Soulcrafter (3.5e Class)

Soulcrafter

Soulcrafter is a flexible, front-line martial combatant, able reconfigure his feats, skills, and equipment to suit a variety of combat situations. A soulcrafter manifests soulcrafted weapons, armor, and tools to suit whatever enemy he faces or whatever obstacle he must overcome. Soulcrafter is a great class for players who want to play a powerful martial combatant who creates his own magical blade, but also want an extremely customizable class with many options. Soulcrafter is also a good choice for players who don’t want to be restricted by per-day or per-encounter limits on their powers such as power points, maneuvers, or spell slots. The soulcrafter replaces the soulknife class.

The soulcrafter recognizes that the world he perceives with his senses is merely a shadow of the idealized, true world, an existence populated by ideas in their truest and most perfect Forms. He devotes himself to contemplating the perfection of these Forms, which cannot be understood or observed, but must be grasped intuitively. Harnessing his psionic potential, he can manifest shadows of the true Forms of Creation, equipping himself with weapons, armor, and tools according to his needs.

Making a Soulcrafter

A soulcrafter is a front-line martial combatant, able to go toe-to-toe with the toughest monsters his party faces. Depending on your augments and soulcrafts, you might be a traditional sword-and-board defender, or a striker who deals damage with paired melee weapons, a powerful two-handed weapon, or a ranged weapon. Outside of combat, a soulcrafter is a versatile character able to do a little bit of everything, much like a factotum, bard or rogue, although he lacks the bard's persuasive magic or the rogue's ability to handle traps. Experienced soulcrafters make decent scouts, and can almost always find a way to help out a party's specialists at any task that doesn't involve spellcasting.

Abilities: Wisdom is a soulcrafter's most important ability, since it determines how powerful his augmented weapons and armor can be. Soulcrafters also tend to rely heavily on their physical abilities scores, since they relish combat. Intelligence and Charisma are not especially important for most soulcrafters.

Races: The inborn gift for psionics is unpredictable, and it can show up in any of the common races. Of the races with a penchant for psionic ability xephs seem especially likely to end up as soulcrafters.

Among all other creatures, virtually no opportunity for soulknife training is available.

Alignment: Any.

Starting Gold: 5d4×10 gp (125 gp).

Starting Age: Simple.

Table: The Soulcrafter

Hit Die: d10

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special	Soulcrafts	Augments
		Fort	Ref	Will
1st	+0	+0	+2	+2	Augment soulcraft (least), soulcrafting, Weapon Focus (soulcraft weapons), Wild Talent	1	1
2nd	+1	+0	+3	+3	Empty mind, free draw, ranged soulcraft	2	2
3rd	+2	+1	+3	+3	Psychic Strike	2	3
4th	+3	+1	+4	+4	Bonus feat	3	4
5th	+3	+1	+4	+4	Whisper from the soul	3	5
6th	+4	+2	+5	+5	Augment soulcraft (lesser)	3	6
7th	+5	+2	+5	+5	Bladewind	4	7
8th	+6/+1	+2	+6	+6	Bonus feat	4	8
9th	+6/+1	+3	+6	+6	Augment soulcraft (greater)	4	9
10th	+7/+2	+3	+7	+7	Evade burst	4	10
11th	+8/+3	+3	+7	+7	Knife to the Soul	5	11
12th	+9/+4	+4	+8	+8	Augment soulcraft (dark), Bonus feat	5	12
13th	+9/+4	+4	+8	+8	Psychic strike (full attack)	5	13
14th	+10/+5	+4	+9	+9	Hustle	5	14
15th	+11/+6/+1	+5	+9	+9	Augment soulcraft (fearsome)	5	15
16th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+10	+10	Bonus feat	6	16
17th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+10	+10	Bladestorm	6	17
18th	+13/+8/+3	+6	+11	+11	Augment soulcraft (epic)	6	18
19th	+14/+9/+4	+6	+11	+11	Fission	6	19
20th	+15/+10/+5	+6	+12	+12	Bonus feat	6	20
Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level) A soulcrafter’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), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Soulcrafters are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, and with light armor and shields.

Augment Soulcraft (Su): A soulcrafter can attune his soulcrafts, granting them augments which make them more like the perfect Forms on which they are based. Augments come in six grades: least, lesser, greater, dark, fearsome, and epic. When you first learn to attune your soulcrafts, you can attune only least augments. As you advance in level, you can attune more powerful augments, as shown on Table: The Soulcrafter. Some of your more powerful augments even allow you to create unique creations similar to your soulcrafts. Your manifester level for using augments is equal to your soulcrafter level.

