Incarnum: Difference between revisions
1d4chan>Squangos (Wrote an explanation of the "Most Confusing System Ever".) |
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OK, so this is how it works: you have a bunch of mystical energy constructs called Soulmelds that sit where your magic items go, except you can't have more than one per item slot (which they call Chakras) unless you take a feat and they don't stop you wearing magic items most of the time.<br> | OK, so this is how it works: you have a bunch of mystical energy constructs called Soulmelds that sit where your magic items go, except you can't have more than one per item slot (which they call Chakras) unless you take a feat and they don't stop you wearing magic items most of the time.<br> | ||
You then have two non-exclusive ways of charging these up: you can put points of magic gunk called Essentia in them to increase stuff like DCs and bonuses, or you can bind them to a chakra (sometimes you can choose from a bunch of chakras for one soulmeld, unless you're a Totemist which has a special chakra that isn't actually a body part that turns the energy thing into a monster body part like claws OR you're high enough level to get the feats or class features that let you bind soulmelds to your heart or soul chakra), which does stop you wearing a magic item, but it becomes about as strong as a magic item. | You then have two non-exclusive ways of charging these up: you can put points of magic gunk called Essentia in them to increase stuff like DCs and bonuses, or you can bind them to a chakra (sometimes you can choose from a bunch of chakras for one soulmeld, unless you're a Totemist which has a special chakra that isn't actually a body part that turns the energy thing into a monster body part like claws OR you're high enough level to get the feats or class features that let you bind soulmelds to your heart or soul chakra), which does stop you wearing a magic item, but it becomes about as strong as a magic item. | ||
You can redistribute the invested essentia each turn amongst anything that uses essentia, granting you a great deal of versatility. That is, unless you take a feat that you can invest essentia in in which case any essentia you apply is added all day for no readily apparent reason. You are limited to the amount of essentia you can invest in each of these things by your Constitution modifier or an arbitrary number based on your level, whichever is lower, which keeps you from pumping your entire essentia pool into one ability and doing that over and over. | |||
The purpose of the Essentia casting system was to make a unique magic system for D&D, unlike the standard vancian magic, the spontanious casting of sorcerers, the at-will casting of Warlocks, the horribly broken skill-based casting of truenamers, the item-based casting of artificers or the PP-based system of psions. The result is this mass of rules. Once you get used to it, it's is not as unwieldy as it looks. | |||
Astute players might notice that most soulmelding classes can emulate magic items, making them potentially a decent user of Vow of Poverty. | |||
Revision as of 03:15, 13 December 2012
A Dungeons and Dragons 3.5e magic system that earned the title of "Most Confusing System Ever."
OK, so this is how it works: you have a bunch of mystical energy constructs called Soulmelds that sit where your magic items go, except you can't have more than one per item slot (which they call Chakras) unless you take a feat and they don't stop you wearing magic items most of the time.
You then have two non-exclusive ways of charging these up: you can put points of magic gunk called Essentia in them to increase stuff like DCs and bonuses, or you can bind them to a chakra (sometimes you can choose from a bunch of chakras for one soulmeld, unless you're a Totemist which has a special chakra that isn't actually a body part that turns the energy thing into a monster body part like claws OR you're high enough level to get the feats or class features that let you bind soulmelds to your heart or soul chakra), which does stop you wearing a magic item, but it becomes about as strong as a magic item.
You can redistribute the invested essentia each turn amongst anything that uses essentia, granting you a great deal of versatility. That is, unless you take a feat that you can invest essentia in in which case any essentia you apply is added all day for no readily apparent reason. You are limited to the amount of essentia you can invest in each of these things by your Constitution modifier or an arbitrary number based on your level, whichever is lower, which keeps you from pumping your entire essentia pool into one ability and doing that over and over.
The purpose of the Essentia casting system was to make a unique magic system for D&D, unlike the standard vancian magic, the spontanious casting of sorcerers, the at-will casting of Warlocks, the horribly broken skill-based casting of truenamers, the item-based casting of artificers or the PP-based system of psions. The result is this mass of rules. Once you get used to it, it's is not as unwieldy as it looks.
Astute players might notice that most soulmelding classes can emulate magic items, making them potentially a decent user of Vow of Poverty.