Here's what you need to remember about Psychic Blades: you can have one attack with your Attack action, or you can have two attacks using both Attack action and Bonus Action, but you can't ever have two attacks with your Attack action or more than two attacks period.
Psychic Blades
3rd-level Soulknife feature
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.
What this means is, you don't want the Extra Attack feature, and you don't want to be a level 11 Hunter especially.
I believe it can work based on one thing you might need your DM's okay for - whether you can use your Interact with an Object action to move your weapon from one hand to the other.
IF that is something that everyone agrees on, Soulknife becomes a pretty interesting MC. You walk around with one real weapon and the other hand free. On your turn you:
Make your first attack with your real weapon
Manifest your soulknife in your empty hand and make your second attack
Swap your real weapon into the other hand
Bonus action attack - manifest your other soulknife and attack
This has loads of synergy with Bladesinger for example:
You always have a hand free for spells while still effectively two-weapon fighting
You can use your real weapon (with explicit value) to satisfy the requirement for attack cantrips
You get a "free" BA attack as a bladesinger
You still have a weapon to make OAs with at any time
Fun build names like Soulsinger or Bladeknife
Any other features like Hunter's Multiattack will also work because you always have a real weapon to use.
A Dhampir could fill in Extra Attack with a con-based natural weapon attack, in a pinch. Or a Strength-based Soulknife could use any number of other racial natural weapons. Tough to find a Dex-based natural weapon/unarmed strike, however, without going Bloodhunter (Lycan) or Monk, both of which are pretty invested in competing bonus actions that erode the value of PB.
Huh? Two psychic blade attacks deal more damage than one Steady Aim shortbow attack.
How are you guaranteeing the Sneak Attack without using your bonus action to do so, given you're also not an Arcane Trickster but you are leaning into ranged combat, not melee?
In most well-balanced parties, a rogue can assume that at least one companion will be adjacent to at least one enemy on every one of the Rogue's rounds. Guaranteeing one Sneak Attack per round is a core assumption underlying the Rogue's features, whether melee or ranged, and is usually not an issue.
Now which ally is next to which enemy, that's something that's entirely out of the Rogue's control... which is why other features like Colossus Slayer and Hunter's Mark aren't really as useful for a Rogue as you might think on paper. The Rogue will lose a massive amount of their expected DPR if they attack an enemy that they have disadvantage against (not at the correct range, or unseen, etc.), or which is not adjacent to an ally, so generally they can't just attack their marked foe regardless of battlefield configuration like a Warlock or a Ranger can. A rogue can generally spend a bonus action to try to set up a favorable circumstance against a specific enemy (either by Hiding, disengaging to move to a better range, or some of the rogue subclass features for Arcane Trickster, Inquisitive, Swashbuckler, etc.).... but once you start spending your Bonus Action to guarantee you can attack a specific enemy, then again, you're competing with PB bonus attack, or special ranger bonus actions for damage, or moving Hunter's Mark...
The best playstyle for a Soulknife is just: be open to attacking whoever the situation provides for every round, either in melee or in range, with no other bells and whistles. You will turn out very reliable damage that way, and be a very good rogue! But once you start trying to guarantee that you can attack this enemy this many times per round... you're gonna have a bad time, with a Soulknife especially, but also with a lot of other rogue types too.
Colossus Slayer can be on any target below their max HP.....so not so certain that it wouldn't be useless. However, you would need to get quite a few levels in ranger to get anyway which you need to be sure offsets what you get from those levels in rogue.
Hunters has always been better on classes that get more attacks. Its great on monks and fighters....and pretty good for ranger until conjure animals is available.
If you are good you can keep it up between encounters for up to an hour so that helps too.
Oddly enough the Sharpshooter thing with the BA blew my mind a bit as I never realized that the BA psychic blade attack can be a ranged attack. Not a thrown melee weapon attack...so you can add sharpshooter damage to it which is kind of crazy!
Colossus Slayer can be on any target below their max HP.....so not so certain that it wouldn't be useless. However, you would need to get quite a few levels in ranger to get anyway which you need to be sure offsets what you get from those levels in rogue.
Hunters has always been better on classes that get more attacks. Its great on monks and fighters....and pretty good for ranger until conjure animals is available.
If you are good you can keep it up between encounters for up to an hour so that helps too.