Readying your augments requires 5 minutes of meditation, during which you contemplate the perfection of the ideal. You may ready a number of augments equal to your level. Once you have selected your augments, you manifest the augments whenever you manifest a soulcraft. To augment a soulcraft, you must a have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + the number of augments the soulcraft will have. You can apply any augment you have readied, although no soulcraft can have more augments than your maximum number of soulcrafts. Applying augments to a soulcraft does not increase the time required to manifest it.

Soulcrafting (Su): By contemplating the ideal Forms of creation, a soulcrafter can manifest shadows of these Forms as soulcrafts. As a move action, you can manifest a soulcraft, which appears as semisolid object composed of psychic energy distilled from your own mind. A soulcraft must be a solid object or collection of related objects no more than 25 pounds in weight, and can be any weapon or armor or any mundane piece of gear, including tools and skill kits. To manifest a weapon or armor, you must be proficient in its use. To manifest a tool or skill kit, you must have at least 1 rank in its associated skill. For example, you might soulcraft a longsword, a crossbow, a tent (complete with stays and pegs), a portable ram, a set of thieves’ tools, a sunrod, or 200 ft of silk rope with an attached grappling hook. A soulcrafted item must be nonmagical, though it can be alchemical in nature. "Edible" soulcrafts have no taste and do not provide sustenance. You cannot soulcraft a gas, liquid, or powder, nor can you soulcraft items made from exotic materials, such as darkwood or mithril (but see the exotic soulcrafting augment, below).

How it works: Soulcrafts are identical in all ways (except visually) to normal objects of their type, having normal weight, texture, hardness, and hit points. However, because they are shadows of the ideal Forms of Creation, they are always of the highest possible quality; weapons, armor, and tools are of masterwork quality, locks are of amazing strength, etc. Soulcrafts detect as psionic items of the Metacreativity (creation) discipline, with an effective manifester level equal to your own.

While you can soulcraft almost any device that you've seen and are familiar with, there are limits; you must know what you want (for example, you've handled or used one before), and if it is difficult to use (such as a sword, spyglass, or rope), you must know how to use it (have an appropriate proficiency or a rank in a relevant skill). You don't need to know how to craft the object yourself with the Craft skill, but you can't soulcraft an unknown or unfamiliar item. For example, you can soulcraft a copy of a key that you've handled before, or a set of masterwork lockpicks, but you can't soulcraft "the key that unlocks this lock" when confronted with a locked door whose key you've never seen. Likewise, if you have at least 1 rank in Knowledge (dungeoneering), you could soulcraft a scroll or book containing general advice on safely exploring a dungeon (the perfect tool for the job, granting a +2 circumstance bonus on your Knowledge checks), but you couldn't soulcraft "a map of this dungeon" if you haven't explored it yet and don't know what lies ahead. Your DM is the ultimate arbiter of what items you can and cannot soulcraft.

To manifest a soulcraft, you must have a Wisdom score of at least 11 + the number of augments you are already maintaining. At 1st level, you can only maintain one soulcraft at a time. As you advance in level, you learn to maintain additional soulcrafts, as shown on the table above. If you attempt to manifest a soulcraft when you are already maintaining your maximum number of soulcrafts, you must choose one of your existing soulcrafts which is automatically dismissed. A soulcraft lasts until you dismiss it (as a free action), but vanishes the moment it leaves your immediate possession (but see ranged soulcraft, below).

Even in places where psionic effects do not normally function (such as in a null psionics field) a soulcrafter can attempt to maintain his soulcrafts by making a DC 20 Will save. On a successful save, you maintain your forms for 1 minute before you need to save again. Once per round, you can also make a DC 20 Will save to manifest a new soulcraft within such an area.

Weapon Focus: A soulcrafter gains Weapon Focus as a bonus feat; it applies to any weapons he soulcrafts.

Wild Talent: A soulcrafter gains Wild Talent as a bonus feat.

Empty Mind (Ex): At 2nd level, a soulcrafter’s psionic discipline allows him to defend himself without thought. Add your Wisdom bonus to your AC when wearing light or no armor.

