Disguise, Wild Shape, Soulmelds, and you

[StreamOfTheSky]

I have some questions about soulmelds from Magic of Incarnum and how they work.

1. Can you "turn off" the meld and back on as needed, in any way shape or form?  Basically ALL of them have stark, very notable visual effects and in social/infiltration/disguise situations I would not want them on display.

2. If you can't turn them off temporarily, can they be hidden, covered up, etc...?  Either by magic or mundane means?

3. How do soulmelds work with wild shape, given that they are worn and take body slots like items, with the fact that wild shape makes all worn items meld into your form and become nonfunctional?

[StreamOfTheSky]

Man, no one knows how the hell Incarnum works!     

[Garryl]

I have some questions about soulmelds from Magic of Incarnum and how they work.

1. Can you "turn off" the meld and back on as needed, in any way shape or form?  Basically ALL of them have stark, very notable visual effects and in social/infiltration/disguise situations I would not want them on display.

I don't know of any way for them to just disappear. Unshaping and reshaping soulmelds is also usually pretty time-consuming.

2. If you can't turn them off temporarily, can they be hidden, covered up, etc...?  Either by magic or mundane means?

Wear a heavy cloak over them, maybe? This sounds like something the Disguise skill ought to cover, but doesn't.

3. How do soulmelds work with wild shape, given that they are worn and take body slots like items, with the fact that wild shape makes all worn items meld into your form and become nonfunctional?

Unless you lose the body slots entirely, the soulmelds will remain functional. They aren't actually magic items, so they shouldn't meld with your new form.


Please take the above with a few grains of salt. I'm working from memory about something I never think about in a book that I've only read a couple of times and don't actually own.

[Jackinthegreen]

I've gone through MoI a few more times than Garryl it seems, but I mostly agree with that assessment though I have some things to add.

1:  Soulmelds can't simply be turned off then on at will since the rules for shaping and binding them are pretty clear it's something you can usually do only once a day.  Sure they could be unshaped, but that looks like it means you can't benefit from it for the rest of the day until you meet the criteria for being able to shape soulmelds again.  Also note that even if a meld doesn't have any essentia invested in it, it is still quite noticeable.

2: There seem to be no rules for covering them up or otherwise disguising them.  There probably should be though given certain situations, so it's worth it to ask a DM about.  Some of the melds are not only noticeable, they also give away alignment.

3:Garryl hit it spot on as far as I can tell.  Soulmelds might occupy a slot like an item, but are not themselves items and thus they would work in wild shape and such, provided the creature has the equivalent slots to actually have the melds bound in the first place.  Check MoI page 169 for details about specific slots, and the differences between chakras and item slots for various creatures.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Huh, oh well, then.  I can't seem to ever delve into MoI without it letting me down and me wondering why I wasted all the time reading through it.  No explicit way to conceal the melds is crazy, and unfortunately my DM is pretty by-the-book, so I'm not going to bother asking for a houserule.

I made a master of disguises character, Changeling WS Ranger Master of Many Forms, and thought a meld might be useful to spend my spare feat on.  But wow... I guess the writers of MoI never considered PCs spend time outside the dungeon.  Even most magic items, which can at least be taken off and shoved in a bag or handy haversack, aren't as blatant visually as the melds.

Thanks for the help anyway...