Editing Soulknife (section)

==5th Edition==
After effectively being non existent for an edition, the Soulknife was recently added to 5e via playtest for the [[Mystic]] class.  Unfortunately, it appears the designers have decided that it must continue the class's longstanding tradition of being fucking terrible, with no unique disciplines, no extra level one disciplines, no extra attacks, and ''incredibly'' low damage for a class whose entire schtick is supposed to be doing damage with psionic mind-blades.

[https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2bXgsHg7PtJNXdRdjdaUDhRM2M/view?fbclid=IwAR29j5mT2gBK87ZWAbDoelfk-k1YQQuZMgDwvUXYbYQjW6FU1gZu0U10eGU If you don't mind introducing homebrew, however, you can take a crack at fixing it with this].

[[Mike Mearls]] also cooked up an alternative Soulknife... this time as a ''[[Monk]]'' subclass. Honestly, this version is better than the [[Unearthed Arcana]] version, which isn't that hard to pull off. 

Its 3rd level features are ''Soul Knife'' and ''Psychic Slash''. The first of these is simple, yet powerful: your unarmed strikes can do psychic, piercing, slashing or bludgeoning damage, with you choosing which type is used each time you hit, plus you can use a bonus action to increase your reach with unarmed strikes to 30 feet until the end of your turn. 

''Psychic Slash'', by comparison, lets you apply a bonus rider when you hit a foe with a Flurry of Blows attack that does Psychic damage. Your options are Life Drain (gain temp HP equal to half the damage you dealt), Invoke Terror (target must pass a Wisdom save or be Frightened of you until the end of your next turn), Invoke Wrath (target suffers Disadvantage on all attacks against targes other than you until the end of your next turn), Astral Slide (teleport the target 10 feet to a destination that you can see) and Synaptic Overload (target gains Vulnerability: Psychic until the end of your next turn.

At level 6, it grants the feature ''Aura Sight''. As an action, select a creature that you can see. That creature makes a Wisdom saving throw, though it has no knowledge that you forced it to attempt this saving throw. On a failed save, you learn if the creature shares and aspects of its alignment with you, its current hit points, and its current attitude and intentions toward you or one other creature, object, or location of your choice. In addition, for the next 24 hours or until you use this ability again, you can use an action to determine the creature's distance and direction from you. If a creature succeeds on its saving throw against this ability, you cannot use this ability against that creature again until you complete a long rest.

At level 11, it grants the feature ''Spectral Blades''. Once during your turn, you can choose to forego one unarmed strike in place of forcing a creature within the reach of that attack to make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed saving throw, it takes your unarmed strike's damage, or half that damage if it succeeds.

Finally, at level 17, it grants the feature ''Psychic Form'', which lets you use a bonus action to transform into a being of pure psionic energy for one minute, which you can do once per long rest. In this state, you have Resistance (All Damage), Fly (30 feet), and the ability to pass through solid objects, but not end your movement within them.

===The Final Version===

An official Soulknife for 5e debuted in 2020's "Tasha's Cauldron of Everything". Crack open the champagne, because it's not shit! This is a [[Rogue]] subclass and, alongside the [[Psychic Warrior|Psi Warrior]] [[Fighter]] and Aberrant Mind [[Sorcerer (Dungeons & Dragons)|Sorcerer]], represents the official future for [[psionics]] in 5e; no dedicated classes, but instead subclasses for the "standard array" of classes. Like the Psi Warrior, this Soulknife relies on the use of "Psionic Energy dice", which is a pool of d6s equal to twice the Soulknife's Proficiency bonus; class features that require these "psi-dice" can't be used if there are none left in the pool, and the pool replenishes when the Soulknife completes a Long Rest - the Soulknife can also spend a bonus action to regain a single psi-dice once per short rest. Psi-dice increase in values at levels 5 (d8s), 11 (d10s) and 17 (d12s).

At 3rd level, the soulknife gains the features '''Psionic Power''' and '''Psychic Blades'''. Psionic Power is made up of two sub-features; ''Psi-Bolstered Knack'' lets the soulknife spend a psi-dice and add the result to a failed ability check using a skill or tool in which they have proficiency, with the psi-dice only being expended if this turns the result into a success. ''Psychic Whispers'' lets the soulknife forge a temporary 1-mile wide telepathic link with up to Proficiency bonus creatures for psi-dice value hours, so now the wizard can intentionally avoid dropping a fireball on your stealthed ass ''without'' metagaming; this can be done for free once per day, but extra times require spending a single psi-dice each time. For Psychic Blades, the soulknife can manifest psy-blades whenever they take the Attack action; a psy-blade is a simple melee weapon with the Finesse and Thrown (60ft) properties that does 1d6 Psychic damage. After attacking with a psy-blade, the soulknife can then attack with a second psy-blade (this one doing 1d4 damage) as a bonus action.

At 9th level, the '''Soul Blades''' feature is made up of two sub-features. ''Homing Strikes'' is basically Psi-Bolstered Knack, but for missed attacks with psy-blades. ''Psychic Teleportation'' lets the soulknife teleport by expending a psi-dice, with the range being (10 X dice roll result) feet.

13th level gives them the '''Psychic Veil''' feature; the Soulknife can become invisible by spending psi-dice, although the first invisibility of the day is free.

Finally, at 17th level, the '''Rend Mind''' feature lets the Soulknife force a creature hit with a Sneak Attack made with a psy-blade to make a Wisdom save or be Stunned for 1 minute. This can be used once per long rest, or by spending 3 psi-dice.

Fittingly, it makes absolutely no use of mental stats [[derp|despite being psionic]], just like the original Soulknife.