Free Draw (Su): At 2nd level, a soulcrafter gains the ability to manifest soulcrafts as a free action, instead of a move action. When combined with your ranged soulcraft ability (below), this allows you to use your full iterative attacks with thrown soulcraft weapons.

Ranged Soulcraft (Su): A soulcrafter of 2nd level or higher can throw his soulcraft weapons as ranged weapons with a range increment of 30 feet. Whether or not the attack hits, the thrown weapon then dissipates. If the soulcrafter is using a ranged soulcraft weapon that requires ammunition, the weapon now manifests masterwork ammunition for itself composed of the same semisolid psychic energy as his soulcraft items, and he no longer needs to spend actions to reload.

Psychic Strike (Su): As a move action, a soulcrafter of 3rd level or higher can charge himself with psychic energy. The next time you strike a living, nonmindless target with a soulcraft weapon, you can discharge your psychic strike to deal an extra 1d8 points of damage per point of enhancement bonus the weapon has.

At 13th level, when you discharge your psychic strike as part of a full attack action, the bonus damage affects every other strike you make that round, until the beginning of your next turn.

Bonus Feat: At 4th level, and again every four levels thereafter, you gain a bonus feat, which can be any psionic feat or any fighter bonus feat. You must meet any prerequisites

Whisper From the Soul (Su): In times of duress, a soulcrafter of 5th level or higher can draw on his psionic reserve to suddenly focus his energies. As a swift action, you may expend your psionic focus to either charge your psychic strike or replace one of your readied augments with a different augment of your choice. If you replace a readied augment, you may immediately reselect augments for all of your currently manifested soulcrafts.

Bladewind (Su): At 7th level, a soulcrafter gains the ability to fragment his soulcraft weapons into numerous identical blades, each of which strikes at a nearby opponent.

As a full attack action while wielding one or more soulcraft weapons, you give up your normal attacks to fragment your soulcraft weapons and make one melee or ranged attack at your full attack bonus with each soulcraft weapon you wield against each opponent within reach, and one ranged attack with each weapon against each opponent within 30 ft whom you do not threaten. If you are wielding more than one weapon, you take the normal penalties for two-weapon fighting. Each fragment functions identically to the regular weapon. You forfeit any bonus attacks granted to you by effects such as haste, but you may still make additional attacks triggered by conditional effects such as the Cleave or Improved Trip feats.

Your soulcraft weapons immediately revert to their previous forms after the attack.

Knife to the Soul (Su): Beginning at 11th level, when a soulcrafter makes a psychic strike, he can forfeit any number of psychic strike bonus dice to deal Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma damage (his choice) equal to point per die forfeited. You gain 5 temporary hit points each time you deal ability damage in this fashion. These temporary hit points last for 1 hour.

You can decide on each successful psychic strike how many dice of damage and how many points of ability damage to deal, but you can’t deal ability damage to the same creature with knife to the soul more than once per round.

Evade Burst (Ps): Upon reaching 10th level, a soulcrafter can enhance his own Form, and gains the ability to manifest evade burst as an at-will psi-like ability = You throw off a faux ectoplasmic shell, allowing you to slide out of range of a damaging effect. When you manifest this power in conjunction with making a successful Reflex save against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, you instead take no damage.

You can manifest this power with an instant thought, quickly enough to save yourself if you unexpectedly come within range of a dangerous effect. Manifesting this power is an immediate action. You can even manifest this power when it isn’t your turn.

Hustle (Ps): Upon reaching 14th level, a soulcrafter continues to strengthen his own Form, and gains the ability to manifest hustle as an at-will psi-like ability = You gain an additional move action in the current round. Taking a full round’s worth of attacks and then using this power to move away from your foe does provoke attacks of opportunity.

You can manifest this power with an instant thought, quickly enough to gain the benefit of the power before you move. Manifesting the power is a swift action You cannot manifest this power when it isn’t your turn.

Bladestorm (Su): A soulcrafter of 17th level can now use bladewind as a standard action, although it still counts as making a full attack.

Fission (Ps): Upon reaching 19th level, a soulcrafter learns the greatest feat of manipulating his own Form: the ability to create a shadow of himself. You can expend your psionic focus to manifest fission as an at-will psi-like ability. Neither you nor your duplicate can regain a psionic focus until you have recombined. While fissioned, you divide your readied augments and your maximum number of soulcrafts between you and your duplicate. Your duplicate does not receive copies of your currently manifested soulcrafts. If the fission renders any of your augment choices on your current soulcrafts illegal, the illegal soulcraft is immediately dismissed.

