Post/Author/DateTime	Post
JiCi 06-18-07, 07:52 PM	If I houserule that soulknives get a full BAB instead of a medium one, would it be balanced, or not ? Thoughts ?
Tempest Stormwind 06-18-07, 08:37 PM	If I houserule that soulknives get a full BAB instead of a medium one, would it be balanced, or not ? Thoughts ? Very. Common. Fix. (http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=site%3Aboards1.wizards.com+soulknife+f ull+bab+fix&btnG=Search&meta=) NOT the ideal one, IMHO, since it's a hackjob. Consider one more like BlaineTog's fix, which was published in Untapped Potential and is available on these boards.
Nom 06-18-07, 09:20 PM	If you are going to give the soulknife full BAB, then you should take away the free Weapon Focus feats.
JiCi 06-18-07, 09:25 PM	Ok, shouldn't hurt the class too much, especially since it,s suppose to be a melee-oriented class.
Noodles2375 06-18-07, 09:25 PM	If you are going to give the soulknife full BAB, then you should take away the free Weapon Focus feats. Going along with that, you could also kick around removing one of its good saves.
kyeudo 06-18-07, 09:53 PM	Don't bother killing the Soulknife's class features if you bump up the soulknife's BAB. It just makes him a frontliner. If you feel that the Fighter is getting cheated if you power up the Soulknife, give the fighter a good Ref save or the warblade's weapon familiarity class feature.
Salla 06-18-07, 10:29 PM	A soulknife with a full BAB is still outshined by the fighter (depressing), but still probably outperforms a Swashbuckler (thank god).
Darkprophet232 06-19-07, 12:09 AM	I houserule this as well, but then I have a ton of houserules on the fighter. I hate the fighter as is. To me it justs feels way too much like the damn warrior.
Harbin_Dunewalker 06-19-07, 12:32 AM	To me it justs feels way too much like the damn warrior. It IS too much like the warrior. If you look carefully, you realize that the Fighter class is almost exactly the friggin' same as the Warrior class. The only difference is the bonus feats, and mabye a couple more class skills. Bonus feats, while useful, do not justify taking 20 levels in an NPC class.
axenome 06-19-07, 04:58 AM	Soulknife is not that bad- people often complain about it being underpowered, but honestly, the ability to throw a bastard sword repeatedly at higher levels isn't too bad- especially as it is a free magic weapon. Single Wield +5 Enhancement/+4 extra attribute weapon costs 162,000 gold- a sizeable chunk of money even for a level 20 character. This frees up massive reserves of money for the character to improve his other gear- Remember that a Tome of Bodily Health +5 costs around 150k and grants you a +5 inherent bonus to Strength(Or whichever tome it was, I get them mixed up). The problem is that too many players try to treat the class as a fighter or main tank. It really isn't MEANT for that. A soulknife works best as a skirmisher, to strike at the soft targets that are hard to get to for the quy in the platemail. Psychic Strike/Greater Psionic Weapon can pile on huge amounts of hurt in a single shot at earlier levels, and with a single attack the Soulknife can still make a move to get into or out of striking position. Multiclass options with 1 level of fighter can get you a bonus feat like Dodge, taking Mobility and Spring Attack as standard feats, leaving you five more Character Level feats to work with for Psionic Weapon, Greater Psionic Weapon, Deep Impact, Power Attack(Power Attack is an effective thing when you combine it with the bastard sword form and Deep Impact) and maybe Reckless Attack(XPH). By taking the 1 level dip into fighter you lose a +1 to your weapon enhancement bonus but still retain the +4 bonus equivalent, a property which unlike ANY magic item in existance can be tailored according to your day's plans. Collision is a good mainstay along with Psychokinetic and Keen for piling on the damage as well. The build I've outlined at level 20 takes 23 ranks in Hide, Move Silently, Jump, and Tumble, and is a good caster killer and a pretty good assassin(Hide/Move Silently as Class Skills). Tumble past opponents trying to engage you in melee, to the caster behind them, power attack for 15 and use Deep Impact or Psionic Weapon. Your attack, with a 15 str character(Which is really minimal with the existance of Belt of Giant Str and level boosts, not to mention the rare but sought after inherent bonus) will be made at +8(+10 with Reckless Attack) for 1d10(Bastard sword) +4(Enhancement)+3(Strength)+30(Power attack)+5(Collision)+1d4(Psychokinetic)+ 5d8(Psychic Strike) and either as a touch attack(Deep Impact) or with an additional +4d6 damage(Psionic Weapon). Remember that while +10 doesn't sound huge, it will still hit AC 20 55% of the time. And a lot of high level caster opponents on the first round of combat(Or when caught off guard) don't usually have that much Armor Class. Factor in a touch attack and it's better by far. If you can mange a tumbling Charge attack, you can take pretty bad risks with your body but still be far enough away from the enemy tank that it can only get one attack on you before you tumble back to the safety of your comrades. Damage spread for the above looks something like this: Regular Swing: 49-86 on a regular hit(Avg 65.5) and 92-138 on a crit(Avg damage 113). Not as good as a Raging Barbarian, I'll grant you, but a lot better at getting to the wizard behind the iron golem. Greater psionic Weapon boosts the damage by 4-24(Avg 14). Still not good enough? Go into the Magic Item compendium and buy yourself a Mind Blade Gauntlet and a greater Weapon Gem to make things more damaging- it'll still cost you less than buying a +8 equivalent weapon and a greater Mind Blade Gauntlet will grant you an additional +3 in enhancement equivalents for 1 minute at a time, pumping your mindblade up to a +11 equivalent weapon, which is stronger than is available for any game short of Epic levels. Maybe get +1d6 fire damage or something equally mundane for a weapon gem- they're pretty cheap. Soulknife is a pretty decent class if you stack it right but the point of a Soulknife is less to hammer their meat shield but rather to get around their meat shield. If you have to, run away from the fight, hide, and sneak back in when everybody is busy. Attack from hiding to get that flat footed bonus, then haul ass back to safety. Think Ninja, not Samurai, and you'll be okay.