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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pawsplay" data-source="post: 3121349" data-attributes="member: 15538">“Mind Blade (Su): As a move action, a soulknife can create a semisolid blade composed of psychic energy distilled from his own mind.”Notice that it does not say, "a soulknife can create a mind blade, a semisolid blade composed of psychic energy" yadda yadda. If you say, "The mindblade is shaped, and thus appears as a longsword when created," no logical contradiction occurs with any of the text. The mind blade immediately reverts to its previous form after the bladewind attack.How can you misread that?I'm reading, and I'm telling you, that's inconsistent with the FAQ.Non-FAQ version:1. You create a mindblade2. You shape it3. You do a bladewind4. The the mindblade reverts to its previous form5. The next round, you attack with your shaped mindbladeFAQ version1. You create a mindblade2. You shape it3. You perform a bladewind, ambiguously creating either identical versions of your current mindblade or identical shortswords4. The mindblade reverts to its "previous form." Whatever that means. Is it a shortsword? Is it a longsword? No one knows.Let's look at bladewind.Each fragment functions identically to the soulknife’s regular mind blade.What does that mean? Does that mean bladewind is always a shortsword? By the FAQ, that would appear so, since shortsword is its regular form. Whereas in the non-FAQ version, it presumably meant is non-fragmented form. It also raises the question, why does your mindblade always appear as a shortsword, yet if it is a longsword, it still becomes a shortsword momentarily for bladewind? That would seem like, if anything, a more difficult trick than simply summoning it in a particular form. That also means no Power Attack with bladewind. It also means no slashing damage with bladewind (shortswords are piercing). It's as if whoever wrote the FAQ read soulknife, and failed to notice that1. bladewind allows the mindblade to suddenly appear in a particular form2. psychic strike remains even when a mindblade isn't materialized3. enhancement choices remain4. the shape mind blade ability does not state any duration or condition that unshapes the blade5. bladewind as a shortsword doesn't work very well for a Str-based soulknife, since no PA, no two-handed damage6. under several conditions the soulknife can materialize or rematerialize his blade7. the Free Draw ability says materialize, in fact8. shape mind blade says he can "change the form" of his mindblade. It could have said he transforms the mindblade he is wielding, but it does not. He "changes the form of his mindblade," and now it has a new form. Any new mindblade has the new form.In short, the FAQ answer seems inconsistent with the description of a soulknife's abilities, nerfs the soulknife (perhaps somewhat, perhaps considerably depending on your strategy), and at least by my reading, does not seem to be based in the rules at all. It also seems wildly inconsistent withEach souknife's personal blade, referred to as a mind blade, differs in color and shape according to his personality, mental strength, and even mood.To me, that does not sound like "always appears as a short sword."</blockquote>

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