Pathfinder 1E Incarnum in Pathfinder

Chronologist · Nov 24, 2010

Thanks for taking a look at it Paradox42, that means a lot to me.

No, I haven't playtested them yet, though I plan to next time I play. I design character a lot in my spare time, so I think I'm a pretty good judge of these things, and they look really fun. My only concern is the Incarnum Radiance ability, for some reason it kinda feels weird. The new abilities give a lot of versatility, but they only actually start being really fun at later levels. Maybe the duration could go up, or the bonuses could be spread out more? What if the alternate abilities had more of a smooth, linear progression once you got them?

I never found Soulmelds very powerful to begin with, mostly because their primary function is utility and skill bonuses which are easily replicated by spells and magical items. Come on, an Incarnate investing 4 essentia at 12th level to get a +10 bonus to Acrobatics checks from a soulmeld could honestly be done better by a level 1 Arcane spell... that just feels kind of sad. Sure, some of the soulmelds would get pretty ridiculous (like Spellward Shirt), and some of the feats could get pretty nasty too, but if you tone them down to, say, 1/2 their original effect, increaing the maximum essentia pool by 250% balanced them out, and makes the utility powers more fun.

In my ideal Incarnum system, a 6th level Incarnate with Airstep Sandals should be leaping over huge gaps, switching to Lightning Gauntlets mid-jump, tossing some Lucky Dice (in and out of game), and blasting his opponents with a ranged Necrocarnum Touch for 4d8 damage. Now THAT is awesome. THAT is the stuff that tabletop legends are made of. THAT is how you create a fun and creative gaming experience.

I don't feel like any of the incarnum classes should be at Wizard strength for attack damage. I usually design classes and characters that don't have casting to be able to deal about as much damage as an Eldritch Blast. That keeps them usefu, but not overpowering. With an essentia cap of 1/2 ML, rounded up, the Incarnate should lag behind to that degree as well.

For power, I'm really treating the Incarnate like a Warlock. They're utility pseudo-magical characters, who customize themselves from a list of abilities, and they slowly gain access to stronger upgrades for their abilities. They can take a hit, and fight okay, but they excel in their versatility and, more importantly, on the fact that their powers never run out.

For the Necrocarnate, I had an interesting idea. Basically, let Meldshapers select which order they want their Chakra Bind slots in. Rather than getting 2 or even 3 at a time, give them a slow but steady progression. As I said, they gain one least (crown, hands, or feet) at level 1, 2, and 4, they gain one lesser (arms, brow, or shoulders) at level 6, 8, and 10, and they gain one greater (throat, heart, or waist) at level 12, 14, and 16. They get Soul chakra binds at 18th level, leaving space for an awesome capstone.

I never liked that Necrocarnate was a prestige class, and a 13 level one at that. Why even make a prestige class that long? You're only 7 levels away from making it a full class, and a parallel idea has been done for arcane magic (the Dread Necromancer from 3.5 Heroes of Horror). THis version of the Necrocarnate keeps the abilities at a moderate pace, while balancing the Harvest of Souls class feature.

Sure, at 1st level Necrocarnate (PrC), you could only get 1 point of essentia from the target, but if you decide to wipe out the village you're in before the dungeon crawl... you'd be surprised how many level 1 and 2 commoners there are in a hamlet. At that point, the class feature was cool, but a DM nightmare.

Now, it keeps the feature balanced, creating a maximum amount of "Necrocarnum" you can have at a given time, putting you on par with the Incarnate. In return, you start at 0 at the beginning of the day, meaning it takes you a couple rounds of soul-sucking action to fill up. That feels AWESOME from a player and a DM perspective. The player likes it because it's a fairly strong power that makes them stronger, and the DM likes it because it means that there'll be at least one member of the party just itching for a fight, thus speeding up all that pre-dungeon planning.

So, comparing your Incarnate and my Necrocarnate, the Incarnate is more party-friendly, has more beneficial class features, and is really good at using a variety of Soulmelds. The Necrocarnate is better at soloing, with Necrocarnum Zombies, an infinite use melee touch attack, and many defensive Necrocarnum Soulmelds. The Necrocarnate is also a little more lax in the alignment department, so as long as you're not good, you can embody a number of philosophies, including true neutrality.

I'd say that the two classes are about the same strength, but personally, I would give the Incarnate some bonus feats every one in a while, essentia-only, and I'd give the Necrocarnate medium attack bonus and d8 hit dice. Necrocarnates might fall more into the role of evil cleric in the Incarnum universe... it's at least something to think about.

Thanks for reading, I can't wait to hear more comments!

Chronologist · Nov 24, 2010

Oops, double post. Sorry!

paradox42 · Nov 25, 2010

Chronologist said:
My only concern is the Incarnum Radiance ability, for some reason it kinda feels weird. The new abilities give a lot of versatility, but they only actually start being really fun at later levels. Maybe the duration could go up, or the bonuses could be spread out more? What if the alternate abilities had more of a smooth, linear progression once you got them?

Point of order; you also voiced a desire to see higher essentia caps and a few other things, so it's not your only concern.

As for being "fun," this is a subjective thing, and honestly difficult to evaluate before trying them out. I can say from my own playtest experience that, although the mobility boost (from Aura of Action) doesn't look like much, it's been very helpful to the party more than once, and my character consistently being the fastest party member has been quite fun on more than one occasion. A few sessions ago, he actually got a base ground speed (and he's Azurin/Human, mind you) of 95 feet per move action, without even being a Monk. This was as a newly-minted 9th-level character who hadn't even been given time to redo his soulmelds yet. Now it's true he had a Haste from the party Wizard, as did all the other party members, but even so- he chased down an enemy that had fled combat three rounds prior (and therefore had a 3-round head start), and did it in one measly round. That was cool. Small effects can add up quickly if carefully stacked.

But on the subject of Incarnum Radiance effects, did you have further suggestions? We based the duration on the Barbarian Rage and Bardic Performance, since it's substantially the same sort of ability; many of those effects don't scale linearly but rather in steps, too.

Also, on the subject of duration, since we did pattern the Radiance ability on Barbarian Rage and Bardic Performance, we're assuming the existence of a feat called Extra Radiance which would grant extra rounds per day- just like those two abilities get. My playtest guy hasn't gotten said feat yet, but that's largely because he's had so many other things to spend feats on (for example, Split Chakra (Shoulders) at 9th so he could continue to use his Cloak of Resistance without affecting his ability to use soulmelds like Mantle of Flame).