Oddly enough the Sharpshooter thing with the BA blew my mind a bit as I never realized that the BA psychic blade attack can be a ranged attack. Not a thrown melee weapon attack...so you can add sharpshooter damage to it which is kind of crazy!
No, that's not how SS works. I'll break it down for you in terms of a thrown dagger (which is the same rules as a psychic blade) vs shortbow:
Long range doesn't impose disadvantage: Shortbow + Dagger
Ignore half cover and 3/4 cover: Shortbow + Dagger
-5 to hit for +10 damage: Shortbow only
That's because the first two bullets are for ranged weapon attacks, which covers shortbows and thrown daggers, but the third one is only for attacks with ranged weapons, and the dagger is a melee weapon (just as a psychic blade is). When you make a ranged weapon attack with a psychic blade, it is still a melee weapon.
Yup, Quin has it. A PB is a "simple melee weapon with the finesse and thrown properties." It can be used to make ranged weapon attacks whenever it's thrown, but those are still attacks with a melee weapon. The first two bullets of Sharpshooter are for "ranged weapon attacks," but the third is reserved for "attacks with a ranged weapon."
Colossus Slayer is great for any character that makes two attacks, so yes, Hunter 3 would seem like a good fit for a Soulknife! However, like I mentioned, Hunter's Mark doesn't work good with how Rogues pick their targets, and it's a bonus action which competes with the Soulknife's second dagger, and also the action-free Favored Foe option for Rangers doesn't compete with bonus actions but again single targeted debuffs don't really jive with how Rogues pick targets, so... if you could get Colossus Slayer in a vacuum, great, but three levels of Ranger probably aren't worth it when the rest of the Ranger's kit doesn't really help the Soul Knife in meaningful ways.
Yup, Quin has it. A PB is a "simple melee weapon with the finesse and thrown properties." It can be used to make ranged weapon attacks whenever it's thrown, but those are still attacks with a melee weapon. The first two bullets of Sharpshooter are for "ranged weapon attacks," but the third is reserved for "attacks with a ranged weapon."
Colossus Slayer is great for any character that makes two attacks, so yes, Hunter 3 would seem like a good fit for a Soulknife! However, like I mentioned, Hunter's Mark doesn't work good with how Rogues pick their targets, and it's a bonus action which competes with the Soulknife's second dagger, and also the action-free Favored Foe option for Rangers doesn't compete with bonus actions but again single targeted debuffs don't really jive with how Rogues pick targets, so... if you could get Colossus Slayer in a vacuum, great, but three levels of Ranger probably aren't worth it when the rest of the Ranger's kit doesn't really help the Soul Knife in meaningful ways.
Ahh misread that post.
To be fair it's the first time I've actually read the subclass.
In most well-balanced parties, a rogue can assume that at least one companion will be adjacent to at least one enemy on every one of the Rogue's rounds. Guaranteeing one Sneak Attack per round is a core assumption underlying the Rogue's features, whether melee or ranged, and is usually not an issue.
It doesn't even have to be a balanced party. Even if the whole party's made up of ranged attackers, as long as one enemy wants to engage in melee, the Rogue will end up with a Sneak Attack target. And in the unlikely circumstance that both sides are composed entirely of melee-averse ranged attackers, a Soulknife can use Steady Aim and a Psychic Blade has the same damage die as a shortbow.
I don't have time to get into modeling multiple scenarios right now but it's also worth bearing in mind that Sharpshooter becomes less valuable as your Sneak Attack dice go up, since you're risking more damage on a miss and the +10 becomes a smaller relative increase. Sharpshooter (and GWM) really shine the most in builds that can attack many times at a low base damage, like a Fighter using Action Surge or a Ranger with Dread Ambusher.
Leaning into the psychic blades aspect, how do the numbers compare for a whispers bard? It is no more MAD than a ranger build. You get 2d6 at level three once per round on your turn, so that balances the two strikes with hunters mark; you're only missing your colossus slayer, but you get additional utility, and unclog the bonus action. Am I missing something?
Leaning into the psychic blades aspect, how do the numbers compare for a whispers bard? It is no more MAD than a ranger build. You get 2d6 at level three once per round on your turn, so that balances the two strikes with hunters mark; you're only missing your colossus slayer, but you get additional utility, and unclog the bonus action. Am I missing something?
