Monk: What makes me stand out is, that I don't need to rely on puny weapons in combat, good mobility and can stun enemies. Soulknife: Yeah, really unique
13th level ability isn't that bad, you become visible only if you hit so if you fail you're still invisible, better than 2nd level invisibility for a class who can deal a lot of extra damage like rogue does
When multiclassing into a caster you can also safely cast a few spells while staying invisible. Examples include sleep, hex/hunter's mark, web/entangle, faerie fire etc. Also allows youto grapple and shove creatures while staying completely invisible.
Easily my favorite Rouge subclass. It excels at all the sneaky, murdery things rogues are known for. It may be a better thief and assassin than the Thief and Assassin are.
I am glad that soulknife is finally alright in D&D (though I wish it was a monk instead), but I am still snickering from the fact that you won't be cutting chandeliers or even hitting many constructs with that mind blade of yours (as it does pure psychic damage).
5:24 just mentioning that for DMs out there, there are still other very good magic items you could give to the rogue. If you want to increase their damage with a magical item you can give them a manual of quickness of action to increase their damage, to hit, stealth, and AC by 1.
This subclass seems like it would be fun for a multiclassed grappling barbarian/rogue. You never need to worry about having a free hand for grapples when you have blades that summon when you attack. (And you have blades ready should you encounter a baddie you cannot grapple.) You can add your psi-die to a failed grapple check. Eventually you get teleportation as a bonus action on a barbarian, and invisibility that doesnt end when you grapple. That's all on top of the normal synergies like sneak attack with recklesss, uncanny dodge with rage resistance, and evasion with danger sense. In theory, a soulknife rogue15/barb 5 seems hyper reliable, durable as hell, and even has some maneuverability with the psi teleport + fast movement. It avoids the level 17 soulknife feature, while still getting a Wis save proficiency as a capstone (level 15 rogue), and reliable talent for grapples. I'm playing a grappling barbarian (level 3, currently fighting through a 5e port of Against the Cult of the Reptile God) and am hoping to eventually try this out with him!
I'm used to thinking of Lore Bard as the expertise half of grapplers, but this is actually really solid! Nice find, only issue it seems to miss is changing size to grapple bigger enemies. Maybe get some Rune Knight in there somewhere?
I currently use this with a rune knight since they are just as adept at grappling (adv on strength checks) while also becoming a size category larger, making it possible to grapple and then shank huge creatures. And while I don't have the damage resist of the barb, a higher AC offsets that somewhat. Pretty silly fun.
I probably wouldn’t think it was necessary to use homing strike on every attack you miss, because rogues don’t get that much value from hitting twice in a turn vs hitting once, so if I hit the first attack I’d almost never use it on the second attack.
It should be noted that this subclass gets hard countered by mind blank which every caster at higher levels have precast. Similarly constructs will ruin your day and statues coming alive to wreck your face seems to be quite common in the adventurer's lifestyle.
Any one at all that restricts themself to one damage type is shooting themself in the foot for certain kinds of encounters. Having a psychic weapon doesnt mean you dont carry another weapon.
Wizards also get hard countered by mind blank. In fact arguably nearly every class does. But at least the soul knife can still get sneak attack. Fighters, barbarian, and rogues are the only class that don’t get hard countered by mind blank. Paladins and rangers can still do stuff but they just became worse fighters.
I would like to thank you for your analysis, I think it has helped me put the 5e psionic classes in perspective, I have been frustrated with the take on psionics, probably because I really liked psionics in 3.5. But I think it is important to understand the current take is good in the realm of 5e, even if I wanted something more from them.
I hate psychic blades wording so much. Because they only work on attack action you can't use it on opportunity attacks and other off turn attacks, which is like the best way to optimize rogue. And it isn't even a balance issue, because you could go around it by having a dagger in your hand. Unfortunately you will need to drop it any time you are taking an attack action and getting it back up afterwards with a free object interaction. This will work by RAW but mental image of this cringes me so much it actually physically hurts
@@master_rafiki Yeah when you think about it, they might have... It's often weird to conclude that you have to hand in features even though it's not apparent when taking the class.
Generally agree, though I could see some ways to flavor it to be more palatable. Maybe you are tossing the knife from hand to hand., leaving illusory copies behind in the empty one. Could also be tossing the knife into the air for your drop and catching it, with the psychic blades shooting out of the knife as it twirls. You character should certainly have the DEX for either.
@@master_rafiki They revised the wording in the Unearthed Arcana version for the final class because as written in the most recent Unearthed Arcana version, RAW you can't actually use the blades because you can't declare an attack without a means of making it - but you _can_ take the attack _action_ regardless of whether you have a means to actually make the attack it grants. Of course, an easy fix is to replace the current wording about the attack action with something like the following: "Whenever you have a free hand, you are considered to be wielding a psychic blade in that hand. You manifest the psychic blade whenever you make an attack with it, and it vanishes after the attack hits or misses its target."
I would’ve thought you’d be a fan of the teleport, misty step with the potential of an 80ft teleport, and probably a slightly cheaper resource too. Positioning important for a rogue, and things like grapples can be devastating, this solves both of those problems
I do wish psychic blades scaled in some way, or had some kind of synergy with magical weapons (like the warlock's pact weapon can). Other than that it is a really cool class, although heavy on the expend a die to use this again features, but still pretty damn good.
It's worth noting that by RAW, since you only manifest a psychic blade when you take the attack action, not whenever you make an attack, that psychic blades does not mesh at all with multiclassing for extra attack, and you cannot use psychic blades for attacks of opportunity.
I would love to see you explore a few multi-class options for the Soulknife. I remember I went Bladsinger/Soulknife during UA and it was surprisingly good with the utility spells the Wizard brought. It was also super tanky when I used Bladesong.
Soulknife seems super appealing to me as a grappling build in particular. Psi-bolstered knack makes grappling absurdly reliable, and since the weapon disappears from your hand immediately after taking the attack action, you'll have much more reliable access to a free hand. Not to mention, since the knives have a range of 60 feet, that gives you pretty good control over the battlefield (grapple someone, take them out of the party's range, continue throwing knives with your bonus action). A multiclass of Psi Knight Fighter/Soulknife Rogue seems like both a flavorful and very fun grappler build, though I haven't investigated any of the specifics other than that you'd probably want at least 3 levels in rogue, and probably at least 7 in fighter for the shove ability.
Soulknife makes a great skill monkey while psionic whispers renders rary useless. Soulknife makes for an excellent chassis for a throwing build. IMO it's ok if soulknife's can't benefit from magic weapon. It just means they more attunement spots open for interesting stuff (especially if multiclassed). Plus since soulknifes rarely have occupied hands, it's easier for them to cast spells with S&M components without relying on the warcaster feat.
I really like this subclass. the full on bonus action attack is the real kicker for me. if i was running, i would make an item that was like a ring or something that allowed extra psychic damage. balanced to party of course.
The interaction between Reliable Talent and Jack of all Trades apparently has been clarified after this tweet from Jeremy Crawford to not work like that though (source: www.sageadvice.eu/2017/10/15/how-would-reliable-talent-work-with-a-roguebard-and-their-jack-of-all-trades/ ) I don't think the bard multiclass idea would work as well, since Jack of all Trades does not count as having proficiency :/
Just a heads up, both Crawford's tweets and the Sage Advice Compendium have walked that 2015 tweet back to clarify that Reliable Talent does not apply to skills you get a bonus for from Jack of All Trades or Remarkable Athlete, making dipping bard less appealing (though still not bad, since getting into Lore Bard still gives four new proficiencies and two expertise by level 3). Also one downside I've seen people mention somewhat frequently is that the Psychic blade disappears after you attack with it, so you can't use it to make reaction attacks or with Extra Attack if you multiclassed.
If you had a heavy crossbow which you can hold in one hand. Could you psychic blades with right hand while holding crossbow in your left, swap the crossbow to your right hand, then bonus attack with left hand before finally extra attacking with crossbow?