Example: For example, a 20th level soulcrafter uses fission. The soulcrafter's 20 readied augments are divided between the soulcrafter and his duplicate, 10 to each, however his player likes. If any of his soulcrafts are attuned to augments that have been given to his duplicate, they are immediately dismissed. The soulcrafter's maximum number of soulcrafts is divided between the soulcrafter and his duplicate, so both the original character and the duplicate can now maintain three soulcrafts. If the soulcrafter is currently maintaining more than three soulcrafts, excess soulcrafts (player's choice) are immediately dismissed. Because the soulcrafter now has a maximum of three soulcrafts, each of his soulcrafts can now only be modified with three augments as well. If any of his soulcrafts have more than three augments (his new maximum), they are immediately dismissed. Both the soulcrafter and his duplicate can manifest soulcrafts separately for the duration of the fission.

SOULCRAFTER AUGMENTS

Readying your augments requires 5 minutes of contemplation, during which time you can do nothing else. If an augment requires you to select from a list of possible benefits, you make any decisions when you ready the augment. You may ready a particular augment more than once. Each time that you do, you must select a different benefit.

You can only apply an augment to soulcrafts for which it is a legal choice. For example, you cannot apply any special property to a nonmagical weapon or armor, apply an armor-specific special property to a weapon, or apply more than +10 in total enhancements to a non-epic soulcraft. If a special property requires a synergy property, sum the costs and benefits of all required synergies, and ready them as a single augment of the appropriate level. If a special property is usable a limited number of times per day, this limit is shared across all of your soulcrafts in common, regardless of how many soulcrafts you manifest or how many times you manifest a particular one.

Least Augments: Attune special property / Attune vision / Augment crystal shard / Augment enhancement bonus / Augment skill bonus / Soulcraft twin /

Lesser Augments: Attune feat / Attune hearing / Exotic soulcrafting / Minor creation, psionic / Manifesting Strike (Lesser)

Greater Augments: Attune movement / Dark way, psionic / Mass soulcrafting / Perfect hardness / Manifesting Strike (Greater) / Astral Strike

Dark Augments: Wall of ectoplasm

Fearsome Augments: Major creation, psionic / Manifesting Strike (Fearsome)

Epic Augments: True creation, psionic / Manifesting Strike (Epic)

SOULCRAFTER AUGMENT DESCRIPTIONS:

ATTUNE FEAT (Lesser) Select one feat whose prerequisites you meet. Special: If the feat requires one or more ranks in a skill or provides a bonus to a skill (such as Mounted Combat or Skill Focus), you may apply this augment to a tool or kit associated with that skill. If the feat requires a specific weapon or a specific class or type of armor or shield (such as Heavy Armor Optimization, Improved Shield Bash, or Weapon Specialization) you may apply it to a qualifying weapon, armor, or shield. You cannot select feats that do not require specific equipment (such as Combat Expertise or Power Attack). Your DM is the ultimate arbiter of whether a feat is sufficiently specific to a piece of equipment to qualify for this augment. Requires augment enhancement bonus or augment skill bonus, as appropriate.

Attune feat cannot be used to gain proficiency with a weapon or armor, since you must already be proficient with a piece of equipment in order to manifest it. Feats provided by attune feat cannot be used to meet prerequisites for any feat, prestige class, or other option, unless the feat is provided by another attune feat augment.

ATTUNE HEARING (Lesser) Select blindsight 20 ft, blindsense 40 ft, or tremorsense 60 ft. You may apply this augment to a tool associated with the Listen skill. Requires augment skill bonus.

ATTUNE MOVEMENT (Greater) Select Climb or Swim. You gain the indicated movement mode at a speed equal to your normal land speed. You may apply this augment to a tool or kit associated with Climb or Swim, as appropriate. Requires augment skill bonus.

MANIFESTING STRIKE (lesser) This augment can only be applied to weapons, specifically melee weapons created by your soul melding. When this augment is choses and attuned to a weapon, you pick a single power from the Psion/Wilder Power List. With the power attuned to the weapon, you can manifest the power on a successful melee attack as if it was a Wand Striking weapon, only for psionic powers and not spells. Once attuned this can only be used 1+Cha Mod in that battle unless you expend your Psionic Focus to Recharge the weapon. You may only chose a power from the 1st and 2nd levels of Psion powers.

