Soulknife (Augmented Blade, High Psionics, War Soul)

Path of War

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Psionics Augmented: Soulknives

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Ultimate Psionics

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Never caught unarmed, the soulknife is the literal interpretation of using the power of the mind as a weapon. Creating a mind blade is the core of the soulknife, and with it, he is a deadly combatant. Versatile and varied, the soulknife can be found in all shapes and sizes, wielding blades unique to the wielder and customized to fit the needs of the soulknife. Fluid in function, the soulknife has mastered how to alter her mind blade to fit the situation, bringing power and versatility into any combat.

Most soulknives rely on the idealized weapon-form that is created by their concentrated will and effort. Some soulknives, however, are unable to physically manifest a solid-thought weapon into existence and use this for war because they prefer to rely on physical weapons. These soulknives introduce a psicrystal to their combat method to utilize their arts. By focusing this weapon-manifesting energy into their psicrystal, they can cause it to bind to a weapon and augment its abilities in combat just like more traditional soulknives.

Some soulknives have more extensive training in the arts of combat than others, and this lends to them the talents and abilities of the martial disciples who follow the Path of War. By dismissing some of their esoteric studies with their mind blades, they instead focus on the mastering of martial disciplines to make themselves a perfected weapon.

Role: As a wielder of a weapon first and foremost, the soulknife excels as a front-line combatant on the battlefield. Her limited armor options and defensive abilities can be a hindrance, but her varied blade abilities can make her an excellent mobile warrior or battlefield controller.

Class Features

Hit Die

d10

Skill Ranks per Level

4 + Int

Class Skills

Acrobatics, Autohypnosis, Climb, Craft, Intimidate, Knowledge (psionics), Perception, Profession, Sense Motive, Stealth, Swim

Starting Wealth

???

Weapon Proficiencies

Simple, Martial

Armor Proficiencies

Light, Medium, Heavy

Shield Proficiencies

Shields

Psicrystal Affinity

At 1st level, the augmented blade gains the Psicrystal Affinity blade skill.

augmented bladeworks

At 1st level, the augmented blade may select a bonus feat from the following list: Point Blank Shot, Power Attack, Two- Weapon Fighting, or Weapon Focus. If the augmented blade chooses feats that select specific weapon types (such as Improved Critical, Weapon Focus, or Weapon Specialization), she may select ‘mind blade’ and gain the benefits of that feat regardless of what type of weapon she is currently augmenting.

maneuvers

A war soul begins his career with knowledge of three martial maneuvers. The disciplines available to him are Broken Blade, Sleeping Goddes, Solar Wind, Thrashing Dragon, and Veiled Moon. Once he knows a maneuver, he must ready it before he can use it (see Maneuvers Readied, below). A maneuver usable by a war soul is considered an extraordinary ability unless otherwise noted in its description. His maneuvers are not affected by spell resistance, and he does not provoke attacks of opportunity when he initiates one. He learns additional maneuvers at higher levels, as shown on Table: Soulknife. The war soul must meet a maneuver’s prerequisite to learn it.

Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even numbered war soul level after that, he can choose to learn a new maneuver in place of one he already knows. In effect, the war soul loses the old maneuver in exchange for the new one. The war soul need not replace the old maneuver with a maneuver of the same level. He can choose a new maneuver of any level he likes, as long as he observes his restriction on the highest-level maneuvers he knows. The war soul can swap only a single maneuver at any given level. A war soul’s primary initiator attribute is Wisdom, and each war soul level is counted as a full initiator level.

Maneuvers Readied: A war soul can ready all three of his three starting maneuvers, but as he advances in level and learns more maneuvers, he must choose which maneuvers to ready. He readies his maneuvers by meditating over his mind blade for 10 minutes. The maneuvers he chooses remain readied until he decides to repeat this again and change them. War souls do not need to sleep or be well rested to ready their maneuvers; any time he spends 10 minutes in meditation, he can change his readied maneuvers. He begins an encounter with all readied maneuvers unexpended, regardless of how many times he may have already used them since he chose them. When the war soul initiates a maneuver, he expends it for the current encounter, so each of his readied maneuvers can be used once per encounter (until they are recovered, see below).

War souls may recover their maneuvers in one of two ways. The war soul may concentrate on his mind blade to recover an expended maneuver from its psychic projection as a standard action and recover one maneuver. Alternately, he may flood his psychic being with martial knowledge by expending his psionic focus to recover a number of expended maneuvers equal to his Wisdom modifier (minimum of two) as a full round action. While recovering maneuvers, the war soul’s mental state makes him react violently to those who would attack him. When attacked, he may make an immediate counter-attack against his attacker at his full base attack bonus; he may only make one counter-attack against a given enemy per round, and he may make no more counter- attacks then his 1 + his Wisdom modifier per round.

Stances Known: War souls begin play with knowledge of one 1st level stance from any discipline open to them. At the indicated levels (see class table), the war soul selects an additional new stance. Unlike maneuvers, stances are not expended and he does not have to ready them. All the stances he knows are available to him at all times, and he can change the stance he is currently using as a swift action. A stance is an extraordinary ability unless otherwise stated in the stance description. Unlike with maneuvers, the war soul cannot learn a new stance at higher levels in place of one he already knows.

psicrystal augment

At 1st level, the augmented blade learns how to attach her psicrystal to a weapon and cause it to bond to the item as a move action (reclaiming the psicrystal is a free action). Some weapons become covered in a thin sheen of crystal, for other augmented blades the entire weapon becomes psychic energy—the result is the same regardless of the cosmetic appearance. Once bonded, this psicrystal augmentation allows for the bonded weapon to be used with blade skills and is treated as a masterwork item when augmented. Weapons created through temporary means (such as the call weaponry power, or the flame blade spell) may not be bonded with the augmented blade’s psicrystal due to their ephemeral nature.