Chronologist said:
I never found Soulmelds very powerful to begin with, mostly because their primary function is utility and skill bonuses which are easily replicated by spells and magical items. Come on, an Incarnate investing 4 essentia at 12th level to get a +10 bonus to Acrobatics checks from a soulmeld could honestly be done better by a level 1 Arcane spell... that just feels kind of sad.

This is a mistake made by many, many people, and it's another unfortunate thing with the presentation of Incarnum. I had the same dismissive reaction upon first reading the book, but I later saw an analysis on the Wizards boards that broke it all down by number and level- and quickly changed my tune.

But to save you reading the entire thread to get an answer to your argument, consider the following counterpoints: first, your 12th-level Incarnate isn't necessarily using that soulmeld on a skill he has no ranks in; if he has the maximum 12 ranks (under PF) and it's a class skill, that's +15 before we even add his ability bonus- let alone the soulmeld. Assume a class skill, and conservative ability bonus of +2, and maxed-out ranks, and that 4 essentia investment gets him a bonus of +27. At 12th level. That's not bad at all.

But we can do even better: because, perhaps most crucially, the soulmelds all give strange bonus types like competence or insight which magic and items rarely if ever use. +10 is a relatively small bonus, yes, but when you consider that it almost certainly stacks with the bonus his magic items or the buffs cast by other party members are giving him, it starts to look better. Consider also that, unlike spells and many of the skill-boosting magic items (which tend to be expendable, like Elixirs of Vision or Feather Tokens), the soulmelds last as long as the meldshaper wants them to. They are, in other words, like the Warlock rather than the Wizard.

Chronologist said:
Sure, some of the soulmelds would get pretty ridiculous (like Spellward Shirt), and some of the feats could get pretty nasty too, but if you tone them down to, say, 1/2 their original effect, increaing the maximum essentia pool by 250% balanced them out, and makes the utility powers more fun.

Again, fun is subjective- but with Incarnum the effects of the rules really are quite subtle. One has to read soulmelds not in a vacuum, but figure out how to stack them with other things to make a whole- that's where the true power lies.

Chronologist said:
In my ideal Incarnum system, a 6th level Incarnate with Airstep Sandals should be leaping over huge gaps,

Don't need Airstep. Acrobat Boots will do just fine. My playtest character had a long combat, early in his 7th level, wherein he used Acrobat Boots to great effect chasing a flying enemy by leaping from rooftop to rooftop in the town the combat was taking place within. Gaps of 30 feet were literally no issue for him, because he had maxed-out ranks in Acrobatics, and maxed-out his essentia investment in the Boots, as well as the bonus to Jump granted by high movement speed (Incarnum Radiance for the win). After my first roll clearing a gap, the GM didn't even have me roll any more during the chase.

Chronologist said:
switching to Lightning Gauntlets mid-jump, tossing some Lucky Dice (in and out of game), and blasting his opponents with a ranged Necrocarnum Touch for 4d8 damage. Now THAT is awesome. THAT is the stuff that tabletop legends are made of. THAT is how you create a fun and creative gaming experience.

Switch what to Lightning Gauntlets? Why not have both shaped at the same time, since they're completely different chakras? And what use are the Lucky Dice in this scenario (did you notice that their bonus doesn't scale, but essentia investment only alters the duration of the bonus they grant)?

Legends are a matter of perspective, is what I'm getting at. Numbers only tell part of the story, particularly when the numbers (as in Incarnum) are designed to stack with other numbers.

Chronologist said:
For power, I'm really treating the Incarnate like a Warlock. They're utility pseudo-magical characters, who customize themselves from a list of abilities, and they slowly gain access to stronger upgrades for their abilities. They can take a hit, and fight okay, but they excel in their versatility and, more importantly, on the fact that their powers never run out.

Perfectly fair. Especially since, for most of their soulmelds, if you assume a maximum essentia investment using the existing essentia cap of about 1/6 level, it works out to look very much like the Warlock. Incarnate's a little behind at the highest levels, but Incarnate's really not designed to look like a blaster or Arcane caster anyway- he's really a lot more like a Cleric. And Clerics are not known for being blasters, in a typical game.

Chronologist said:
For the Necrocarnate, I had an interesting idea. Basically, let Meldshapers select which order they want their Chakra Bind slots in. Rather than getting 2 or even 3 at a time, give them a slow but steady progression. As I said, they gain one least (crown, hands, or feet) at level 1, 2, and 4, they gain one lesser (arms, brow, or shoulders) at level 6, 8, and 10, and they gain one greater (throat, heart, or waist) at level 12, 14, and 16. They get Soul chakra binds at 18th level, leaving space for an awesome capstone.

Yes, I noticed. It's a good idea at least to try out, though IMO the Heart Chakra shouldn't be lumped in with the other two. If you read the soulmelds carefully, it's clear rather quickly that the Heart abilities tend to be better/more powerful than any Throat or Waist abilities. This means that if you give them the ability to select between the three, the player is essentially an idiot if he doesn't take Heart before either of the others. That's bad design on principle; a "must-take" option is usually a signal of something that's too good and needs to be toned down somehow. That's why the Heart is given several levels later than Waist and Throat in those classes that get it.

I have other comments on the Necrocarnate, but feel they should be separated out into their own post for clarity. That'll come later, since I'm running out of time here now. The above comment wasn't really about the Necrocarnate, since the idea of flexible Chakra opening is worth exploring in general.

Chronologist · Nov 27, 2010

I think the Radiance ability is fine as-is, it's just not something I would play.

When it comes to skill bonuses, Incarnates get the lowest number of skill points per level, and very few class skills. I feel like the skill bonuses are like what the Binder gets from Vestiges: they're supposed to temporarily fill the vacuum left by not having any ranks in that skill, so you can (for example) stealth like a Rogue or jump like a Monk that day. I don't feel like they're supposed to stack onto existing skill ranks, and I personally would only ever play an Incarnate with ranks in Knowledge and Use Magic Device (and other skills that cannot be performed untrained).

When it comes to damage, the Incarnate's far behind the Warlock. Warlocks do 9d6 at range at highest level (probably will be doing at least 10d6 when Paizo makes a Warlock base class), while an Incarnate will be doing 6d6 damage, 6d8 if using the ranged Necrocarnum meld bind. I admit, if the Incarnate lost the Expanded Essentia Capacity ability, but had essentia maximum at 1/2 level (rounded up), then they'd be exactly at par with Warlock. The other option (as I see it) is for the cap to be reduced to 1/3 level, rounded up, but you keep the Expanded Essentia Capacity abiilty. Then, you'd be behind the Warlock all the time, but not so much that you can't compete.

