Incarnum question

[NaYoN]

So I have a character who is a darkborn (homebrew race, unwanted son of two gods, looks like human) 7 rogue/ 4 shadowdancer/ 6 soul eater, (yes the rules of soul eater were bent a little), and is the semi-chosen of homebrew god of lies and death. A friend just lent me his Magic Of Incarnum, and I'd like to either gain some incarnum character levels, gestalt into one, or somehow incorporate at least some minor incarnum usage as per noted in page 6, and get a prestige class or something. Anybody have any recommendations?

Thanks

[bingo_bob]

I hate to say this, but at level 17? Don't.

To start with, the two Incarnum-Using clases (Not counting Soulborn, they don't get it for a while), really don't kick off until level 2, when you get your first chakra bind, and Incarnate still doesn't have much momentum then (they get crown, which isn't as versatile as totem), and it'll shut off a lot of magic items even if you do get the binds somehow.

Furthermore, you won't have much essentia. Probably... 1. Which means that none of your soulmelds will get powered up very much. You'll have a great capacity, though.

That leaves the option of getting your bonuses through feats. Not binding soulmelds, though, because that won't give enough of a bonus at that point. You could go with the *Synonym for blue**Class Feature* feats, but those aren't very good, especially with limited essentia, like you'll have.

Basically, while it is possible to feat yourself into being a semi-meldshaper, it's just not worth it for the investment (which is rather large). If you want to try and pick up another class through feats or a dip, I'd recommend Binder. It gives you some nice versatility, and at least feels like you're getting something out of it.

[NaYoN]

Well, I was thinking of retconning the character a bit, the DM allows me to, so it would be like "he was this way all the time"... but can't change too much. It still has to be a dex-based character that resembles the old character.

[Kyeudo]

Shape Soulmeld can be helpful, since Essentia Capacity is based on character level and not class level, but you still need a source of essentia to throw in.