Hello everyone, I'm here looking for some advice on the Soulbolt archetype of the Soulknife. I like the sounds of archery, and I like the sounds of psionics, so this sounds pretty darn cool to me. I've never made a Soulknife, or Soulbolt before so I've come here to ask if there are any tips and tricks that anyone could share, or if there are pitfalls that should be avoided.
The character will be entering the campaign at level five. I'm looking at human for the race because the racial bonus of 1/6th of a blade skill favored class option, but I'm open to ideas.
I know there are better ways to do ranged combat, but this sounds really cool to me. Thank you in advance to anyone for your input.
Soulbolt is fun, and human is a good choice (feats! hooray, feats!). Here's how the normal soulbolt works. As a move action, you create a throwing weapon. This weapon comes in either short-range, medium-range or long-range form. This throwing weapon is treated for the purpose of feats as a normal ranged weapon (ie a bow).
The issue with this is that you're going to generally always want it in short-range form so you can add your strength modifier to damage. What i'd like to suggest is that you take the 'Emulate Ranged Weapon' blade skill at level 2 so you can treat your soulbolt as a composite longbow. This is very easy to understand and, I believe, works better than a normal soul bolt. The advantage is a better range increment. The disadvantage is a worse critical threat range and a slightly lower damage. I believe the range increment is worth it.
Now, the crunch. I'd like to suggest
Feats
1- point blank shot (class bonus)
1- precise shot
1- deadly aim (human bonus feat)
3- weapon focus (soul bolt)
5- knockdown shot
Blade skills
2- Emulate ranged weapon (Composite Longbow)
4- Freezing Bolt
Freezing bolt is AMAZING. Free action, can use all day, bypasses ALL damage reduction, AND makes your enemy save with every hit to not have their speed slowed by half. Utterly beautiful.
Now, as for dealing with your enhancement bonus. How it works is that, depending on your Soulknife level, you have a number of +1s to add to your blade. At level 5, you have +2 to play with. However your weapon must remain at least +1, so you can only put a single special ability on your weapon. I'd suggest Distance or Flaming.
Stats is up to you, but I'd suggest Dexterity>Strength>Con=Wis>Int=cha
A fun thing you can do with the soulbolt is choose feats to give your weapon an ungodly range. First, get the distance enhancement. Secondly, take the Enhanced Range blade skill. Thirdly, get the Far Shot feat. Finally, the Empowered Shot feat. Distance doubles your range increment, Enhanced Range doubles your range increment, Empowered Shot you guessed it doubles your range increment, and Far Shot reduces the range penalty for good measure. With a high perception skill (or a spyglass), you can have a great deal of fun with this.
Any specific questions?
I have two questions about Emulate Ranged Weapon. First off, since it emulates a weapons can I still use a crystalline focus item with it to get an increased enhancement bonus to it? Secondly Composite Longbows are made for a specific strength rating. Should I start off prioritizing strength first so I can get a +3 or +4 bonus to get the extra damage, or would this composite bow be as strength worthy as I need it to be?
You're rundown of feats looks solid, but psionic shot is needed for knockdown shot, so when I build the character I'll be replacing weapon focus with it.
I love this idea of having ungodly range. One thing that occurred to me is I'll have to fill the in the role of scout for the party. The party consists of a twf ranger, a bard, a buffing wizard, a life oracle that hits stuff with a morning star, and a fighter/barbarian. Neither the bard or ranger ever decide to scout ahead to see what monsters might lurk around the corner, and has lead to us walking into an ambush a few times.
Charged shot, close range expert, and wing clip all look like good blade skills to get. I know wing clip is similar to knockdown shot, but my reasoning is it's a different save, and if I hit a flying creature with it, they'll suddenly fall to the ground.
It just occurred to me, would it be possible with Emulate Ranged Weapon to fire off a regular arrow? Being able to use a grappling hook arrow in a tight spot could prove useful.