Soulknife

[Gorbash]

How to make an effective Soulknife? I really want to play one in some future campaign... I was going to play one in the last campaign I played, but I changed my mind since I've had an impression that he isn't really that useful. Sure, he's the coolest class there is (cmon a mindblade), but I just don't see him being on the par with say, rogues or some other melee dmg dealers. Thoughts?

[dyslexicfaser]

I've yet to find a way to make Soulknife (who is extremely cool, no denying that - even if he sucks mechanically) viable. One idea was to venture into the Kensai PrC, with your mindblade as your signature weapon, and heap a bunch of abilities on it. I'm not 100% sure it will stack with the soulknife's stuff, however.

[its_all_ogre]

erm there is no way unless your group are all playing in-effective characters.
i think that'd be quite fun in a way but there you go!
only help for soulknife is gestalt, he is pretty cool as a secondary class.
of course many others are better.
i give them full bab, all good saves (the class is already similar to monk so why not), 6 skill points/level, evasion at level 4 and shape mindblade allows them to change it to any weapon they're proficient in.
still not specialised enough i feel though.

[Reel On, Love]

Yep. Your fundamental problem is that the Soulknife is an almost-irredeemably terrible class.

If you have a high STR, you might want to take a level of Exotic Weapon Master for Uncanny Blow (and thus get 2x STR to damage rather than 1.5x when using the bastard sword shaped mind blade in both hands).

Generally, your best bet is the Soulbow PrC. Multiclass for maximum Wisdom synergy: a Soulknife 2/Swordsage 2/Monk 1 (do try and use Fractional BAB) entering Soulbow gets WIS to AC in light armor, WIS to Stunning Fist DCs (if you ever land melee attacks--consider the Insightful Strike feat from the BoED), and WIS to AB (Zen Archery feat) & damage (Soulbow). He becomes a viable archer. You can also, say, settle for a single level of Soulbow and enter the Chameleon PrC, where your high WIS will synergize with the divine casting.

[Gorbash]

:/ Too bad... I really hoped there was something I overlooked in order to make him effective... My gaming group doesn't use ToB (not because we don't have access to it, but because we don't want to), so Swordsage isn't an option...

[Person_Man]

Here's an option:

Take the Ancestral Relic feat from Book of Exalted Deeds, and apply the feat to your Mind Blade. Normally this feat can only apply to an object that was owned by an ancestor. Though with DM permission, you could just say that your father was a Soulknife, and he taught you everything you know, thus passing his Mind Blade on to you.

This feat let's you sacrifice gp or items to improve your relic on a 1 for 1 basis, saving you the 50% cost of having to sell items.

For a normal PC, you're basically trading a feat to get extra cash. For your Soulknife, it'd result in an Epic level Mind Blade. I think it accomplishes the goal of the Mind Blade with a minimal of house rules.

[Xyk]

A player of mine decided on soulknife for an upcoming campaign just because a sword made out of minds is amazing. He usually plays the barbarian and is tired of the dumb-factor, so instead of playing a smart barbarian, soulknives are super cool. I am gonna help him improve it mechanically. I don't know how, and I'm thinking of giving him some BAB boosts and evasion as previously mentioned. It's only level 3, and I'm also thinking of letting him get shape mind blade now, so he isn't a useless short sword fighter. I dunno.

[dyslexicfaser]

Even just full BAB would boost it up to a competitive level with many melee classes.

[Telok]

Houserule in full BAB. Practiced Mind Blade feat from Dragon Mag #341 (thank the gods for those crystal Keep pdfs) let's him PrC with less penalty, let him take it multiple times if you like.

If you feel he's still lagging behind kick the class up to 6+i skill points and give him a psychic warrior feat every four or five levels.

[13_CBS]

If Homebrews are allowed, you could check these boards (or gleemax) for a fixed up Soulknife.

[Wordmiser]

I would just make a Psychic Warrior who used Call Weaponry instead of buying his own sword. It's not quite as effective as th Psychic Warrior who uses his PP to other ends, but a hell of a lot better than anything coming out of the Soulknife class. It would keep the same fluff, even.

Or just describe Claws of the Beast as having two largely incorporeal blades forming around your hands. That one would actually be pretty effective.

[Eldmor]

I take a note from 3E and make Soulknife a collection of feats that any psionic character can take, preferably Psionic Warrior. I remember them being somewhere on the boards. I will use my search-fu.
EDIT: Found it! Soulknife Feats
Only thing that needs worked out is Invest Mindblade since only 2 powers can currently apply to it. I say just slap on he class feature instead and we have a fix.

[illathid]

The Logic Ninja did a fix for soul knives that I thought was fairly good. I suggest you check it out.

Link coming in:

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[hippie_dwarf]

I prefer BlaineTog's Soulknife Fix and it's the one my DM has allowed me to use. Another handy resource is the Soulknife Build Guide & Compendium. If you're not allowed a fix then a nice way to spice up the Soulknife is to take a level in Barbarian or as already said, take the Soulbow PrC. Check out that guide if you run out of ideas.