Soulknife Sunday: compatibility with MiC and expanding access

[mabriss lethe]

I flipped through the MiC today and it got me on a tangent. A good number of the weapon properties available to the Soulknife got reworked to one extent or another. A quick search across the internet didn't yield any discussion about how it changes them up, so I thought I'd do it myself.

Bodyfeeder: It really got the short end of the stick in the revamp. It's still a crit activated ability, but they nerfed both the magnitude of the effect and the duration while keeping it at a +3 pricetag. Not impressive in the slightest. Given the comparison to Mindfeeder below, I'd ask a DM to either lower it to +1 or to use the original version. Otherwise it's of little use.

Mindcrusher: This gets a minor, but incredibly useful upgrade due to wording at the expense of some secondary benefit. The damage it deals to psionic creatures PP reserves remains the same in both versions, however the original does 1d2 wisdom damage to psionic targets that don't have a pp reserve. The MiC version drops the damage to 1 point but opens it up specifically to nonpsionic targets as well. I'd say that's a more than fair trade for the same pricetag, and makes it a somewhat attractive option for a soulknife (especially if they've traded away their access to Psychic Strike and Knife the Soul)

Mindfeeder: This one has one of the biggest overall changes. It gets the same big nerf as Bodyfeeder, BUT its cost is drastically reduced from +3 to +1, which can make it a very attractive option for a soulknife that has access to a few powers. Overall I'd say its a net gain for the class.

Psychokinetic Burst: The MiC reclassifies it as a synergy ability linked to the psychokinetic property. It doesn't really alter anything at all mechanically on either the soulknife end or the weapon itself, but it's worth noting the change in classification.

Soulbreaker: Like PB above, its only change is that the soulbreaker property is now a synergy ability that plays off the Enervating property. Overall it's still a total of a +3, and the mechanics haven't changed. The only real thing of note is that you might be able to use this to allow access to enervating as part of the core list as well, which as a +2 version, could be useful

And that leads us to the next bit, If you wanted to open up access to properties outside of the fixed list, How would you do it??

1. Allow full and immediate access: This is by far the most permissive option and requires the least amount of forethought. The downside, of course, is that while the hassle is minimized in the beginning, It adds another layer of complication during play.

2. Limited Whitelist: basically taking the original list and adding case by case expansions to it.

3. Reward based Whitelist: Here, we would be adding individual properties to the list as the story progressed as a reward or form of loot. There are a couple ways to handle it. Maybe there are books, or some other macguffin a soulknife can study to learn more exotic powers. Maybe they can copy them by closely studying existing magic weapons. Maybe it requires that the soulknife sacrifice or psychically "consume" magic weapons to learn their properties. This is the idea I like the best. It keeps the initial kit trimmed down for ease of reference, but allows the player to feel like the improvements they make are hard won and special. It also lets the DM keep a close eye on the game balance (not that Soulknives are in any danger of breaking the game.)

4. Feat based Whitelist: Brew up a feat that lets a soulknife add more options to their arsenal. I'm not a huge fan of this, but it might look something like adding three levels of abilities to your list per feat, so either three +1s, a +2 and a +1, or a +3. I don't know exactly, but it would need to be a pretty nice boost.

That leads me to another tangent: Missing Links. There are at least a few abilities that absolutely should have gone into the soulknife list but didn't. Ghost touch is the biggest offender here. Just being able to produce a ghost touch weapon when the need arises would be a big boost for them. Morphing would also be a gamechanger for them since it would mean that you didn't have to burn through feats simply to find more appropriate weapons for your playstyle. (and most of those weapon feats are garbage, anyway)

[Darg]

Number 2 is the best option. There are quite a few once per day options that could be exploited by the mind blade's unique nature. As it is Lucky is pretty strong itself. Free Draw is only limited to one attempt as it pertains to anti-psionic zones. Meaning you can use Lucky or once per day abilities anytime you create a new blade which can be for every attack you make.

Illumine Soul adds ghost touch to the soul knife list at level 1. In fact, any soulknife should get at least 1 level to at minimum double your Psychic strike damage + 1 die. As the Psychic Strikes are separate sources you can stack them even further by spending 2 move actions to double imbue your mindblade. This is getting a little off topic though.

[mabriss lethe]

Number 2 is the best option. There are quite a few once per day options that could be exploited by the mind blade's unique nature. As it is Lucky is pretty strong itself. Free Draw is only limited to one attempt as it pertains to anti-psionic zones. Meaning you can use Lucky or once per day abilities anytime you create a new blade which can be for every attack you make.

Illumine Soul adds ghost touch to the soul knife list at level 1. In fact, any soulknife should get at least 1 level to at minimum double your Psychic strike damage + 1 die. As the Psychic Strikes are separate sources you can stack them even further by spending 2 move actions to double imbue your mindblade. This is getting a little off topic though.

