Here's what I'm thinking so far.
Energy Claws [Cybernetic]
Prerequisites: Energy Beam.
Benefits: You can project your Energy Beam in a new form, as a set of claws. The claws commonly manifest as a spiky energy field around the backs of your hands, starting just above your wrist and extending slightly past your fingertips, although this does not impede your ability to hold objects, use hand-slot items, or otherwise use your hands. As claws, your energy beam functions as a claw natural weapon. By default, it deals magic, piercing, and slashing damage affected by damage reduction, and has a critical threat range of 20/x2. Despite being a natural weapon, it is still considered a masterwork weapon, so you retain the +1 enhancement bonus on attack rolls with your energy claws.
Special: Your activator level increases by +1, to a maximum of your total Hit Dice.
Energy Fangs [Cybernetic]
Prerequisites: Energy Beam.
Benefits: You can project your Energy Beam in a new form, as a set of fangs. The fangs commonly manifest as a jagged mask of energy around your face, although this does not impede your ability to see, speak, use face- and helm-slot items, or otherwise use your head. As fangs, your energy beam functions as a bite natural weapon. By default, it deals magic, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage affected by damage reduction, and has a critical threat range of 20/x2. Despite the fact that energy fangs are not held in a hand, you must still have a hand free to project them initially. Despite being a natural weapon, it is still considered a masterwork weapon, so you retain the +1 enhancement bonus on attack rolls with your energy fangs.
Special: Your activator level increases by +1, to a maximum of your total Hit Dice.
Energy Lash [Cybernetic]
Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus +1, Energy Beam.
Benefits: You can project your Energy Beam in a new form, as a whip-like stream of energy. As an energy lash, your energy beam functions as a two-handed melee weapon. By default, it deals magic, slashing damage affected by damage reduction, and has a critical threat range of 20/x2.
An energy lash has reach, so you can strike opponents twice as far away as normal with it. In addition, unlike most other weapons with reach, it can be used against foes within your normal reach.
You can use an energy lash to make trip attacks. If you are tripped during your own trip attempt, you can drop the energy lash to avoid being tripped.
When using an energy lash, you get a +2 bonus on opposed attack rolls made to disarm an opponent (including the roll to keep from being disarmed if the attack fails).
You can use the Weapon Finesse feat to apply your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier to attack rolls with an energy lash sized for you, even though it isn’t a light weapon for you.
Special: Your activator level increases by +1, to a maximum of your total Hit Dice.
(Spiked chain for energy beams.)
I'm also trying to work up the following:
- A way to combine the claws and fangs together (since you can only have one form of energy beam projected at a time), and then to add on more natural attacks (a set of tentacles or something). Why should Totemists get all the natural attack fun?
- A sort of summoning thing, where you turn your energy beam into a semi-autonomous beast like an animal companion. You would not be able to use your energy beam normally while this was in effect.
- A general sort of thing to let you have multiple forms of your energy beam projected at once.
- A generic damage boost for energy beam attacks.
I'm also asking myself the Soulknife question about whether to just give access to forms of all weapons with which you are proficient. This would be a rewrite of the baseline Energy Beam mechanics, which I've been thinking about looking at anyways.
- I had asked a similar question (whether to use a Monk-like damage progression and make it size-based instead of the current size-independent version) when I originally wrote the Energy Warrior class.
- The innate damage scaling might be unnecessary. At most levels, Energy Beam damage already gets roughly +1d6 more damage bonus than a Scout's Skirmish from baseline energy emitter modules, yet doesn't have to jump through hoops to make full attacks with that bonus damage. The extra +4d6 damage over 20 levels seems kinda unnecessary in that regard. On the other hand, you do lose out on weapon properties other than straight enhancement bonuses. On the other other hand, module abilities make up for it.
- Working off of existing weapons feels more elegant than having to write up specific forms.
- It's also an elegant way to add weapon size scaling for damage back in (it doesn't make as much sense when dealing with nd6 damage expressions).
- I need to rewrite a couple parts of Energy Beam anyways (the bits about "magic" damage should be replaced with some text saying that it always counts as a cybernetic weapon, and thus can bypass DR/cybernetic, DR/magic, DR/psionic, and affect incorporeal, even if it doesn't have an enhancement bonus).
On an unrelated note, I need to add a rule that says module-created objects share an energy receptacle with the module that created them.