@@coldfusion230 Pretty sure you can't interrupt the extra attacks with a bonus action (same ruling that nerfed shield master). That said something like manifest a blade, shoot a hand crossbow, throw the blade, switch hands for crossbow, bonus action blade is more of a grey area (though it also strikes me as pretty clear violation of RAI, since there are very few situations where a rogue couldn't just switch which hand is holding what on the fly).
i dont get why you can't use psychic blades with extra attack. It manifests the psychic blades when you take the attack action and attack. You are still attacking and within the attack action when you do the extra attacks.
@@TheRobversion1 The blade "immediately vanishes after it hits or misses its target," which it would do on your first attack. Subsequent attacks would not generate their own blades, as you only make a blade "whenever you take the attack action," and those attacks are part of the same single attack action you already made a blade for (unless you are using things like Haste or Action Surge to get more actions instead of more attacks per action).
I'm definitely interested in this one. I've just taken Soul knife for my sub class! Psychic veil is a little better. It only drops if you cause damage or force a save not if you attack. You can't make attacks of oportunity, as written though as you need to take the Attack Action to use the blades.
Good point on opportunity attacks , though of course you can still make unarmed strike opportunity attacks if you have nothing to do with your reaction.
@@TheRobversion1 Unarmed strike opportunity attack with a rogue is pretty much worthless, since it will use your STR for attack and damage rolls and doesn't qualify for sneak attack. If you dumped STR then your unarmed attack does 0 damage even if you hit. That said, you could use your free object interaction on your turn to draw/pick up a melee weapon after your attacks on your turn, and drop it again as a free action at the start of your next turn before you attack.
@@shanebernier2483 oh it is worthless.indeed. i wouldnt do it as well. I'd rather use uncanny dodge as well. I just mentioned it to point out that you "technically" still can if you wanted to.
@@bosunbones.8815 Evasion isn't a reaction, it's passive. Rogues do have Uncanny Dodge, but I'd rather do a second sneak attack in one round than take half damage from a single attack most of the time if possible.
Hmm, to even consider using it I'm of the mind that they be allowed to imbue magic weapons with their psychic energies similar to bladelocks, strictly the throwing kind. Allowing you to benefit from magical weapons and buffs like Elemental Weapons.
The only real problem I see with the soulknife is that, as written, you cannot use your psychic blades to make opportunity attacks (or any other reaction attacks), which makes it a little bit awkward in melee.
Yes and no. If you think about action economy a knife throwing rogue can't usually make an AoO with a knife he's just thrown and you can't draw a weapon as a reaction I believe. Your hands are empty. That's how this is balanced. If a SK rogue hadn't attacked that round, as a DM I'd probably allow an AoO though.
@@bosunbones.8815 That's assuming the soul knife will be throwing the daggers and not use em in melee. Besides, a rogue throwing one dagger at a time can draw a new dagger at the end of each turn... So the only benefit the soulknife would get would be the comparative benefit of being able to throw 2 daggers and still "draw" a new weapon for AO.. considering this is the core subclass feature that would be entirely balanced.
@@MaMastoast oh I agree. I'm just trying to work how they justified the "when you take the attack action" bit. It seems to specific for just "oversight".
@@bosunbones.8815 I think the attack action bit is to avoid having to summon them as a bonus action or something? And generally leaving your hands free when you're not using them.. Which is all good of course... I think changing "taking the attack action" to "making an attack" would solve most of the problems. Just seems unlikely to me that they'd remove AOs as a balancing mechanic.. don't think thats the case for any other melee eapon in the game.
To me, this is an excellent ranged attacker. Is there any other way for a pure rogue build to get 2 ranged attacks? It’s better than two weapon fighting because your ability score applies to both hits. Provided you don’t need advantage to apply sneak, I’d simply keep 60 feet away from the action and toss psychic blades into the fray. Only drawback I can see is that it takes the attack action to manifest, so no attacks of opportunity. But this is simply another reason to go ranged.
Crossbow Expert also allows for a second attack on the bonus action at range, and makes those attacks work in melee just like the knives. Range is shorter and damage type is less reliable, but also opens them up for magic weapons and more feat support.
not sure if this is answered elsewhere, but psi-bolstered knack adds to a skill that you are already proficient in.....reliable talent(rogue) lets you modify the roll if you add your proficiency bonus. these are two different statements, and no, that means you don't get to use psi-bolstered knack with bardic jack of all trades, since you aren't proficient.
The features are great and all, but would the psychic blades work with extra attack from other classes ?? It says '' The blade vanishes immediately after it hits or misses its target...''. I can't find any sage advice stuff on the matter.
@@WexMajor82 Given that you neither expend the dice if our attack hits without it nor if you try to spend it and still miss, this limited resource is pretty darn abundant. Even at this level, wit no short rests, you could expect this to last you for over 20 rounds of combat per day if I've done my math right, even trying to use it on every attack, and even more as you continue to gain levels.
The telepathy was all I was interested when pondering where to go with my Rogue dip on my Gloomstalker. We had been traveling a few times in very dark environments and was the only one who could scout, but in game relaying of observation was tricky. It's kind of funny to me how Psychic Blades felt more like an afterthought for the very rare occasions where something finds me as I was invisible most of the time. Sadly the campaign went on hold last year so I'm not expecting to see much of that character.
Hey Chris. I've been meaning to do a Shadow Rogue retheming the source of the Soulknife's powers away from Psionic, and thinking about complementing it by taking 3 levels (and maybe later 5 for Extra attack) of either Echo Knight (for a shadow clone) or Swarmkeeper (the swarm are shadows instead). With Thrown Weapon fighting style to mitigate some lost sneak attack damage. Both seems pretty cool concepts and OK balance wise to me, but I wonder what your thoughts are on them and also how they would compare?
I'm not Chris but the echo knight can do reaction attacks with their echo which a soul knife can not do with their psychic blades. They are also both very bonus action heavy: are you going to teleport using your echo, throw another psychic blade, create another echo with you bonus action because it was destroyed, or use cunning action? All that bonus action dependent abilities are way too much bloat for me.
Does the bonus action attack apply your ability score mod? It simply says you "replace the die" so that implies that the "plus ability modifier" clause is kept the same, I think? Would be a great workaround to Rogues not getting the two weapon fighting style.
what's your thoughts on the psychic blade and attacks of opportunity? have heard discussions that psychic blade is bad because the wording suggests you need the attack action to use the blade and thus can't use it for AoO also that it doesn't scale with extra attack
Just started using a level 5 Soul Knife for a mansion heist one shot. I'm a Kobald so it has been fun crit fishing for sneak attack damage with four D20 rolls every round of combat. Would recommend the subclass heavily.
In terms of flavour, the subclass looks good, but mechanics... Well, it is also nice, if you pretend that full-casters are not exist (common problem of 5E as well as 3.5E though...). I m pretty disappointed that they decided not to use Mystic class from UA, and instead make those options. Mystic was almost good. A little polish was all it needed. And if we talk about perfect Soulknife, which is actually enjoyable to build and play, then we should look at Pathfinder 1E.
@@sharkforce8147 thanks god, it is not a computer game, and we can use psion from UA anyway... I mean: if DM has some common sense and doesnt call him broken (well, resistances in psionic focuses were kinda OP, but thats why i m saying that it was almost good: just fix that, few wordings, and you good to go). Also, i hope that Baldur's Gate 3 will have tools like Neverwinter Nights have (or at least will be easy moddable), so the fans will have the opportunity to add Mystic into the game. I mean: lol, we have mind flayers, githyanki, but no psions?
