After playing a session as a soulknife, it's a lot better for scouting than I expected. It's a pretty good middleground between an assassin and a scout type
Where I have not read through the other 2 subclasses, I did go through the Rogue Phantom subclass because my player for my campaign asked if he could use it.
On first read through, it seems too powerful starting at level 3. I feel like it is giving a 3rd level character free magical weapons at their disposable, respectively. And I'm not entirely sure how the Psionic Talent die would work during playtime. I would be more inclined to let my player use this subclass if it was based similar to that of the Monk's Ki. So at level 3 the player gets 3 uses of "Psychic Ki". The player can get those uses back after a short rest like the Monk. And as the player levels up, he/she will gave 1 additional use per level.
The other thing I would tweak is making "Psychic Blades" feature for Level 6, not Level 3, so that the player doesn't get 2 powerful features at level 3. The rest of the subclass features are good as is, but I would drop the "unless you decrease your Psionic Talent die by one die size to use this feature again" since in the modified version I would use would have check use boxes instead of relying on dice roles.
Let me throw my hat into this. So I have an idea, but I wanna bounce this idea off you guys.
So from the new book Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, the Soul Knife Rogue's psychic Blades feature reads:
"You can manifest your psionic power as shimmering blades of psychic energy. Whenever you take the Attack action, you can manifest a psychic blade from your free hand and make the attack with that blade. This magic blade is a simple melee weaponwith the finesse and thrown properties. It has a normal range of 60 feet and no long range, and on a hit, it deals psychic damage equal to 1d6 plus the ability modifier you used for the attack roll. The blade vanishes immediately after it hits or misses its target, and it leaves no mark on its target if it deals damage.
After you attack with the blade, you can make a melee or ranged weapon attack with a second psychic blade as a bonus action on the same turn, provided your other hand is free to create it. The damage die of this bonus attack is 1d4, instead of 1d6."
Now if I may, allow me to direct you to the relevant entry from the Player's Handbook section of Monks Marial Art's feature. Quote:
"At 1st level, your practice of martial arts gives you mastery of combat styles that use unarmed strikes and monk weapons, which are shortswords and any simple melee weapons that don’t have the two-handed or heavy property. "
So I ask you gentlemen and/or ladies, Can you increase the Soulknife's Psychic Blade's damage die with the monk's Martial Art's feature, basically turning the Psychic Blade into a 1D10 Force damage light thrown weapon? And if the answer is yes, can you do the same for the 1D4 bonus action Psychic Blade?
I love the SoulKnife rogue subclass, I think it's a good subclass. It's not great though, and I'm surprised that it doesn't scale very well. It drops off pretty soon, not to say that it's not a fun or cool subclass, but the damage output sort of peters off. Dealing 2d6 and 1d4 plus mods psychic damage at higher tiers of play isn't very good, and I'm curious as to why they don't scale. Overall I love the Soulknife and despite it's scaling issues, I think it's super cool.
Let me throw my hat into this. So I have an idea, but I wanna bounce this idea off you guys.
So from the new book Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, the Soul Knife Rogue's psychic Blades feature reads:
"You can manifest your psionic power as shimmering blades of psychic energy. Whenever you take the Attack action, you can manifest a psychic blade from your free hand and make the attack with that blade. This magic blade is a simple melee weaponwith the finesse and thrown properties. It has a normal range of 60 feet and no long range, and on a hit, it deals psychic damage equal to 1d6 plus the ability modifier you used for the attack roll. The blade vanishes immediately after it hits or misses its target, and it leaves no mark on its target if it deals damage.
After you attack with the blade, you can make a melee or ranged weapon attack with a second psychic blade as a bonus action on the same turn, provided your other hand is free to create it. The damage die of this bonus attack is 1d4, instead of 1d6."
