Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Gemcat Sep 21, 2014 13:32:45	I know, I know. Soulknifes are terrible. Everyone hates them, and I read dozens of places where people have said they are the worst class ever. That was after I made a Soulknife. Oops. But the thing was, I flet I was doing pretty good. Not a first or second string fighter, but a decent third string/ranged fighter. But I got into a bit of a tiff with my DM over the Soulknife power "Psychic Strike". First, didn't think it should be able to affect anyone who didn't have psionic abilities. Then he focused on how long the power could be activated.  This is text from the Soulknife page:   "Once a soulknife has prepared his blade for a psychic strike, it holds the extra energy until it is used. Even if the soulknife drops the mind blade (or it otherwise dissipates, such as when it is thrown and misses), it is still imbued with psychic energy when the soulknife next materializes it." http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/classes/soulknife.htm   I read it as the energy doesn't go away until used(ie hits a intelligent creature). So, it should stay charged until the Soulknife next enters battle and hits something.  The DM read it as it goes away once the blade is dismissed after battle(or even drops or chooses not to resummon the blade) that the psychic strike you go away. And tried to rationalize it because it's just like sneak attack only more things are immune to sneak attack than psychic strike. I'd just like to know how other people interprate it. I've seen a lot of cons to psychic strike,  but the one pro that I say for it is that it made "Good first strike damage", which would lead me to believe that PS doesn't fade. Like I've said, I've seen the class pulled apart, but not this aspect, so I'm just curious and maybe it'll help someone else if it comes up for them.
#2 Seth_Ulrik Sep 21, 2014 19:51:14	From the way it reads it sounds like the mind blade would stay charged until used since it actually says "if the soulknife drops the mind blade or it otherwise dissipates". I guess he's trying to keep you from simply charge-waiting and killing the king or something.
#3 Gemcat Sep 21, 2014 21:32:23	Oh trust me, the only thing that I could sneak kill dead with 1d6+1d8 would be a commoner. Except, I am sure, the DM's commoners.. because from what it seemed, no one was an actual commoner.  Otherwise it's a move action to charge the weapon.. and at the point that this came up, a move action to summon the blade in the first place.
#4 Seth_Ulrik Sep 21, 2014 22:04:41	Well, again, it SOUNDS like it should stay charged. I'm no expert though, and DM fiat is kinda the rule. (being that the DM can say 'this is how it's gonna be')
#5 Fireclave Sep 22, 2014 18:15:05	Gemcat wrote:
#6 Gemcat Sep 30, 2014 14:47:25	I can usually respect Rule 0. But Rule 0 I feel is for flow of gameplay or because the DM has decided to change a rule across the board. Rule 0 shouldn't be a personal vendetta against one player. And the DM was unhappy with how easy the party(the whole party, not just me) would kill his creatures. He also didn't think it was fair that Pally got Divine Grace(adding in the CHA mod to ALL save throws), but for various reasons, my character was deemed as the character to pick on.  This DM also misread the weapon scaling rules. Instead of having the weapon's size scale to the wielder, as I am sure the rules are meant to be taken(as have always been taken for as long as I've played 3.5)....He read it as changing against the sizing of the creature you were fighting. ????. So a gnome(small) wielding a dagger against a large creature would do 1D6 of damage instead of 1D3. And he couldn't figure out why his big mean monsters kept getting chopped up so fast..
#7 Fireclave Sep 30, 2014 19:25:45	Is your DM new to D&D, or DM'ing in general? Events like these suggest to me that the DM lacks experience with both the system as a whole, as well as the system's tolerances. If so, you might suggest that someone more experienced takes the reins for a while, so your budding DM can become more familiar with how to run a game without the stress of trying to learn it at the same time.   Though if you really feel like your DM has a "personal vendetta" against you, then you have a larger problem that no rule source can fix. Out-of-game problems require out-of-game solutions.  D&D is a cooperative game, and everyone should be contributing to everyone's fun. You should consider calmly and rationally confronting your DM and reaching somesort of resolution.  Else, the issue of being singled out wil likely continue in the future.
#8 Gemcat Sep 30, 2014 21:38:15	Supposedly he, the co DM and the other players had TONS of experiance playing. That all of them had grown up playing all the editions of DnD. And trust me, if I had suggested that he step aside to get more 'familiar' with the game, I would have gotten an ear full to say the least.  I did the only thing that was open to me. I left. I'm sure that the misreading of the rules would have continued as the DM's plan was to switch the game to 5e.. Psionics don't exist in 5e.. at least not yet and from the rumors I've heard, not ever. Officially at least.  I voiced my doubts. Don't get me wrong, I'm curious as to how 5e plays, but switching a game mid stream? I was assured that since all I had was a rogue with essentially a lightsaber, I would continue to have one. This did not inspire confidance in me, concidered the  casual over generalization of my class. And I confess, I was hoping to play with a prestiege class, which since most of the games I played in college had to fit into a semester time scale, I'd never gotten to do before.  Oh well, another chronicle for the Bad DM thread.