Will you do an optimized Soulknife Whisper Bard? My amateur opinion makes it look really solid at level 6 and curious how your view of it going further up the progression shakes out
My biggest criticism of features like natural weapons or the astral monks arms is that you are unable to benefit from magic weapons, which can add to both attack and damage rolls. The homing strikes feature here absolutely bridges that gap - the highest to hit bonus on legendary weapons is +3 and you can use that feature to easily get much more than that on a miss. Superb
@@theeye8276 insignia of Claws is adventure specific, unless your DM os generous, and wouldnt apply to arms of the astral self. I am talking about a drawback of subclasses that have a core mechanic reliant on a weapons that you cannot improve. The feature identified here effectively addresses this
The more I think about it, the less sense it makes. MCing also delays acquisition of features by 3 levels minimum. Full casting wizards and clerics pool levels for max spell slots and slot levels, why would you not pool these the same way?
@@matthewconlon2388 I guess because the dice pool is already scaling with proficiency bonus [as opposed to class level] -so you can multiclass away from your psionic class without them becoming a lost resource. So you're still able to use them the number of times as intended. It's more generous of a resource than the a cleric/paladin multiclass's Channel Divinity, though you can eventually use those interchangeably after cleric level 6. But I could definitely see an argument being made for a multiclass table regarding scaling the size of psionic power dice.
This strikes me as x=x reasoning in x=/=x circumstance. Psi dice are not a short rest resource like channel divinity, as fuel for the primary features of the class they function more like spell slots in purpose. The “recover one” bonus action is more analogous to Wizard/land Druid slot recovery. It smacks of developing a subsystem for a system that doesn’t exist. For example: if there were a Psion class whose Psi dice improved at a faster rate and had explodes on 12 and explodes on 11-12 as the final two steps, then it might seem more reasonable to separate them out. But as is, the Paladin 2/Sorc 18 build is still a boss killer bc the Paladin can smite with their more numerous, higher level slots and use those slots to cast either scaled up Paladin spells or Sorc spells. It just feels like they’re trying to nerf psi types as a backward design decision without errata or retooling for Paladin smites and mixed class casters.
Would you say a soulknife/fey wanderer with thrown weapons fighting style would be a good match? Or would it be best to go pure rogue? I can't wait to see some builds you come up with the new classes!
I've been having lots of fun with a soul knife / gloomstalker as a thrown weapon combatant. My build is a Changeling with lots of cha, which seems weird, but a lot of the soul knife and gloom stalker features work well with this.
I've done a similar build. Fighter 2, soulknife 3, gloomstalker 5. only thing that sucks is the psychic blade is a melee weapon so i cant use it with sharpshooter.
@@TheRobversion1 did you discuss that with your DM? Mine didn't have an issue with me using sharpshooter with ranged attacks with them as they have the Thrown property. Thematically, taking careful aim to hit a tiny but weak spot should work as well with thrown weapons as with dedicated ranged weapons.
@@matthewdebeer8453 yup. My dm is very particular with RAW. the psychic blades are melee weapons and sharpshooter requires a ranged weapon attack and not simply a ranged attack. Its fine. I still do alot of dmg at high accuracy (no more -5 from sharpshooter). My minimum dmg on round 1 (assuming i roll a 1 on all dmg rolls with no crits) is 74 for a level 10 hero. usually takes out a chunk of the BBEG health. Sometimes i still get to one-shot on high rolls.
@@TheRobversion1 Yeah that's fair. I build rogue heavy (rogue 15 / ranger 5) so I typically don't use SS until I've landed my sneak attack anyway. Not getting AOOs means I want to be sure to land SA on every one of my own turns.
@@matthewdebeer8453 yeah i build.rogue light as the sneak attack dmg isnt high enough to compensate for the dpr i lose by not getting what the fighter provides (action surge, battlemaste subclass, another extra attack at level 11). I feel utility/skill wise even, theres not a big loss by not advancing past rogue 3. The real gold really is just the abilitiy to create replenishing thrown, magical weapons, psionic whispers, psionic knack and a couple of expertised skills.
Call me crazy, but I give Psychic Blades a (just barely) green ranking, borderline purple. Just a +1 dagger does the same damage and you get +1 to hit. A +1 shortsword or rapier does more damage and a to-hit bonus. A guaranteed bonus action attack is nice, but it competes with a lot of things the rogue would want to do with your Cunning Action. You can use Hide or Steady Aim to get advantage, but granted, two normal attacks are better than one attack with advantage. You can use them at range or in melee, which is good. But still, you can pack a ranged weapon and a rapier.
I think i would have to interpret it as “attack roll” instead of Attack action - that fixes both the AoO issue and the extra attack issue with MCed soulknives. The BA ability in this subclass essentially prevents you from being able to have a weapon in either hand so without DM adjudication you either cannot make AoO or you cannot make the BA attack.
The reason they phrased it the way they did is that you aren't eligible to make an attack if you don't have a weapon to make it with, so they have to give you the weapon before you attempt the attack, but you can still take the attack _action_ before you know whether you have a valid target for the attack(s) it grants (or even a way to take them). There is, however, a way they could have fixed this. I would have used the following phrasing: "Whenever you have a free hand, you are considered to be wielding a psychic blade in that hand. You manifest the psychic blade whenever you make an attack with it, and it vanishes after the attack hits or misses its target."
Don't know if you've had this request before but have you ever considered making a guide to a Fighter/Rogue multiclass? I'd be interested to see your thoughts on it.
I remember playing a catfolk Soulknife back in 3.5. "Pretty Terrible" tell that to the Dire-bear/wolf/boars I one-shot with an intel draining strike...0 intel aaand comatosed. easy peasy.
Psychic Veil: Cheap invisibility on will? At a class that's good at sneaking? I think this is awesome for a rogue! - maybe a bit expensive for combat, but it allows this rogue to infiltrate and steal at will or near-sure escape from anything, even an otherwise TPK.
Big fan of this subclass. I kinda wish that the blades leveled with you like everything else in the subclass, and rend mind is definitely disappointing, but all in all I’m a big fan.
Psionics was my favorite thing about DnD 3.5 e, and the soulknife does not disappoint! I would have liked a "Wilder" sorcerer instead of the aberrant mind, but this is good.
do you know where I could find like the class flavor text for a wilder class? This is my first time hearing about it and all I'm finding are the mechanics.
@@elliotbryant3459 They were in the Expanded Psionics Handbook, but there is probably an SRD or wiki that can summarize. Basically, charisma based psionicists who can release their emotions for greater bursts of power at the risk of feedback.
A contract killer is thin in flavour? A person who can take out a jagged sliver of their soul and stab people with it, HAS THIN FLAVOUR? Hate to see whatyou think thick flavour is....
@@ReverseUnicorn haha I hear you What I really mean is that I feel the RP opportunities behind the subclass are quite limited. Of course it could just be the limitations of my own imagination, but I just feel all previous Rogue subclasses have offered more fertile grounds for a creative backstory. I find the Soulknife and Assassin (and to a lesser extent, the Phantom also) to be a much more 'narrow' in terms of width for creative interpretation.
@@mongoliandude I'm about to run an Investigator background variant human Soulknife whose adventuring backstory is she disappeared one day and reappeared a month later with weird psionic powers and a creepy tattoo on her back. She doesn't remember ever having been gone, and also doesn't remember what it was like not having her powers to help out. She has nonetheless been repeatedly, reliably informed that she was gone for a month and also didn't used to have these crazy powers, so she's adventuring to try to find out what happened to her. That seems like fun flavour to me.
@@mongoliandude The variation on that here is that she remembers everything about her life beforehand… except for what it felt like to have to do things the mundane way, and except for the time she was gone.
Yes, but in practice no. You can only make the blade in the first place with an attack action. But if you could make a blade and attack with it without an attack action, you would be correct.