The fact that Whispers hands out a once-per-round 2d6 means that 3 levels to pick it up usually doesn't lose you more Sneak Attack dice than you gain. So, that seems okay at first... but, that 2d6 can only be used charisma modifier times per long rest at Bard 3, which is very bad. At Bard 5, it becomes charisma modifier times per short rest, which is less bad, but still not really okay. And 5 levels of Bard is almost certainly costing you at least 2d6 sneak attack dice, so all you've done is pulled even on some attacks per short rest, with the sneak attack dice you would already have had on all attacks all day long suffering.
It may be that you took the Whispers multiclass for other benefits, like spellcasting, mantle of whispers, more skills and expertise, etc. If so, that's a totally fine and decent multiclass choice (though you will be a littleMAD, wanting Dex and Charisma to both hit 20). But a Whispers Psychic Blades feature will not increase your DPR at all, and actually will decrease it.
I would ask the DM if they would allow you to gain the bonus damage from the Thrown Weapon fighting style (since there are arguments both ways as to whether the Soul Knife is a weapon). Likewise, see how they would feel about the Sharpshooter Feat (because that reads "...before you make an attack with a ranged WEAPON..." If the DM is good with both then I'd go for a 1-level Fighter dip for the Thrown Weapon fighting style, take Sharpshooter as soon as is feasible, and relish in the fact that you have a second attack to hang your Sneak Attack on if you miss with the first one.
I appreciate your insights; can I ask a follow-up? If psychic blades are only able to be used once per turn, do you really lose as much by trading sneak attack for Whispers psychic blades? Especially because at level 5 the psychic blades go to 3d6 which matches 5 levels of sneak attack.
I also don't see rogue/bard as more MAD than rogue/ranger.
A level 8 Soulknife has a 4d6 sneak attack, two feats under their belt (so they should have Dex 20 and a feat benefit like Elven Accuracy, Gunner, Second Chance, Squat Nimbleness, or Skill Expert), and makes a 1d6+5 and a 1d4+5 attack per round with a +8 to hit. That's an average of 30 damage per round, on top of their other non-damage Rogue features like Evasion and Uncanny Dodge. Their Constitution is probably 14 or 16, and they have another 14 or 16 in Wisdom, Inteligence, or Charisma.
A level 3 Soulknife/level 5 Whisper College Bard has a 2d6 sneak attack, one feat under their belt (so they should have Dex 18 and a feat benefit), and makes a 1d6+4 and a 1d4+4 attacker per round with +7 to hit. They also, charisma modifier times per short rest (let's say Charisma is 16, so 3x) can add 3d6 psychic to one attack per round, no action required. (Accounting for the roughly -5% damage because of the -1 to hit vs the rogue), that's an average of about 30 damage per round for three rounds per short rest, and goes down to about 20 per round for any other rounds of combat until you get that short rest. You're doing no more damage even when you have Inspiration charges to burn, and do much less when you don't.
Does this tension work its way out eventually? Sure, one more level of Rogue would bring you up to 20 Dex, so that's a couple more DPR (33.5 with the Inspiration charge, 23 without), but that's still less than the pure Soulkinife 9 (who now has one more d6 of sneak attack, and is doing 33.5 every round). You can try to take +2 Charisma at Bard 8, and again at Bard 12, by which time it's an impressive 5d6 per use of your Inspiration... but you'll still be doing 40.5 on your 5 rounds per short rest, and 23 without, quite short of the Soulknife 16's consistent 44 per turn (and the ability to add a bonus to misses 12 times a day surely helps this DPR a bit more too). Heck, one more level away, and the Soulknife can start Stunning one important target per day, I'm sure I don't need to go into how much that is going to help important combats!
A Soulknife / Whispers Bard will not do more damage than a pure Soulknife in combat, but will have lots of other cool Bard features and spells. It's not a bad multiclass, its just one that will tie up your feat selection since you'll need 20 Dex and 20 Charisma (which probably takes 16 character levels to pull off). That level 16 rogue had the freedom to take three other non-ability-score feats by level 16 after maxing Dexterity by level 8, so they're more likely to have things like a fighting style (if you care about that), or Lucky, etc.
At the end of the day, this Whispers Bard / Soulknife multiclass to me seems more like a way to build a cool Whisper Bard with psychic daggers, not a way to make a better Soulknife.
Soulknife + Bladesinger? Extra Attack using a cantrip for one of the attacks works around the screwy disappearing blade issue. Dex / Int focus isn’t very MAD. Wiz 7 for Greater Invisibility, Rogue the rest.
