Editing Soulknife (section)

==Pathfinder==
With the advent of Dreamscarred Press' Psionics line, the psionics system of the D20 system got a major overhaul and improvement. As a side effect, the Soulknife became a lot better and more fun to play. For starters, the Mind Blade itself can be either two light weapons perfect for throwing, a one-handed weapon to use with a shield or a two-handed weapon for extra damage (note that the Half-Giant from the same book can Mind Blades that are one size larger than he is thanks to their special features). On top of that, the Mind Blade can be either Slashing, Piercing or Bludgeoning so you can make a SOUL HAMMER. The blade also remembers this when it vanishes, and reshaping it takes a single full round. The blade enhancements have also been revamped: the increased damage enhancement and special effect tracts have been combined, starting at 3rd level and increasing to a total pool of +9 at level 19. Reshaping the blade's enhancements requires concentrating for 8 hours outside of normal rest, so plan ahead. Psychic Strike still works more or less the same, except both blades have the same enhancement if you have two of them, the effect only triggers when you want to and affects all creatures with an Int score (so suck it, [[vampire]]s!) and it can be charged with a Psionic Focus. Throw Mind Blade and Quick Draw are still there, and the capstone ability, making it very difficult to lose your Mind Blade to anti-psionics effects, is a bit lacking. At least you get to reconfigure your blade with a full-round action instead of 8 hours.

New to the Pathfinder version are the Blade Skills, gained at every even level. These are the special tricks you see on several Pathfinder classes, like the [[Barbarian]] and [[Rogue]]. These grant a variety of bonuses improving your Mind Blade and how you use it. Possible bonuses include elemental damage, Reach, Trip, more Psionic Charges, 5-foot steps and even the ability to expend your Psychic Strike to stop any spell, power, SLA or PLA thrown at you (but not Supernatural Abilities), letting you slap aside Fireballs, Disintegrates, Meteor Swarms and what have you. Some of these are far better than others, but there's enough good stuff in there.

The Soulknife also gets a number of Archetypes. These include Armored and Shielded Blade (create armor and a shield just like a Mind Blade at the cost of making your weapon less powerful; use both for some stellar AC at low levels), Cutthroat (Sneak Attack instead of Psychic Strike, also more sneaky abilities), Deadly Fist (supercharged fists), Nimble Blade (get the most out of a Dex-build Soulknife) and the Soulbolt (the Mind Blade becomes a blast of energy instead, basically Soulbow that works). Of particular note are a pair of archetypes that entirely replace Psychic Strike: The Gifted Blade archetype, which gives you Paladin/Ranger tier psionic manifesting, and War Soul, which gives you access to [[The Book of Weeaboo Fightan Magic]] and the ability to turn your mind blades into working guns.

Overall, Pathfinder's Soulknife is a lot more fun to play with a lot more options, meaning that your KNIFE MIND ATTACK is actually useful instead of a novelty. Still, it's kinda lacking in versatility and still only [[Tier System|Tier 4]]. Warsoul or Gifted Blade raise it to a tier 3. Of particular note is that the book has a way to integrate Gifted Blade into the base class without replacing Psychic Strike, something that would make that tier 3 ranking even more solid.

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