ATTUNE SPECIAL PROPERTY (Least) Select one armor, shield, or weapon special property whose value is limited by your manifester level, as shown on the table below. You cannot apply more than +10 in total enhancements to a non-epic soulcraft, or +20 in total enhancements to an epic soulcraft. Requires augment enhancement bonus.

Special properties that you attune are extremely potent. If you wish, special properties may use your manifester level instead of the item's manifester level or spellcaster level, and may use 10 + spell or power level + your Wisdom modifier (for effects based on spells and powers) or 10 + 1/2 your soulcraft level + your Wisdom modifier (for other effects) when determining save DC.

ML armor or shield value weapon value 5 or lower +3,000 gp or a +1 bonus +6,000 gp or a +1 bonus 6 to 8 +8,000 gp or a +2 bonus +16,000 gp or a +2 bonus 9 to 11 +15,000 gp or a +3 bonus +30,000 gp or a +3 bonus 12 to 14 +24,000 gp or a +4 bonus +48,000 gp or a +4 bonus 15 to 17 +35,000 gp or a +5 bonus +70,000 gp or a +5 bonus 18 or higher +48,000 gp or a +6 bonus +96,000 gp or a +6 bonus

ATTUNE VISION (Least) Select all-around vision, darkvision 60 ft, or low-light vision. You may apply this augment to a tool associated with the Spot skill. Requires augment skill bonus.

MANIFESTING STRIKE (Greater) Same as the lesser, but now you can pick powers from the 3rd and 4th Level Psion Powers.

AUGMENT CRYSTAL SHARD (Least) Select a least weapon or armor augment crystal. When you attune a weapon or armor with this augment, the item bears a shard of crystal that bestows the augment power. Unlike normal augment crystals, this shard cannot be removed from the item.

If you have manifester level 6th or higher, you can instead select a lesser augment crystal. If you have manifester level 9th or higher, you can instead select a greater crystal.

ASTRAL STRIKE (Greater) This augment can only be applied to weapons, specifically melee weapons created by your soul melding. When this augment is attuned to a weapon, It buffs your Psychic Strike to have the ability to hit Multiple targets. For every point of enhancement bonus on the weapon, you can target another enemy within range (Your max movement speed) and an astral projected bursts from your from and aims to attack said target. Unlike your normal attack, the enemy targeted by your soul projection is allowed a reflex save for half damage, even if the projection rolls a crit and confirms it. At level 13, just like your Psychic Strike, this augment increases in ability. By rolling a Concentration check (DC 25) you can cause your body to shift into the poistion of the last projection that attacked, repositioning yourself on the battlefield.

AUGMENT ENHANCEMENT BONUS (Least) Select either an enhancement bonus to attack and damage, or an enhancement bonus to Armor Class. The augmented item receives a bonus equal to +1/3 manifester levels (minimum +1). Only weapons may receive a bonus to attack and damage. Only armors and shields may receive a bonus to Armor Class. Some items (such as shields and gauntlets), may be eligible for both variations of this augment. A soulcraft with this augment is a magic item, and a soulcraft weapon with this augment strikes as a magic weapon. A soulcraft with an enhancement bonus of +6 or greater is an epic item, and a soulcraft weapon with an enhancement bonus of +6 or greater strikes as an epic item.

AUGMENT SKILL BONUS (Least) Select a skill in which you have at least 1 rank. You gain a competence bonus to this skill equal to your level. You may apply this augment to a tool or kit associated with the indicated skill.

MANIFESTING STRIKE (Fearsome) Same as Lesser, but now you can pick from 5th and 6th level Psion Powers.

DARK WAY, PSIONIC (Lesser) While you have this augment readied, you can use psionic dark way as an at-will psi-like ability. Each use of this ability counts against the maximum number of soulcrafts you can maintain until the duration lapses or you dismiss the created object. Whenever you exchange this augment to ready another in its place, any objects you have created with it are dismissed immediately. Your dark way is composed of the same semisolid, distilled psychic energy as your soulcrafts.

EXOTIC SOULCRAFTING (Lesser) A soulcraft attuned to this augment functions as if crafted from one or more of the following exotic materials: adamantine, alchemical silver, cold iron, darkwood, mithril. Depending on the campaign, you may be able to select additional exotic construction materials such as astral driftmetal, bronzewood, leafweave, soarwood, urdrukar, or other exotic materials. Check with your DM to see which materials are available. If the exotic material changes the weight of your soulcraft, use the adjusted weight when determining whether the object is light enough to manifest.