I'd agree that Incarnates are like Clerics when it comes to their damage output, but they have low attack bonus and d6 hit dice, not to mention a lot less armor and weapon proficiencies. That makes melee support a lot harder for them. To me, Totemists are the melee support incarnum users, while Incarnates should be better at utility and blasting.

In retrospect, the Heart chakra is a lot stronger, so it could be assigned to 16th level with no problems. I just really dislike how Incarnum users seem to get the biggest power boosts at a couple of levels. Letting characters choose their order of chakra openings keeps it more linear and, in my mind, makes Incarnates feel more customizable, despite the fact that they'll all get about the same class features by level 20.

I look forward to your comments on the Necrocarnate, and yes, I understand that you could just play an Evil incarnate and get the same thing... but it's more of a variant class than a full class anyway.

Thanks for the response!

paradox42 · Nov 29, 2010

Chronologist said:
I never liked that Necrocarnate was a prestige class, and a 13 level one at that. Why even make a prestige class that long? You're only 7 levels away from making it a full class, and a parallel idea has been done for arcane magic (the Dread Necromancer from 3.5 Heroes of Horror). THis version of the Necrocarnate keeps the abilities at a moderate pace, while balancing the Harvest of Souls class feature.

You don't actually have Harvest of Souls listed on the class table; you have "Trap the Soul" and it (along with "Twin Zombie Master") is not explained among the class features below.

Chronologist said:
Sure, at 1st level Necrocarnate (PrC), you could only get 1 point of essentia from the target, but if you decide to wipe out the village you're in before the dungeon crawl... you'd be surprised how many level 1 and 2 commoners there are in a hamlet. At that point, the class feature was cool, but a DM nightmare.

Yes, that was pointed out as an "infinite engine" build possibility ages ago on the Wizards optimization boards, actually. I'd make a link to the thread, but it doesn't apply at all to your version so it's rather pointless. The original Necrocarnate had not limit to the amount of essentia that could be drained- that's the problem in essence. Your version corrects that.

And actually, the idea that a base-class Necrocarnate has no essentia of its own is a very interesting one; on the surface I like it. However, there are two problems which arise, of which you addressed one in your class feature description and left the other unaddressed: one, what happens when the character gains essentia from other sources (such as Incarnum feats), which you answered; two, what happens if the character gains levels in other meldshaping classes which grant essentia? For instance, what if the character becomes a Necrocarnate 1/Incarnate (Evil) 1? Can the essentia from Incarnate be spent on Necrocarnate soulmelds, and can the "Necro-essentia" drained using Necrocarnate be used to power Incarnate melds? If not, why not? If so, why, and how does it work? Do the essentia form a single pool?

Chronologist said:
Now, it keeps the feature balanced, creating a maximum amount of "Necrocarnum" you can have at a given time, putting you on par with the Incarnate. In return, you start at 0 at the beginning of the day, meaning it takes you a couple rounds of soul-sucking action to fill up. That feels AWESOME from a player and a DM perspective. The player likes it because it's a fairly strong power that makes them stronger, and the DM likes it because it means that there'll be at least one member of the party just itching for a fight, thus speeding up all that pre-dungeon planning.

Not all adventures depend that much upon combat, you know. What if the Necrocarnate is just trying to power a Silvertongue Mask for a day of shopping in the city, for example? My Incarnate test character has done that several times, during the campaign he's in; wouldn't a Necrocarnate cause problems for the party by needing to kill stuff and drain its life every time he wants to go shopping?

Chronologist said:
So, comparing your Incarnate and my Necrocarnate, the Incarnate is more party-friendly, has more beneficial class features, and is really good at using a variety of Soulmelds. The Necrocarnate is better at soloing, with Necrocarnum Zombies, an infinite use melee touch attack, and many defensive Necrocarnum Soulmelds. The Necrocarnate is also a little more lax in the alignment department, so as long as you're not good, you can embody a number of philosophies, including true neutrality.

The combination of Incarnate with Warlock is a good way to go, I think, for a Necrocarnate base class. I certainly agree with that idea. Plus, the fact that it's a touch attack makes it more difficult to use than the Eldritch Blast. Perhaps the Necrocarnate base class needs a soulmeld that can grant a ranged attack to suck essentia: and this gets to my primary criticism of the class. Namely, as a base class, it should have its own soulmeld list, which is separate (though can certainly take various soulmelds from) the other meldshaper base classes. Shouldn't there be soulmelds which are Necrocarnate-only, if it is a real base class? Not all of them need even be Necrocarnum melds, in fact; some could be regular soulmelds that just happen to be unique to the Necrocarnate (and allow other meldshapers to get them via the Shape Soulmeld feat and without taking Necrocarnum Acolyte first).

But actually, that reminds me of another criticism I had. This is the Necrocarnate, for entropy's sake; why doesn't it get Necrocarnum Acolyte as a bonus feat at 1st level, instead of 3rd? SHouldn't it have the ability to shape Necrocarnum soulmelds from the start? And if not, why then should Evil Necrocarnates be allowed to get in on the fun early? By the RAW, Evil Necrocarnates would be able to shape Necrocarnum right from the start, and would find the Acolyte bonus feat a useless class feature. This sort of ties in to my criticism above, about the soulmeld list: perhaps it would be better to not mention alignment at all, in the Necrocarnate's meldshaping, and just make sure that the only soulmelds with alignment descriptors which show up on their class list have the [Evil] descriptor? Personally, I'm okay with forcing a Necrocarnate to pay a feat tax in order to use, say, Armguards of Disruption. Or maybe it just gets written in that a Necrocarnate can't use any soulmelds with the [Good] descriptor, no ifs ands or buts- but it doesn't care about other alignments.

Chronologist said:
When it comes to skill bonuses, Incarnates get the lowest number of skill points per level, and very few class skills. I feel like the skill bonuses are like what the Binder gets from Vestiges: they're supposed to temporarily fill the vacuum left by not having any ranks in that skill, so you can (for example) stealth like a Rogue or jump like a Monk that day. I don't feel like they're supposed to stack onto existing skill ranks, and I personally would only ever play an Incarnate with ranks in Knowledge and Use Magic Device (and other skills that cannot be performed untrained).

That's fine for you, but those who play characters who do branch out will find that soulmelds offer them plenty of power in the meantime. Plus, your idea above fails to take multiclassing into account. Why should an Incarnate/Rogue not be taken into account in class balance thinking?