Really wish Soul Knives had the option of making a magical weapon their Soul Knife similar to Pact of the Blade. Rather than the knife reappearing in your hand (though feasibly teleportation can be classed as a psychic ability) it just is telekinetically pulled back into it after the attack. Psychic teleportation is also pretty bad. It on average only gets you around the same distance as a bonus action disengage would get you as a rogue. I feel like whoever wrote this ability forgot rogues can do that. In most situations you would think to use the bonus action teleport, you could just Cunning Action disengage instead. I also disagree on Rend Mind. The effect is a Wisdom save based on your Dex and Stunned is a powerful condition. It's free for the first use and doesn't impact your ability to function as a rogue. Furthermore, at that level you have 12 dice. That is A LOT and the class doesn't call for you to use tonnes of dice since it only affects some aspects and refunds them if it doesn't change the outcome. It's not broken or game changing, but I still think it's good since you can do it repeatedly at a minor cost. It won't do anything vs a boss with legendary resistance, but it will be useful for crowd control during fights where you are outnumbered.
I always liked the soul knife as a concept but it never really impressed me with its execution. It's like your entire tool kit is to give you a +1 weapon with returning, and all the other things you would get from a class are missing. I admit I haven't read this versions iteration though.
I'm thinking about 3 in soul knife and the rest in way of the acended dragon monk be a dodge tank with not equipment needed and unlimited ranged attacks
Got a rogue 3/fighter x build to get those knives for a psychic throwing build ^_^ Haven't gotten to play it yet, but its built out and ready, should be a lot off fun ^_^
Too bad you can't use your psionic power on most hide checks. And your psychic blades (off-hand) and psychic teleportation conflicts with your cunning action and each other. So a lot of the features don't synergize as well with the base class. But that said, I think it's still a good subclass. In my video review I go over some of the uniqueness and limitations of this subclass. - The Innkeeper
@@TheRobversion1 It depends on your table's interpretation of how Stealth works in 5e, but lots of tables will have you roll for stealth when you start sneaking and before it is contested, so when you make the roll you can't have failed it (and thus don't qualify to use Psi-Bolstered Knack).
@@shanebernier2483 ah makes sense. We dont roll stealth when entering stealth then we just roll when there's someone already who can do a perception check. So when the roll does come up, we've been able to use psionic knack to overcome high perception rolls.
@@TheRobversion1 like Rob said, generally stcealth is not a pass/fail unless you are rolling against someone's perception. Most of the time in combat, you roll stealth not as a pass/fail but instead to SET THE DC at which enemies must roll against and their perception then becomes a pass fail against your stealth roll. If DMs are running stealth as pass/fail in combat against multiple creatures, then they pretty much need to contest your rol lagainst every enemy in order to determine a pass / fail condition (or roll against the highest perception in the room). In other words, too many hoops for pass/fail in combat. Now in social interaction, if the king has a passive perception of 15 and you are sneaking by him, the DM probably will determine your roll as a pass/fail. - The Innkeeper
I wonder if the DM would get frustrated with the Bard + Soulknife combo and prohibit it after a couple sessions, heh. Can't wait for your opinion on the new Fighter stuff, even though there isn't particularly much to talk about
Unfortunately the Bard/Rogue doesn't work as advertised the video. That ruling has been reversed both by more recent Crawford tweets and by official errata. Makes me very sad.
Late to realize this, but technically the dueling fighting style would apply to both attacks from your soul blade. Still, this is one of the few times I have to disagree with the overall assessment. Soulknife leaves me feeling very underwhelmed. Despite the very cool flavor, in most combat situations, psychic blades is slightly worse than just having the two-weapon fighting style (which requires a one-level dip, or a feat). And I get that rogues specialize in skills, but at a certain point you hit diminishing returns. Knack looks nice when you get it, but how often are rogues failing important saves, after level 6, when you will have something like +7 to +10 in your four most important skills? At levels 11+, you could literally never benefit from knack again, for the rest of the game. The accuracy boost comes too late at level 9, and can only be applied to your psychic blades. (By this point you probably have a magic weapon you'd like to use.) The teleportation is neat but the variable range is clunky and annoying, and again, this is improving something rogues are already extremely good at: mobility. The flavor is cool and I don't think it is a terrible sub-class, but I don't think it is particularly good.
There’s a brief section on Page 8 of Tasha’s about swapping subclasses whenever you gain a new subclass ability, and TM pointed out in his last video that phantom starts to really come online at level 9. So you can enjoy the low-level benefits of this class, then swap to Phantom at level 9.
@@Adurnis Ok let me put it this way, make sure everyone in your group are on the same page with playing this way. A powergamer in a group of RPers is going to ruffle some feathers doing things like this.
I've started playing a soulknife recently. Tbh I'm having a difficult time optimizing even with a 20 dex at level 5. Where do I go from here? Full rogue? Bard Mc? Couple of full caster levels?
I'm going to go with a few levels of Shadow sorcerer with shadow touched feat to boost spells- ones that dont need attack or saving throws. Invisibility, misty step, mage armour, shield, absorb elements,, darkness etc.
If your goal is optimization for combat, then getting as many attacks as possible is always the route to go. The fighter 2-5 + gloomstalker 3-5 chassis is always the best chassis to fit your soulknife. A full 20 rogue or any martial for that matter will always fall behind spellcasters. Martials are meant to multiclass. I've run a 2 fighter, 5 gloomstalker, 3 soul knife that unloads 7 psychic blades from range on round 1 with dex bonuses, duelling and thrown fighting style bonuses at high accuracy (elven accuracy feat). Throw in the 2 1d8 bonus dmg from dread ambusher and 2d6 sneak attack and the lowest dmg i deal on round 1 (assuming i roll a 1 on all dmg rolls) is 74. I function well enough as a healer post combat (healing spirit) along with being the party skill monkey (3 expertised skills + psionic knack) and provide utility (primal awareness, psionic whispers).
@@TheRobversion1 You only make a knife when you take the attack actin (not every time you attack) and it disappears after the first attack you make with it, regardless of if you hit or miss. It seems like an oversight by the designers, but RAW getting more attacks doesn't really help this particular subclass much at all unless you choose to ignore psychic blades entirely.
@@shanebernier2483 yeah dm and i read it differently as any extra attacks you get while being in the attack action means you get to generate more blades..but yeah i could.see how.it could be interpreted that way as it only happens at the start of the attack action and not within.
Psion wizard, wilder sorcerer, ardent cleric when? The 3.5 book even had prestige classes for a fighter type, a druid type... I wonder if one could adapt pyro/cryokineticist to 5e as a monk subclass.
I can see how that would be an issue if you believe the only possible way for characters to manifest any kind of psychic abilities is by learning them from someone called a "psion" (even though no Psion would ever have their specific psychic abilities).
@@Philistine47 I am fine with randomly manifesting psionic abilties. But I believe that is a feat called "psionic initiate", and not a subclass. Its a worldbuilding issue for me. If psionics is new, it makes sense that there is not a single full fledged psion in the world to teach you how to controll your powers. Because subclasses require beign taught, they go beyong random manifestation, they achieve specific effects designed for specific purposes. But we know psionics is not new in faerun, because this is the 5th edition, taking place i na world that had psionics in previous editions. So this comes across as they wanting to roll back "nono, psionics is totally new, the previous 30 years you were playing with it dont count".
@@texteel NPC's don't need to have a formalized player class though, players are generally not being trained by other player characters. A DM can just create a psionic master character/statblock, the archetype descriptions give some examples of where they might be found in your world. So it be written, so it be done.
TLDR: Soulbades are the teleporting mid-range sniper class. In your thinking did you put together that this is not a melee focused build but a ranged one that they are begging you to use 1) blades attack at 60’ 2) the new Rogue option lets you get reliable advantage at range by setting your speed to zero 3) you can teleport with your Psychic Teleportation (both use bonus actions so one or the other). Basically you have to think three dimensionally and you can only pull this off every turn or two if you are alone but it is reliable! And this is bolted on to a natural covert agent class. Built with one of the earliest magic weapons a rarely resisted attack type and not failing at any skill you have. Oh and if you attack your attacks leave no marks! The biggest issue is that you as a rogue may want to actually have lucky to make sure your teleport gets the range you need (by the end it is up to 120’ and you may need it.) Edit- for clarification doe other commenters (as if)
2:41 Crawford backed off on this later twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/895045493528469504 And the Sage Advice was revised to say they don't apply to the same roll (i.e. Jack of All Trades only applies to rolls that don't add your proficiency bonus, Reliable Talent only applies to those that do.)
