Soulknife build recommendations

[Shellman]

I am really interested in playing a soulknife, except it seems a little lacking to me. Anyone have any recommendations for building a good soulknife?

Any particular races, feats or PrC's work better with this class?

Iv'e heard it's best not to multiclass the Soulknife!

Your opinions/ recommendatins would be helpful.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

The reason to not multiclass the Soulknife is that its primary ability, the special weapon, is likely to be approximately as good or better than the best regular magic weapon in the party if you stick to straightclassing. But as a balanced multiclass (e.g. SoulknifeX/FighterX) the special weapon is essentially worthless once you hit mid levels.

I would say that I have seen a low level Rogue1/Soulknife4 in play that is doing very well. With Psionic Weapon(sp?) feat, Sneak Attack, and the psychic weapon thingy (bonus d8), he is doing d6+2d6+d6+d8+2 during the Surprise round, and d6+d8+d6+2 on following rounds (if he has the Flank and can spare the MEA to recharge his weapon, which can usually be arranged). Average damage over the first 2 rounds of combat is comparable to your vanilla two-handed weapon Fighter at this level.

To be effective in combat, you will need to figure out how to work with your party and really focus your concept. This particular party is quite skillful at setting up ambushes, so the frontloaded attack works beautifully.

 

[drothgery]

I am really interested in playing a soulknife, except it seems a little lacking to me. Anyone have any recommendations for building a good soulknife?

Any particular races, feats or PrC's work better with this class?

I haven't tested this in practice, but it seems like if you're in Eberron, and aren't in an evil party, you should defintely be Kalashtar. Races of Eberron has a lot of nice stuff for a Kalashtar soulknife.

 

[Wavestone]

A recent issue of Dragon (# 341) had several new soulknife feats. Complete Psi also contains some useful feats, if you look beyond the "Orc double-axe soulblade" and its companions.. I prefer the one exotic mindblade feat in the article instead. Oh, and the dragon article has one "practiced manifester feat" for a solknife regarding the weapon bonus - thus helping with the multiclass soulknife.

Quite a few people play with a house rule of granting the soulknife full BAB, as well...

 

[Patlin]

Iv'e heard it's best not to multiclass the Soulknife!

Personally, I'm looking to pick up two (and only two) levels of Shadowdancer for my Soulknife, but I agree that multiclassing should be kept to a minimum.

Take a look at the Mind Cleave feat in Complete Psionic, by the way....

 

[Andor]

The 'Illumine Soul' (I think) class from complete psionic is kinda cool for a soul knife. A lot of people seem to like the soul bow class too, but I think it's incoherantly written.

A soul knife can go either for melee combat or ranged, make your pick early and build feats towards it. Remember that you can use psionic feats.

I like the soul knife but I think it's a tad weak. Some people disagree. It does suffer from dilution if you multiclass as do all classes built around a progressing shtick.

 

[irdeggman]

I haven't tested this in practice, but it seems like if you're in Eberron, and aren't in an evil party, you should defintely be Kalashtar. Races of Eberron has a lot of nice stuff for a Kalashtar soulknife.

Absolutley agree here.

The racial substitution levels and racial feats for soulknives are very good and thematic, IMO.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

A recent issue of Dragon (# 341) had several new soulknife feats

One of note you should consider if you're going to multiclass is Practiced Mindblade- simliar to the other "Practiced" feats, it adds +4 levels to your mindblade abilities. There are other excellent ones as well, definitely a must buy for someone considering a Soulknife PC.

Personally, aside from the PrCls in CompPsi, I think Soulknives also multiclass well with Kensai, and the Blade Manifester from Hyperconscious (a PrCl that combines aspects of the Soulknife and Psychic Warrior).

Actually, any class that grants bonus combat Feats in the first 2 levels would also be good for a Soulknife. Ranger, Monk, Fighter, and PsyWar spring to mind- I'm sure there are others. Alternately, a few levels of Rogue, Scout, or Lurk would also bring some interesting permutations and abilities to the table.

As for race, I like them as Humans (naturally) Xephs, Drow and Githzerai (+6 Dex!). I'm sure there are other races that would be suited to the class, like a Genasi of some kind, or perhaps a Tiefling or Cambion. A 1/2Elf 1/2 Orc or halfling probably wouldn't be a bad choice for style.

The Anthropomorphic Animals from Savage Species also have several races that would work well as Soulknives, but, bang-for-the-buck, the Ape (+2LA for +6 Dex and a Wis bonus, etc.) would be the top choice.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Soulknives have their psychic strike and they can get good mileage from psionic weapon and greater psionic weapon.

This means that the Spring Attack feat chain is an optimum one for them to consider because it allows them to get in, get an optimum attack in and get out again without incurring AoO and without getting into a full-attack situation. You don't really want to be swapping full attacks with anyone if you want to get the most bang for your buck and you don't have a reach weapon for fighting very big creatures safely (although tumble will help you manouvre out of difficulty).

Ranged combat is limited in that you only ever get 1 attack per round until you are 17th, but could still work OK (I don't think I'd want to go that route though).

As others have said, the Kalashtar get some great benefits from their racial substitution levels, and the atavist PrC enables your soulblade to continue improving while giving some other interesting benefits.

Cheers

 

[Klaus]

Absolutley agree here.

The racial substitution levels and racial feats for soulknives are very good and thematic, IMO.

Thirded.

And let's not forget the Atavist PrClass, which advances a soulknife's mind blade. Depending on the type of quori spirit you choose, you can eventually gain reach with your mind blade! Woot!