Soulknife (High Psionics, War Soul)

Path of War: Expanded

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Path of War

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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.

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, mind blade

Armor Proficiencies

Light, Medium

Shield Proficiencies

Shields

bonus feat

The soulknife may choose Power Attack, Two-Weapon Fighting, or Weapon Focus (mind blade) as a bonus feat at 1st level.

form mind blade (Su)

As a move action, a soulknife can form a semi-solid weapon composed of psychic energy distilled from his own mind.

A soulknife must choose the form of his mind blade at 1st level. He can either form it into a light weapon, a one-handed weapon, or a two-handed weapon. Once chosen, his mind blade stays in this form every time the soulknife forms his mind blade. The light weapon deals 1d6 points of damage, the one-handed weapon deals 1d8 points of damage, and the two-handed weapon deals 2d6 points of damage. All damages are based on a Medium- sized creature wielding Medium-sized weapons; adjust the weapon damage as appropriate for different sized weapons. In all forms, the mind blade has a critical range of 19-20/x2. A soulknife with powerful build or any similar ability forms an appropriately-sized mind blade dealing the size-appropriate amount of damage.

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

Regardless of the weapon form a soulknife has chosen, his mind blade does not have a set damage type. When shaping his weapon and assigning abilities to it, the soulknife chooses whether it will deal bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage. The soulknife may change the damage type of an existing mind blade, or may summon a new mind blade with a different damage type, as a full-round action; otherwise, the mind blade retains the last damage type chosen every time it is summoned.

The blade can be broken (it has hardness 10 and 10 hit points); however, a soulknife can simply create another on his next move action. The moment he relinquishes his grip on his blade, it dissipates (unless he intends to throw it; see below). A mind blade is considered a magic weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction and is considered a masterwork weapon.

A soulknife can use feats such as Power Attack or Combat Expertise in conjunction with the mind blade just as if it were a normal weapon. He can also choose his mind blade for feats requiring a specific weapon choice, such as Weapon Focus and Improved Critical. Powers or spells that upgrade weapons can be used on a mind blade. The soulknife can use feats such as Weapon Finesse that work on light weapons with his mind blade, but such feats only work on mind blades in a light weapon form.

Even in places where psionic effects do not normally function (such as within a null psionics field), a soulknife can attempt to sustain his mind blade by making a DC 20 Will save. On a successful save, the soulknife maintains his mind blade for a number of rounds equal to his class level before he needs to check again, although the mind blade is treated for all purposes as a non-magical, masterwork weapon while in a place where psionic effects do not normally function. On an unsuccessful attempt, the mind blade vanishes.

As a move action on her turn, the soulknife can attempt a new Will save to rematerialize his mind blade while he remains within the psionics-negating effect. He gains a bonus on Will saves made to maintain or form his mind blade equal to the total enhancement bonus of his mind blade (see below).

The soulknife chooses the appearance of his mind blade, although its shape must reflect the selections the soulknife has chosen: a bludgeoning mind blade would be blunt, slashing would have an edge, etc.

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.

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.

throw mind blade

All soulknives have some knowledge of how to throw their mind blades, though the range increment varies by form and the largest of blade forms cannot be thrown. Light weapon mind blades have a range increment of 20 ft. One-handed weapon mind blades have a range increment of 15 ft. Two-handed weapon mind blades cannot be thrown without the Two-Handed Throw blade skill. Whether or not the attack hits, a thrown mind blade then dissipates.

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, 6th level, 8th level, 12th level, and every even soulknife level thereafter, a soulknife 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.

enhanced mind blade

A soulknife’s mind blade improves as the character gains higher levels. At 3rd level and every odd level thereafter, the mind blade gains a cumulative +1 enhancement bonus that he may spend on an actual enhancement bonus or on weapon special abilities. A soulknife’s level determines his maximum enhancement bonus (see Table: The Soulknife). The soulknife may (and must, when his total enhancement is higher than his maximum bonus) apply any special ability from the table below instead of an enhancement bonus, as long as he meets the level requirements. A soulknife can choose any combination of weapon special abilities and/or enhancement bonus that does not exceed the total allowed by the soulknife’s level, but he must assign at least a +1 enhancement bonus before assigning any special abilities.

If the soulknife shapes his mind blade into two items, the enhancement bonus of his mind blade (if any) is reduced by 1 (to a minimum of 0). If this would reduce the enhancement bonus on the mind blades to 0 and weapon special abilities are applied, the soulknife must reshape his mind blade to make the options valid. Both mind blades have the same selection of enhancement bonus and weapon special abilities (if any). This penalty does not apply when using the Mind Shield blade skill.

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.

quick draw

A 5th level soulknife may manifest his mind blade as a free action, though he may still only attempt to do so once per round (unless throwing the weapon multiple times using the Multiple Throw blade skill).

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.