Can even tank with 2 psychic blades attacks, Bladesong AC, Blade Ward and Uncanny Dodge.
The Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade cantrips cannot be used with the psychic blades, because they are not weapons with a listed cost of "at least 1 sp." Both cantrips are great for Rogues, and before the most recent errata, yes they would have worked with these psychic blades.... but now, the Soulknife may be the only rogue subclass that doesn't want to use those spells.
It's hard to picture too many wizard spells that would directly help the Soulknife kit, other than maybe Spirit Shroud, and stuff like Greater Invisibility, Fly, etc. Spells are nice, but there may not be a lot that directly increase your DPR, or do so in a way that doesn't involve giving up attacking one round to potentially set up more damage on future rounds. The Bladesinger kit does give some great defensive and mobility boosts, but its Extra Attack feature, again, is not going to help you make any more attacks per round unless you're bringing a non-psychic blade weapon to the table.
I think they're great MC's, they just need a specific setup. One is a bladesinger with one real weapon as I outlined above. Another is a Beast Barbarian with claws that can be weapons and can hold weapons for soulknife/claw/claw, BA soulknife. A Barb6/Rogue14 or Barb8/Rogue12 focusing on STR is pretty good.
As I'm sure others have said, thrown weapon fighting empties your hand when you are done with each attack of an attack action and allows for multiple thrown attacks without using interactions to draw them so while PB only allows one PB per attack action, you can just throw a diff weapon like dagger instead on your extra attacks if you have them.
I believe it can work based on one thing you might need your DM's okay for - whether you can use your Interact with an Object action to move your weapon from one hand to the other.
IF that is something that everyone agrees on, Soulknife becomes a pretty interesting MC. You walk around with one real weapon and the other hand free. On your turn you:
This has loads of synergy with Bladesinger for example:
Any other features like Hunter's Multiattack will also work because you always have a real weapon to use.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
A Dhampir could fill in Extra Attack with a con-based natural weapon attack, in a pinch. Or a Strength-based Soulknife could use any number of other racial natural weapons. Tough to find a Dex-based natural weapon/unarmed strike, however, without going Bloodhunter (Lycan) or Monk, both of which are pretty invested in competing bonus actions that erode the value of PB.
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Some DM’s charge you to switch hands?!? “I’m not left handed either.” Shoot, I call that one of those “flourishes” like are a sword flipping.
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How are you guaranteeing the Sneak Attack without using your bonus action to do so, given you're also not an Arcane Trickster but you are leaning into ranged combat, not melee?
In most well-balanced parties, a rogue can assume that at least one companion will be adjacent to at least one enemy on every one of the Rogue's rounds. Guaranteeing one Sneak Attack per round is a core assumption underlying the Rogue's features, whether melee or ranged, and is usually not an issue.
Now which ally is next to which enemy, that's something that's entirely out of the Rogue's control... which is why other features like Colossus Slayer and Hunter's Mark aren't really as useful for a Rogue as you might think on paper. The Rogue will lose a massive amount of their expected DPR if they attack an enemy that they have disadvantage against (not at the correct range, or unseen, etc.), or which is not adjacent to an ally, so generally they can't just attack their marked foe regardless of battlefield configuration like a Warlock or a Ranger can. A rogue can generally spend a bonus action to try to set up a favorable circumstance against a specific enemy (either by Hiding, disengaging to move to a better range, or some of the rogue subclass features for Arcane Trickster, Inquisitive, Swashbuckler, etc.).... but once you start spending your Bonus Action to guarantee you can attack a specific enemy, then again, you're competing with PB bonus attack, or special ranger bonus actions for damage, or moving Hunter's Mark...
The best playstyle for a Soulknife is just: be open to attacking whoever the situation provides for every round, either in melee or in range, with no other bells and whistles. You will turn out very reliable damage that way, and be a very good rogue! But once you start trying to guarantee that you can attack this enemy this many times per round... you're gonna have a bad time, with a Soulknife especially, but also with a lot of other rogue types too.
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Colossus Slayer can be on any target below their max HP.....so not so certain that it wouldn't be useless. However, you would need to get quite a few levels in ranger to get anyway which you need to be sure offsets what you get from those levels in rogue.
Hunters has always been better on classes that get more attacks. Its great on monks and fighters....and pretty good for ranger until conjure animals is available.
If you are good you can keep it up between encounters for up to an hour so that helps too.