Chronologist said:
When it comes to damage, the Incarnate's far behind the Warlock. Warlocks do 9d6 at range at highest level (probably will be doing at least 10d6 when Paizo makes a Warlock base class), while an Incarnate will be doing 6d6 damage, 6d8 if using the ranged Necrocarnum meld bind. I admit, if the Incarnate lost the Expanded Essentia Capacity ability, but had essentia maximum at 1/2 level (rounded up), then they'd be exactly at par with Warlock. The other option (as I see it) is for the cap to be reduced to 1/3 level, rounded up, but you keep the Expanded Essentia Capacity abiilty. Then, you'd be behind the Warlock all the time, but not so much that you can't compete.

You're failing to take into account two very important things there: (1), the fact that Incarnates aren't limited to the base essentia cap, because they have Expanded Essentia Capacity for all soulmelds starting at level 3; (2), Dissolving Spittle (which is the closest comparison one can make between Incarnate and Warlock) allows the Incarnate a second damage roll once you Bind it to the Throat Chakra. That kicks up the damage considerably, even if it takes an extra round to get it. A 20th-level Incarnate, without even taking the Expanded Soulmeld Capacity feat, can deal 14d6 damage (spread into two rounds of 7d6 damage each) via Spittle. That's not bad at all, and actually even beats the Warlock for raw damage output (though the Warlock can get other advantages which outweigh that via specific Invocations). Frankly, Necrocarnum Touch doesn't even enter the picture for most builds that really want to focus on blasting.

Chronologist said:
I'd agree that Incarnates are like Clerics when it comes to their damage output, but they have low attack bonus and d6 hit dice, not to mention a lot less armor and weapon proficiencies. That makes melee support a lot harder for them. To me, Totemists are the melee support incarnum users, while Incarnates should be better at utility and blasting.

That's not how they're designed, though. That was my point; if your concept of the Incarnate differs from the Magic of Incarnum version, that's fine, but you'll need to do a radical redesign in that case. The Incarnate as laid out in the original rules is simply not a great blaster, and if you play one you have to accept that and move on. Utility is really the Incarnate's bread and butter.

Besides which, if you read that thread I linked to in my last post, you'll see that the Incarnate actually can keep up pretty decently even with a Fighter under 3.5 rules (though not necessarily under Pathfinder, they'd be pretty close) for melee combat, if properly built. It's all in the selection of soulmelds and feats, not to mention careful use of Incarnum Radiance.

Chronologist said:
I look forward to your comments on the Necrocarnate, and yes, I understand that you could just play an Evil incarnate and get the same thing... but it's more of a variant class than a full class anyway.

You couldn't, actually. An Evil Incarnate is still missing the class feature of the touch attack (even the Necrocarnum Touch soulmeld doesn't keep up), and the Essentia Drain which IMO is the key class feature of your base-class Necrocarnate. Pull some well-chosen soulmelds from other meldshaper base classes into your Necrocarnate, and perhaps make a few unique ones that no other meldshaping class gets (without the feat), and it should look pretty unique and cool. You've got a great base there, it just needs a little more to make it really stand out.

Chronologist · Nov 29, 2010

Okay, that's a lot of comments, thanks very much. I'll try to address all of them.

Sorry about missing Trap the Soul and Twin Zombie Master, actually, I've forgotten what Trap the Soul does (maybe makes it hard to resurrect characters the Necrocarnate killed?). Twin Zombie Master I think is the same as the Necrocarnate prestige class ability.

About Necrocarnates and Essentia from classes, I'd say... keep the two pools separate, make a distinction between Essentia and Necrosentia capacity (tentative name). Essentia and Necrosentia are like oil and water, with Soulmelds as the container. You can fill a Soulmeld with one or the other, but never both, they're just incompatible.

You make a good point, sometimes a Necrocarnate might want to "power up" outside of battle. How about these feats:

Drain Self
Prerequisites: Essentia Drain ability
Benefit: You can use your own lifeforce to temporarily gain Necrosentia. Doing so is a free action that costs you a number of hit points equal to the Necrosentia you gain. Essentia gained in this way fades in 1 round (but lasts long enough for a complex action, such as picking a lock or a diplomacy check). You cannot exceed your maximum limit of Necrosentia with this ability.

Drain Ally
PRerequisite: Drain Self, 3rd level
Benefit: You can drain an ally of his or her lifeforce to gain temporary Necrosentia. This is a standard action that requires you to touch the subject, and the subject must be willing to aid you in this way. The ally takes 1d3 damage per point of Necrosentia you gain. Essentia gained in this manner lasts for 1 minute. You cannot exceed your maximum Necrosentia limit with this ability.

Extended Drain
Prerequisite: Drain Self, 5rd level
Benefit: Whenever you drain yourself or an ally, multiply the duration of the Necrosentia by 10 (so, 1 minute for yourself, 10 minutes for an ally.

These feat allow for limited "powering up" outside of battle. Draining yourself would last long enough for a Diplomacy check, for example, while draining an ally would last long enough to get you through a fight, of from point A to point B.

I agree, the Necrocarnate should get unique Soulmelds from the Incarnate. They should probably have access to, say, one Necrocarnum soulmeld per chakra point (adding more where needed), and limited access to other soulmelds. I was thinking either having them know 1 per level of Necrocarnate (plus knowing all the Necrocarnum melds).

Yes, the Necrocarnate should have Necrocarnum Acolyte at 1st level. I forgot that you needed that feat to shape Necrocarnum melds. Sorry.

For multiclassing, I actually had a rather interesting idea.

Maximum Essentia capacity is 1/2 meldshaper level + 1/4 non-meldshaper levels (rounded up).

So, a level 5 Incarnate has a capacity of 3, a level 8 fighter has a capacity of 2, and an Incarnate 5 / Fighter 8 has a capacity of 5 (while an Incarnate 13 would have a capacity of 7, and a Fighter 13 would have a capacity of 4). This means that characters with Incarnum feats are still going to be capped at 5 essentia, while Incarnum classes have a cap of 10. I think this, plus maybe one or two other modifications, would work out pretty well. This also means that an Incarnate that takes levels in Rogue will have better stealthing skill over time, but her Soulmelds won't be extraordinarily beneficial. Plus, she'd have less sneak attack and rogue talents, a good trade-off but definitely a hard decision to make.

About things I "haven't taken into account"
1. I propose that all bonuses to Essentia Capacity are removed competely (and that the Soulborn use the non-meldshaper table for essentia cap). This makes it a lot easier to do the math, and the linear progression is more or less stable. The alternative is to make the max essentia cap 1 + 1/3 ML + 1/6 non-ML, round down. That makes the Incarnate max out at 9 after the two bumps, and non-meldshapers use the original tablw from the book.
2. By about the same the time you hit high enough levels to use Dissolving Spittle, Warlocks have Chain Eldritch Blast. I think the Chain Blast is better, personally. On the other hand, i also think that bind is too strong for an attack power, and I'd replace it with something more balanced (target is Sickened, maybe).

