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1 year ago ::
Feb 25, 2012 - 7:16PM
#51
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Date Joined:
Oct 16, 2009
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MediumD: You may want to look at the whirling barbarian's powers for that sort of thing. Most of them have damage noted along the lines of 1[w] (main hand) + 1[w] (off-hand) + Strength modifier.
Interesting. It looks like WotC is fine with multiattack powers as long as they target more than one creature.
I thought of making an at-will like Dual Strike, but there's already several multiattack at-wills at level 7. And even with the TWF feats, it's still mechanically better just to shape a big sword instead of two smaller swords.
Yeah, I pointed out something like that awhile back. I'd really like to have at least one (non-Essentials) Striker that could get off using long knives instead of bastard swords...
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1 year ago ::
Feb 26, 2012 - 2:13PM
#52
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Date Joined:
Jul 13, 2006
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@medium D
I might add a note in the character description and maybe some of the powers on how Soulsteel is ectoplasm infused with a person's mental essence or soul. How would that be?
If I ever get around to making another build for this, I'm pretty sure it would be a TWF build. I really like your feat fix in the meantime, though I might make some slight changes if I add it to the guide. The at-will multiattacks are intentionally weaker than twin strike, as the striker feature and weapons are better. Generally the ranger multiattack encounter powers at heroic give you some bonus beyond just two attacks, but considering the different requirements I intentionally made the augment double attacks pretty basic as well. For example, augmented psychic opening is worse than the ranger and rogue minor action attacks and Two-and-One strike and similar are a lot worse than twin strike. Double mods is a huge source of damage for the ranger. Even augmented, Two-and-One strike is still on the same level as Two-Fanged Strike, a level 1 ranger encounter and it's level 7. If the multiattacks are still overpowered with bigger weapons, I may restrict them to dual wielding, but I'd rather leave the class more open to different concepts. I think it's really something that deserves its own build, feat tree or powers if I ever have the time to come back to this now I'm actually DMing a game. I also think it would be fun to make some feats specifically supporting one-handed light blades or the like which would also work with TWF.
Shape Mind Weapon should currently allow you to do TWF with no problem. I made it a free action to allow the Soulknife to switch between different fighting styles with ease and I thought it would fit the class flavor to bake quickdraw into the power, but I guess it would be fine as a minor action. The only big issue is that it makes it difficult for the Soulknife to use any other power in the first round besides shaping the weapon and the Soulknife has quite a few minor powers they'd want to do in the first round (ie, Augemented Psychic Opening or similar, Psychic Empowerment, Blade Focus, Synesthate, Keen Augment, Ball of Light, Pure Mind Pure Blade, Canny Patience). I also wanted to make it easy for the Soulknife to switch fighting styles mid-combat. Minor action may be a better power level though. Some play experience would better direct this.
The Wisdom build is meant to be able to be subdefender (several defensive powers, Soulsteel Knight paragon path) and there's meant to be some tension between using a sheild or a bigger weapon. That's the reason for light sheidl proficiency and the heavy sheild feat. Also, the Soulknife is a melee striker with few surges and likely little Con to make up for it. A high AC makes up for that. A lot of strikers start with hide or equilvalant and light sheilds + leather is almost the same thing so I'm not super worried about "turtle-ing."
The burning augment type powers don't end on reshaping weapons partially for simplicity and partially because I want to encourage weapon-swapping.
I was originally going to make Soulbow an elf racial feat, but I thought it was cool enough to open up ot everyone. I thought that allowing you full access to all your powers both at range and in melee was a bit overpowered for a single feat. Feat + Weapon Proficiency (Greatbow), Feat + Elf, or Feat + Background seemed like a reasonable comprimise, as most folks would want to take one of those anyway. Convince me it's not OP and I may bake Longbow proficiency into the feat. Soul Weapon crossbows make no sense to me; shaping those complex mechanisms and springs from your mind seems like it would be much harder than just making a bow or a blade.
The soul armor concept was something I tried to put into the flavor of the Soulsteel Knight powers, but in practice I'm not sure it adds enough to overcome the complications it would have to have to avoid not just being a free item. Adding a bunch of items to enhance Soul Armor seems like a lot more trouble than it's worth.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 26, 2012 - 7:18PM
#53
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Date Joined:
May 30, 2008
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I think the Augments should commit you to a single weapon. That turns the Augments into a tactical decision instead of just a damage buff. I know it works fine the way it is, but I don't like the visual of a charged mind weapon being swapped out for another weapon.