I prefer number 3 over 2. It's a bit less work overall, since you only need to figure out a coherent methodology for the class to add weapon properties and then dole out the upgrades as loot one at a time. And honestly, the core list covers a lot of bases on its own. As for Illumine soul, I'm aware that it grants ghost touch. However, it really should have been part of the core class list.

[Darg]

Thinking about it, I like the idea of combining 2 and 3. 2 for psionic enhancements subtracting the once per day options and 3 for magical effects or unique weapon special abilities.

If I were to add a feat, I would add one that adds +1 to the Mind Blade Enhancement feature and +1 to the enhancement bonus.

Ghost Touch for sure should be added, but Morphing honestly would be better spent simply changing the Shape Mind Blade class feature to allow any weapon (I think dragon adds a feat, but it has the limitation of requiring proficiency of the weapon you want to use).

[mabriss lethe]

It's a class that's so broken there are multiple ways to fix it. upgrading Shape soulblade, improving access to weapon qualities. Improving the speed that you can change your blade. making psychic strike more functional and or improving its action economy, upgrading the class chassis, a significant PP reserve and something to use it with (either traditional powers or to burn PP for class abilities.) I homed in on morphing as a possibility for improving the class because it granted a desired effect without having to rewrite the class abilities, and while that's sorely needed, it's more than a little bit outside the scope of my original premise.

[Psyren]

It's a class that's so broken there are multiple ways to fix it.

Including just using the vastly superior PF version with multiple fun archetypes and options: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/alternative...ses/soulknife/

[Darg]

Including just using the vastly superior PF version with multiple fun archetypes and options: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/alternative...ses/soulknife/

How funny. They kept the "attempt" text for Free Draw. The question is, does it keep the same meaning it had in the XPH?

[Psyren]

How funny. They kept the "attempt" text for Free Draw. The question is, does it keep the same meaning it had in the XPH?

Been a while since I've read the 3.5 version, but the "attempt" text here is referring to situations where calling your blade isn't automatic, e.g. in a null psionics field.

[weckar]

PF1 and 3.5 just aren't that interchangeable at all tables. Which is too bad, because the soulknife's flavor is a lot of fun. I'd actually use it at some point if it were a little more multiclass friendly.

[Gnaeus]

PF1 and 3.5 just aren't that interchangeable at all tables. Which is too bad, because the soulknife's flavor is a lot of fun. I'd actually use it at some point if it were a little more multiclass friendly.

Psyren still makes a good point. You don’t need a 3.PF table if you are already looking at fixing a class to examine someone else’s fix. PF soulknife is high T4/low T3, with some archetypes solid T3.

Soulknife (3.5) is a surprisingly good gestalt class. Particularly with a full BAB martial on the other side. It has a lot of good stuff that just don’t congeal into a workable class, but which overlap very nicely into other classes. It’s a pretty neat 1 tier bump for any T4-5 melee.

[weckar]

Sure, but gestalt is a very very different beast from multiclassing.

[Gnaeus]

True, but when looking at soulknife fixes, gestalting with a low tier martial is another easy one that doesn’t require typing pfsrd soulknife.

[weckar]

I'd honestly prefer not to fix it at all. If a Shadowcaster can find a place at our table, so can a Soulknife...

[Psyren]

PF1 and 3.5 just aren't that interchangeable at all tables. Which is too bad, because the soulknife's flavor is a lot of fun. I'd actually use it at some point if it were a little more multiclass friendly.

There's nothing PF-specific about their Soulknife, you can use in 3.5 easily. The primary benefit (besides having a class where the math actually works and that plays well) is that it's been exposed to a ton of people so it's a lot less obscure/unknown than some other third-party fix might be.

I'd honestly prefer not to fix it at all. If a Shadowcaster can find a place at our table, so can a Soulknife...

Fair enough... consider the option more of a PSA for others then.

[Gnaeus]

I'd honestly prefer not to fix it at all. If a Shadowcaster can find a place at our table, so can a Soulknife...

It’s your table, so what works there isn’t something I can challenge. But the other part of that sentence makes very little sense. Shadowcaster is a T4 caster class with some very powerful effects, with the limitation that it just doesn’t get enough selection or uses per day to be high tier. 3.5 soulknife is a melee class that isn’t good at melee. I assume you meant to say that your table is accommodating to classes of all power levels. My SWAT team was able to find a place for the guy with a revolver so obviously a guy with a nerf gun will do ok. Soulknife//Samurai or Hexblade or Soulborn or Swashbuckler are closer to Shadowcaster in power level. (PF soulknife may be better than Shadowcaster with some archetypes).