I guess our approaches differ, then. Personally, I feel that if you need to carefully select your feats and melds in advance in order to keep up with the Fighter of the group, that means that's not your role in combat. Incarnates are like Warlocks: Controller types with moderate Blasting ability, with Skill and Support abilities as the situation requires. They are not Tanks, Strikers, or Healers, and trying to play them as one is the wrong approach. Now, if you want to multiclass with Fighter and use that shiny new Incarnum Weapon and Spellward Shirt, then that's a different matter, but in my opinion (and it really is just my opinion here), Incarnates are not designed to be melee fighters, in the same way that Bards were not designed to be healers. Sure, they can do it in a pinch, but they'll never be as good as the dedicated class, and it'll likely cause them to "burn out" of HP, spells, etc. much faster.

Thanks for the complements, I'm just kinda throwing ideas out here and seeing what you like. I like the idea of using other classes' melds, though it'd have to be Evil ones, or variants thereof. On the other hand, despite Necrocarnum being, well, an abomination of nature, I was hoping to include some moral lee-way into the class, letting use Necrocarnum as long as they are non-good. I can totally see a LN Necrocarnate who binds the souls of lawbreakers and villains in order to enact vengeance. Not good by any stretch of the imagination, simply willing to use whatever dark arts are necessary to keep the peace. Not evil either, he has no desire for dominance or destruction, only the keeping of the laws of the realm.

Thanks for all your comments, I think a lot of your ideas are really good, and I look forward to more of them!

paradox42 · Nov 29, 2010

Chronologist said:
Sorry about missing Trap the Soul and Twin Zombie Master, actually, I've forgotten what Trap the Soul does (maybe makes it hard to resurrect characters the Necrocarnate killed?). Twin Zombie Master I think is the same as the Necrocarnate prestige class ability.

It may be worth making a new post about the Necrocarnate with the changes, but of course you can just edit the original if you prefer. Anyway, those two do need description just to be sure.

Chronologist said:
About Necrocarnates and Essentia from classes, I'd say... keep the two pools separate, make a distinction between Essentia and Necrosentia capacity (tentative name). Essentia and Necrosentia are like oil and water, with Soulmelds as the container. You can fill a Soulmeld with one or the other, but never both, they're just incompatible.

Makes the math nasty, it's worth noting in advance. Also, if you do it this way, should the "Necrosentia" only be available for melds that are on the Necrocarnate list, or which the Necrocarnate took Shape Soulmeld for (with a Necrocarnate level)?

Chronologist said:
You make a good point, sometimes a Necrocarnate might want to "power up" outside of battle. How about these feats:

The feats are good, though IMO the Necrocarnate's unique class melds should be pretty damn good to compensate for paying a feat tax to be able to power up outside of combat. Alternatively, the Necrocarnate list should consist of mostly combat-focused melds, with little utility, so the Necrocarnate would usually not need to bother powering up outside of combat. Perhaps the Necrocarnate has an expanded skill list compared with the Incarnate; Intimidate, for example, is an obvious addition.

Chronologist said:
I agree, the Necrocarnate should get unique Soulmelds from the Incarnate. They should probably have access to, say, one Necrocarnum soulmeld per chakra point (adding more where needed), and limited access to other soulmelds. I was thinking either having them know 1 per level of Necrocarnate (plus knowing all the Necrocarnum melds).

Interesting idea! No other meldshaper doesn't know all of its class soulmelds at 1st level. That would be another way in which the Necrocarnate is distinguished from the rest. Of course, this again begs the question of what its class soulmelds actually are, since in a situation like this they should definitely be more focused than the soulmelds of the other classes. Or, they should offer a few obvious "paths of knowledge" to explore with the limited access to soulmelds. That would make the Shape Soulmeld feat more valuable to Necrocarnates than to others, too.

Chronologist said:
Yes, the Necrocarnate should have Necrocarnum Acolyte at 1st level. I forgot that you needed that feat to shape Necrocarnum melds. Sorry.

You don't. Necrocarnum melds are all [Evil], however, which means that a non-Evil character needs the feat to be able to access them at all. That's what the feat's for. The question of why a Good-aligned version of Necrocarnum was never created, was pretty much answered (in the consensus analysis) by "Good characters have Vow of Poverty." Seriously, Vow of Poverty is a really, really obvious combination with Incarnum in 3.5. A PF GM would have to consider the feat carefully before allowing it, obviously.

Chronologist said:
For multiclassing, I actually had a rather interesting idea.

Maximum Essentia capacity is 1/2 meldshaper level + 1/4 non-meldshaper levels (rounded up).

So, a level 5 Incarnate has a capacity of 3, a level 8 fighter has a capacity of 2, and an Incarnate 5 / Fighter 8 has a capacity of 5 (while an Incarnate 13 would have a capacity of 7, and a Fighter 13 would have a capacity of 4). This means that characters with Incarnum feats are still going to be capped at 5 essentia, while Incarnum classes have a cap of 10. I think this, plus maybe one or two other modifications, would work out pretty well. This also means that an Incarnate that takes levels in Rogue will have better stealthing skill over time, but her Soulmelds won't be extraordinarily beneficial. Plus, she'd have less sneak attack and rogue talents, a good trade-off but definitely a hard decision to make.

If you're still looking to increase the essentia cap, that could work well- certainly it looks more like the 4E version of caster level (as I recall- I haven't actually opened my 4E books in a year or so).

Chronologist said:
1. I propose that all bonuses to Essentia Capacity are removed competely (and that the Soulborn use the non-meldshaper table for essentia cap). This makes it a lot easier to do the math, and the linear progression is more or less stable. The alternative is to make the max essentia cap 1 + 1/3 ML + 1/6 non-ML, round down. That makes the Incarnate max out at 9 after the two bumps, and non-meldshapers use the original tablw from the book.

Again, if you feel you really need to change the essentia caps, there's more work to do. I myself don't plan on changing them; rather my intent is to balance new melds and classes based on the original essentia cap table. But that's me. Other GMs can and will define the caps as they wish for their own settings.

Chronologist said:
2. By about the same the time you hit high enough levels to use Dissolving Spittle, Warlocks have Chain Eldritch Blast. I think the Chain Blast is better, personally. On the other hand, i also think that bind is too strong for an attack power, and I'd replace it with something more balanced (target is Sickened, maybe).