As a soulknife, why do I even need a cranequin on my crossbow? I can just re-shape it so that it's already nocked and/or loaded. I can picture dwarves with soul crossbows. I think you can support that just by making the Soulbow feat a bit less specific to bows.
I agree about soul armor. There would need to be benefit to it besides the quick outfit change. I noticed you tucked it into a PP as a power.
I love your class design vis-a-vis the multiattacks, especially the level 7 at-wills. You step around the multiattack problems with cleaner mechanics that nevertheless simulate twin strike. I found I really can't add anything to them.
I like the flavor of soulknives using ectoplasm to create ghostly weapons as opposed to energy blades that look like lightsabers. I can see a soulknife investing a bit of his consciousness in those weapons as part of the shaping process, creating the "soulsteel" you mentioned. This would make the ectoplasm used by psion shapers a "lower grade" that lacks such a personal connection.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 26, 2012 - 8:09PM
#54
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Date Joined:
May 30, 2008
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Okay, the XPH version of the soulknife comes out of the box with shield proficiencies. He doesn't get to shape one, but he can use a mundane one. It's unfair to pay a feat tax for that, so Soulshield goes to the reject pile. And now I see what you were saying about it--it's easier just to dogpile all the shaping options into the same power instead of rationing them like in 3.5e.
I can think of some cases where the Soulbow feat is useless to a character until he spends another feat on a WP two levels later, meaning it's a feat tax for him (then again he could retrain). We have rangers, bowlords, warlocks, rogues, bards, etc., slinging around ranged and melee powers, so I don't see the ranged option as something more valuable than a feat. I didn't know about the background options of Gritty Sergeant or Noble Bred for War.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 27, 2012 - 12:28PM
#55
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Date Joined:
Jul 13, 2006
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I think my next blog post will be a two-weapon fighting build for the Soulknife so you can look forward to that. I'm thinking of ways it can be more interesting than just improved TWF. I'm thinking a melee basic with off hand theme (i.e. melee basic with off-hand on crit, powers that can be used as basic attacks with off hand weapons, feats and powers that grant melee basics with off-hand weapons). I think I've found a balanced way to do it. The only issue is that the TWF build is going to have to choose between powers that can be used with any soul weapon and those that can only be used with TWF. I think that's okay though, the two builds I already have support the versatile soulknife pretty well.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 27, 2012 - 1:03PM
#56
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Date Joined:
May 30, 2008
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I'm very interested in that. My vision for my SK was that he'd use a soulbow for ranged and then switch to two short swords.
Perhaps the TWF build requires light weapons in the off-hand or both hands? That'd tone down the damage a bit.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 27, 2012 - 1:51PM
#57
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Date Joined:
Oct 16, 2009
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Long knife, FTW! 
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1 year ago ::
Feb 27, 2012 - 3:23PM
#58
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Date Joined:
May 30, 2008
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Weapons of the Split Soul? Interesting.
I still can't think of a good way to handle a two-weapon build without 30 levels of new at-wills and class features. And I'm not sure what to do with those at-wills that isn't already covered by the level 7 multiattacks. Two-Weapon Opening could be a problem with SK precision damage on a crit fisher.
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1 year ago ::
Mar 02, 2012 - 7:51PM
#59
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Date Joined:
Jul 13, 2006
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I've posted the first part of the new build up on my blog here. Feedback would be extremely welcome. The class feature is potent, but I tried to balance it with being 1/round and requiring a free action, whcih means it won't stack with two-weapon opening. It seems like about the same level as the rest. Let me know what you think of the powers. I tried to make them multiattacks but limit the amount of potential damage they can do. I was considering not allowing the use of the off-hand basics on a charge but I thought it might seem weird. Lemme know your thoughts.
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1 year ago ::
Mar 03, 2012 - 1:25PM
#60
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Date Joined:
May 30, 2008
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Good mechanics and good flavor. I can see a PP or ED that involes the soulknife splitting into two independent beings.
What do you see as the raison d'etat of the dual wielding build? It looks like it trades cookies (buffs/debuffs) for second chances.
It doesn't look like anything in the Split Soul class feature specifically outlaws an extra attack from TWO.
I think there should be some benefit when wielding two OH weapons at the same time. If just to make the SS/SS combination attractive. Perhaps a feat called "Mirrored Mind Weapon" that adds +1 damage if you dual wield the same mind weapon.
Is there a generic name for precision damage for a soulknife, given that it can be radiant, psychic or force? Rogues have SA, rangers have HQ...what do I call the bonus soulknife damage?
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