Soulknife Undead Hunter (3.5e Optimized Character Build)

Introduction

This came forth after a discussion[See: Arguement] in where I was defending the 'underpowered, lame class'. I decided to build this using my actual character sheet in my DM's undead heavy campaign.

A slow-starting build that will be able to hold it's own in any undead-centric campaign, especially mid-level and beyond.

References

Dungeon Master's Guide(DMG)
Player's Handbook(PHB)
Expanded Psionics Handbook(EPH)
Complete Psionics(CP)

Items

No additional magic items or armor were used here. Currently equipped with a masterwork chainshirt, two daggers[in case of arrest, his daggers will be taken. That is their entire purpose], a backpack, some bedrolls, a lantern, and candles.

Items that boost STR, CHA, attack bonus, and the like will be of value to this build.

Progression

Starting Ability Scores (Before Racial Adjustments):
Primary Stats:
STR: Needed for your to hit bonus, damage bonus. This is primarily a melee class. I'd recommend 15+
WIS: Used primarily for your Auto-hypnosis skill. Grants power points for Psychic Warrior Class. You want at least a 13 to qualify for some of the feats.

Secondary:
CON: Boost in health and some skills. I'd recommend 13+
CHA: Pumps up the save DC for your Illumine Soul abilities. So long as the modifier is +0 or greater by character level ten, it's all good.

Tertiary:
INT: Boosts your Know(Psionics), you need 8 true ranks here, and 4 in Know(Religion) to qualify for Illumine Soul.
DEX:Boosts AC and skills such as Tumble. Useful for avoiding AoO's

You can swap STR and DEX if you plan on getting Weapon Finesse for your mind blade. I'd recommend against it, as you're already hurting for feats as is.

Race (Templates):
Humans
Dwarves
Gnomes
Halflings

Starting Racial Traits:
Human: Bonus Feat
Dwarves: +2 CON, have plenty of useful combat traits and resistances.
Gnomes: +2 CON, innate magical ability, allowing for more tricks in and out of combat.
Halflings: +2 DEX, +1 for thrown weapons, Great when using the throw mind blade class feature

ECL	Class/HD/LA	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Feats	Class Features	Special
			Fort	Ref	Will
1st	Soulknife1	+0	+0	+2	+2	Psionic Body*; Up The Walls*; Weapon Focus(Mind Blade)^; Wild Talent^	Mind Blade	Mind Blade manifests as short sword
2nd	Soulknife2	+1	+0	+3	+3	N/A	Throw Mind Blade	N/A
3rd	Soulknife3	+2	+1	+3	+3	Mind Cleave*	Psychic Strike +1d8	Move action to imbue, Mind Blade retains charge until successful attack; Affects all living, non-mindless creatures
4th	Soulknife3/ Psychic Warrior1	+2	+3	+3	+3	Psionic Meditation*	Force Disc**	Ability Point(Rec: STR; CHA; or WIS)
5th	Soulknife3/ Psychic Warrior2	+3	+4	+3	+3	Mind Strike, Focused*	Skate**	N/A
6th	Soulknife3/ Psychic Warrior2/ Illumine Soul1	+3	+6	+3	+5	Improved Initiative*	+1 Mind Blade; Psychic Strike +2d8	Improved Mind Blade; Positive Energy Conduit(Psychic Strike now affects all undead as well as living, non-mindless creatures)
7th	Soulknife3/ Psychic Warrior2/ Illumine Soul2	+4	+7	+3	+6	N/A	Positive Energy Ray; Death Ward	Positive Energy Ray: Deals 2d6 damage per class level(max 10d6) upon successful ranged touch attack against single undead target
8th	Soulknife3/ Psychic Warrior2/ Illumine Soul3	+5	+7	+4	+6	N/A	Mind Blade Enhancement +1; Undead Mind Bane	Ability Point(Rec: STR; CHA; or WIS); Mind blade is permanently enhanced with undead bane(DMG p.224)
9th	Soulknife3/ Psychic Warrior2/ Illumine Soul4	+6/+1	+8	+4	+7	Psionic Weapon*	Psychic Strike +3d8; Positive Energy Healing	Positive Energy Healing: When dropped to 0 or few HP, you are automatically healed for 5d8+5 HP. This action is automatic, and timely enough to prevent you from dying, so long as it leaves you with -9 HP or greater.
10th	Soulknife3/ Psychic Warrior2/ Illumine Soul5	+6/+1	+8	+4	+7	N/A	+2 Mind Blade; Positive Energy Flare	Positive Energy Flare: Deals 2d6 damage per class level(max 10d6) to all undead within 30' of you when activated. Will save(DC 10+Illumine Soul Class levels+CHA mod) for half damage
11th	Soulknife3/ Psychic Warrior3/ Illumine Soul5	+7/+2	+8	+5	+8	N/A	Expansion**	N/A
12th	Soulknife3/ Psychic Warrior4/ Illumine Soul5	+8/+3	+9	+5	+8	Practiced Manifester*	Hustle**	Ability Point(Rec: STR; CHA; or WIS)
13th	Soulknife3/ Psychic Warrior5/ Illumine Soul5	+8/+3	+9	+5	+8	Expanded Knowledge*	Dimension Hop**; Dimension Swap**	Expanded knowledge grants one additional power
14th	Soulknife4/ Psychic Warrior5/ Illumine Soul5	+9/+4	+9	+6	+9	N/A	N/A	N/A
15th	Soulknife5/ Psychic Warrior5/ Illumine Soul5	+9/+4	+	+	+	Mind Empowerment*; Shape Mind Blade^; Free Draw	Mind Blade Enhancement +2	N/A
16th	Soulknife6/ Psychic Warrior5/ Illumine Soul5	+10/+5	+10	+7	+10	Speed of Thought^	N/A	Ability Point(Rec: STR; CHA; or WIS)
17th	Soulknife7/ Psychic Warrior5/ Illumine Soul5	+11/+6	+10	+7	+10	N/A	+3 Mind Blade; Psychic Strike +4d8	N/A
18th	Soulknife8/ Psychic Warrior5/ Illumine Soul5	+12/+7	+10	+8	+11	Greater Psionic Weapon*	N/A	N/A
19th	Soulknife9/ Psychic Warrior5/ Illumine Soul5	+12/+7	+11	+8	+11	Greater Weapon Focus(Mind Blade)	Bladewind; Mind Blade Enhancement +3	N/A
20th	Soulknife10/ Psychic Warrior5/ Illumine Soul5	+13/+8	+11	+9	+12	N/A	N/A	Ability Point(Rec: STR; CHA; or WIS)