Jack of All Trades does NOT combo with Reliable Talent. JC later clarified his earlier tweet: twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/895045493528469504 You can have both on the same character, but not on the same ability check.
Regarding the Tweet shown at 2:41 According to this newer tweet from 2017 (the one shown is from 2015), Jack of All Trades doesn't interact with, e.g., Reliable Talent, suggesting that the bonus of JoAT doesn't count as proficiency. twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/895054958378143745
I don't get why everyone is so hyped on the psionic rogue. If you want to use the psi-blades: -No attacks with your reaction, at least not unless you stow and draw weapons all the time. -Can't use booming blade and greenflame blade. -Can't use magic weapons. Also a bonus action attack is not that great on a rogue, as they have a lot to use their bonus action for already. Even with the accuracy boosts, this looks to me like it will do very poor damage compared to a rogue that has booming blade and any way to make reaction attacks.
1) Incorrect. A psychic blade only takes one free hand so another free hand can have a weapon and use it for reaction attacks, this doesn't stop you from doing reaction attacks. 2) Only if you use the psionic blade to attack from range, in which case yes you can't - the same way you can't if you attack with a crossbow or a shortbow. Despite this you get a large range to work with. 3) Incorrect. One single hand, the other can have a magical weapon. 4) Not quite, if you're using the bonus action attack from this then you're most likely at a range of most likely 60 feet so none of your three cunning action options would offer you much, especially if you missed an attack (as in you're attacking a 2nd time to try to get sneak attack off if your first attack didn't land). It only is quote on quote ''bad'' if you're fighting at melee, most likely with a magica weapon if you're at higher levels. 5) Yes, because that's not the point of this at all. If you want to get a lot of damage with booming blade then go play a swashbuckler. This is meant to give you more social capabilities (adding die to checks), clever tricks such as telepathy & invisibility as well as giving you a free ranged attack that doesn't require any type of ammo. What is happening here is that you are completely misunderstanding the subclass and you're expecting it to be a min-max for damage when that's not the purpose of this. Go play swashbuckler.
@@trappyboi8678 1) It requires two hands if you want to use the bonus action attack, if you are not using the bonus action attack, you are better off with a rapier. 2) Booming blade and Green flame blade have been changed to require a material component, that is a weapon with a value of at least 1sp, and you explicitly attack with the weapon you used to cast the spell. A reasonable DM might overrule this, but RAW psychic blades do not work with the blade cantrips. (They also no longer work with the shadowblade spell, which sucks.) 3) Again, same issue as number 1. If you want to utilize the bonus action, you need to have both hands free. Also most magic weapons aren't any good unless you attack with them. I value my +1/+2/+3 weapons very highly on a rogue, for the extra accuracy. 4) At range you can most likely use the hide or the new steady aim action to get advantage on your attack. Thus having an equal chance to land your sneak attack. But if that is a +1 weapon, your chances are actually better at getting sneak attack at that point. 5) I am not saying those things aren't useful, maybe I wasn't entirely clear, but I see this a decent subclass, but people seem to think of it as a great subclass. Where I just think you lose too many points in combat to be great. I took a look over the other subclasses, and to be fair, I think I have compared it too much to arcane trickster in my mind. I was a little surprised by how mediocre most of the abilities of the other subclasses seem to me. Still I think phantom delivers a comparable amount of non-combat boost, with a floating skill (That will work excellent with reliable talent), and abilities to go through walls. While also delivering in combat. I think arcane trickster outperforms in both combat and non-combat situations. And I think I would also personally prefer scout over this. But I can see how this beats out many of the other subclasses. I guess I was unaware how far above the rest of rogue subclasses arcane trickster is. I guess another bias of mine is a high optimization level. If you consider a straight rogue build, that is not going to try to use reactions for sneak attack, a lot of the worst bits falls away. And a lot of people do play that way.
Your conclusions sound like you like this subclass yet over on the discord I still see a lot of anti rogue sentiment (not from you). So I am hoping you will incorporate this in a build soonish.
Psychic blades aren't blades or knives just a psychic energy discharge that for some reason uses DEXTERITY (physical accuracy + speed/momentum) as it only appears when you shoot your energy blast .. Your energy blast is, bonus action using, wasting off hand functionality despite having no physical mechanic. Just an illogical Kingsglaive Final Fantasy rip/plagiarism with (imaginary melee) energy blasts Their version of "Psychic" Teleportation is blast based but random so you can't actually "aim" it before you try making it auto break game immersion ! Soulknife needs an area attack and still has never been done well in dnd ..
As a DM, I am getting sick of overpowered PCs. DnD 5e is broken for Dm's. You cannot run regular modules when the PCs keep getting stronger and stronger.
@@b_olson542 The problem is that when you use modules and pre-made adventures like Tomb of Annihilation, the PCs are too strong now. The power creep is breaking the games.
@@b_olson542 I have actually made my own homebrew book of over 100 pages. On one page I have a chart of 91 levels of monsters and I can adjust them quickly to be more defensive or offensive and still maintain the same power rating. But I had to do that because DnD has broken the monsters... And they are making it worse for others who do not know how to homebrew. My toughest monster has 350 HP, AC22, 2 base attacks, 3 legendary actions and can do 111 points of damage per round. If I need a tougher monster, I can use multiple weaker ones. But I know how to do this... most don't.
We played with it - because we thought that this was such a tasty sub-class - we have now banned it an all the tasha's abilities that work like this from our games... with "this" we mean all abilities that require the DM to tell the player whether they fail or succeed on ability checks... It is too gamey and not fun at all :( - not for our group... and we are all optimizers when we play!
When I see all these soul knives all I can think is "My life for Aiur"
You must construct additional pylons.
That or Psylocke from the X-men comics.
Not enough minerals
Monk: What makes me stand out is, that I don't need to rely on puny weapons in combat, good mobility and can stun enemies.
Soulknife: Yeah, really unique
Sorcerers also don't rely on weapons in combat, have good mobility and can disable enemies.
@Jerry Dove they have never been good, so I hope one day you get your wish.
@@fadeleaf845 Shh, the Monk's already crying in the corner
@@fadeleaf845 what makes you think sorcerers have good mobility?
@@channelremoved32 Misty Step? Dimension Door? The fact that ranged attacks give you far more freedom on where to position yourself?
So are you saying that if I play a Soulknife/Whispers Bard, I can apply Psychic Blades with my Psychic blades?
Hey dawg I heard you like psychic blades
@@BlueFoxXT and he likes psychic blades with his psychic blades.
I really like lower level subclass abilities that scale with proficiency. They give some interesting multiclass options at higher levels.
*The Soulknife:* "The monk's lunch sure is tasty!" XD
13th level ability isn't that bad, you become visible only if you hit so if you fail you're still invisible, better than 2nd level invisibility for a class who can deal a lot of extra damage like rogue does
When multiclassing into a caster you can also safely cast a few spells while staying invisible. Examples include sleep, hex/hunter's mark, web/entangle, faerie fire etc.
Also allows youto grapple and shove creatures while staying completely invisible.
Easily my favorite Rouge subclass. It excels at all the sneaky, murdery things rogues are known for. It may be a better thief and assassin than the Thief and Assassin are.
I am glad that soulknife is finally alright in D&D (though I wish it was a monk instead), but I am still snickering from the fact that you won't be cutting chandeliers or even hitting many constructs with that mind blade of yours (as it does pure psychic damage).
