# 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.


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## 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.


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## drothgery

Shellman said:
			
		

> 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.


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## 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...


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## Patlin

Shellman said:
			
		

> 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....


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## 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.


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## irdeggman

drothgery said:
			
		

> 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.


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## 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.


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## 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


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## Klaus

irdeggman said:
			
		

> 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!


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## Someone

Plane Sailing said:
			
		

> 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.


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## 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.


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## Plane Sailing

Someone said:
			
		

> 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


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## Shellman

Thanks guys all good ideas!

I appreciate the help!


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## Someone

Plane Sailing said:
			
		

> 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...


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## 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.


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## Patlin

Someone said:
			
		

> 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.


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## 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


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## Blue Sky

Shellman said:
			
		

> 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.


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## 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?


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## 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


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## 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


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## Luthien Greyspear

Shellman said:
			
		

> 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.


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## 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).


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