Soulknife build recommendations

[Someone]

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).

Well, with mindblade throwing you get one attack until level 17th, but with spring attack you´re stuck with one attack forever. And spring attack takes a lot of feats. Soulknives have tumble, so moving through threatened areas aren´t a poblem past the low levels.

 

[Jedi_Solo]

Another vote for looking at Kalishtar if that race is available (except that Soulknife is NOT the Kalashtar favored class for some reason - not sure why).

I currently have a cohort that is a Kalashtar Soulbow and the character seems to be working out just fine and appears to be filling in the empty spot of the party archer VERY well.

I agree that the Soulknife PrCs can sometime be very confusing and need to be read through a few times in order for them to make sense. In the case of the SoulBow - the PrC increases the effectivness of half the Mindblade but not the other half. The Soulbow can be seen here.

One choice you will need to make early on will be how many abilities to have tied to the character's psionic focus. Psionic Weapon/Shot and even the Soulbow's Phase Arrow are nice attacks but require expending the characters Psionic Focus. Feats such as Psionic Dodge or Psionic Shield (from Races of Stone) add to a character's AC but require keeping the focus. Up the Walls is a nice feat for a mobility oriented character but requires the focus as well.

Psionic Shield and Up the Walls will be worthless if you expend your focus every fight but abilities the expend the focus will be worthless if you want to keep some of the bonuses the focus can bring. NOt to mention the headache of having your AC change three times over the course of a fight because your phase arrow use and then regaining your f ocus means your Psionic Dodge keeps turning off and on.

I chose to focus on my cohort's mobility. Even though the cohort is a Kalishtar I kept the regular level 6 Soulknife to get Speed of Thought (which requires the focus to get the extra speed) and picked Up the Walls as one of their feats. Deciding to keep the psionic focus whenever possable I also picked up Psionic Shield since a Soulbow gets to keep use of thier shield and stay a ranged combatent.

My main recommendation is to choose early on if you will be planning on expending the focus or keeping it in combat - and then stick with that choice. Choose your feets and substitution levels accordingly. No need to lose half of your abilities because you expended your focus when it wasn't completely necessary.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Well, with mindblade throwing you get one attack until level 17th, but with spring attack you´re stuck with one attack forever. And spring attack takes a lot of feats. Soulknives have tumble, so moving through threatened areas aren´t a poblem past the low levels.

I disagree - Spring Attack doesn't mean that you are stuck with one attack, because you can bust out the full attack whenever the situation demands it - something that you simply can't do if you are a thrown damage specialist.

The big benefit of Spring Attack isn't that it gets you past reach (although that is a benefit), but that it can get you out of reach again. It means that a one on one fight becomes about swapping single attacks which is to the soulknifes advantage. If you tumble in and attack but then the opponent unleashes a full attack on you, you're gonna be hurting bad.

IF someone wanted to focus on ranged combat, I think it would be worth getting psionic meditation (or whichever the feat is that allows you to regain psionic focus as a move action) and then psionic shot and greater psionic shot - thus by, what, 6th level? - you are able to make one throw per round with a 30ft range increment doing 1d8+psychic strike +4d6 greater psionic shot each round and then recharge. Of course, you're probably going to want to get point blank shot and precise shot at some point along the way too, but without the GPW you will be a long way behind the rapid-shot high strength composite longbow guy in terms of ability to put out damage.

If possible (e.g. a human) it might be worth going for far shot as well, to up that range increment so it is a bit more respectable. So many needs, so few feats!

Cheers

 

[Shellman]

Thanks guys all good ideas!

I appreciate the help!

 

[Someone]

I disagree - Spring Attack doesn't mean that you are stuck with one attack, because you can bust out the full attack whenever the situation demands it - something that you simply can't do if you are a thrown damage specialist.

Sorry, I don´t get it. If you can full attack, is because the enemy starts within reach. I fail to see where Spring attack helps there.

Maybe we´re thinking on different builds: I believe you´re thinking that a soulknife would either favor only throwing or only melee; and you´re partly right, because a soulknife gets a very little number of feats and taking a couple levels in Fighter is´t as advantageous as with other melee classes. My point of view is that since the soulknife has a weapon fit for melee and ranged attack, he can trade full attacks when he wants, or tumble out and throw the mindblade if he wants to avoid full attacks.

The big benefit of Spring Attack isn't that it gets you past reach (although that is a benefit), but that it can get you out of reach again. It means that a one on one fight becomes about swapping single attacks which is to the soulknifes advantage. If you tumble in and attack but then the opponent unleashes a full attack on you, you're gonna be hurting bad.

True, though in that case, you can instead tumble out and throw the mindblade.

IF someone wanted to focus on ranged combat, I think it would be worth getting psionic meditation (or whichever the feat is that allows you to regain psionic focus as a move action) and then psionic shot and greater psionic shot - thus by, what, 6th level? - you are able to make one throw per round with a 30ft range increment doing 1d8+psychic strike +4d6 greater psionic shot each round and then recharge. Of course, you're probably going to want to get point blank shot and precise shot at some point along the way too, but without the GPW you will be a long way behind the rapid-shot high strength composite longbow guy in terms of ability to put out damage.

If possible (e.g. a human) it might be worth going for far shot as well, to up that range increment so it is a bit more respectable. So many needs, so few feats!

Cheers

The only problem for that is the need for move actions to power the psychic strike ability and regain focus. And you can have almost the same build in melee, with greater psionic weapon. So few feats...

 

[MatthewJHanson]

If your chaotic, taking four levels of pyromancer gives you then handy weapon afire ability.

And while I've not tried it, I've always thought that a soulknife/warmind would work well.

 

[Patlin]

The only problem for that is the need for move actions to power the psychic strike ability and regain focus. And you can have almost the same build in melee, with greater psionic weapon. So few feats...

Agreed. My soulknife didn't go the psionic shot route because 1) he would rather spend the move action on psychic strike 2) he didn't have enough skill points for a decent concentration score and 3) he couldn't spare that many feats.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If your chaotic, taking four levels of pyromancer gives you then handy weapon afire ability.

You really mean Pyrokinetic- and I agree, its one of the best PrCls for the Soulknife.

For the record, WotC expanded that PrCl online- there is now a version of the class for each energy type.

The 3.0 version is here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20030328b

The 3.5 version of the class can be found here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625a

 

[Blue Sky]

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.

Soulknife works really well multi-classing with incarnum classes. There are soulmelds that you can get that give you the ability to do a short range dimension door, or turn ethereal whenever you move more than 5 feet. There's a post on the Wizards' CharOp boards (which seem to be down at the moment) which goes into this.

 

[Shellman]

So what Races do you think would work best as a Soulknife?

I was considering playing a large size creature! A large sized soulknife would create a large sized mind blade = 2d6 wpn dmg + STR + 4d6 greater psionic weapon + psychic strike.

Any ideas for a large race wiout a significant LA?