Now if I may, allow me to direct you to the relevant entry from the Player's Handbook section of Monks Marial Art's feature. Quote:
"At 1st level, your practice of martial arts gives you mastery of combat styles that use unarmed strikes and monk weapons, which are shortswords and any simple melee weapons that don’t have the two-handed or heavy property. "
So I ask you gentlemen and/or ladies, Can you increase the Soulknife's Psychic Blade's damage die with the monk's Martial Art's feature, basically turning the Psychic Blade into a 1D10 Force damage light thrown weapon? And if the answer is yes, can you do the same for the 1D4 bonus action Psychic Blade?
i'd say no personally. Primarily because while your making a weapon out of it your really attacking with a bit of mental energy that just happens to take that kind of form to work with the rogue's base class features without having to get too bogged down in rules specifics to make them work. But I'm sure there are DM's out there that you could talk into it.
The question is if the tradeoff is worth it. You need to go for a lot of monk levels to go to the 1d10 and many of the monk abilities require melee (flurry of blows for example) or already use the Bonus action. The use you get out of a 3 level dip into rogue is not that big since many of your abilities doubleup.
The question is if the tradeoff is worth it. You need to go for a lot of monk levels to go to the 1d10 and many of the monk abilities require melee (flurry of blows for example) or already use the Bonus action. The use you get out of a 3 level dip into rogue is not that big since many of your abilities doubleup.
Another problem being that a weapon that vanishes by the end of your turn actually works againt some of the features of the kensai by not being in your hand when it's not your turn such as Agile Defense, and using powers that would effectively enchant it either don't work because they are already considered magical or would be pointless to use anyway because they would disappear by the end of your turn. The weapon from the shadow blade spell only marginally dealing with one of these issues.
If no one noticed... the Dueling fighting style AND the thrown weapon fighting style work for the blades. Sure it will eat up two ASIs(or 1 plus a fighter dip) but if you can grab both you can add a flat +4 to both of your attacks.
I’ve had a character I’ve been fiddling with for a while who has the “Noble” background, and is like a diplomat.
They’re delicate, refined, cultured, proper, and very eloquent...and they look & dress professionally or like royalty.
...but secretly they are VERY deadly, and willing to commit espionage or assassination if peace-talks fail to work.
The Soulknife Rogue provides an interesting opportunity to demonstrate this concept...
Say a negotiation with a particularly nasty fellow goes badly...suddenly this diplomat assassinates them during a meal with their spectral knife, leaving no wound.
”Oh, dear...someone come quick! I think he’s had a heart attack...!”
The perfect crime.
And Rogue expertise helps boost “Persuasion”, “Intimidation” & “Deception” for such a character.
I figured an Eloquence Bard might be better...but the Soulknife Rogue is tempting me.
Sounds like fun, I think multiclassing with a Warlock might be a good option then as well, since you want high charisma anyway. And then getting mask of many faces, and a familiar.
With the actual release of Soulknife has anyone had issue with the Soulknives disappearing after your turn? My thoughts are that if you get a chance at AoO (Albeit a bit rare) that you wont have a weapon to use to get sneak attack.
I started with the UA Soulknife, and played that for a couple of months before Tasha's released, and then upgraded to the official version. The UA psi talent die was interesting, but I'm happy with how the official version turned out.
I started the character as an Arcane Trickster, and switched over to SK; spells gave a lot of options/versatility. The teleport is great, and adding to an attack roll or ability check is very nice. But, the teleport doesn't come around until 9th level, which seems to take forever (at least in this game :) )
That being said, i do think the class just needs a little.... extra something. Like an enhancement bonus to the PsiBlades (similar to cantrip progression), or allow the blades to receive the enhancement bonus of a magic weapon the character has on them. Or the die type of the blades could increase as the character levels.
I'm looking at pairing Whisper Bard with Soulknife for the scaling psychic damage to pair with sneak attack, psychic blades. The idea is an unarmed assassin type build with Bard spells. What would be a good split on the multi? I'm thinking Soulknife 3/Bard the rest.