5:24 just mentioning that for DMs out there, there are still other very good magic items you could give to the rogue. If you want to increase their damage with a magical item you can give them a manual of quickness of action to increase their damage, to hit, stealth, and AC by 1.
Or, just give them a focusing crystal +1 for their mind blades in lieu of/in addition to a +1 weapon.
This subclass seems like it would be fun for a multiclassed grappling barbarian/rogue. You never need to worry about having a free hand for grapples when you have blades that summon when you attack. (And you have blades ready should you encounter a baddie you cannot grapple.) You can add your psi-die to a failed grapple check. Eventually you get teleportation as a bonus action on a barbarian, and invisibility that doesnt end when you grapple.
That's all on top of the normal synergies like sneak attack with recklesss, uncanny dodge with rage resistance, and evasion with danger sense. In theory, a soulknife rogue15/barb 5 seems hyper reliable, durable as hell, and even has some maneuverability with the psi teleport + fast movement. It avoids the level 17 soulknife feature, while still getting a Wis save proficiency as a capstone (level 15 rogue), and reliable talent for grapples.
I'm playing a grappling barbarian (level 3, currently fighting through a 5e port of Against the Cult of the Reptile God) and am hoping to eventually try this out with him!
I'm used to thinking of Lore Bard as the expertise half of grapplers, but this is actually really solid! Nice find, only issue it seems to miss is changing size to grapple bigger enemies. Maybe get some Rune Knight in there somewhere?
@@shanebernier2483 or have a friendly caster prepare enlarge person.
Zealot barbarian works very well with soulknife
I currently use this with a rune knight since they are just as adept at grappling (adv on strength checks) while also becoming a size category larger, making it possible to grapple and then shank huge creatures.
And while I don't have the damage resist of the barb, a higher AC offsets that somewhat. Pretty silly fun.
kalashtar bear barbarian for funsies?
I probably wouldn’t think it was necessary to use homing strike on every attack you miss, because rogues don’t get that much value from hitting twice in a turn vs hitting once, so if I hit the first attack I’d almost never use it on the second attack.
Great rogue and quite tempting, but FINALLY MORE WARLOCK :D can't wait to hear your thoughts on my favorite class.
It should be noted that this subclass gets hard countered by mind blank which every caster at higher levels have precast. Similarly constructs will ruin your day and statues coming alive to wreck your face seems to be quite common in the adventurer's lifestyle.
Any rogue that doesn't have a back up plan deserves what they get. ;)
Any one at all that restricts themself to one damage type is shooting themself in the foot for certain kinds of encounters. Having a psychic weapon doesnt mean you dont carry another weapon.
Wizards also get hard countered by mind blank. In fact arguably nearly every class does. But at least the soul knife can still get sneak attack.
Fighters, barbarian, and rogues are the only class that don’t get hard countered by mind blank. Paladins and rangers can still do stuff but they just became worse fighters.
@@conradkorbol I think you're thinking of Feeblemind. Mind blank is a buff that makes the target immune to psychic damage.
@@coldfusion230 I am fucking dumb
You right. I am bad at the game
I would like to thank you for your analysis, I think it has helped me put the 5e psionic classes in perspective, I have been frustrated with the take on psionics, probably because I really liked psionics in 3.5. But I think it is important to understand the current take is good in the realm of 5e, even if I wanted something more from them.
I hate psychic blades wording so much. Because they only work on attack action you can't use it on opportunity attacks and other off turn attacks, which is like the best way to optimize rogue. And it isn't even a balance issue, because you could go around it by having a dagger in your hand. Unfortunately you will need to drop it any time you are taking an attack action and getting it back up afterwards with a free object interaction. This will work by RAW but mental image of this cringes me so much it actually physically hurts
Same. The Unearthed Arcana didn't require you to take the attack action to manifest the blades. I think the designers slipped up.
@@master_rafiki Yeah when you think about it, they might have... It's often weird to conclude that you have to hand in features even though it's not apparent when taking the class.
Generally agree, though I could see some ways to flavor it to be more palatable. Maybe you are tossing the knife from hand to hand., leaving illusory copies behind in the empty one. Could also be tossing the knife into the air for your drop and catching it, with the psychic blades shooting out of the knife as it twirls. You character should certainly have the DEX for either.
I agree they should have left it a "free action" since you might want to teleport before you attack
@@master_rafiki They revised the wording in the Unearthed Arcana version for the final class because as written in the most recent Unearthed Arcana version, RAW you can't actually use the blades because you can't declare an attack without a means of making it - but you _can_ take the attack _action_ regardless of whether you have a means to actually make the attack it grants. Of course, an easy fix is to replace the current wording about the attack action with something like the following:
"Whenever you have a free hand, you are considered to be wielding a psychic blade in that hand. You manifest the psychic blade whenever you make an attack with it, and it vanishes after the attack hits or misses its target."
I would’ve thought you’d be a fan of the teleport, misty step with the potential of an 80ft teleport, and probably a slightly cheaper resource too. Positioning important for a rogue, and things like grapples can be devastating, this solves both of those problems
I do wish psychic blades scaled in some way, or had some kind of synergy with magical weapons (like the warlock's pact weapon can). Other than that it is a really cool class, although heavy on the expend a die to use this again features, but still pretty damn good.
It's worth noting that by RAW, since you only manifest a psychic blade when you take the attack action, not whenever you make an attack, that psychic blades does not mesh at all with multiclassing for extra attack, and you cannot use psychic blades for attacks of opportunity.
I would love to see you explore a few multi-class options for the Soulknife. I remember I went Bladsinger/Soulknife during UA and it was surprisingly good with the utility spells the Wizard brought. It was also super tanky when I used Bladesong.
I made one of these without really looking into what it does. I quickly started using it as a ranged attacker. That worked for me quite well...
Soulknife seems super appealing to me as a grappling build in particular. Psi-bolstered knack makes grappling absurdly reliable, and since the weapon disappears from your hand immediately after taking the attack action, you'll have much more reliable access to a free hand. Not to mention, since the knives have a range of 60 feet, that gives you pretty good control over the battlefield (grapple someone, take them out of the party's range, continue throwing knives with your bonus action).
A multiclass of Psi Knight Fighter/Soulknife Rogue seems like both a flavorful and very fun grappler build, though I haven't investigated any of the specifics other than that you'd probably want at least 3 levels in rogue, and probably at least 7 in fighter for the shove ability.
Soulknife makes a great skill monkey while psionic whispers renders rary useless. Soulknife makes for an excellent chassis for a throwing build.
IMO it's ok if soulknife's can't benefit from magic weapon. It just means they more attunement spots open for interesting stuff (especially if multiclassed). Plus since soulknifes rarely have occupied hands, it's easier for them to cast spells with S&M components without relying on the warcaster feat.
I really like this subclass. the full on bonus action attack is the real kicker for me.
if i was running, i would make an item that was like a ring or something that allowed extra psychic damage. balanced to party of course.
The interaction between Reliable Talent and Jack of all Trades apparently has been clarified after this tweet from Jeremy Crawford to not work like that though (source: www.sageadvice.eu/2017/10/15/how-would-reliable-talent-work-with-a-roguebard-and-their-jack-of-all-trades/ )
I don't think the bard multiclass idea would work as well, since Jack of all Trades does not count as having proficiency :/
Though I would add it is not hard to get proficiency in everything you want to use or with a bit of mutliclassing and downtime cash - everything !
"clarified" means "oops"
At one time Sage Advice echoed Jeremy's original ruling, but I guess they've revised it since.
Just a heads up, both Crawford's tweets and the Sage Advice Compendium have walked that 2015 tweet back to clarify that Reliable Talent does not apply to skills you get a bonus for from Jack of All Trades or Remarkable Athlete, making dipping bard less appealing (though still not bad, since getting into Lore Bard still gives four new proficiencies and two expertise by level 3).