• Feats marked with the carat(^) are granted by the class

  Feats Marked with the asterisk(*) are my recommendations

Reasons for my choices:
Autonomous: Boosts Autohypnosis and Know(Psionics)
Up The Walls: Ability to run on walls and ceilings
Mind Strike, Focused: Expend Psionic Focus when imbuing mind blade with psychic strike to deal additional 1d8 damage on psychic strike
Psionic Meditation: Meditate to regain Psionic Focus as a move action instead of a Full-Round Action
Mind Cleave: Automatically Recharges your psychic strike when you drop a non-mindless foe
Mind Empowerment: Same as Mind Cleave, but for three rounds, or until next successful attack(whichever occurs first), gain additional 1d8 damage on Psychic Strike
Psionic Weapon: Expend focus to deal an additional 2d6 damage on next attack, additional damage is lost if attack misses
Psionic Body: +2HP for every Psionic feat you have or obtain, including this one
Greater Psionic Weapon: Expend focus to deal an additional 4d6 damage on next attack in place of Psionic Weapon's +2d6, additional damage is lost if attack misses

Other Components

The order in which the feats are taken really only depend on when you qualify and some personal preference. You could take Psionic Body earlier, or you could also swap out one feat early on for Armor Proficiency: Medium to be able to better take a hit, but then again, your focus in combat is more along the lines of not getting hit, as opposed to soaking.

Another idea is to pick up the run feat, allowing you to move along the walls or ceiling at an accelerated rate, then Flaring to take out the center mass of huddled undead without provoking AoO's.

Highlights

This build works on the idea of destroying undead. Not fighting, not defeating, but destroying, obliterating. At higher levels, you may see yourself having a contest of skill reminiscent of Gimli and Legolas' ongoing arguement with your cleric or paladin. If anyone in your group is playing an undead or necromancer, well... Y'all'll have problems, plain and simple.

Munchkin-Size Me

Instead of Prestiging with Illumine Soul, you could multi with Fighter for a large amount of feats and combat boosts, basically becoming the death tank.

If anyone else sees opportunity I missed, please, add it here. Yocu can also prestige with manifest soul if there is no undeads in your campaign.

Side Notes

If you're coming up on a room full of undead, Run to the center and Flare. You'll soften up most, if not all of the corpses, maybe destroying some at the same time. Then it's just a matter of straight combat.

Limitations

Range isn't too limiting of a factor, thanks to the Throw Mind Blade ability. Any areas with mindless, non-undead creatures, however, are your downfall.

DM Counters

First and fore-most: Magic-Psionics Transparency. Allow anti-magic field and null psionics field to effect their own and the other interchangeably.
Mindless, living creatures(constructs, oozes, slimes, etc.) take away the edge this build has. Massive swarms of really low level undead can take out the Sk/IS, even at higher levels(local necromancers and Lichs getting mad at him? Have them all team up to swarm him.).

Miscellaneous

If anything is noticed...

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