I am a newer player and my 2nd character I am playing is Riggs (Igor Riggsputen) Human Variant Started 2 lvls Ranger and 1 Rouge with going gloom stalker for ranger and soulknife for the rouge, I know a lot revolves around combat But I feel this character will be the survivor he is intended to be. I took Alert feat for Human V, and Archery for Fighting style, Ive debated taking sharpshooter but we have an assassin rouge in the party already, so I was thinking the Psychic blades seem interesting and I could switch to thrown weapon fighting to keep the damage close to the long bow, or Dueling if I need to get up close. I appreciate any suggestions,
For context, I'm currently playing a Soulknife up to level 6, straight rogue. Most of the Soulknife core abilities you can think of as just amplifying what a normal rogue can do. Rogues get a lot of skills, Psybolstered Knack doubles down and makes it that much easier to make your skill checks. With expertise and the Knack, you will be pretty much the best at your choice of skills, bar none. Rogues are often the ones to sneak ahead and scout for the party, having 1 mile telepathy makes it that much easier to do it with immediate communication. Rogues need to hit at least once per turn to make use of sneak attack, having two attacks by default and the 9th lvl homing strikes later make it easier to hit that sneak attack every turn. Having easy access to both ranged and melee in a "good" damagetype makes you fairly versatile in combat in terms of the tactics you have available to you. In general, the psychic abilities just make you super consistent at getting successes on the d20 and it can be a lot of fun when the die rolls fail and you have that "but wait, I have another chance" moments.
One interesting thing for your particular situation, if you're going to be allowed to change your fighting style, because the psyblade vanish immediately after use and the bonus action blade doesn't manifest until after the first one is gone, RAW, dueling works for both knives, melee or thrown, so unless you plan to also use regular throwing knives at some point its strictly better than the Thrown Weapons style. It's a bit counterintuitive so check with your DM to make sure they are fine with that interpretation but it can work that way.
For context, I'm currently playing a Soulknife up to level 6, straight rogue. Most of the Soulknife core abilities you can think of as just amplifying what a normal rogue can do. Rogues get a lot of skills, Psybolstered Knack doubles down and makes it that much easier to make your skill checks. With expertise and the Knack, you will be pretty much the best at your choice of skills, bar none. Rogues are often the ones to sneak ahead and scout for the party, having 1 mile telepathy makes it that much easier to do it with immediate communication. Rogues need to hit at least once per turn to make use of sneak attack, having two attacks by default and the 9th lvl homing strikes later make it easier to hit that sneak attack every turn. Having easy access to both ranged and melee in a "good" damagetype makes you fairly versatile in combat in terms of the tactics you have available to you. In general, the psychic abilities just make you super consistent at getting successes on the d20 and it can be a lot of fun when the die rolls fail and you have that "but wait, I have another chance" moments.
One interesting thing for your particular situation, if you're going to be allowed to change your fighting style, because the psyblade vanish immediately after use and the bonus action blade doesn't manifest until after the first one is gone, RAW, dueling works for both knives, melee or thrown, so unless you plan to also use regular throwing knives at some point its strictly better than the Thrown Weapons style. It's a bit counterintuitive so check with your DM to make sure they are fine with that interpretation but it can work that way.
Take 2 levels in Knowledge Domain Cleric and be the best at ANY skill hands down for 10 minutes.
Having easy access to both ranged and melee in a "good" damagetype makes you fairly versatile in combat in terms of the tactics you have available to you.
This is the single thing soulknives are worst at: melee tactics. Naturally, you can get around the problems by avoiding using your psychic blades, but the biggest crippler is that you can't OA with psychic blades, and on top of that, buffs that target weapons - like Magic Weapon and Elemental Weapon - don't work on them. They're also not great at ranged tactics, since the latter problem persists, and on top of that, if you're using the bonus action throw, you are presumably relying on a nearby ally, not stealth, for the sneak attack, but you lack the ability to ignore cover (since as soon as you take Sharpshooter, your knives are a worse plan than light crossbow + stealth), and your range is a relatively shabby (for a ranged output specialist) 60 feet, but there's no question soul knives are much, much better sticking to ranged combat than trying to mix it up in melee. That lack of OA is cripplingly bad for melee.
I don't know any DM who wouldn't allow a rogue opportunity attacks with psychic blades. Sure its a house rule, but it is clearly an oversight. Maybe I'm just lucky with my DM's
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I am a newer player and my 2nd character I am playing is Riggs (Igor Riggsputen) Human Variant Started 2 lvls Ranger and 1 Rouge with going gloom stalker for ranger and soulknife for the rouge, I know a lot revolves around combat But I feel this character will be the survivor he is intended to be. I took Alert feat for Human V, and Archery for Fighting style, Ive debated taking sharpshooter but we have an assassin rouge in the party already, so I was thinking the Psychic blades seem interesting and I could switch to thrown weapon fighting to keep the damage close to the long bow, or Dueling if I need to get up close. I appreciate any suggestions,
https://youtu.be/soFvLKtpIaw
For context, I'm currently playing a Soulknife up to level 6, straight rogue. Most of the Soulknife core abilities you can think of as just amplifying what a normal rogue can do. Rogues get a lot of skills, Psybolstered Knack doubles down and makes it that much easier to make your skill checks. With expertise and the Knack, you will be pretty much the best at your choice of skills, bar none. Rogues are often the ones to sneak ahead and scout for the party, having 1 mile telepathy makes it that much easier to do it with immediate communication. Rogues need to hit at least once per turn to make use of sneak attack, having two attacks by default and the 9th lvl homing strikes later make it easier to hit that sneak attack every turn. Having easy access to both ranged and melee in a "good" damagetype makes you fairly versatile in combat in terms of the tactics you have available to you. In general, the psychic abilities just make you super consistent at getting successes on the d20 and it can be a lot of fun when the die rolls fail and you have that "but wait, I have another chance" moments.
One interesting thing for your particular situation, if you're going to be allowed to change your fighting style, because the psyblade vanish immediately after use and the bonus action blade doesn't manifest until after the first one is gone, RAW, dueling works for both knives, melee or thrown, so unless you plan to also use regular throwing knives at some point its strictly better than the Thrown Weapons style. It's a bit counterintuitive so check with your DM to make sure they are fine with that interpretation but it can work that way.
Take 2 levels in Knowledge Domain Cleric and be the best at ANY skill hands down for 10 minutes.
This is the single thing soulknives are worst at: melee tactics. Naturally, you can get around the problems by avoiding using your psychic blades, but the biggest crippler is that you can't OA with psychic blades, and on top of that, buffs that target weapons - like Magic Weapon and Elemental Weapon - don't work on them. They're also not great at ranged tactics, since the latter problem persists, and on top of that, if you're using the bonus action throw, you are presumably relying on a nearby ally, not stealth, for the sneak attack, but you lack the ability to ignore cover (since as soon as you take Sharpshooter, your knives are a worse plan than light crossbow + stealth), and your range is a relatively shabby (for a ranged output specialist) 60 feet, but there's no question soul knives are much, much better sticking to ranged combat than trying to mix it up in melee. That lack of OA is cripplingly bad for melee.
I don't know any DM who wouldn't allow a rogue opportunity attacks with psychic blades. Sure its a house rule, but it is clearly an oversight. Maybe I'm just lucky with my DM's