Soulknife Tweaks

[vulcan_idic]

2. The feat does not stack with armor. Still a strong feat, but as Soulblades can wear light armor with no problems (as I remember it) its basically using a feat to replace your chain shirt.

They can indeed wear light armor with no problems - indeed the only thing I can see wrong with heavier armor is that without taking the feats they are not proficient with them (and perhaps the armor check penalties to skills if they want to be sneaky) - armor does nothing to inhibit psionics.

It being a feat to replace my chain shirt is exactly what I envision.

 

[FireLance]

2. The feat does not stack with armor. Still a strong feat, but as Soulblades can wear light armor with no problems (as I remember it) its basically using a feat to replace your chain shirt.

That's the way I thought it should work, and I guess our opinions differ. To me, it's a feat that grants an AC bonus that is easily duplicated by equipment. If you acquire any equipment that gives you a higher armor bonus, the feat gives you practically no advantage.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

To me, it's a feat that grants an AC bonus that is easily duplicated by equipment. If you acquire any equipment that gives you a higher armor bonus, the feat gives you practically no advantage.

It's cooler.

It can't be stolen, destroyed, or targetted by heat metal. It's on whenever you're awake, even if you're awoken suddenly. And it allows you to do cool things like leap into battle in your skivvies, manifesting your mindblade in mid-air, when your opponent thought you were naked and unarmed.

Heh. Plus, it doesn't restrict anything else that relies on being unencumbered; that's not much for a Soulknife, but it makes a big difference for some multiclass or PrC combinations.

 

[Uncle_Muppet]

You really don't need to make a new feat to duplicate 3.0 Inertial Armor. As you said, IA already exists as a 3.5 power. All you have to do is convince your DM to let you take the "Expanded Knowledge" psionic feat, which lets you add any one power to your list of powers known. This would thus allow you to take IA as an actual power, and then use just like any of the other psionic classes. Remember that soulknives have 2 power points that they normally can't use.

 

[vulcan_idic]

You really don't need to make a new feat to duplicate 3.0 Inertial Armor. As you said, IA already exists as a 3.5 power. All you have to do is convince your DM to let you take the "Expanded Knowledge" psionic feat, which lets you add any one power to your list of powers known. This would thus allow you to take IA as an actual power, and then use just like any of the other psionic classes. Remember that soulknives have 2 power points that they normally can't use.

Actually this character has only one. The Kalashtar Substitution level which gives me the ability to use a power point to align my mindblade allowing it to temporarily overcome alignment related DR gives that ability *in place of* the Wild Talent feat which grants the power points leaving the character only with the 1 power point granted by his naturally psionic race. And if I use that to (briefly - thus of little use in replacing armor entirely) manifest IA, I loose the option of Aligning the mindblade for the day unless I get more power points through an alternative route... most of which could provide the power itself as well, all of which is why I was wanting to do something feat based. For balance and other purposes it makes sense to make several differences between the feat and the power - i.e. Armor Check penalties and the other standard detractions of armor which do not apply to the manifested power and not having it always active as the original feat but to require some effort to get going and a cost (in the form of the armor check penalties) to keeping it going, but I really like the flavor of it.

 

[vulcan_idic]

It's cooler.

And this is really the key to the whole thing.

It can't be stolen, destroyed, or targetted by heat metal. It's on whenever you're awake, even if you're awoken suddenly. And it allows you to do cool things like leap into battle in your skivvies, manifesting your mindblade in mid-air, when your opponent thought you were naked and unarmed.

Under my conception for the 3.5 version some of these advantages would disappear. The advantages in the first sentence remain, but it does require "donning" and causes the same penalties as other armor for sleeping "in" it, though as it is more or less invisible it can still be invaluable in appearing to be less prepared than you are - as in a case of feigning sleep to draw the enemy in, and then revealing your true wakefulness.

Heh. Plus, it doesn't restrict anything else that relies on being unencumbered; that's not much for a Soulknife, but it makes a big difference for some multiclass or PrC combinations.

And this is another advantage that remains, I would think.

 

[saucercrab]

Actually this character has only one. The Kalashtar Substitution level which gives me the ability to use a power point to align my mindblade allowing it to temporarily overcome alignment related DR gives that ability *in place of* the Wild Talent feat which grants the power points leaving the character only with the 1 power point granted by his naturally psionic race.

Wait a minute. Is the character a kalashtar? You haven't directly stated it. I'm asking because you say you took a kalashtar racial substitution level (& that the character is of a naturally psionic race) & I wanted to point out that kalashtar gain one bonus power point per character level.

 

[vulcan_idic]

Wait a minute. Is the character a kalashtar? You haven't directly stated it.

It is. I guess I should have mentioned that explicitly, but it seemed implicit, to me at least, in his devotion to the Adar, The Path of Light, his ability to perhaps eventually take a feat such as Shield of Thought which has a racial requirement of being a Kalashtar, and the fact that he took a Kalashtar substitution level. For the record, the character is indeed a Kalashtar.

I'm asking because you say you took a kalashtar racial substitution level (& that the character is of a naturally psionic race) & I wanted to point out that kalashtar gain one bonus power point per character level.

I will have to look that up again, I had not thought it was that way. It would be quite convenient if it were though.

 

[saucercrab]

It is. I guess I should have mentioned that explicitly, but it seemed implicit, to me at least, in his devotion to the Adar, The Path of Light, his ability to perhaps eventually take a feat such as Shield of Thought which has a racial requirement of being a Kalashtar, and the fact that he took a Kalashtar substitution level. For the record, the character is indeed a Kalashtar.

Well, when I had looked up the Adar region, it states that humans live there too, so I wouldn't have put it past a DM to allow Adarian humans access to certain kalashtar things, as a houserule. I wanted to be totally sure, before I may have put my foot in my mouth.

I will have to look that up again, I had not thought it was that way. It would be quite convenient if it were though.

Yes, it is quite convenient. More than a microwave.

 

[FireLance]

You really don't need to make a new feat to duplicate 3.0 Inertial Armor. As you said, IA already exists as a 3.5 power. All you have to do is convince your DM to let you take the "Expanded Knowledge" psionic feat, which lets you add any one power to your list of powers known.

Only problem is, Expanded Knowledge has a prerequisite of manifester level 3rd. A soulknife technically has no manifester level, although it can be argued in a rules-lawyerly kind of way that a kalashtar does have a manifester level for his racial mindlink ability (half character level), which will make him eligible to take the feat at 6th level .