Spittle can be shaped and used at level 1. Incarnum is different from all other supernatural classes in that very critical respect: all soulmelds can be used even at level 1. The "level-based" powers are defined by chakra for that reason, in the game balance sense. That's what the chakras are for, really. Examine the list of Foundationist soulmelds closely and you'll see we were very careful about when various powers become accessible, by level. It's the only level-based control available for Incarnum, other than essentia capacity.

Chronologist said:
I guess our approaches differ, then. Personally, I feel that if you need to carefully select your feats and melds in advance in order to keep up with the Fighter of the group, that means that's not your role in combat. Incarnates are like Warlocks: Controller types with moderate Blasting ability, with Skill and Support abilities as the situation requires. They are not Tanks, Strikers, or Healers, and trying to play them as one is the wrong approach. Now, if you want to multiclass with Fighter and use that shiny new Incarnum Weapon and Spellward Shirt, then that's a different matter, but in my opinion (and it really is just my opinion here), Incarnates are not designed to be melee fighters, in the same way that Bards were not designed to be healers. Sure, they can do it in a pinch, but they'll never be as good as the dedicated class, and it'll likely cause them to "burn out" of HP, spells, etc. much faster.

Yes, our approaches differ- yours (based on the above) appears to try to pigeonhole the Incarnate into a 4E-type Role, and downplay or ignore the class's ability to be something else. But the original class, as designed, was actually one of the most versatile and protean classes available under 3.X, such that it could fulfill several Roles (though not Controller) depending on the actual build the player chose.

Chronologist said:
Thanks for the complements, I'm just kinda throwing ideas out here and seeing what you like. I like the idea of using other classes' melds, though it'd have to be Evil ones, or variants thereof. On the other hand, despite Necrocarnum being, well, an abomination of nature, I was hoping to include some moral lee-way into the class, letting use Necrocarnum as long as they are non-good. I can totally see a LN Necrocarnate who binds the souls of lawbreakers and villains in order to enact vengeance. Not good by any stretch of the imagination, simply willing to use whatever dark arts are necessary to keep the peace. Not evil either, he has no desire for dominance or destruction, only the keeping of the laws of the realm.

Certainly, a LN Necrocarnate could exist. Your description provides the perfect motivation for one. It's just that by the Magic of Incarnum rules, a LN Incarnate needs the Necrocarnum Acolyte feat to be able to use Necrocarnum soulmelds, since they're all [Evil]-aligned. The Necrocarnate base class really shouldn't have that restriction, IMO- they should have the equivalent of Acolyte at 1st level somehow (whether as a bonus feat or by rewriting the rules for how they interact with aligned soulmelds). Either way works, really.

The existing Necrocarnum soulmelds don't use all of the basic Chakras, not even counting the Totem Chakra since Totemists don't use Necrocarnum. They miss Feet, Brow, and Shoulders, but hit all the rest. It's just that two of the Necrocarnum melds can be shaped on (and bound to) two Chakras, you see. That fact partly confuses the issue. But this shouldn't stop one from coming up with new Necrocarnum melds, if one makes a Necrocarnate base class- if anything, quite the reverse is true! A Necrocarnate base class should be able to do things with Necrocarnum that no other class can do (without paying an appropriate feat tax at least). One just needs to be careful that the new melds accentuate the designated role of the Necrocarnate rather than any other meldshaper class.

So, if the Necrocarnate is supposed to be a blaster, or at any rate a secondary blaster, then it should have soulmelds to show that.

I would suggest the following for an initial stab at the Necrocarnate class soulmeld list:
(from Incarnate)
Adamant Pauldrons
Airstep Sandals
Apparition Ribbon
Arcane Focus
Bloodwar Gauntlets
Dissolving Spittle
Enigma Helm
Fellmist Robe
Illusion Veil
Impulse Boots
Keeneye Lenses
Lucky Dice
Mantle of Flame
Necrocarnum Circlet
Necrocarnum Mantle
Necrocarnum Shroud
Necrocarnum Touch
Necrocarnum Vestments
Necrocarnum Weapon
Pauldrons of Health
Silvertongue Mask
Soulspark Familiar
Spellward Shirt
Strongheart Vest
Theft Gloves
Truthseeker Goggles
Vitality Belt
Wind Cloak
(from Soulborn list)
Fearsome Mask
Gloves of the Poisoned Soul
Mauling Gauntlets
(from Totemist list)
Ankheg Breastplate
Bloodtalons
Dread Carapace
Frost Helm
Krenshar Mask
Kruthik Claws
Lamia Belt
Rageclaws
Shadow Mantle
Winter Mask
(from Foundationist list)
Feet of Clay
Ocher Shirt
Smoke Skirt
Steaming Veil
Voidmask

That's 46 total melds, if my counting is correct, which is a pretty good number for a meldshaping base class. To bring it up to par with the other three "full meldshaper" classes (i.e., not Soulborn but including Foundationist), somewhere between 5 and 10 new soulmelds should be added to the list. They could probably all be Necrocarnum melds, given how few there are to add, though if you disagree with some of my choices above the number might change of course. Each meld on the above list, if removed, should be replaced with another one (whether from an existing list or a new one). The existing full-meldshaper classes all have 50 or more soulmelds (if you include melds from sources other than Magic of Incarnum, I should remark in fairness- none of them actually even hits 50 if you use just MoI). Soulborn doesn't, but Soulborn is a half-meldshaper class so doesn't really count (compare the Paladin spell list to Cleric for a good example of why).

paradox42 · Nov 29, 2010

As an addendum to the above suggested list of soulmelds for the Necrocarnate, it's worth listing how many melds on the list are linked to each of the ten basic Chakras: this will give some guidance as to which ones (if any) to remove from the list, as well as holes which should be filled by new melds created specifically for the new class. I did this with the Foundationist during design, and it proved very helpful- I was careful to make sure that every single element specialty had exactly the same number of soulmelds bindable to each chakra (that's part of the reason why so many Foundationist soulmelds can be bound to more than one chakra, it's worth noting).

