D&D 3E/3.5 3e MoI: Psycarnum Crystal feat - what's the point?

[Jhaelen]

I've finally started reading Magic of Incarnum for the first time and stumbled over this feat that appears to be amazingly useless:

Psycarnum Crystal: As long as your psicrystal is within arm's reach, you gain 1 bonus point of essentia.

The thing is, _every_ other Incarnum feat grants one point of essentia in addition to allowing you to do something useful. So what's the point of this feat? What am I missing?

There's also a feat 'Divine Soultouch' which allows you to expend a Turn attempt to gain 1 point of essentia and increasing your essentia capacity for all soulmelds, incarnum feats, etc. by 1 for one round.

Since essentia can only be invested in incarnum feats once per day, it doesn't appear that this feat can be used to do anything to incarnum feats. Is that correct?

TBH, I find the whole system to be a bit confusing and underwhelming.

Has anyone actually (successfully) played an Incarnum class?

 

[Dandu]

TBH, I find the whole system to be a bit confusing and underwhelming.

Has anyone actually (successfully) played an Incarnum class?

They actually compare favorably power wise to most other classes. Solid tier 3 iirc.

 

[Starbuck_II]

I've finally started reading Magic of Incarnum for the first time and stumbled over this feat that appears to be amazingly useless:

The thing is, _every_ other Incarnum feat grants one point of essentia in addition to allowing you to do something useful. So what's the point of this feat? What am I missing?

Multiclassed character can get soulbinds and invest essentia.
Or you could take Shape soulmeld feat to invest it.

Feats aren't the only place to invest.

There's also a feat 'Divine Soultouch' which allows you to expend a Turn attempt to gain 1 point of essentia and increasing your essentia capacity for all soulmelds, incarnum feats, etc. by 1 for one round.

Since essentia can only be invested in incarnum feats once per day, it doesn't appear that this feat can be used to do anything to incarnum feats. Is that correct?

Correct, again multiclass or cast an incarnum spell.

TBH, I find the whole system to be a bit confusing and underwhelming.

Has anyone actually (successfully) played an Incarnum class?

Would you like an example?
The are simple once you understand the basics.
I usually take Shape soulmeld for 1/2 of my characters. I mean, they are likely free always on magic effects.
If you get essentia somehow you can invest it (unlike feats you can invest when you want).

An example, an 1st Totomist doesn't like the whole dying at -10 thing. So he picks that day Shapes Rage Claws and Totem Avatar. He takes feat midnight dodge for 1st level. But he put essentia in totem avatar and rage claws.
He now stops dying, and now dies at -13. He also has +1 enhancement to NA bonus and +1 hp.

Totem Avatar: grants +1 hp/meldshaper lv. Investing essentia is NA bonus/essentia.
Rage Claws: No longer dying at -1 to -9 (no fall unconscious/or lose hp). You act without penalty when dying/disabled. Invest essentia increases negative hp you can continue functioning (so 1 point increases max hp before dead at -13 from -10).

 

[Dandu]

The Incarnum Handbook

 

[Jhaelen]

Multiclassed character can get soulbinds and invest essentia.
Or you could take Shape soulmeld feat to invest it.

Well, okay. Since none of the Incarnum classes initially appealed to me, I thought, the feats might be the easiest way to gain some benefit from the Incarnum stuff.

But why wouldn't I rather pick, e.g. Midnight Dodge instead? I'll gain a (somewhat) useful feat that can be improved by investing Essentia _and_ gain a point of Essentia.

Psycarnum Crystal doesn't have any additional effect. What would make sense, imho, would be if the feat also allowed the investment of Essentia to boost the bonus granted by the Psycrystal personality.

An example, [...]

Thanks for the example! I guess that's not too shabby at first level. I'll probably have to re-examine the Soulmelds, looking for interesting combos.

What put me off initially is that I haven't found a single thing that I couldn't get in some other way. Also, several soulmelds promise to be cool but just grant watered-down abilities, e.g. petrify for a single round, almost-but-not-quite tremorsense, etc.

The limited Essentia capacity basically caps any damaging abilities at 4d6 (or up to 6d6 for Incarnates) and DCs at 15 + Con (or Wis) bonus. And that's looking at level 18 characters!
That's worse than what Warlocks get.

The only plus side, I see so far, is the great flexibility. It reminds me of the ToM Binder class, except you get to mix & match the various Soulmelds rather than getting a pre-defined package of abilities.

I'm currently reading the prestige class section, so far only the Ironsoul Forgemaster caught my eye. Bad prereqs, but nice abilities.

@Dandu: Thanks for the linky, I'll have to check that out!

 

[Starbuck_II]

The limited Essentia capacity basically caps any damaging abilities at 4d6 (or up to 6d6 for Incarnates) and DCs at 15 + Con (or Wis) bonus. And that's looking at level 18 characters!
That's worse than what Warlocks get.

True, but the good thing is unlike Warlocks class gained soulmelds aren't chosen at level basis, but you get all of them you qualify for.
So if the next day, you want different ones or certain ones get weak: switch out.

Feat based on ones are more iffy, but there are PHB 2 retraining to pick better ones.

The only plus side, I see so far, is the great flexibility. It reminds me of the ToM Binder class, except you get to mix & match the various Soulmelds rather than getting a pre-defined package of abilities.

I'm currently reading the prestige class section, so far only the Ironsoul Forgemaster caught my eye. Bad prereqs, but nice abilities.

@Dandu: Thanks for the linky, I'll have to check that out!

Barbarian will love Totem Ragers.
Cobalt Rage is a great feat for Barbarians (if they have essentia) and the Prestige class provides it.
It makes up for what you lose by giving DR, extra rages, and soulmelds.
You do lose a bit of BAB, but the gains outwiegh losses.

Witchborn Binder gives at will (targeted) Dispel magic, Extra WBL, and isn't hard to qualify for. Granted, it loses its steam after 4th.

Spinemeld warriors are decent if you like Skarns.

Soulcasters are another multicaster class. Arcane + Soulmeld. Increases caster/DC with spells by investing essentia. It is full progression.

Sapphire Hierach: a Lawful Cleric/Soulmeld smiting class. You gain DR and fortification.

Necrocarnates: corpses = free essentia for 24 hrs. Basically a necromancer using incarnum instead of spellcasting.

Incandesdecnt Champion: While you don't get any soulmelds, you are a force of good that harms foes by being adjacent (8th lv).
Pretty good mele class if you don't want to mess with any soulmelds.

Ironsoul Forgemaster: yeah, dwarves get the good classes. Craft stuff + invest essentia (when you want unlike essentia feats) for bonuses.
Craft magic stuff as if had feats.

Incarnum blade: not very good like Soulborn class.

 

[Jhaelen]

Thanks for the overview!

I've now finished reading the book and some of the prestige classes are indeed nice. I don't care too much about the theurge-style ones, but the Totem Rager and Umbral Disciple look interesting.