If the augmented blade is ever separated from her weapon (or an item augmented by her psicrystal), the psicrystal stays with that object(s) as long as the item stays within range of the augmented blade and his telepathic link (one mile) with the psicrystal. At any time, the augmented blade can cause the psicrystal to abandon them item as a free action within that range and command her psicrystal as normal.

Starting at 3rd level, the bonded weapon gains a cumulative +1 enhancement bonus that increases every odd level thereafter that they may spend on an actual enhancement bonus or on weapon special abilities. An augmented blade’s level determines her maximum enhancement bonus. The augmented blade may (and must, when her total enhancement is higher than her maximum bonus) apply any special ability from Table: Weapon Special Abilities instead of an enhancement bonus, as long as she meets the level requirements. This overrides any magical or psionic enhancements that may already be on this weapon, but the weapon retains any material or masterwork bonuses it may have. An augmented blade can choose any combination of weapon special abilities and/or enhancement bonus for attack and damage rolls before assigning any special abilities each time that the augmented blade uses this ability.

This counts as the form mind blade and enhanced mind blade class features for prerequisites or requirements.

shape mind blade

The soulknife’s mind blade retains the last chosen form every time it is formed until the soulknife reshapes it. If the soulknife chooses to reshape his blade, it requires a full-round action to do so. She may also re-assign the type of damage dealt as part of reshaping his mind blade if he so chooses.

A soulknife can reassign the ability or abilities he has added to his mind blade; see below. To do so, he must first spend 8 hours in concentration. These cannot be the normal 8 hours used for rest, even if the soulknife does not require sleep. After that period, the mind blade materializes with the new ability or abilities selected by the soulknife.

wild talent

The soulknife gains Wild Talent as a bonus feat at 1st level. This provides his with the psionic power necessary to manifest his mind blade. A character who is already psionic instead gains the Psionic Talent feat.

blade skills

At 2nd level, 8th level, 12th level, and every even soulknife level thereafter, the augmented blade may choose a blade skill to add to his repertoire. Some blade skills have prerequisites that must be met before they can be chosen. All blade skills may only be chosen once and require the soulknife to be using his mind blade unless otherwise stated in the skill’s description.

manifesting

At 3rd level, the soulknife gains the ability to manifest a small number of psionic powers, which are drawn from the soulknife power list.

A soulknife chooses his powers from the soulknife power list. At 3rd level, a soulknife knows one soulknife power of your choice. He learns new powers as indicated on Table: The Soulknife. Asoulknife can manifest any power that has a power point cost equal to or lower than his manifester level. The total number of powers a soulknife can manifest per day is limited only by his daily power points.

A soulknife never needs to prepare powers ahead of time; he draws them from his mind when needed. When a soulknife recovers his daily power points after resting, he may choose to rotate one or more powers he knows for new ones. These powers must always be chosen from the soulknife power list, and the maximum number of powers the soulknife may know at any one time in this fashion is listed on Table: The Gifted Blade. If a soulknife learns a power through other means, such as the Expanded Knowledge feat, the Mental Power blade skill, or psychic chirurgery, this power is known in addition to his normal powers. He may never exchange it for another power from the soulknife list when he chooses his powers known, and it doesn’t count against his limit of powers known at any one time.

The Difficulty Class for saving throws against soulknife powers is 10 + the power’s level + the soulknife’s Wisdom modifier.

Through 2nd level, a soulknife has no manifester level. At 3rd level and higher, a soulknife’s manifester level is equal to his soulknife level –2.

A soulknife gains the ability to learn 1st-level powers at 3rd level. Every four levels thereafter (7th, 11th, etc), a soulknife gains the ability to master more complex powers, up to 4th level powers at level 15.

To learn or manifest a power, a soulknife must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + the power’s level.

A soulknife’s ability to manifest powers is limited by the power points he has available. His base daily allotment of power points is given on Table: Soulknife. In addition, he receives bonus power points per day if he has a high Wisdom score. His race may also provide bonus power points per day, as may certain feats and items. If a soulknife has power points from a different class, those points are pooled together and usable to manifest powers from either class.

martial blade recovery (Su)

At 4th level, psionic channels established during manifestation of a mind blade may allow reclamation of bursts of foreign psychic energy caused by the defeat of an opponent. These bursts of energy can be used to invigorate the mind of the war soul and restore his resolve and skill. If the war soul reduces a living opponent (possessing 1⁄2 HD or more and an Intelligence score of 3 or higher) to 0 hit points or less, as a swift action the character may recover either a single expended maneuver or his psionic focus. The war soul must be using a mind blade to recover maneuvers in this fashion.

fast augmentation

At 5th level, the augmented blade can augment an item in her possession with her psicrystal as a free action once per round.

weapon training (Ex)

At 6th level, the augmented blade gains weapon training, as the fighter ability, adding an additional weapon group every six levels after 6th (to a maximum of three groups at 18th level) and increasing the bonus on attack and damage rolls for weapon groups chosen by +1.

fighter training (Ex)

At 7th level, the augmented blade counts her soulknife level –3 as her fighter level for the purpose of qualifying for feats. If she has levels in fighter, these levels stack.

mind blade mastery

At 20th level, a soulknife reaches the pinnacle of his art and his connection to his blade is so strong it cannot be severed. She no longer requires a Will save to maintain his mind blade in a null psionics field, although it still loses any enhancement bonus and special abilities. In addition, he may change the configurations of his mind blade’s special abilities at will as a full-round action, which also resets any penalties that may have accrued from the Fluid Form and Improved Fluid Form blade skills.