Crown: 4 (Enigma Helm, Frost Helm, Necrocarnum Circlet, Soulspark Familiar)
Feet: 4 (Airstep Sandals, Dread Carapace, Feet of Clay, Impulse Boots)
Hands: 9 (Bloodwar Gauntlets, Bloodtalons, Gloves of the Poisoned Soul, Kruthik Claws, Lucky Dice, Mauling Gauntlets, Necrocarnum Weapon, Rageclaws, Theft Gloves)
Arms: 5 (Bloodwar Gauntlets, Dread Carapace, Mauling Gauntlets, Necrocarnum Touch, Ocher Shirt)
Brow: 9 (Fearsome Mask, Illusion Veil, Keeneye Lenses, Krenshar Mask, Silvertongue Mask, Soulspark Familiar, Steaming Veil, Truthseeker Goggles, Voidmask)
Shoulders: 6 (Adamant Pauldrons, Kruthik Claws, Mantle of Flame, Pauldrons of Health, Shadow Mantle, Wind Cloak)
Throat: 10 (Ankheg Breastplate, Apparition Ribbon, Arcane Focus, Dissolving Spittle, Necrocarnum Mantle, Silvertongue Mask, Soulspark Familiar, Steaming Veil, Voidmask, Winter Mask)
Waist: 8 (Feet of Clay, Lamia Belt, Necrocarnum Shroud, Necrocarnum Vestments, Ocher Shirt, Smoke Skirt, Strongheart Vest, Vitality Belt)
Heart: 5 (Dread Carapace, Necrocarnum Vestments, Smoke Skirt, Spellward Shirt, Strongheart Vest)
Soul: 3 (Fellmist Robe, Keeneye Lenses, Necrocarnum Shroud)

Looking over the list, it's obvious that more Crown and Feet are needed, so Necrocarnum Boots are an obvious place to start (if one can think of something for them to do). Necrocarnum melds don't hit Brow or Shoulders, but there are plenty of melds for both of those chakras already, so probably not necessary to invent some here (unless you want to get rid of some melds on the existing list of course). It'd also be nice to have a couple more Arms, and maybe another Heart. If you want to get rid of melds from my suggested list, the ones in the Throat and Brow lists are highly recommended since those lists are long.

Chronologist · Nov 29, 2010

Wow, thanks for the quick reply. I'll try and respond as best I can.

I'm pretty new at Enworld, I don't use it often, so I'm not good at editing posts. Maybe when we have a clearer idea of what we're doing?

Most of the stuff with Necrosentia is just for flavor, you could keep the pools together without a big fuss.

Necrocarnates feel like Intimidate would be a good skill, but with their natural touch attack, they're already pretty impressive. Maybe if the touch attack had some sort of additional benefits over time (like the Antipaladin's abilities from the APG) that would be cool. I definitely like the idea of draining Essentia from a person and Fatiguing them as well.

I feel like the Necrocarnate should have a more limited, yet broader list. 3+ more Necrocarnum melds would be nice, but I'm contemplating a second set of melds, called Midnight Soulmelds. They'd have a theme of illusion and darkness, as well as covering some things like becoming incorporeal temporarily, or other strange supernatural powers. Besides those two sets, I think that limiting the Necrocarnate to about 20 others from assorted lists would be appropriate (10 Incarnate, 5 Soulborn, 5 Totemist).

About the 4E roles, I was doing that WAY before 4E showed up. Maybe my view of Incarnates is different from yours, but I see Incarnates as Utility/Controller, Soulborn as Melee/Protect, and Totemist as Striker/Debuff (with all their crazy Totem powers). Necrocarnate is more of a Blaster/Debuff (with Immunity elements) class, if that makes any sense at all.

Okay, you can keep the Essentia cap where it is now, in my games I'm increasing it but decreasing the benefits of certain soulmelds (like Spellward Shirt). We'll focus on class features.

Here's an idea for the boots, dunno if a similar meld exists:

Necrocarnum Boots
Chakra Slot: Feet
Binds: Feet, Legs
These black boots appear translucent and hover over your own footwear. While you wear them, your footsteps quiet and your movements become more smooth. You gain a +2 bonus to Stealth checks, and whenever you take a move action, the first square of movement does not provoke an attack of opportunity (as though you had taken the Retreat action).
Essentia: For every point of essentia invested, the bonus to Stealth checks improves by 2.
Chakra Bind (Feet): The boots harden over your feet, gaining deadly spikes. You gain a natural Kick attack, dealing 1d6 damage (1d4 for small, 1d8 for large). FOr every point essentia invested in this soulmeld, you gain a +1 to attack and damage rolls with this kick. If you have unarmed strike damage greater than this die of damage (for example, from Monk levels), you may use that instead, with a +1 die step bonus to damage.
Chakra Bind (Legs): The boots go up to your thighs, allowing you to move with uncanny grace. You do not provoke attacks of opportunity for moving through an enemy's threatened square.

Here's an example of a Midnight soulmeld

Midnight Cloak
Chakra: Shoulders
Chakra Binds: Crown, Shoulders
This dark blue cloak makes it easier to conceal your actions, as well as your motives. You gain a +2 bonus to Sleight of Hand and Bluff, +2 per point of essentia invested in this soulmeld.
Crown Bind: People find it hard to get a reading of you. You are under the effect of an Undetectable Alignment spell at all times, though you can drop the effect for 1 round as a free action. The caster level for this effect is your Meldshaper level. Each point of essentia invested in this Soulmeld increases the effective spell elvel of this effect by 2.
Shoulder Bind: You can go places other cannot. You can become invisible as a full-round action, which lasts for 1 minute per point of essentia invested in this ability. Once used, this ability cannot be used again for 1 minute.

I don't know how strong the Midnight Cloak is, but I like the flavor that each Midnight Meld is less about raw Necrotic power and more about subtlety and influence, something any Evil character would need. Besides, dark blue is a color not often used in melds, so I figure it would be cool to have a theme of that.

paradox42 · Nov 30, 2010

Chronologist said:
I'm pretty new at Enworld, I don't use it often, so I'm not good at editing posts. Maybe when we have a clearer idea of what we're doing?

No big deal. Any post made by you, you can just click "Edit" at the bottom of it and it opens up the editing window exactly like the one you typed the post into in the first place. And then you edit.

Chronologist said:
Most of the stuff with Necrosentia is just for flavor, you could keep the pools together without a big fuss.

The devil is in the details, with class design. Always with the details. The questions I asked above need to be answered either way.

Chronologist said:
Necrocarnates feel like Intimidate would be a good skill, but with their natural touch attack, they're already pretty impressive. Maybe if the touch attack had some sort of additional benefits over time (like the Antipaladin's abilities from the APG) that would be cool. I definitely like the idea of draining Essentia from a person and Fatiguing them as well.

...Not following your logic there. Why not give them Intimidate? How is it a powerful enough boost to add that one skill that they shouldn't get it? And what does that have to do with giving the touch attack additional benefits?

