Incarnum suggestion: reorder and standardize the chakra slots

[Elves]

The current order in which chakra bind slots are gained is a little ad hoc. It seems partly based on an estimation of how expensive or rare items in the different slots are, but I don't know if that's really accurate especially post-MIC.

One thing you could do is standardize chakras so that they are gained in a fixed pattern similar to spell and maneuver levels, regardless of class. Running with the current order, this would be:

1st: crown
3rd: feet
5th: hands
7th: arms
9th: brow
11th: shoulders
13th: throat
15th: waist
17th: heart
19th: soul (incarnate only)

Decent enough. But with a couple tweaks, you could reorder this so that there is also a logic to the progression, rising from the lowest body chakra to the highest.

1st: feet
3rd: waist
5th: hands
7th: arms
9th: shoulders
11th: throat
13th: brow
15th: crown
17th: heart
19th: soul (incarnate only)

This would require rebalancing the chakra effects for the slots that changed position, but it results in something more logical.

You could also do feet > hands > waist since hands are technically lower. (And you could put heart between arms and shoulders, but that seems to ruin the spirit of it.)

[Garryl]

The chakras are already organized into groups: Least (Crown, Feet, Hands), Lesser (Arms, Brow, Shoulders), Greater (Throat, Waist), Heart, and Soul. There's a little inconsistency in that Incarnates get access to Crown alone at 2nd level, and possibly some of the PrCs might have a little oddness, but otherwise the 3 base classes and the Access Least/Lesser/Greater Chakra feats all agree on the groupings. Those groupings are somewhat more like invocations (Least/Lesser/Greater/Dark), rather than spells' levels.

Note: The chakras are ordered in power (or at least the level at which they're gained) based on their proximity to the center of the body. Outer chakras are low-level, inner chakras are high-level. Waist being low-level makes no sense like that.

[Glimbur]

The other issue with going bottom to top is that many of your attack chakras are on your arms or hands. It would require a lot of rebalancing to make incarnate weapon arm bind a mid-teens level effect. And sighting gloves. And blue steel bracers. And... I'm not sure what you get from all that work, rather than just tweaking some under and overpowered binds.

[Elves]

The chakras are already organized into groups: Least (Crown, Feet, Hands), Lesser (Arms, Brow, Shoulders), Greater (Throat, Waist), Heart, and Soul.

Right, the point is that the groupings, at least on the face of it, seem displeasingly random.

Note: The chakras are ordered in power (or at least the level at which they're gained) based on their proximity to the center of the body. Outer chakras are low-level, inner chakras are high-level. Waist being low-level makes no sense like that.

However, I hadn't noticed this pattern. I guess it works, though wouldn't throat be farther than shoulders since it's higher up? I guess you can justify it as throat being closer to the "core mechanism" while shoulders are only there for "support".

Maybe the chakra tiers should be renamed outer/supporting/inner/core to make this pattern more explicit. It definitely wasn't obvious to me.

And... I'm not sure what you get from all that work, rather than just tweaking some under and overpowered binds.

A system with more of a guiding logic that's more pleasing as a result.

The outer/inner tiers thing Garryl pointed out makes me feel better about it for the time being. The vertical progression idea is still out there for anyone it appeals to.

[Garryl]

Right, the point is that the groupings, at least on the face of it, seem displeasingly random.

However, I hadn't noticed this pattern. I guess it works, though wouldn't throat be farther than shoulders since it's higher up? I guess you can justify it as throat being closer to the "core mechanism" while shoulders are only there for "support".

If they'd called it the "neck" chakra, I'd agree with you, but throat evokes the windpipe going all the way down to the lungs, and possibly also including the esophagus in the direction of the stomach, to me.

Maybe the chakra tiers should be renamed outer/supporting/inner/core to make this pattern more explicit. It definitely wasn't obvious to me.

That's a good idea for the nomenclature. I'm not so sure about using the word "supporting," but the idea is sound. Maybe "transitory"? I dunno.

[Elves]

How about "medial". Outer, medial, inner, core.

[Garryl]

Ooh! Medial sounds good. I like that.