MAJOR CREATION, PSIONIC (Fearsome) As dark way, psionic, except the psi-like ability gained is psionic major creation. Items you create are composed of the same semisolid, distilled psychic energy as your soulcrafts.

MASS SOULCRAFTING (Greater) While this augment is readied, you can use a single activation of psionic minor creation or psionic major creation (provided you also have those augments readied) to create up to one item or small collection of items per manifester level, no two of which may be more than 30 ft apart. The items must collectively remain within the normal volume limit of the effect and must be thematically related, such as a brace of swords, several quiversful of arrows, a table and chairs, a set of bowls and utensils, a forge and its various implements, and so forth. If you use psionic major creation to create objects of different durations (such as a wooden table topped with golden plates and cutlery), the entire effect uses the duration of the most perishable substance created. When you ready another augment in place of this one, any mass soulcrafts you are currently maintaining are immediately dismissed.

MINOR CREATION, PSIONIC (Lesser) As dark way, psionic, except the psi-like ability gained is psionic minor creation. Items you create are composed of the same semisolid, distilled psychic energy as your soulcrafts.

PERFECT HARDNESS (Greater) Regardless of its apparent construction, a soulcraft with this augment is immune to damage of all kinds. However, disintegrate immediately destroys it, as does a rod of cancellation, a sphere of annihilation, or a Mordenkainen’s disjunction spell.

SOULCRAFT TWIN (Least) You may apply this augment to a light or one-handed soulcraft weapon. The weapon divides itself into two identical copies, both of which have the same augments. Your manifester level is reduced by 3 when determining the benefit you can receive from other augments on a soulcraft twin.

MANIFESTING STRIKE (Epic) Same as Lesser, but now you can pick from the 7th and 8th level Psion Powers.

TRUE CREATION, PSIONIC (Epic) While you have this augment readied, you can use psionic true creation as an at-will psi-like ability. Items you create are normal items of their type and have their normal appearance. You must pay the xp cost as normal.

WALL OF ECTOPLASM (Dark) As dark way, psionic, except the psi-like ability gained is wall of ectoplasm. Your wall of ectoplasm is composed of the same semisolid, distilled psychic energy as your soulcrafts.

Campaign Information

Playing a Soulcrafter

Religion: Soulcrafters who prefer to worship sometimes choose deities such as St. Cuthbert (deity of retribution) or Heironeous (deity of valor). Evil crafters often follow Erythnul, delighting in their ability to slaughter with the power of their minds.

Other Classes: Soulcrafters are most comfortable with those who have similarly aggressive bents, such as monks, fighters, and paladins. They are less comfortable with psychic warriors (perhaps due to a feeling of competition), spellcasters, psions, and wilders, though a Soulcrafter can discipline himself to manage almost any relationship.

Combat: More than any other psionic class, the Soulcrafter fights with psionic power directly in both melee and ranged combat. Strength, combat prowess, and psionic talent allow the Soulcrafter to claim equal footing -- at least -- with any other combat-oriented class on the field of battle.

Soulcrafters in the World

“	“You think I am unarmed just because you see no weapons and armor donned on my form? I have my mind. I have more of a readied arsenal than you all ever will....	”
—Amuntenkamen, A Sphinx Soulcrafter

Daily Life: While caution and forethought go into a soulcrafter's preparation for adventure, most have a hard time restraining their natural bravado and showmanship. After all, how many adventurers can dispatch opponents with a blade materialized from pure thought? Thus, for many soulcrafters, adventuring presents an opportunity to do what they love most: Wield the idealized weapon wrought of their innermost desires..

Notables: Xerxes the Soulcrafter.

Organizations: Many who have the ability and desire to mix the manifestation of psionic power with military might become psychic warriors, but for those with the right mix of talent and skill, the way of the soulcrafter is more alluring. Soulcrafters are trained for the most part by older, more experienced soulcrafters.

NPC Reactions: <-How NPCs react to PCs of this class->.

Soulcrafters in the Game

As a soulcrafter, you have two primary strengths. The first is your combat prowess; with powerful magic weapons and armor, a full base attack bonus, a d10 hit die, two good saves, and access to many fighter bonus feats, you're one of the most capable and sturdy combatants in the party. The second is your versatility; you need only a few minutes to completely change your equipment and focus, which allows you to contribute to almost any situation if you have a little time to prepare.

