Questions of an aspiring soulknife and other psionics errata

[GureiKun]

So yeah my bard is about to die... (well he will within the first five mins of my next session - I am going to hurl him into a suicidal charge into a general of an army. he will probably be riddled full of flintlock pellets before he gets close but hey its what his character would do! I've messaged my GM basically saying that its fine that he dies, and indeed due to the fact that the opposing general is one of our party -long story!- its probably best that he does for party cohesion lol).

I've contacted my GM about it and asking him not to intervine to stop the death - i'm ok with it and it is frankly an epic way for the bard to end his story! Also it means i can mess about with a new character for the couple of months till i go back to uni!

So i've decided on the soul blade (planning on mixing it up with nimble blade and gifted blade). I have a few questions as i've never played a psionic char before.

First is what form do you guys feel i should take? i can finnesse any soulblade form including 2handed. But given that the 2hander is 2f6 damage and the pair of "light" mindblades do 2d6 each... well i dont see why i'd take the 2 hander? (i wont have the STR bonus to get anything out of the x1.5 and my mind blade(s) will have agile at level 7).

Same vein but.... why would anyone take the "one handed" (1d8) version?

Is there anyway to get a second mind blade? like to TWF a 1handed and Light blade at the same time?

The gifted blade page says i get more powerpoints/day based on my WIS score... but i can't figure out how many that would be?

Thanks for taking the time to read my uncollected and half formed thoughts on the soul blade. any help with these questions or any general advice/build ideas would be greatly appreciated.

ta much!

[GureiKun]

ah found this http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/classes/ seems to answer my question on powerpoints

[Jeremy Smith]

If you're going with a Dex build instead of a Strength build, then you definitely want to dual wield - and that's built in to the mind blade.

"If the soulknife's chosen form is a light weapon, she may choose to form two light weapons when forming her mind blade if she so chooses, but she suffers the standard penalties for two-weapon fighting."

You'd want the 1d8 form for your main hand - 1d8 is more than 1d6. ;)

[Caedwyr]

Also, you might want to look at d20pfsrd.com instead of d20srd.com if you are interested in the Pathfinder version of psionics.

[Jack Rift]

Second the pfsrd, the is a blade skill that let's you form a one hand (d8) and off hand a light (d6). I can't remember all of the gifted version of the soul knife, but you may need to double check if they stack. I would actually push for single d8 blade and pick up the mind shield blade skill. That will help with your light armor. While you will have plenty of blade skills most likely, burning feats for 2wfing you may not have and still pick up feats that light armor chacters need a lot of time, dodge, toughness, mobility, spring attack. Take advantage of the blade skills and feats that help keep you mobile.

[GureiKun]

other than that one page i am using pfsrd, but that is only cause i can't find the equivilent table in pfsrd... has anyone else had better work.

Had a look for that jack, do you mean;

"Alter Blade

The soulknife gains the ability to shape her mind blade into different weapon forms. She may change her blade’s form to the light weapon, one-handed weapon, or two-handed weapon forms any time she forms her mind blade. Additionally, the soulknife may choose to form her mind blade into a one-handed weapon and a light weapon instead of two light weapons."

Since i'm going down the nimble blade route - i get mind blade finnesse, and Piranha Strike as bonus feats. Would my 1d8 main hand blade qualify for these? (since its not specified as a "light weapon")

[Jeremy Smith]

Here's the page with the chart on d20pfsrd for how to calculate bonus power points:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes

And to answer your question - yes, but only if you have Mind Blade Finesse, so that can be a bit expensive to just bump up to 1d8 if you've got a significant difference in your Dex vs your Str... Unless there's a TWF trick I'm not familiar with.

[John Woodford]

GureiKun wrote:

...

First is what form do you guys feel i should take? i can finnesse any soulblade form including 2handed. But given that the 2hander is 2f6 damage and the pair of "light" mindblades do 2d6 each... well i dont see why i'd take the 2 hander? (i wont have the STR bonus to get anything out of the x1.5 and my mind blade(s) will have agile at level 7).

...

ta much!

Where do you get the TWF light blades doing 2d6 each? IIRC, the light blade does 1d6. With the lower STR damage bonus for your offhand, the max damage should be the same, but going 2h doesn't stick you with the TWF penalty to hit. (2h: 2d6 + 1.5xSTR bonus; TWF: 1d6 + STR bonus + 1d6 + 0.5x STR bonus. OTOH, if you go with a 1d8 for your primary mind blade in a TWF build, you're essentially getting +1 to average damage for -2 to hit; inverted Power Attack, kind of.) Put that all together with losing your offhand attacks any time you take a move action during a round, and you're better off with the 2h build unless you've got something like sneak attack or favored enemy.

[GureiKun]

oopse that was a typo John, i ment 2d6 tottal. (2 attacks at 2d6). But i see yes you have a definate point!

So probably best mind weapon finnessing an Agile, Two handed mind blade and throwing in piranha strike?... i gotta admit that does sound epic and uses less feats than TWF