Oddly enough the Sharpshooter thing with the BA blew my mind a bit as I never realized that the BA psychic blade attack can be a ranged attack. Not a thrown melee weapon attack...so you can add sharpshooter damage to it which is kind of crazy!
No, that's not how SS works. I'll break it down for you in terms of a thrown dagger (which is the same rules as a psychic blade) vs shortbow:
That's because the first two bullets are for ranged weapon attacks, which covers shortbows and thrown daggers, but the third one is only for attacks with ranged weapons, and the dagger is a melee weapon (just as a psychic blade is). When you make a ranged weapon attack with a psychic blade, it is still a melee weapon.
Yup, Quin has it. A PB is a "simple melee weapon with the finesse and thrown properties." It can be used to make ranged weapon attacks whenever it's thrown, but those are still attacks with a melee weapon. The first two bullets of Sharpshooter are for "ranged weapon attacks," but the third is reserved for "attacks with a ranged weapon."
Colossus Slayer is great for any character that makes two attacks, so yes, Hunter 3 would seem like a good fit for a Soulknife! However, like I mentioned, Hunter's Mark doesn't work good with how Rogues pick their targets, and it's a bonus action which competes with the Soulknife's second dagger, and also the action-free Favored Foe option for Rangers doesn't compete with bonus actions but again single targeted debuffs don't really jive with how Rogues pick targets, so... if you could get Colossus Slayer in a vacuum, great, but three levels of Ranger probably aren't worth it when the rest of the Ranger's kit doesn't really help the Soul Knife in meaningful ways.
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Ahh misread that post.
To be fair it's the first time I've actually read the subclass.
It doesn't even have to be a balanced party. Even if the whole party's made up of ranged attackers, as long as one enemy wants to engage in melee, the Rogue will end up with a Sneak Attack target. And in the unlikely circumstance that both sides are composed entirely of melee-averse ranged attackers, a Soulknife can use Steady Aim and a Psychic Blade has the same damage die as a shortbow.
I don't have time to get into modeling multiple scenarios right now but it's also worth bearing in mind that Sharpshooter becomes less valuable as your Sneak Attack dice go up, since you're risking more damage on a miss and the +10 becomes a smaller relative increase. Sharpshooter (and GWM) really shine the most in builds that can attack many times at a low base damage, like a Fighter using Action Surge or a Ranger with Dread Ambusher.
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Leaning into the psychic blades aspect, how do the numbers compare for a whispers bard? It is no more MAD than a ranger build. You get 2d6 at level three once per round on your turn, so that balances the two strikes with hunters mark; you're only missing your colossus slayer, but you get additional utility, and unclog the bonus action. Am I missing something?
The fact that Whispers hands out a once-per-round 2d6 means that 3 levels to pick it up usually doesn't lose you more Sneak Attack dice than you gain. So, that seems okay at first... but, that 2d6 can only be used charisma modifier times per long rest at Bard 3, which is very bad. At Bard 5, it becomes charisma modifier times per short rest, which is less bad, but still not really okay. And 5 levels of Bard is almost certainly costing you at least 2d6 sneak attack dice, so all you've done is pulled even on some attacks per short rest, with the sneak attack dice you would already have had on all attacks all day long suffering.
It may be that you took the Whispers multiclass for other benefits, like spellcasting, mantle of whispers, more skills and expertise, etc. If so, that's a totally fine and decent multiclass choice (though you will be a little MAD, wanting Dex and Charisma to both hit 20). But a Whispers Psychic Blades feature will not increase your DPR at all, and actually will decrease it.
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I would ask the DM if they would allow you to gain the bonus damage from the Thrown Weapon fighting style (since there are arguments both ways as to whether the Soul Knife is a weapon). Likewise, see how they would feel about the Sharpshooter Feat (because that reads "...before you make an attack with a ranged WEAPON..." If the DM is good with both then I'd go for a 1-level Fighter dip for the Thrown Weapon fighting style, take Sharpshooter as soon as is feasible, and relish in the fact that you have a second attack to hang your Sneak Attack on if you miss with the first one.
I appreciate your insights; can I ask a follow-up? If psychic blades are only able to be used once per turn, do you really lose as much by trading sneak attack for Whispers psychic blades? Especially because at level 5 the psychic blades go to 3d6 which matches 5 levels of sneak attack.
I also don't see rogue/bard as more MAD than rogue/ranger.