Also one downside I've seen people mention somewhat frequently is that the Psychic blade disappears after you attack with it, so you can't use it to make reaction attacks or with Extra Attack if you multiclassed.
If you had a heavy crossbow which you can hold in one hand. Could you psychic blades with right hand while holding crossbow in your left, swap the crossbow to your right hand, then bonus attack with left hand before finally extra attacking with crossbow?
@@coldfusion230 Pretty sure you can't interrupt the extra attacks with a bonus action (same ruling that nerfed shield master). That said something like manifest a blade, shoot a hand crossbow, throw the blade, switch hands for crossbow, bonus action blade is more of a grey area (though it also strikes me as pretty clear violation of RAI, since there are very few situations where a rogue couldn't just switch which hand is holding what on the fly).
i dont get why you can't use psychic blades with extra attack. It manifests the psychic blades when you take the attack action and attack. You are still attacking and within the attack action when you do the extra attacks.
@@TheRobversion1 The blade "immediately vanishes after it hits or misses its target," which it would do on your first attack. Subsequent attacks would not generate their own blades, as you only make a blade "whenever you take the attack action," and those attacks are part of the same single attack action you already made a blade for (unless you are using things like Haste or Action Surge to get more actions instead of more attacks per action).
I'm definitely interested in this one. I've just taken Soul knife for my sub class!
Psychic veil is a little better. It only drops if you cause damage or force a save not if you attack.
You can't make attacks of oportunity, as written though as you need to take the Attack Action to use the blades.
Good point on opportunity attacks , though of course you can still make unarmed strike opportunity attacks if you have nothing to do with your reaction.
@@TheRobversion1 Unarmed strike opportunity attack with a rogue is pretty much worthless, since it will use your STR for attack and damage rolls and doesn't qualify for sneak attack. If you dumped STR then your unarmed attack does 0 damage even if you hit.
That said, you could use your free object interaction on your turn to draw/pick up a melee weapon after your attacks on your turn, and drop it again as a free action at the start of your next turn before you attack.
Let's be honest though. How many AoO is a rogue going to make since it removes other reactions like Evasion.
I'd rather dodge a fireball to be honest.
@@shanebernier2483 oh it is worthless.indeed. i wouldnt do it as well. I'd rather use uncanny dodge as well. I just mentioned it to point out that you "technically" still can if you wanted to.
@@bosunbones.8815 Evasion isn't a reaction, it's passive. Rogues do have Uncanny Dodge, but I'd rather do a second sneak attack in one round than take half damage from a single attack most of the time if possible.
Something tells he is going to eviscerate the Fathomless warlock (Just hopefully not too hard because I love the subclass' flavor)
Hmm, to even consider using it I'm of the mind that they be allowed to imbue magic weapons with their psychic energies similar to bladelocks, strictly the throwing kind. Allowing you to benefit from magical weapons and buffs like Elemental Weapons.
Got to level 4 in a recent campaign that ended up fizzling out. Was so much fun. I'm definitely going to roll another one again soon.
WotC: Yo I heard you liked Battlemaster so we put some of that into the Rogue and made it fail-proof.
This would’ve been a good segue into the Psi Warrior review.
Honestly this is the multiclass I'd be interested in hearing played out.
...been waiting for this one for weeks!
The only real problem I see with the soulknife is that, as written, you cannot use your psychic blades to make opportunity attacks (or any other reaction attacks), which makes it a little bit awkward in melee.
yea that really bothers me aswell... I feel like it's an oversight by the designers.
Yes and no. If you think about action economy a knife throwing rogue can't usually make an AoO with a knife he's just thrown and you can't draw a weapon as a reaction I believe. Your hands are empty. That's how this is balanced.
If a SK rogue hadn't attacked that round, as a DM I'd probably allow an AoO though.
@@bosunbones.8815 That's assuming the soul knife will be throwing the daggers and not use em in melee. Besides, a rogue throwing one dagger at a time can draw a new dagger at the end of each turn... So the only benefit the soulknife would get would be the comparative benefit of being able to throw 2 daggers and still "draw" a new weapon for AO.. considering this is the core subclass feature that would be entirely balanced.
@@MaMastoast oh I agree. I'm just trying to work how they justified the "when you take the attack action" bit.
It seems to specific for just "oversight".
@@bosunbones.8815 I think the attack action bit is to avoid having to summon them as a bonus action or something? And generally leaving your hands free when you're not using them.. Which is all good of course... I think changing "taking the attack action" to "making an attack" would solve most of the problems.
Just seems unlikely to me that they'd remove AOs as a balancing mechanic.. don't think thats the case for any other melee eapon in the game.
To me, this is an excellent ranged attacker. Is there any other way for a pure rogue build to get 2 ranged attacks? It’s better than two weapon fighting because your ability score applies to both hits. Provided you don’t need advantage to apply sneak, I’d simply keep 60 feet away from the action and toss psychic blades into the fray.
Only drawback I can see is that it takes the attack action to manifest, so no attacks of opportunity. But this is simply another reason to go ranged.
Crossbow Expert also allows for a second attack on the bonus action at range, and makes those attacks work in melee just like the knives. Range is shorter and damage type is less reliable, but also opens them up for magic weapons and more feat support.
You.can get.up to 7 at tier 2 play if.you.multiclass. tier 3-4 play you can go up to 9 attacks.
not sure if this is answered elsewhere, but psi-bolstered knack adds to a skill that you are already proficient in.....reliable talent(rogue) lets you modify the roll if you add your proficiency bonus. these are two different statements, and no, that means you don't get to use psi-bolstered knack with bardic jack of all trades, since you aren't proficient.
The features are great and all, but would the psychic blades work with extra attack from other classes ?? It says '' The blade vanishes immediately after it hits or misses its target...''. I can't find any sage advice stuff on the matter.
The problem with the soulknife is he doesn't get the +1, +2, +3 on attacks.
He'll miss more often than others rogues.
Until he get to add up to +8 on his homing strikes at 9th level!
@@bosunbones.8815 Yes, but that uses a resource.
While the magic bonus on an enchanted rapier is free and always on.
@@WexMajor82 Given that you neither expend the dice if our attack hits without it nor if you try to spend it and still miss, this limited resource is pretty darn abundant. Even at this level, wit no short rests, you could expect this to last you for over 20 rounds of combat per day if I've done my math right, even trying to use it on every attack, and even more as you continue to gain levels.
The telepathy was all I was interested when pondering where to go with my Rogue dip on my Gloomstalker. We had been traveling a few times in very dark environments and was the only one who could scout, but in game relaying of observation was tricky. It's kind of funny to me how Psychic Blades felt more like an afterthought for the very rare occasions where something finds me as I was invisible most of the time. Sadly the campaign went on hold last year so I'm not expecting to see much of that character.
Hey Chris.
I've been meaning to do a Shadow Rogue retheming the source of the Soulknife's powers away from Psionic, and thinking about complementing it by taking 3 levels (and maybe later 5 for Extra attack) of either Echo Knight (for a shadow clone) or Swarmkeeper (the swarm are shadows instead). With Thrown Weapon fighting style to mitigate some lost sneak attack damage.
Both seems pretty cool concepts and OK balance wise to me, but I wonder what your thoughts are on them and also how they would compare?
I'm not Chris but the echo knight can do reaction attacks with their echo which a soul knife can not do with their psychic blades. They are also both very bonus action heavy: are you going to teleport using your echo, throw another psychic blade, create another echo with you bonus action because it was destroyed, or use cunning action? All that bonus action dependent abilities are way too much bloat for me.
Your bonus action attack works well with hunters more though so I don't think that one is a bad idea.
Psychic blades don't scale with extra attack though so I think going 5 lvl ranger may be disappointing
Keep in mind that you can't combine BB/GFB with Psychic Blades since they only manifest as attack actions.