All that versatility can actually be an obstacle, however, since you might easily become overwhelmed with all of the options available to you. If you play a soulcrafter, it's a good idea to prepare several standard tactics beforehand so that you don't slow down gameplay or leave your friends waiting for you while you try to decide which augments to ready.

SOULCRAFTS Soulcrafts are the most visible manifestation of your abilities, although they aren't powerful by themselves; it's your augments that give them real strength. It's obvious enough to use your soulcrafts to create masterwork weapons and armor for yourself, but don't forget that you can create tools as well and gain a +2 circumstance bonus to most skill checks for having the perfect tool for the job. You can also create common dungeoneering items that to help overcome obstacles in a dungeon, such as a portable ram to help break down a door or a grappling hook attached to a length of knotted rope to aid in climbing out of a pit.

While your soulcrafts can reproduce almost any sort of gear you can imagine, don't rely on them too exclusively! At low levels, you can only maintain one or two at a time, so you'll still need a backpack full of adventuring gear, and perhaps some armor and a secondary weapon. Also, remember that the 25 lb. weight limit restricts what you can soulcraft, although that restriction is eased somewhat once you can attune the exotic soulcraft augment and make your gear out of darkwood or mithril.

AUGMENTS Your augments are the real strength of your class, and the source of most of your power. Your first augment will probably be augment enhancement bonus, to provide your soulcrafted weapon with a +1 enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls, or perhaps soulcraft twin, to duplicate that weapon and provide yourself with a pair of masterwork-quality weapons for two-weapon fighting. Once you reach higher levels, you'll likely ready augment enhancement bonus again, this time selecting a +1 AC bonus to improve your soulcrafted armor (and shield as well, if you have one). As you advance in level and gain the ability to ready more augments, you'll likely ready several copies of attune feat, improving your weapon, armor, or shield so that it grants you advanced combat techniques.

Augments aren't all about combat, however. If you soulcraft a tool or kit associated with a particular skill, you can augment it with augment skill bonus to gain a substantial bonus to that skill, and augment it further with attune feat so that it grants you access to advanced skill-based feats. At lower levels, you'll have to choose between outfitting yourself for combat or readying yourself for skill use, but at higher levels, you have enough augments and soulcrafts to do both at once.

COMBAT At low levels, your best tactic is to soulcraft and augment a magic weapon for yourself, charge yourself with psychic strike if you have it, and take the fight to the enemy. You may not have much AC at 1st level, but your large supply of hit points should help you survive until 2nd level. At 2nd level, you'll be able to add your Wisdom bonus to AC and augment both your weapon and your armor at the same time, so go ahead and take to the front line. As you move up in level, begin to think more tactically about what sort of special properties might help you against your foes. For example, consider readying attune special property (bane) if you know which type of monster you'll be facing, as it will greatly increase your effectiveness. Likewise, if you expect to face incorporeal opponents, attune special property (ghost touch weapon) is a strong choice.

Once you receive Whisper From the Soul at 5th level and the ability to attune lesser augments at 6th level, your options increase dramatically. You can ready feats such as Skill Focus or Weapon Specialization using your attune feat augment, and you can expend your psionic focus to change one of your readied augments in the middle of a fight when facing an unexpected challenge. At this point, you may want to consider taking the Psionic Meditation feat so you can recover your psionic focus more quickly; since it requires Concentration, you can attune it into an appropriate soulcraft using attune feat.

BOOKKEEPING Because you can potentially attune almost any armor or weapon property in the game, and can attune many feats and skills as well, you have a lot of options to consider. To speed up game-play, keep lists of standard special properties and feat choices that you like. For example, if you have a 6th level soulcrafter who prefers to fight with a longbow, you might notate attune feat (weapon specialization: longbow), attune special property (distance), and augment enhancement as your "archery tree". Keeping these notes can streamline the process of choosing your augments, which ensures that other players aren't sitting around waiting for you to pick your augments every time the party rests.

Since you have so many special properties and feats to choose from, you might want to write the name, prerequisites, effects, and page reference of your commonly used choices on index cards. With these "augment cards", you won't need to slow down combat by paging through sourcebooks to find out how a special property works, and if your DM has a question about a particular choice, you can immediately provide the sourcebook and page number where it is found, or just pass the card over for the DM to read.

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