Soul Knife - What is the point?

[Dandu]

Ranger1/Soulknife2/Ranger2/Soulbow10/Kensai 5 works.

 

[Drowbane]

As others have stated, the Soulknife class is weak. Pathetic really. And the 3.0 Soulknife PrC wasn't much better (iirc). The whole thing would be replaced with a couple of custom Psionic Feats. Or "Shape Soulmeld -> Incarnum Weapon"

 

[Jhaelen]

Or is just a novel idea, cool for roleplay, but bad for everything else?

Pretty much this.

 

[nonsi256]

How about gestalting it with PsyWar ?
I mean:
1. PsyWar is a solid tier 3, right ?
2. PsyWar gestalted with Soulknife is a solid tier 3, right ?

So, the result would be a very enjoyable class that is a solid tier 3.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

If you're doing Gestalt, why not just gestalt it with Psion or Wizard at that point?

 

[Dandu]

There's a Psychic Warrior ACF that basically gives you a mindblade.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That rings a bell...do you remember where it's located?

 

[Dandu]

Soulbound Weapon ACF from The Mind's Eye

 

[Nifft]

Soulknife is bad because it's built around a very specific playstyle (mid-to-close range skirmisher). If you play it as it was intended, it's pretty solid: it's got a good skill list, decent skill points, high HP, two good saves, and a bunch of features which help you not notice how much your full attacks suck (because you're always on the move so you don't make many full attacks).

The "weak" complaints roll in because very few people are satisfied playing the class "as it was intended" -- and they're right. A class which only does one thing and sucks when you try to use it for anything else isn't much of a choice.

The Soulbow PrC fixes a lot of the inflexibility.

As a distinct alternative, take a look at the Warlock (from Complete Arcane) with the Eldritch Glaive invocation (from Dragon Magic).

Cheers, -- N

 

[Dandu]

and a bunch of features which help you not notice how much your full attacks suck (because you're always on the move so you don't make many full attacks).

At best, though, you use a move action to charge up your psychic strike, which means you can't skirmish.