A level 8 Soulknife has a 4d6 sneak attack, two feats under their belt (so they should have Dex 20 and a feat benefit like Elven Accuracy, Gunner, Second Chance, Squat Nimbleness, or Skill Expert), and makes a 1d6+5 and a 1d4+5 attack per round with a +8 to hit. That's an average of 30 damage per round, on top of their other non-damage Rogue features like Evasion and Uncanny Dodge. Their Constitution is probably 14 or 16, and they have another 14 or 16 in Wisdom, Inteligence, or Charisma.
A level 3 Soulknife/level 5 Whisper College Bard has a 2d6 sneak attack, one feat under their belt (so they should have Dex 18 and a feat benefit), and makes a 1d6+4 and a 1d4+4 attacker per round with +7 to hit. They also, charisma modifier times per short rest (let's say Charisma is 16, so 3x) can add 3d6 psychic to one attack per round, no action required. (Accounting for the roughly -5% damage because of the -1 to hit vs the rogue), that's an average of about 30 damage per round for three rounds per short rest, and goes down to about 20 per round for any other rounds of combat until you get that short rest. You're doing no more damage even when you have Inspiration charges to burn, and do much less when you don't.
Does this tension work its way out eventually? Sure, one more level of Rogue would bring you up to 20 Dex, so that's a couple more DPR (33.5 with the Inspiration charge, 23 without), but that's still less than the pure Soulkinife 9 (who now has one more d6 of sneak attack, and is doing 33.5 every round). You can try to take +2 Charisma at Bard 8, and again at Bard 12, by which time it's an impressive 5d6 per use of your Inspiration... but you'll still be doing 40.5 on your 5 rounds per short rest, and 23 without, quite short of the Soulknife 16's consistent 44 per turn (and the ability to add a bonus to misses 12 times a day surely helps this DPR a bit more too). Heck, one more level away, and the Soulknife can start Stunning one important target per day, I'm sure I don't need to go into how much that is going to help important combats!
A Soulknife / Whispers Bard will not do more damage than a pure Soulknife in combat, but will have lots of other cool Bard features and spells. It's not a bad multiclass, its just one that will tie up your feat selection since you'll need 20 Dex and 20 Charisma (which probably takes 16 character levels to pull off). That level 16 rogue had the freedom to take three other non-ability-score feats by level 16 after maxing Dexterity by level 8, so they're more likely to have things like a fighting style (if you care about that), or Lucky, etc.
At the end of the day, this Whispers Bard / Soulknife multiclass to me seems more like a way to build a cool Whisper Bard with psychic daggers, not a way to make a better Soulknife.
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Soulknife + Bladesinger? Extra Attack using a cantrip for one of the attacks works around the screwy disappearing blade issue. Dex / Int focus isn’t very MAD. Wiz 7 for Greater Invisibility, Rogue the rest.
Can even tank with 2 psychic blades attacks, Bladesong AC, Blade Ward and Uncanny Dodge.
The Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade cantrips cannot be used with the psychic blades, because they are not weapons with a listed cost of "at least 1 sp." Both cantrips are great for Rogues, and before the most recent errata, yes they would have worked with these psychic blades.... but now, the Soulknife may be the only rogue subclass that doesn't want to use those spells.
It's hard to picture too many wizard spells that would directly help the Soulknife kit, other than maybe Spirit Shroud, and stuff like Greater Invisibility, Fly, etc. Spells are nice, but there may not be a lot that directly increase your DPR, or do so in a way that doesn't involve giving up attacking one round to potentially set up more damage on future rounds. The Bladesinger kit does give some great defensive and mobility boosts, but its Extra Attack feature, again, is not going to help you make any more attacks per round unless you're bringing a non-psychic blade weapon to the table.
Soulknifes are not very good at multiclassing. :)
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Thank you. This was great
I think they're great MC's, they just need a specific setup. One is a bladesinger with one real weapon as I outlined above. Another is a Beast Barbarian with claws that can be weapons and can hold weapons for soulknife/claw/claw, BA soulknife. A Barb6/Rogue14 or Barb8/Rogue12 focusing on STR is pretty good.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
As I'm sure others have said, thrown weapon fighting empties your hand when you are done with each attack of an attack action and allows for multiple thrown attacks without using interactions to draw them so while PB only allows one PB per attack action, you can just throw a diff weapon like dagger instead on your extra attacks if you have them.