Soulknife build recommendations

[Nareau]

I played a Rog1/Slk4 recently, based on this version of the Soulknife:
http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=310984

It was a lot of fun. The versatility of being able to put special powers on your weapon very early on really made the class shine, IMHO.

I've attached a copy of the character. Note that this build is extremely effective on the first round of combat (Charge for +12 attack, 1d6+1+1d8 (Psychic Strike)+1d6 (Energy Damage)+2d6 (Psionic Weapon)+1d6 (Sneak Attack)). Subsequent rounds he did far less damage.

Spider

 

[szilard]

Thoughts on multiclassing Soulknives:

It strikes me that a Fighter 4/Soulknife X with the Practiced Mindblade feat is almost (?) always going to be better than a straight Soulknife X. A few levels of Psionic Warrior, Rogue, Scout, Paladin, Hexblade, or Ranger wouldn't be bad either.

How does the Practiced Mindblade feat work if you multiclass into the Kensai prestige class? Do you get bonuses from both (since they are different sorts)?

I wish one of the base mindblade forms was a rapier, as a Swashbuckler/Soulknife would be really nifty.

-Stuart

 

[Luthien Greyspear]

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?

There's an interesting question: Would a goliath Soulknife (or other race with Powerful Build as a racial advantage) be treated as a large creature when creating his mindblades? It seems he would be treated as Large whenver it is advantageous for him, and creating a mindblade that does more damage certainly counts...

...based on this, I may have to redesign my Scout/Dervish/Swashbuckler that TWF's with oversized scimitars. I could make him a Goliath instead of a human, and either gain a feat by not taking Monkey Grip and Oversized TWF OR lose one other feat and do another step-up in damage with Huge scimitars that are treated as light weapons for the character.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

While I haven't looked at the Incarnum threads, my personal reading of the MoI would lead me to agree that there is some good stuff in there for Soulknives.

The Practiced Mindblade Feat should work just fine with the Kensai. The Feat allows you to treat the mindblade as if your Soulknife level was 4 levels higher. You don't get other class abilities, like the bonus feats, but your mindblade enhancement level increases, as does the level of the powers you can manifest it with.

Another Feat from Dragon #341 would allow you to add a rapier (or polearm, or maul, etc.) to your mindblade's shapes. Another one lets you add a shield...

As for large size races, you might try Savage Species' Anthro Animals, or perhaps a Half-Ogre.

A slightly different option would be to take your favorite race and take a couple of levels of Psychic Warrior (functionally indistinguishable from a +2LA) to get 2 Feats + the Enlarge power (which can boost PC size up to 2 levels).