're not alone; Incarnum is, by a substantial margin, the most awkward and complex subsystem in the game to learn. Second up might be Binding. It's worth it in the end, as there's an awesome feeling that comes with being able to reinvent your character overnight by shaping different soulmelds, but if you aren't already comfortable with it, I'd give it a low priority. Psi is easy, fun, and powerful. Incarnum is certainly fun, only middling for power overall, and nowhere near easy.

[Zaq]

Incarnum is, by a substantial margin, the most awkward and complex subsystem in the game to learn.

I would put Legacy Weapons above Incarnum in complexity. (Or Bloodlines, but those are obscure enough that I don't think they even count.)

Incarnum's actually very simple. It's just not very intuitive.

[sonofzeal]

I would put Legacy Weapons above Incarnum in complexity. (Or Bloodlines, but those are obscure enough that I don't think they even count.)

Incarnum's actually very simple. It's just not very intuitive.

Hmm, maybe. For Legacy Weapons you really only have to learn your particular weapon though, while to handle Incarnum well you need to be conversant with the effects of about thirty different soulmelds, all from level 1. Or not "need to", but it helps. Since every soulmeld is available from the beginning, there's a really steep learning curve.

[BooNL]

Incarnum might be the worst written book out there (for ease of reading, not content), but the system is pretty good.

One of the biggest advantages MoI has is that it is all contained in one book (okay, expect Dragon Magic). There is no supplement flipping and pulling feats and spells from dozens of sources, everything you want is right there. That's what I like about MoI. The same can be said for Psionics (2 books), ToB and Invocers (only Complete Arcane and Dragon Magic).

Honestly, I wouldn't ban either psionics or incarnum as they're two of the best systems around. I'd sooner ban vancian magic then those two.
Also, I don't quite understand the 'achievement' system your DM is going for, though that might be better saved for a different thread.

[Keld Denar]

BooNL, there are also Incarnum stuffs in the MIC, specifically magic items that are effectively Essentia recepticals just like soulmelds are.

[Kelb_Panthera]

BooNL, there are also Incarnum stuffs in the MIC, specifically magic items that are effectively Essentia recepticals just like soulmelds are.

The magic items in MiC that relate to incarnum are just reprints of the magic items in MoI.

[Sintanan]

Let's see if I can crack this nut:

Incarnum = Delicious goodness that keeps you going.
Soulbinds = Your delicious goodness in a manageable form.
Chakras = Places to store your delicious goodness for use.
Chakra Binding = A way to overclock your delicious goodness, at the cost of blocking your ability to use a magic item.
Essence = Reuseable spices you can sprinkle on your delicious goodness to make it more delicious whenever you feel like.

[Kobold-Bard]

Personally I'd say Truenaming is more complicated than Incarnum. Incarnum is a pain in the backside to figure out, but once you do it's actually really easy.

I really like the idea of using counters/coins/etc. to represent your Essentia total, then placing them onto cards for each of your active melds/feats/items.

[Solaris]

.........???

Like the fellas said. I was pointing out that it's more helpful to not think of it as a spellcasting system like regular magic, but rather approach the soulmelding as though it were creating temporary magic items. Once I did that, the rest fell into place.

[kamikasei]

Let's see if I can crack this nut:

Incarnum = Delicious goodness that keeps you going.
Soulbinds = Your delicious goodness in a manageable form.
Chakras = Places to store your delicious goodness for use.
Chakra Binding = A way to overclock your delicious goodness, at the cost of blocking your ability to use a magic item.
Essence = Reuseable spices you can sprinkle on your delicious goodness to make it more delicious whenever you feel like.

Incarnum isn't actually a specific thing within the system, in the same way that there's no single component of psionics called "psionics", just powers and power points. You shape soulmelds which you can bind to chakras and into which you invest essentia (not essence, which is an Exalted thing).

[Zeta Kai]

Concise & Informative Fact Dump.

This is the best explanation for incarnum that I have ever read. It actually helps me understand the system better, & I already got it. I'll be quoting this post when I explain Incarnum to others. Thank you.

Also, yes, everything is very blue, for some reason. Blue.

Lastly, chakras are a Hindu concept, which both Reiki & Incarnum use to refer to completely different things. Chakras in Hindu medicine refer to nodes within the human body that act as nexi (nexuses) for spiritual energy; this is what acupuncture is supposed to tap into in order to heal the body. Reiki supposedly manipulates these chakras without invasive needles or any other form of physical contact. It's either metaphysical healing via spiritual realignment or incredible bull****; YMMV. Chakras in Incarnum are basically a more restrictive & logical list of usable body slots for your soulmelds. WotC just wanted to sound mystical & fluffy.

[Stegyre]

A good read on the subject: ST's Incarnum Handbook.

I confess, MIC is a bit hard to get a handle on, initially, because it isn't really like anything else, but once you get into it, it's actually quite interesting and useful. Even non-incarnates can find some useful soulmelds that they may want to grab with a shape soulmeld feat.

(I also like it because it provides a good template for new feats: if you can get Uncanny Dodge with one incarnum feat, why not just allow it as its own feat? If you can get Evasion with two such feats (shape soulmeld (impulse boots) plus Open Lesser Chakra (feet)), make it a feat with Uncanny Dodge as a prerequisite, etc.)

[Everyman]

You're not the first to be stumped by Incarnum. I read my book, got cross-eyed and put it back on the shelf for over a year before I tried to use it again. I regret that. I really wish I had picked it up sooner.

The best metaphor for Incarnum is to think of it as Legos building a house.

Your PC is just the blank plate, with no souldmelds or feats being used. Soulmelds are like the standard block, which you can add on as you see fit each day. Each soulmeld adds a new block (or ability) to your build. Essentia are like those single bits you can add. You invest essentia in order to smooth out and expand (empower) your build. Binding a souldmeld is like adding a feature to your house, like a roof or window. It's pretty and really helps define what you're building, but limits your construction options in that area (you can't use a magic item on that given body slot anymore). Each day, you can take apart that Lego house and rebuild it a new way.

Essentia feats a bit confusing, but think of them as buckets. They have a minor effect that gets better then more essentia you put in. However, once you DO invest that essentia, you usually have to leave it there all day.

This is a really watered down way to think about it, but it works for me.

[Optimystik]

Also, blue. Blue blue blue blue blue. Blue.

This was my general impression of incarnum

[Kobold-Bard]

This was my general impression of incarnum

Incarnum: Blue! Blue everywhere!
Psionics: Crystal! Crystal everywhere!
Truenaming: Despair! Despair everywhere!

I'm seeing a pattern emerging...

[Blackfang108]

Incarnum: Blue! Blue everywhere!
Psionics: Crystal! Crystal everywhere!
Truenaming: Despair! Despair everywhere!

I'm seeing a pattern emerging...

I dunno. I saw a lot of Blue Crystal in Psionics.