Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Tuhljin 07-16-07, 10:35 PM	I have a player in my campaign who is using the sapphire hierarch prestige class from Magic of Incarnum but we noticed that it doesn't give any progression of new chakra bind tiers/slots. I haven't played an incarnate myself yet, but that does seem a bit... lame, and possibly weak. I am thinking about tweaking some things to allow at least some chakra bind tier progression, but I don't want to overpower the class. Any suggestions? One option I thought of off the top of my head was to just make the levels stack for the purpose of when you receive chakra binds, but would that be overpowered? The other PrCs in the book provide chakra binds, but at a slower rate. What if I gave the sapphire hierarch the same progression as the soul caster or another PrC like that? There is always the option of "nerfing" some other class feature of the hierarch in order to counteract any unbalancing either of these options might present, but I'm not certain what's the best way to go about that either. I'm sure I could come up with something but my experience with incarnum is limited and I'd like some advice. There also seems to be an issue with Incarnum prestige classes in general, specifically once you are finished with one and then return to the base class. If you are taking your prestige class levels which gives you chakra binds as a class feature then return to incarnate after getting all levels in the PrC, the incarnate class just gives you chakra binds you already have... which again just seems sort of lame: Even if that's supposedly "the cost" for not going straight incarnate, you'd think there'd be SOME advancement when you return to the class. The same thing goes for other base and prestige classes based on incarnum.
Marcus Majarra 07-17-07, 02:59 AM	The Hierarch doesn't need extra chakra binds, simply because the cleric spell list boasts a few Open Chakra spells that last 24 hours.
Tuhljin 07-17-07, 03:31 AM	Ah, I was not aware of that. I will have to look all that info up. I don't own the book myself but I think I can borrow it from my friend. I might even buy it quite soon if I like it enough. If these spells are relatively easy to access it might be fine as is.
Tuhljin 07-17-07, 05:34 PM	Alright, the spells aren't absolutely terribly hard to access, but they are a bit higher level than I thought they'd be. I wonder if it'd be overpowered if they were a level lower but were target = self only? Perhaps at the cost of a homebrew feat if necessary? Again, I haven't played an incarnum class so I don't know the best way to balance them, but I am taking this seriously - I made out a chart that compares the opening of chakra bind tiers of various options, such as when the proper spell level for an open chakra spell is obtained, when you get feat access to an "Open Chakra" feat (but it only opens one and requires quite high level, and of course eats most of your "slots" to max it out - not an ideal option), when other PrCs get theirs, etc. In any case, I'd still like to consider making changes to the PrC. I mean, wizards have the same access to spells that open chakras as clerics do (same spell levels for same spell), but the PrC that combines arcane spellcasting with meldshaping, the soulcaster, still gets new tiers of chakra binds, albeit at a slower rate than the incarnate. The soulcaster gets fewer other class features, but it's not entirely devoid of them, either; in fact, what it does get is quite useful, I'd think. Would it be unbalancing if I were to take away, say, the smite chaos ability of the hierarch and give it the chakra tier progression of a soulcaster instead?