As for such benefits, it could be used to base other class features off of, certainly; in fact that's what I'd thought Trap the Soul would be- something like "any creature killed by your Necro Touch cannot be raised or resurrected without first using a Limited Wish (at first). At X level, a full Wish or Miracle must be used before the victim can be raised." That sort of boilerplate.

See how the Cleric gets stuff based off of Channel for a likely starting point. In fact, that brings up another possibility: maybe the extras don't come as class features, but instead as feats. Like Turn Undead.

Chronologist said:
I feel like the Necrocarnate should have a more limited, yet broader list. 3+ more Necrocarnum melds would be nice, but I'm contemplating a second set of melds, called Midnight Soulmelds. They'd have a theme of illusion and darkness, as well as covering some things like becoming incorporeal temporarily, or other strange supernatural powers. Besides those two sets, I think that limiting the Necrocarnate to about 20 others from assorted lists would be appropriate (10 Incarnate, 5 Soulborn, 5 Totemist).

If you check the soulmelds I listed above, you'll see that that's exactly the sort of themes I gave them, in most cases. I also added a few utility melds like Keeneye Lenses that would be useful against Undead, figuring that some Necrocarnates might actually specialize in hunting Undead rather than making them- but that's certainly not set in stone. Taking out those utility melds would certainly shorten the list a bit. And of course, there is a fourth base class to choose melds from, which had a lot of new ones- the Foundationist.

There is, of course, valid argument for not using many of the ones I listed due to the fact that although they have powers that fit the Necrocarnate, they also have powers that really don't- in this case it might be wise to keep the list of soulmelds taken out of the list for this reason so they can be used as guides to create new ones. Honestly, I don't see much reason to make a specific set of new soulmelds with special rules (as the Necrocarnum melds have); you could certainly create a bunch of new ones that happen to have the word "Midnight" as part of their names, but making special new rules for them is very probably overkill.

Chronologist said:
About the 4E roles, I was doing that WAY before 4E showed up. Maybe my view of Incarnates is different from yours, but I see Incarnates as Utility/Controller, Soulborn as Melee/Protect, and Totemist as Striker/Debuff (with all their crazy Totem powers). Necrocarnate is more of a Blaster/Debuff (with Immunity elements) class, if that makes any sense at all.

I disagree on the Controller aspect of Incarnate; otherwise we appear to agree although you have to admit that Totemist has a strong secondary role as a Blaster since so many of their melds cause energy damage. Casters have few powers outside of their actual spells; meldshapers (at any rate, the "full" meldshapers) similarly have few powers beyond their soulmeld selection.

If Necrocarnate is to be a Blaster, it will likely need to make many new melds or at least borrow several from the existing classes that fit the role- namely Totemist and Foundationist. I tried to do this in my selection, sticking deliberately to Acid and Cold damage mostly (though I added Mantle of Flame purely for its fluff; the idea of a Necrocarnate shaping a soulmeld crafted from souls which literally burn for revenge just fits the class perfectly IMHO).

Chronologist said:
Here's an idea for the boots, dunno if a similar meld exists:

Necrocarnum Boots
Chakra Slot: Feet
Binds: Feet, Legs
These black boots appear translucent and hover over your own footwear. While you wear them, your footsteps quiet and your movements become more smooth. You gain a +2 bonus to Stealth checks, and whenever you take a move action, the first square of movement does not provoke an attack of opportunity (as though you had taken the Retreat action).
Essentia: For every point of essentia invested, the bonus to Stealth checks improves by 2.
Chakra Bind (Feet): The boots harden over your feet, gaining deadly spikes. You gain a natural Kick attack, dealing 1d6 damage (1d4 for small, 1d8 for large). FOr every point essentia invested in this soulmeld, you gain a +1 to attack and damage rolls with this kick. If you have unarmed strike damage greater than this die of damage (for example, from Monk levels), you may use that instead, with a +1 die step bonus to damage.
Chakra Bind (Legs): The boots go up to your thighs, allowing you to move with uncanny grace. You do not provoke attacks of opportunity for moving through an enemy's threatened square.

...Do you actually have Magic of Incarnum?

There's no such thing as a Legs Chakra. Also, soulmelds by design don't fit over existing magic items unless you take the Split Chakra feat, so confusing the issue by describing the soulmeld as "fitting over existing footwear" is not a good idea IMO.

That said, I like the base power; the ability to move a step without provoking AOOs is unique and cool, fitting the stealth theme very well. Granting a kick attack is not what I would have chosen for the Feet, since it goes against the stealth idea; instead I'd probably extend that power to move through spaces without provoking (for example, you get an extra such space per point of essentia). Perhaps instead of Legs, tie that immunity power to the Waist, and that could work well for a second Chakra here. In that case Feet should of course be different, though I'm still not really liking the Kick attack much- it just feels off-theme for the class somehow (to me at least).

Also, The skill bonus should be +(4+2E), since it only affects one skill; most melds that affect fewer skills grant the larger bonus.

Chronologist said:
Here's an example of a Midnight soulmeld

Midnight Cloak
Chakra: Shoulders
Chakra Binds: Crown, Shoulders
This dark blue cloak makes it easier to conceal your actions, as well as your motives. You gain a +2 bonus to Sleight of Hand and Bluff, +2 per point of essentia invested in this soulmeld.
Crown Bind: People find it hard to get a reading of you. You are under the effect of an Undetectable Alignment spell at all times, though you can drop the effect for 1 round as a free action. The caster level for this effect is your Meldshaper level. Each point of essentia invested in this Soulmeld increases the effective spell elvel of this effect by 2.
Shoulder Bind: You can go places other cannot. You can become invisible as a full-round action, which lasts for 1 minute per point of essentia invested in this ability. Once used, this ability cannot be used again for 1 minute.

That Shoulders bind power is too strong. No other Incarnum power comes close to that, especially since it lets you effectively stay permanently invisible as long as you wait out the minute. Admittedly, if you attack right away, you have to wait 9 rounds before you can do it again, but still there should be some other limit on it. I'd suggest that one get some clause in it about the meld unshaping after the power is used for a long enough time period- say, after (ML) minutes or something.

Chronologist said:
I don't know how strong the Midnight Cloak is, but I like the flavor that each Midnight Meld is less about raw Necrotic power and more about subtlety and influence, something any Evil character would need. Besides, dark blue is a color not often used in melds, so I figure it would be cool to have a theme of that.

See above. Keep in mind that by your own alignment restrictions before, a Necrocarnate will not necessarily be Evil; however, I certainly agree that the general theme of subtlety fits the Necrocarnate quite well (in the sense of stealth, darkness, invisibility, and illusion). So it's a good addition if that Shoulders power is fixed.