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Karzach 08-11-07, 12:06 AM

This may belong in the Psionics board (and if I find something indicating such, I'll repost it there). Additionally, I've copied the applicable parts of the original Soul Knife for those not particularly familiar with the class. For those of you who are, the sections that have changed are; Manifester Level - New Power Points/Day - New Class Skills - Changed Bonus feats - Added/Changed Psychic Focus - New Throw Mind Blade - Removed Shape Mind Blade - Changed Psionic Strike - New Bladewind - Removed Multi-Throw - Removed Soulknife Rebuild Hit Die: d8 Class Skills: The soulknife’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Autohypnosis (Wis), Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex). Skill Points at 1st Level: (6 + Int modifier) X 4 Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifier The Soul Knife LVL BAB FORT REF WILL MAX PWR LVL SPECIAL 1 1 2 0 2 1 Bonus Feat, Mind blade 2 2 3 0 3 1 Psychic Focus 3 3 3 1 3 1 Psychic Strike +1d8 4 4 4 1 4 1 +1 mind blade 5 5 4 1 4 2 Bonus Feat, Free draw, shape mind blade 6 6 5 2 5 2 Mind blade enhancement +1 7 7 5 2 5 2 Psychic Strike +2d8 8 8 6 2 6 2 +2 mind blade 9 9 6 3 6 3 Bonus Feat, Psionic Strike 10 10 7 3 7 3 Mind blade enhancement +2 11 11 7 3 7 3 Psychic Strike +3d8 12 12 8 4 8 3 +3 mind blade 13 13 8 4 8 4 Bonus Feat 14 14 9 4 9 4 Mind blade enhancement +3 15 15 9 5 9 4 Psychic Strike +4d8 16 16 10 5 10 4 +4 mind blade 17 17 10 5 10 5 Bonus Feat 18 18 11 6 11 5 Mind blade enhancement +4 19 19 11 6 11 5 Psychic strike +5d8 20 20 12 6 12 5 +5 mind blade Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Soulknives are proficient with all simple weapons, with their own mind blades, and with light armor and shields (except tower shields). Mind Blade (Su): As a move action, a soulknife can create a semisolid blade composed of psychic energy distilled from his own mind. The blade is identical in all ways (except visually) to a short sword of a size appropriate for its wielder. For instance, a Medium soulknife materializes a Medium mind blade that he can wield as a light weapon, and the blade deals 1d6 points of damage (crit 19-20/X2). Soulknives who are smaller or larger than Medium create mind blades identical to short swords appropriate for their size, with a corresponding change to the blade’s damage (see Table 7-4 and Table 7-5 in the Player’s Handbook). The wielder of a mind blade gains the usual benefits to his attack roll and damage roll from a high Strength bonus. The blade can be broken (it has hardness 10 and 10 hit points); however, a soulknife can simply create another on his next move action. The moment he relinquishes his grip on his blade, it dissipates. A mind blade is considered a magic weapon for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction. A soulknife can use feats such as Power Attack or Combat Expertise in conjunction with the mind blade just as if it were a normal weapon. He can also choose mind blade for feats requiring a specific weapon choice, such as Weapon Specialization. Powers or spells that upgrade manufactured weapons can be used on a mind blade. A soulknife’s mind blade improves as the character gains higher levels. At 4th level and every four levels thereafter, the mind blade gains a cumulative +1 enhancement bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls (+2 at 8th level, +3 at 12th level, +4 at 16th level and +5 at 20th level). Even in places where psionic effects do not normally function (such as within a null psionics field), a soulknife can attempt to sustain his mind blade by making a DC 20 Will save. On a successful save, the soulknife maintains his mind blade for a number of rounds equal to his class level before he needs to check again. On an unsuccessful attempt, the mind blade vanishes. As a move action on his turn, the soulknife can attempt a new Will save to rematerialize his mind blade while he remains within the psionics-negating effect. Power Points/Day and Powers Known: A soulknife has a manifester level equal to ½ his class levels rounded up. As a result, he receives bonus power points per day for having a high Wisdom score (see Table 2-1: Ability Modifiers and bonus Power Points). Unlike a normal manifester class, a soulknife does not gain Power Points per day based on his level of soulknife nor does he automatically gain powers known. However, he may select the Expanded Knowledge feat to gain powers known, and may expend his pool of Power Points on these powers like normal. The standard restrictions on manifesting powers (such as the maximum amount of power points you can expend on a single power) still apply. Bonus Feat List: Beginning at first level, and every four levels thereafter (5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th) a Soul Knife may choose a bonus feat from the following list; Deep Impact, Dodge, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Sword), Expanded Knowledge, Greater Psionic Weapon, Greater Two Weapon Fighting, Improved Initiative, Improved Two Weapon Fighting, Mental Leap, Mind Over Body, Narrow Mind, Open Minded, Psionic Body, Psionic Charge, Psionic Dodge, Psionic Meditation, Psionic Talent, Psionic Weapon, Rapid Metabolism, Reckless Offensive, Sidestep Charge, Speed of Thought, Two Weapon Fighting, Up the Walls, and Wounding Attack. The Soul Knife must qualify for any feat he chooses from this list. Psychic Focus: Beginning at second level, a Soul Knife may expend power points to quicken his ability to gain psionic focus. He may