I guess you could say that you had a burst of psychic power in your past and have been fruitlessly trying to use it again. That way you could explain why your abilities don’t show up until 3rd level and still have a cool backstory with your powers.
So i had a question should i allow one of my players to use poison on the psychic blades?
Should you? entirely up to you and how you want to balance your campaign. It definitely isn't RAW though, the blades only exist when you're attacking with them.
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After playing a session as a soulknife, it's a lot better for scouting than I expected. It's a pretty good middleground between an assassin and a scout type
I did NOT eat those hikers.
Where I have not read through the other 2 subclasses, I did go through the Rogue Phantom subclass because my player for my campaign asked if he could use it.
On first read through, it seems too powerful starting at level 3. I feel like it is giving a 3rd level character free magical weapons at their disposable, respectively. And I'm not entirely sure how the Psionic Talent die would work during playtime. I would be more inclined to let my player use this subclass if it was based similar to that of the Monk's Ki. So at level 3 the player gets 3 uses of "Psychic Ki". The player can get those uses back after a short rest like the Monk. And as the player levels up, he/she will gave 1 additional use per level.
The other thing I would tweak is making "Psychic Blades" feature for Level 6, not Level 3, so that the player doesn't get 2 powerful features at level 3. The rest of the subclass features are good as is, but I would drop the "unless you decrease your Psionic Talent die by one die size to use this feature again" since in the modified version I would use would have check use boxes instead of relying on dice roles.
That's my 2¢
Let me throw my hat into this. So I have an idea, but I wanna bounce this idea off you guys.
So from the new book Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, the Soul Knife Rogue's psychic Blades feature reads:
"You can manifest your psionic power as shimmering blades of psychic energy. Whenever you take the Attack action, you can manifest a psychic blade from your free hand and make the attack with that blade. This magic blade is a simple melee weapon with the finesse and thrown properties. It has a normal range of 60 feet and no long range, and on a hit, it deals psychic damage equal to 1d6 plus the ability modifier you used for the attack roll. The blade vanishes immediately after it hits or misses its target, and it leaves no mark on its target if it deals damage.
After you attack with the blade, you can make a melee or ranged weapon attack with a second psychic blade as a bonus action on the same turn, provided your other hand is free to create it. The damage die of this bonus attack is 1d4, instead of 1d6."
Now if I may, allow me to direct you to the relevant entry from the Player's Handbook section of Monks Marial Art's feature. Quote:
"At 1st level, your practice of martial arts gives you mastery of combat styles that use unarmed strikes and monk weapons, which are shortswords and any simple melee weapons that don’t have the two-handed or heavy property. "
So I ask you gentlemen and/or ladies, Can you increase the Soulknife's Psychic Blade's damage die with the monk's Martial Art's feature, basically turning the Psychic Blade into a 1D10 Force damage light thrown weapon? And if the answer is yes, can you do the same for the 1D4 bonus action Psychic Blade?
I love the SoulKnife rogue subclass, I think it's a good subclass. It's not great though, and I'm surprised that it doesn't scale very well. It drops off pretty soon, not to say that it's not a fun or cool subclass, but the damage output sort of peters off. Dealing 2d6 and 1d4 plus mods psychic damage at higher tiers of play isn't very good, and I'm curious as to why they don't scale. Overall I love the Soulknife and despite it's scaling issues, I think it's super cool.
i'd say no personally. Primarily because while your making a weapon out of it your really attacking with a bit of mental energy that just happens to take that kind of form to work with the rogue's base class features without having to get too bogged down in rules specifics to make them work. But I'm sure there are DM's out there that you could talk into it.
Yes you can. It is similar to Shadow Blade which you can also make into a monk weapon. It can slo become a Kensei weapon
https://www.sageadvice.eu/2017/12/06/can-the-weapon-from-the-shadow-blade-spell-be-chosen-as-a-kensei-weapon/
The question is if the tradeoff is worth it.
