Reposting from the old boards, because I want to use it in a campaign and I don't want it to go up in a puff of smoke if the old boards do.
The SoulknifeA soulknife is... well, go read the Expanded Psionics Handbook. They got the fluff right, if I recall, at any rate. You're a person who can make a sword out of your mind and beat the everliving crap out of your foes with nothing more than your willpower made manifest. That's about it.
Alignment: Any
Hit Die: d8
Class Skills: The soulknife’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Autohypnosis (Wis), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Spot (Wis), and Tumble (Dex).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4+Int Modifier)x4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4+Int Modifier
BAB Fort Ref Will Abilities
1 +1 +0 +2 +2 Mind blade, Mind blade prowess
2 +2 +0 +3 +3 Hidden talent, Evasion
3 +3 +1 +3 +3 Psychic strike +1d8
4 +4 +1 +4 +4 Bonus feat
5 +5 +1 +4 +4 Free draw, Mental cloak
6 +6 +2 +5 +5 Mind blade modification
7 +7 +2 +5 +5 Psychic strike +2d8
8 +8 +2 +6 +6 Bonus feat
9 +9 +3 +6 +6 Bladewind
10 +10 +3 +7 +7 Improved Evasion
11 +11 +3 +7 +7 Psychic strike +3d8
12 +12 +4 +8 +8 Bonus Feat
13 +13 +4 +8 +8 Knife to the Soul
14 +14 +4 +9 +9 Mental blind
15 +15 +5 +9 +9 Psychic strike +4d8
16 +16 +5 +10 +10 Bonus feat
17 +17 +5 +10 +10 Telekinetic dampening
18 +18 +6 +11 +11 Mental suppression
19 +19 +6 +11 +11 Psychic strike +5d8
20 +20 +6 +12 +12 Bonus feat, Unyielding will
Class FeaturesAll the following are class features of the soulknife.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Soulknives are proficient with all simple weapons, martial weapons, and with light and medium armor and shields (except tower shields).
Mind Blade (Su): Each soulknife has the ability to coalesce a weapon from the substance of his mind alone. As a move action, a soulknife can create his mind blade. At 1st level, he chooses a single weapon with which he is proficient to be the form his mind blade takes. His mind blade is identical to that weapon in all ways, except that it is visually different, weightless, and has other properties described in this entry. At each odd level thereafter, he can choose to change his mind blade to a different weapon with which he is proficient if he so desires, but otherwise his mind blade always manifests as the same weapon. When a soulknife chooses which weapon to use, he also chooses its size, taking any appropriate penalties for improperly sized weapons if applicable. The wielder of a mind blade gains the usual benefits to his attack roll and damage roll from a high Strength bonus.
The blade can be broken (it has hardness 10 and 10 hit points); however, a soulknife can simply create another with his next move action. The moment he relinquishes his grip on his blade, it dissipates unless he intends to throw it, in which case the weapon lasts just long enough before discorporating harmlessly (regardless of the result of the attack roll) for the attack to be made before reappearing the soulknife’s hand, allowing him to make as many attacks as his base attack bonus would entitle him to with a thrown mind blade. A thrown mind blade has a range increment equal to that of the normal weapon plus 5 feet, is never considered an improvised thrown weapon, and a soulknife can make use of his Psychic Strike or Knife to the Soul abilities in conjunction with a throw. A mind blade is considered a magic weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
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 mind blade for feats requiring a specific weapon choice, such as Weapon Specialization, in which case these feats apply to his mind blade no matter what form it takes. Powers or spells that target or otherwise apply to weapons can be used on a mind blade.
At 2nd level, a soulknife becomes better able to focus his mental energies, and his mind blade is treated as a masterwork weapon, granting the normal +1 enhancement bonus on attack rolls. To upgrade his mind blade further, a soulknife must make use of normal item crafting rules, treating his mind blade as a normal manufactured weapon of its type. While a crafter is improving the weapon, the soulknife must be present for the entire time and have manifested his mind blade.
At 7th level, a soulknife can designate his mind blade as a single type of special material for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction and regeneration. He can change this choice with 8 hours of meditation.
At 14th level, a soulknife chooses a single alignment that does not oppose his own on either axis, and his mind blade is considered a weapon of that type for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction and regeneration. This choice may never be changed.
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. On an unsuccessful attempt, the mind blade vanishes. As a move action on his turn, the soulknife can attempt a new Will save to rematerialize his mind blade while he remains within the psionics negating effect.
Mind Blade Prowess: A soulknife wields his very mind as a weapon. Understandably, this gives him unparalleled control over his mind blade, allowing him to duplicate abilities otherwise only possible through decades of training. A soulknife qualifies for feats that have a minimum number of Fighter levels as though he were a Fighter of his class level –4, with a minimum of 1. If a feat requires a specific weapon choice, he must choose his mind blade. If a feat only works with certain types of weapons or damage, it now works only with his mind blade and only so long as his mind blade is treated as that weapon type or deals that damage type. Although a 1st level soulknife lacks power points, he is still a psionic creature and can qualify for [Psionic] feats, and can maintain a psionic focus.
Hidden Talent: A 2nd level soulknife gains a single 1st level power known from the Psychic Warrior list. He manifests this power as though he had a manifester level equal to his class level, and he gains 2 power points per class level (including 1st level). For the purposes of determining saving throw DCs and other aspects of the power, the soulknife designates Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as the ability score to be used. This choice can never be changed.
Evasion (Ex): Whenever subjected to an effect that allows a Reflex save for half damage, a soulknife of 2nd level or higher takes no damage on a successful save so long as he is wearing medium, light, or no armor. See the Rogue class feature.
