Magic of Incarnum...thoughts?

[zen_hydra]

I have it, but have had no time to really do more than glance at some of the artwork.

Could someone give a clue?

Could people share their thoughts abou it?

Please...?










p

 

[brehobit]

I spent all of 15 minutes with it. Looked uninteresting to me. They sold it as "a new and utterly different book" but it feels like a normal splat book. The new races weren't overly interesting. At first glance neither were the classes (but I'm willing to be wrong there). I'm sure someone has a better answer for you.

 

[Camarath]

Magic of Incarnum system seems to basicly be item-like magic. The basic powers are called Soulmelds and function like items for the most part. They can be enchanced by investing Essentia or by binding them to a Chakra which prevents the use of an item in the same slot as the Chakra Bind. A few Soulmeld abilities have limited uses per day or unshape the meld when used but for the most part the effects are usable all the time.

The powers seem relatively useful. But the usefulness of many Soulmeld would vary a good deal based on the avaliblity of magic items and the wealth of the PC. As to the classes I think the Totemist and the Soulborn could be fun to play. The Incarnate i think suffers too much from its bad BAB and low hit dice. The race are not spectacular but I think would be solid additions to the racial choices in many games. Overall I think it could be a good addition that does not seems to be to complicated or overpowered.

 

[Drowbane]

Read the book man Read through the Feats, then the section on How Soulmelds work, then the Classes, and finally the Soulmeld section again. Then reread the How Soulmelds work part. Everything else will fall into line.

That said, I like it alot. This is the first D&D book in a long time that I felt compelled to read cover to cover. I can't wait to start using...

Incarnate: I like, I wanna try out a Warforged Fighter 1 / (Good or Law) Incarnate...
Soulborn: At first glance, seems wussified.
Totemist: I love this class! I so want to play a Totem Rager! (Barbarian / Totemist PrC)

 

[Anax]

The thing that makes incarnum intriguing is the ability to shift essentia from round to round as a swift action. That means you can change from investing your essentia in offensive capability at the start of a fight to investing it in movement and defenses later when you decide you need to beat feet.

Anyway, it's interesting. I think it's a bit too different from the core systems for me to feel immediately comfortable with it, but with a homebrew setting, I'd be all over it.

 

[Macbrea]

Overall, it reads pretty interestingly.

I would have to actually run a game with one or play with one to see how well balanced they are. They start their day by picking what binds they are going to use for the day. The have a very limited number of Essentia points they can allocate at the beginning of each round as a swift action. They may keep Con-10 binds active at one time. Each of their binds takes up a item slot. This reduces their magic item availablity.

20 level classes:
Incarnate (very much caster type, can do powerful binds after a quite a few levels. Basicly build up very much like wizards do in power level. Gain bonus feats in similar vein as a psion.) Alignments: LG, CG, LE, CE

Soul bind (ok, this is the fighter type. It serves exactly the same effect psionic warrior does to psions. They are fighters with half magic.) Alignments: NG, CN, NE, LN

Totemist: (Odd druid/ranger cross breed. They gain affinity with magic beasts and can take on traits off magic beast of their alignment.) Any but tend toward neutral


There are a 4 new race in the book. Azure (very human like), Duskling (hobgoblin/ halfdrow looking), Rilken (humans repitiles with scales on neck and arms), and Skarns (Human reptiles with spikes growing from them)


Incarnum is basicly soul energy that uses the Indian concept of points of the body. Those points can have the energy attached to them. You basicly activate the feat/bind and declare a location. You get a glowing effect at that location and a manifestation of an item. So, if you bind "basilisk mask" to your third eye chakra you take up your brow slot or eye slot. The effect of basilisk mask reads like the following.

Mask while active grants darkvision 30ft + 30ft per additional essentia spent on it. This means if you allocated 4 of your points to this mask. You could have Darkvision 120ft and appear to be wearing a big mask. This will last until you spend the swift action to relocate all the poitns off your "Basilisk mask" or 24 hours passes.

 

[Camarath]

Just to clarifly Macbrea statements. The Incarnate class is LN, NG, CN, or NE and the Soulborn class is LG, CG, LE, or CE rather than the other way around.

 

[Laman Stahros]

Just a few points.

Overall, it reads pretty interestingly.

I would have to actually run a game with one or play with one to see how well balanced they are.

I can't wait to see these rules in use in my game.

They start their day by picking what binds they are going to use for the day.

What they pick at the beginning of the day is the soulmelds they will have active and if any of them will be bound to a chakra (item slot).

The have a very limited number of Essentia points they can allocate at the beginning of each round as a swift action.

Yup

They may keep Con-10 binds active at one time.

The number of active soulmelds is Con-10 or the number listed in the class table, whichever is less.

Each of their binds takes up a item slot.

A soulmeld does not take up an item slot. If a soulmeld is bound to a chakra (item slot) then you gain no benefit from a magic item that uses that location.

This reduces their magic item availablity.

Unless the character takes the Split Chakra feat, in which case the character can wear a magic item and bind a soulmeld to that chakra (item slot). And yes, they call item slots chakras in this book. It fits the way the book reads.

I highly reccomend this book. Very useful for creating a region of a game world that is 'a little' different. YMMV.

 

[Macbrea]

Sorry, was doing that by memory from work off stuff i read at 2am the previous night. Though, I must admit... they look interesting.

Now, if I can just find a copy of the character sheet in electronic format. That way I can play around with adobe and see if i can make one fill-inable.

 

[was]

I'm not a big fan of this book....