[3.5] Ideas for Incarnum Defense

[Person_Man]

So I'm in the process of rewriting the Soulborn yet again. I already have one fix, which I and several others have playtested with good results. But Fax suggested on another thread that his favorite Soulborn fix is to combine the Magic of Incarnum version with Soulknife. This too already exists, but now that the idea has burrowed it's way into my mind I can't get it out until I'm done with my own version.

I've got 90% of it written, but then I got stuck on the Soulborn's 2nd level ability, Incarnum Defense. It's a very minor immunity based on your alignment:

• Lawful Good: Immune to Fear
• Chaotic Good: Immunity to Paralysis
• Lawful Evil: Immunity to Exhaustion (you instead become Fatigued)
• Chaotic Evil: Immunity to Str damage, penalty, or drain.

Bleh.

The Lawful Good version overlaps with the Paladin. And in general, they are all weaker then similar abilities - Evasion, Mettle, Divine Grace, Uncanny Dodge, etc.

So I would love suggestions for other immunities and/or defenses, with the stipulation that they should be useful but balanced to 2nd level, and not something provided by an existing base class.

I'm also looking for original-ish names for a Soulborn + Soulknife. Soulblade would be the obvious answer, but my version lets you make any weapon, not just a knife or blade.

Ideas?

[Greenish]

Maybe the ability to suppress all of those effects for X amount of time (once per encounter)?

For a name, how about Warsoul? It would me an interesting juxtaposition on the Warmind.

[Starbuck_II]

So I'm in the process of rewriting the Soulborn yet again. I already have one fix, which I and several others have playtested with good results. But Fax suggested on another thread that his favorite Soulborn fix is to combine the Magic of Incarnum version with Soulknife. This too already exists, but now that the idea has burrowed it's way into my mind I can't get it out until I'm done with my own version.

I've got 90% of it written, but then I got stuck on the Soulborn's 2nd level ability, Incarnum Defense. It's a very minor immunity based on your alignment:

• Lawful Good: Immune to Fear
• Chaotic Good: Immunity to Paralysis
• Lawful Evil: Immunity to Exhaustion (you instead become Fatigued)
• Chaotic Evil: Immunity to Str damage, penalty, or drain.

Bleh.

The Lawful Good version overlaps with the Paladin. And in general, they are all weaker then similar abilities - Evasion, Mettle, Divine Grace, Uncanny Dodge, etc.

So I would love suggestions for other immunities and/or defenses, with the stipulation that they should be useful but balanced to 2nd level, and not something provided by an existing base class.

I'm also looking for original-ish names for a Soulborn + Soulknife. Soulblade would be the obvious answer, but my version lets you make any weapon, not just a knife or blade.

Ideas?

Immunity to Str damage/penalty/drain is pretty powerful. Too bad only CE has that.

[balistafreak]

Make the Evasion/Mettle/whatever abilities available at the cost of Essentia?

Also, you may as an immediate action shunt Essentia into these abilities. Like you get Fireballed, so you divert energy to shields Essentia to this ability.

The problem comes up when figuring out how much Essentia you need. Would it just be a flat number, or what? I mean, it feels bad to just have it "on" for a mere 1 essentia all the time...

Hmmmm. I think this bears consideration.

[Person_Man]

Make the Evasion/Mettle/whatever abilities available at the cost of Essentia?

I'm hoping not to duplicate the abilities of other classes.

lso, you may as an immediate action shunt Essentia into these abilities. Like you get Fireballed, so you divert energy to shields Essentia to this ability.

The only problem is that my Soul-whatever has very limited essentia, because I don't want him stepping on the niches of the Totemist or Incarnate.

It's a nifty idea though. Maybe I'll find some way to integrate it.

Immunity to Str damage/penalty/drain is pretty powerful. Too bad only CE has that.

True. I'll probably keep that for CE, and hopefully find something equally good and interesting for the other alignments.

For a name, how about Warsoul? It would me an interesting juxtaposition on the Warmind.

Hmmm. I might just go with something like that.


Thanks to everyone. Any additional ideas?

[Glimbur]

Consider immunity to [Compulsions] for CG. It's not terribly powerful, but flavorful and somewhat unique.

[Ernir]

Stun, Daze, Nausea, Mind-Affecting? Those are all very powerful, in my opinion, and hard to get on a mostly-mundane class.

Lesser immunities could be Blindness/Deafness, Exhaustion/Fatigue (you know, actual immunity to the conditions) and Negative Energy effects.

[Lycanthromancer]

A class feature that acts as a soulmeld for the purposes of essentia, is permanently bound to, say, the soul chakra, and acts exactly like defensive precognition. +1 per essentia.

Also, call it the soul-bound blade?

[Lycanthromancer]

Alternately, just give them access to a single 1st level power they can manifest at will, with a number of pp (and manifester level) equal to the number of invested essentia, as a psi-like ability. Let them pick their own class ability.

Of course, then you have astral constructs running rampant, but they'll be pretty weak for awhile, and only last for a round or two.