Magic of Incarnum... Smackdown?

[MacMathan]

At first glance it feels like Magic of Incarnum is a little on the weak side, somewhat like most psionic builds.

Is there anything I am missing or that people have found to be over powered in combination?

I just wanted to see what the devious and talented minds around here had come up with before I consider letting it in to my campaign.

 

[Anax]

One think I’ve seen pointed out is the incarnate mantle of flame soulmeld. If an incarnate pumps this full, they’ll deal 1d6 (levels 1–2), 2d6 (levels 3–5), 3d6 (levels 6–11), 4d6 (levels 12–14), 5d6 (levels 15-17), and 6d6 (levels 18-20) fire damage to anybody who attacks them in melee with a non-reach weapon.

You do need to invest a big chunk of essentia to do this, however: 1 essentia per point, and you only get 1 essentia per level up to level 14... So you’re investing somewhere around 1/2 to 1/3 of all of your essentia keeping that effect going at most lower levels.

Still, it’s a pretty powerful effect. I’m not sure I’d be all over it the way some folks suggest, though. It’s a very passive method of dealing damage (even when bound to the shoulder chakra, it only gives you the ability to burst out to all adjacent squares for a standard action: and that effect gives a reflex save for half damage... and of course, if you bind your shoulders, you’ll need to twin your shoulder chakra if you want a cloak of resistance.)

And, it locks out some other rather nice defensive options. Adamant pauldrons give you DR x/opposed alignment (where x is the invested essentia), which is pretty nifty, plus light (or when bound, medium) fortification. Lammasu mantle gives you +2 deflection to AC vs. your opposed alignment, plus +x resistance bonus on saves vs. opposition... and the lammasu mantle has a couple of different good effects depending on where you bind it.

Pauldrons of health are a great soulmeld if you’re fighting creatures that spread disease or use energy drain attacks. Therapeutic mantle makes healing spells cast on you more efficacious (and, when bound, spells cast by you.) And finally wind cloak gives 2+2x/magic DR against ranged attacks, can knock away tiny and smaller flying creatures, and when bound automatically deflects 1+x arrows (as the Deflect Arrows feat, but automatic, even when flat-footed, and like I said, 1+x, not just 1) per round.


Anyway, from what I can tell things are reasonably well balanced. The only thing I would be careful of is if you plan to use MoI without the alignment restrictions (for example, if your campaign doesn’t use alignment.) I’d suggest making sure that all characters must choose an alignment for class purposes, even if normally you don’t do alignments. (And you could always do without the alignments for RP purposes, just have them for balance purposes.) Why? Because in reading through closely, I note that there are a number of sorts of effects that cannot be combined on a single character... If a character had access to all of the alignments’ soulmelds, they’d be able to pump up all of their combat-related stats pretty well. With the alignment restrictions, everybody gets the core stuff, but nobody is “the best” at everything. For example, good incarnates can pump defenses better than anyone, but are limited in how they can pump melee damage and attack bonuses. Lawful incarnates can pump their attack bonuses better than anyone, but are more limited elsewhere, etc.

I’m not sure whether relaxing that would break things, but I’d think hard about it before relaxing the constraint.


Final note: I think you absolutely should let folks do everything they can to abuse the system if you introduce it. For one thing, it seems to me that part of the idea of the system is that you’re meant to min-max a bit to get the most out of it on a day-by-day (choosing soulmelds and binds) and round-by-round (adjusting essentia) basis. The individual abilities are pretty limited if you focus on one at a time (like the mantle of flame above), but when you combine them right, and switch things around right (like only turning up the gas on the mantle of flame when somebody comes over and tries to grapple you), they become effective. Not, I think, overly effective.

Anyway, come back and share if you try it and discover that it actually is unbalanced.

 

[ohGr]

The totemist is probably the strongest of the three classes. At 20th level, girallon arms + heart of fire both bound to your totem chakra will get you 4 claw attacks each doing a base damage of 1d4+6 +6d4 fire. (Assuming maximum essentia investment of 6; a feat can increase this to 7.) If you also bind the girallon arms to your arms chakra you can rend for an extra, double-damage attack. Add sphinx claws bound to your hands to gain the pounce ability + urskan greaves bound to your feet to add +6d4 damage to each charge attack. (Again, assuming maximum essentia investment of 6; a feat or item can increase this to 7 and both will increase it to 8.)

That's 4 attacks (+rend) each dealing a potential 1d4+7+15d4 damage on a charge.

Once per day, a 20th-level totemist can double the capacity and essentia investment of any soulmeld bound to his totem chakra for about a minute or so, increasing this to 1d4+14+22d4.

 

[RigaMortus2]

I don't own MoI, but if you had this mantle of flame thing active, what happens if you then grapple someone? Anything?

 

[Anax]

I don't own MoI, but if you had this mantle of flame thing active, what happens if you then grapple someone? Anything?

Actually, now that I look at it, the description doesn’t describe anything special happening when grappling. Looking at the fire shield spell in the PHB, that seems the same. Hrm. And there’s nothing in the FAQ.

I guess that, even though it seems a little strange, grappling does not force you into contact with the effect of a fire shield or a mantle of flame. These effects only cause damage to an attacker when they strike with a melee weapon or natural attack without reach. Although there’s some wiggle room here, I’d say the damage is applied on the melee touch attack to start a grapple, and when you choose to “damage your opponent” or attack with a light weapon while grappling.

Just being grappled by someone with a fire shield or mantle of flame certainly doesn’t appear to be sufficient. (So if somebody with one of these effects jumps you, and all you do is try to get away, you never take the fire damage.) And if all you do to someone with one of these effects is enter a grapple with them and then try to hold on, the only time you definitely take damage is when you start the grapple.

Of course, a DM could house rule this pretty much any way they wanted. Letting a caster have perfect don’t-grapple-me defenses or a scary fire grapple offense seems excessive, though.

 

[Rystil Arden]

MoI seems really balanced to me, for the most part. The only exploit I see is Impulse Boots bound to the chakra as a non-Incarnum character via feats -> PrC that requires Evasion (it can allow a killer Fochluchan Lyrist, for instance)