Psychic Strike (Su): As a swift action, a soulknife of 3rd level or higher can imbue his mind blade with powerful destructive energy. This effect deals an extra 1d8 points of damage to the next target he successfully hits with his mind blade. Mindless creatures are immune to this extra damage, but even other creatures immune to mind-affecting effects are vulnerable to this lethal psychic power. A mind blade deals this extra damage only once when this ability is called upon, but a soulknife can imbue his mind blade with psychic energy again by taking another swift action.
Once a soulknife has prepared his blade for a psychic strike, it holds the extra energy until it is used. Even if the soulknife drops the mind blade (or it otherwise dissipates, such as when it is thrown and misses), it is still imbued with psychic energy when the soulknife next materializes it.
At every four levels beyond 3rd (7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th), the extra damage from a soulknife’s psychic strike increases by 1d8 points of damage.
Bonus Feat: At 4th level and every 4th level thereafter, a soulknife gains a bonus feat. He can choose any [Psionic] or [Fighter] feat for which he qualifies.
Free Draw (Ex): At 5th level, a soulknife becomes able to materialize his mind blade as a free action instead of a move action. He can make only one attempt to materialize the mind blade per round, however.
Mental Cloak (Su): At 5th level, a soulknife learns to mislead the senses of others. He can hide even without cover or concealment in any terrain, but only from creatures that are not mindless. Creatures that are mindless follow the normal rules for spotting a character attempting to hide (that is, they automatically succeed unless the character has cover or concealment). As normal, he must not be being observed at the time (but see Mental Blind below).
Mind Blade Modification (Su): At 6th level, a soulknife gains the ability to influence the enhancement of his mind blade. By spending 8 hours in meditation, he can remove any number of enhancement bonuses or effective enhancement bonuses on his mind blade and replace them with special abilities with an equal value in effective enhancement bonuses to the total of those removed. He cannot affect weapon special abilities that do not have an effective enhancement bonus value, nor can he affect bonuses granted by spell effects. He can apply any of the special abilities from the following list, using his own class level for the manifester level of the ability if necessary. It may be appropriate to allow a soulknife to permanently lose a quality from this list to replace it with one from another source of the same effective enhancement bonus.
The weapon ability or abilities remain the same every time the soulknife materializes his mind blade for the next 24 hours after his meditation is completed, at which point they revert to their normal values.
Weapon Special Ability Enhancement Bonus Value
Defending +1
Keen +1
Lucky +1
Mighty cleaving +1
Psychokinetic +1
Sundering +1
Vicious +1
Collision +2
Mindcrusher +2
Psychokinetic burst +2
Suppression +2
Wounding +2
Bodyfeeder +3
Mindfeeder +3
Soulbreaker +3
Bladewind (Su): At 9th level, a soulknife gains the ability to momentarily fragment his mind blade into numerous identical blades, generating a burst of whirling shards.
As a standard action, the soulknife can generate a cloud of mind blade fragments in either a line 5 feet long per 2 class levels or in a 5 ft per 4 class levels radius. Both effects are bursts with their point of origin being the soulknife, although he is of course immune to the effects of his own Bladewind. Creatures caught in the area take damage as though struck by the soulknife’s mind blade, including bonus damage from a high Strength score and any other damage modifiers that might apply to the soulknife's attack, with a Reflex save to halve the damage. A soulknife can channel his Psychic Strike damage through this attack, and it affects all creatures struck by it, albeit at reduced power (one die of damage less than the mind blade was originally imbued with).
The mind blade immediately reverts to its previous form after the bladewind attack.
Improved Evasion (Ex): Beginning at 10th level, whenever a soulknife is subjected to an effect that allows a Reflex save for half damage, he still takes no damage on a successful save, but even a failed saving throw results in half damage (as though he had succeeded on his save and did not have Evasion). See the Rogue class feature, except a soulknife must be wearing medium, light, or no armor to benefit from this ability (rather than just light or no armor).
Knife to the Soul (Su): Beginning at 13th level, while a soulknife has infused his mind blade with the energy for a psychic strike, he can take a move action to substitute Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma damage (his choice) for extra dice of damage. For each die of extra damage he gives up, he deals 1 point of damage to the ability score he chooses. A soulknife can combine extra dice of damage and ability damage in any combination. Mindless creatures are immune to this ability damage.
The soulknife decides which ability score his psychic strike damages and the division of ability damage and extra dice of damage when he takes the move action, and the effect remains until the next strike made with the mind blade, just as Psychic Strike.
Mental Blind (Su): At 14th level, a soulknife’s ability to cloud the senses of others allows him to hide even while being observed, but only from creatures that are not mindless. Because of his Mental Cloak ability, he can hide without cover or concealment, even while being observed.
Telekinetic Dampening (Su): At 17th level, a soulknife can exercise his mind’s power to still any clothing he wears and even the air around him. He ignores any armor check penalties imposed by armor with which he is proficient, and can move at full speed without taking penalties to Hide or Move Silently checks.
Mental Suppression (Su): At 18th level, a soulknife can conceal his mind as well as his body. He gains the benefit of a continuous
psionic mind blank effect, as the power of the same name. This ability also renders him invisible to such supernatural, spell-like, or psi-like senses as the Lifesense special ability of some undead, but not Extraordinary means of special perception, such as some forms of blindsight or scent. It also protects against the Mindsight feat and senses granted by spells or powers.
Unyielding Will (Ex): A 20th level soulknife’s mind blade is immune to sundering attempts and cannot be suppressed or broken by any means, even a
null psionics field.