Soulknife Kensai

[fireinthedust]

If I allow a Kensai soulknife (complete psionic) with the psionic knife as the focus for his attack, how can I totally beef out the character?

would this really work as a concept, or will I need to totally tweek this guy?

[Soups]

I have toyed with the idea with my friends a while ago. None of us have had experience doing this, but in theory it rocks, as by the time you meet the kensai pre-reqs, you can throw your knife and it allready has a +1 bonus and do all kinds of craziness. This combo basically opens your character up to NEVER buy for a weapon again. Spend money on good items :P Your psionic weapon count as a manufactured weapon, but it goes away when you split it into 2 swords. Make sure you imbune your "two" weapons to be sure. On second thought, you can only imbune 1. Splitting it into 2 won't work with the kensai bonus. Your DM wont like you wielding 2 +5 short swords at level 11. Other wise you are walking into "pun-pun" or "cheese" territory, or whatever these kids call it today.

[Person_Man]

Yes, it works.

However, mechanically its a pretty mediocre idea. A Kensai's biggest advantage is getting a low cost magic weapon. So it works best when you enchant natural weapons of the same type (for example, if you have 8 tentacle attacks), or if you can't swing that, a double weapon, your fists, or a bow (which you can then pimp further by using magical ammo).

A Soulknife/Kensai has 1 magic weapon - it's mind blade. So you're not getting the most out of your PrC. And by RAW, you can't have a non-epic weapon higher then +10. So at some point in your non-epic progression, the Soulknife/Kensai will top out in bonuses, and will need to go into another PrC in order to get something useful.

[fireinthedust]

One could theoretically treat the twin blades the same as monk fists. It's not really more or less broken than a monk having kensai levels. I'm thinking it'd be for, like, special item abilities at some point.

This would be for NPCs, though. The game is going up to level 30. Meh.

[kemmotar]

a bow (which you can then pimp further by using magical ammo).

Does the bonus from arrows stack with the bonus from the bow? So a +5 arrow and a +5 bow give you a total of +10 to AR and damage?

Also, about the kensai-soulknife idea..it's not bad though it is limited...seeing how it gains +1 to +5 by itself, you can incorporate 5 levels of kensai between soulknife levels until you reach +10 modifier on your weapon. Then when you reach epic you can take the other five levels to further pimp your mindblade. Also a good idea might be to get the adamantite blade gaunlets from MIC...and anything else you can get your hands on to boost your mindblade...i think there was something in XPS...

[dyslexicfaser]

Does the bonus from arrows stack with the bonus from the bow? So a +5 arrow and a +5 bow give you a total of +10 to AR and damage?

Also, about the kensai-soulknife idea..it's not bad though it is limited...seeing how it gains +1 to +5 by itself, you can incorporate 5 levels of kensai between soulknife levels until you reach +10 modifier on your weapon. Then when you reach epic you can take the other five levels to further pimp your mindblade. Also a good idea might be to get the adamantite blade gaunlets from MIC...and anything else you can get your hands on to boost your mindblade...i think there was something in XPS...

I believe it works thusly: the highest +1 to +5 bonus of arrow and bow is the one you use, but enchanting arrows with stuff like flaming or burst or exploding will carry over.

[Person_Man]

Does the bonus from arrows stack with the bonus from the bow? So a +5 arrow and a +5 bow give you a total of +10 to AR and damage?

Magical effects of different types stack. But magical enhancement bonuses of the same type do not.

For example, if you have a +5 arrow and a +5 bow, you get +5 to attack and damage, not +10.

But you can have a +1 Flaming Bow, with +1 Bane Arrows. You now have +1 Flaming Bane attacks. Then have an 8th level friend cast Greater Magic Weapon on your bow, improving the magical enhancement bonus to +2. It's a nifty combo, especially for a Kensai, or someone who wants to use the Ancestrial Relic feat or something similar, because either will free up plenty of gp that you can spend on a wide variety of powerful and specialized ammo.

[Chronos]

In 3.0, magical missile weapons and ammunition were an explicit exception to the "same type of bonus doesn't stack" rule, but they removed that exception in 3.5. But you can still combine abilities other than enhancement plusses, or use special-material arrows with a magic bow (which can also save you a lot of money: Cold iron, for instance, is only expensive if it's magical, so you could have nonmagical cold iron arrows with a magic bow to cheaply bypass DR/cold iron and magic).