choose to expend one power point to reduce the time required to gain psionic focus from a full-round action to a move equivalent action. If the Soul Knife can already gain psionic focus as a move action from a source other than Psychic Focus (such as the Psionic Meditation feat), he instead can gain psionic focus as a swift action. Psychic Strike (Su): As a move action, a soulknife of 3rd level or high can imbue his mind blade with destructive psychic energy. This effect deals an extra 1d8 points of damage to the next living, nonmindless target he successfully hits with a melee attack. Creatures immune to mind-affecting effects are immune to psychic strike damage. (Unlike the rogue’s sneak attack, the psychic strike is not precision damage and can affect creatures otherwise immune to extra damage from critical hits or more than 30 feet away, provided they are living, nonmindless creatures not immune to mind-affecting effects). A mind blade deals this extra damage only once when this ability is called upon, but a soulknifc can imbue his mind blade with psychic energy again by taking another move action. Once a soulknife has prepared his blade for a psychic strike, it holds the extra enegy until it is used. Even if the soulknife drops the mind blade (or it otherwise dissipates, such as if it were sundered), it is still imbued with psychic energy when the soulknife next materializes it. At every four levels beyond 3rd (7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th) the extra damage from a soulknife’s psychic strike increases by 1d8. Free Draw (Su): At 5th level, a soulknife becomes able to materialize his mind blade as a free action instead of a move action. He can make only one attempt to materialize the mind blade per round, however (if, for example, he must make a Will save to materialize it within a null psionics field). Shape Mind Blade (Su): At 5th level, a soulknife may choose to materialize his mind blade in the shape of an appropriately sized bastard sword (damage 1d10 for a Medium weapon, but he must wield it two-handed without the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat) or a long sword (damage 1d8 for a Medium weapon wielded as a 1-handed weapon). If he chooses to materialize his mind blade as a bastard sword and chooses to wield it 2-hands, he gains 1-1/2 times his strength modifier for damage, just like a normal 2-handed weapon. Alternatively, a soulknife can choose to materialize his mind blade in the form of two appropriately sized, identical short swords, suitable for fighting with a weapon in each hand (the normal penalties for fighting with two weapons applies normally). However, both mind blades have an enhancement bonus 1 lower than the soulknife would otherwise create with a single mind blade. For example, a 12th-level soulknife normally creates a single +3 mind blade, but he could use this ability to instead materialize two +2 mind blades. [B]Mind Blade Enhancement (Su): At 6th level, a soulknife gains this ability to enhance his mind blade. He can add any one of the weapon special abilities on the table below that has an enhancement value of +1. At every four levels beyond 6th (10th, 14th, and 18th), the value of the enhancement a soulknife can add to his weapon improves to +2, +3, and +4, respectively. A soulknife can choose any combination of weapon special abilities that does not exceed the total allowed by the soulknife’s level. For example, an 18th-level soulknife could add two +2 weapon special abilities, or one +1 weapon ability and one +3 weapon ability. The weapon ability or abilities remain the same every time the soulknife materializes his mind blade (unless he decides to reassign its abilities, see below). The ability or abilities apply to any form the mind blade takes, including the use of the shape mind blade ability. A soulknife can reassign the ability or abilities he has added to his mind blade. To do so, he must first spend 8 hours in concentration. After that period, the mind blade materializes with the new ability or abilities selected by the soulknife. For example, a 10th-level soulknife might have initially chosen to imbue his weapon with psychokinetic burst, a +2 weapon special ability. Every time he materializes the weapon, it is a +2 psychokinetic burst mind blade. However, on learning that he may face a mind flayer the next day, he could take 8 hours to change his mind blade’s special ability from psychokinetic burst to mindcrusher. Psionic Strike: Beginning at 9th level, a Soul Knife can expend power points to augment his Psychic Strike ability. He may choose to expend three power points to gain Psychic Strike as a swift action, rather than as a move action. Beginning at 11th level, he may choose to expend an additional three power points, for a total of six, to have his extra Psychic Strike Damage apply on all attacks the Soul Knife makes this round. [DEVELOPMENT NOTES] I chose to include a manifester level for two reasons. First, to make the soulknife more multi-classing friendly with the other psionic classes. Second, so he can take advantage of a broader range of the psionic mechanics, rather than only psionic focus. His current design is based on the Ranger class (2 good saves, d8 HD, full base attack bonus, 6 + int mod skills) and that was used to determine the number of bonus feats he gets (though at a more even progression, rather than staggered like the ranger is). I'm reasonably certain his available powers known somewhat replicates the ranger spell casting (and even better, it's entirely optional). Anyway, comment away.