You need to go for a lot of monk levels to go to the 1d10 and many of the monk abilities require melee (flurry of blows for example) or already use the Bonus action. The use you get out of a 3 level dip into rogue is not that big since many of your abilities doubleup.
Another problem being that a weapon that vanishes by the end of your turn actually works againt some of the features of the kensai by not being in your hand when it's not your turn such as Agile Defense, and using powers that would effectively enchant it either don't work because they are already considered magical or would be pointless to use anyway because they would disappear by the end of your turn. The weapon from the shadow blade spell only marginally dealing with one of these issues.
I was only pointing out that RAW and RAI and Sage advice it should work.
And agree that its not a good fit and see no real reason to actually do it.
Changeling soulknife with 1 level in shadow sorcerer and glamoured studded leather....very scary assassin.
If no one noticed... the Dueling fighting style AND the thrown weapon fighting style work for the blades. Sure it will eat up two ASIs(or 1 plus a fighter dip) but if you can grab both you can add a flat +4 to both of your attacks.
I’ve had a character I’ve been fiddling with for a while who has the “Noble” background, and is like a diplomat.
They’re delicate, refined, cultured, proper, and very eloquent...and they look & dress professionally or like royalty.
...but secretly they are VERY deadly, and willing to commit espionage or assassination if peace-talks fail to work.
The Soulknife Rogue provides an interesting opportunity to demonstrate this concept...
Say a negotiation with a particularly nasty fellow goes badly...suddenly this diplomat assassinates them during a meal with their spectral knife, leaving no wound.
”Oh, dear...someone come quick! I think he’s had a heart attack...!”
The perfect crime.
And Rogue expertise helps boost “Persuasion”, “Intimidation” & “Deception” for such a character.
I figured an Eloquence Bard might be better...but the Soulknife Rogue is tempting me.
Sounds like fun, I think multiclassing with a Warlock might be a good option then as well, since you want high charisma anyway. And then getting mask of many faces, and a familiar.
With the actual release of Soulknife has anyone had issue with the Soulknives disappearing after your turn? My thoughts are that if you get a chance at AoO (Albeit a bit rare) that you wont have a weapon to use to get sneak attack.
I discussed this with my dm and he allowed me to do a AoO with the soulknife anyway.
Alternatively
Say you are two handed and have a knife in your left hand.
Attack with Soulknife in right hand
Free action move knife to right hand
Attack with BA Soulknife in left hand
Still have normal knife in hand for AoO
Glad your DM sees the value in it. Honestly it seems a bit like an oversight but your solution makes sense with the dagger...just seems odd.
I started with the UA Soulknife, and played that for a couple of months before Tasha's released, and then upgraded to the official version. The UA psi talent die was interesting, but I'm happy with how the official version turned out.
I started the character as an Arcane Trickster, and switched over to SK; spells gave a lot of options/versatility. The teleport is great, and adding to an attack roll or ability check is very nice. But, the teleport doesn't come around until 9th level, which seems to take forever (at least in this game :) )
That being said, i do think the class just needs a little.... extra something. Like an enhancement bonus to the PsiBlades (similar to cantrip progression), or allow the blades to receive the enhancement bonus of a magic weapon the character has on them. Or the die type of the blades could increase as the character levels.
I'm looking at pairing Whisper Bard with Soulknife for the scaling psychic damage to pair with sneak attack, psychic blades. The idea is an unarmed assassin type build with Bard spells. What would be a good split on the multi? I'm thinking Soulknife 3/Bard the rest.
I guess you could say that you had a burst of psychic power in your past and have been fruitlessly trying to use it again. That way you could explain why your abilities don’t show up until 3rd level and still have a cool backstory with your powers.
So i had a question should i allow one of my players to use poison on the psychic blades?
Should you? entirely up to you and how you want to balance your campaign. It definitely isn't RAW though, the blades only exist when you're attacking with them.