I wish this would synergies with the psychic fighter perfectly it would have been perfect
Does the bonus action attack apply your ability score mod? It simply says you "replace the die" so that implies that the "plus ability modifier" clause is kept the same, I think? Would be a great workaround to Rogues not getting the two weapon fighting style.
Yes, you can add your ability score modifier to the damage.
what's your thoughts on the psychic blade and attacks of opportunity?
have heard discussions that psychic blade is bad because the wording suggests you need the attack action to use the blade and thus can't use it for AoO also that it doesn't scale with extra attack
Ya the non extra attack scaling is bad
Just started using a level 5 Soul Knife for a mansion heist one shot. I'm a Kobald so it has been fun crit fishing for sneak attack damage with four D20 rolls every round of combat. Would recommend the subclass heavily.
Soul Knife is one I have been waiting for
What would be the strongest multi class options for the SK Rogue?
In terms of flavour, the subclass looks good, but mechanics... Well, it is also nice, if you pretend that full-casters are not exist (common problem of 5E as well as 3.5E though...).
I m pretty disappointed that they decided not to use Mystic class from UA, and instead make those options. Mystic was almost good. A little polish was all it needed.
And if we talk about perfect Soulknife, which is actually enjoyable to build and play, then we should look at Pathfinder 1E.
@@sharkforce8147 thanks god, it is not a computer game, and we can use psion from UA anyway... I mean: if DM has some common sense and doesnt call him broken (well, resistances in psionic focuses were kinda OP, but thats why i m saying that it was almost good: just fix that, few wordings, and you good to go).
Also, i hope that Baldur's Gate 3 will have tools like Neverwinter Nights have (or at least will be easy moddable), so the fans will have the opportunity to add Mystic into the game. I mean: lol, we have mind flayers, githyanki, but no psions?
Will you do an optimized Soulknife Whisper Bard? My amateur opinion makes it look really solid at level 6 and curious how your view of it going further up the progression shakes out
If you're playing as a dhampir that feeds on psychic energy, would it restore your psionic dice count?
My biggest criticism of features like natural weapons or the astral monks arms is that you are unable to benefit from magic weapons, which can add to both attack and damage rolls. The homing strikes feature here absolutely bridges that gap - the highest to hit bonus on legendary weapons is +3 and you can use that feature to easily get much more than that on a miss. Superb
There is the insignia of claws and eldritch something tattoo that works with unarmed strikes/natural weapons
@@theeye8276 insignia of Claws is adventure specific, unless your DM os generous, and wouldnt apply to arms of the astral self. I am talking about a drawback of subclasses that have a core mechanic reliant on a weapons that you cannot improve. The feature identified here effectively addresses this
Is there any verbiage that prevents MC psiknight/soulblade from getting double psi dice and/or spending the extra on the other’s features?
Not in the text, but Crawford put out a tweet that you can't use the two pools of dice interchangeably despite having the same name.
What’s the rationale there? MCing nerfs the size of the dice, RAW there’s nothing that would prevent it.
The more I think about it, the less sense it makes. MCing also delays acquisition of features by 3 levels minimum.
Full casting wizards and clerics pool levels for max spell slots and slot levels, why would you not pool these the same way?
@@matthewconlon2388 I guess because the dice pool is already scaling with proficiency bonus [as opposed to class level] -so you can multiclass away from your psionic class without them becoming a lost resource. So you're still able to use them the number of times as intended. It's more generous of a resource than the a cleric/paladin multiclass's Channel Divinity, though you can eventually use those interchangeably after cleric level 6. But I could definitely see an argument being made for a multiclass table regarding scaling the size of psionic power dice.
This strikes me as x=x reasoning in x=/=x circumstance.
Psi dice are not a short rest resource like channel divinity, as fuel for the primary features of the class they function more like spell slots in purpose. The “recover one” bonus action is more analogous to Wizard/land Druid slot recovery.
It smacks of developing a subsystem for a system that doesn’t exist. For example: if there were a Psion class whose Psi dice improved at a faster rate and had explodes on 12 and explodes on 11-12 as the final two steps, then it might seem more reasonable to separate them out.
But as is, the Paladin 2/Sorc 18 build is still a boss killer bc the Paladin can smite with their more numerous, higher level slots and use those slots to cast either scaled up Paladin spells or Sorc spells.
It just feels like they’re trying to nerf psi types as a backward design decision without errata or retooling for Paladin smites and mixed class casters.
Would you say a soulknife/fey wanderer with thrown weapons fighting style would be a good match? Or would it be best to go pure rogue? I can't wait to see some builds you come up with the new classes!
With Psychic Teleportation, it seems we can play as Noctis from FFXV. Cool.
I've been having lots of fun with a soul knife / gloomstalker as a thrown weapon combatant. My build is a Changeling with lots of cha, which seems weird, but a lot of the soul knife and gloom stalker features work well with this.
I've done a similar build. Fighter 2, soulknife 3, gloomstalker 5. only thing that sucks is the psychic blade is a melee weapon so i cant use it with sharpshooter.
@@TheRobversion1 did you discuss that with your DM? Mine didn't have an issue with me using sharpshooter with ranged attacks with them as they have the Thrown property. Thematically, taking careful aim to hit a tiny but weak spot should work as well with thrown weapons as with dedicated ranged weapons.
@@matthewdebeer8453 yup. My dm is very particular with RAW. the psychic blades are melee weapons and sharpshooter requires a ranged weapon attack and not simply a ranged attack. Its fine. I still do alot of dmg at high accuracy (no more -5 from sharpshooter). My minimum dmg on round 1 (assuming i roll a 1 on all dmg rolls with no crits) is 74 for a level 10 hero. usually takes out a chunk of the BBEG health. Sometimes i still get to one-shot on high rolls.
@@TheRobversion1 Yeah that's fair. I build rogue heavy (rogue 15 / ranger 5) so I typically don't use SS until I've landed my sneak attack anyway. Not getting AOOs means I want to be sure to land SA on every one of my own turns.
@@matthewdebeer8453 yeah i build.rogue light as the sneak attack dmg isnt high enough to compensate for the dpr i lose by not getting what the fighter provides (action surge, battlemaste subclass, another extra attack at level 11). I feel utility/skill wise even, theres not a big loss by not advancing past rogue 3. The real gold really is just the abilitiy to create replenishing thrown, magical weapons, psionic whispers, psionic knack and a couple of expertised skills.
Call me crazy, but I give Psychic Blades a (just barely) green ranking, borderline purple. Just a +1 dagger does the same damage and you get +1 to hit. A +1 shortsword or rapier does more damage and a to-hit bonus. A guaranteed bonus action attack is nice, but it competes with a lot of things the rogue would want to do with your Cunning Action.
You can use Hide or Steady Aim to get advantage, but granted, two normal attacks are better than one attack with advantage. You can use them at range or in melee, which is good. But still, you can pack a ranged weapon and a rapier.
I think i would have to interpret it as “attack roll” instead of Attack action - that fixes both the AoO issue and the extra attack issue with MCed soulknives. The BA ability in this subclass essentially prevents you from being able to have a weapon in either hand so without DM adjudication you either cannot make AoO or you cannot make the BA attack.
The reason they phrased it the way they did is that you aren't eligible to make an attack if you don't have a weapon to make it with, so they have to give you the weapon before you attempt the attack, but you can still take the attack _action_ before you know whether you have a valid target for the attack(s) it grants (or even a way to take them).
There is, however, a way they could have fixed this. I would have used the following phrasing:
"Whenever you have a free hand, you are considered to be wielding a psychic blade in that hand. You manifest the psychic blade whenever you make an attack with it, and it vanishes after the attack hits or misses its target."
The teleport should just be 60ft. You can throw the dagger 60ft.
Don't know if you've had this request before but have you ever considered making a guide to a Fighter/Rogue multiclass? I'd be interested to see your thoughts on it.
I remember playing a catfolk Soulknife back in 3.5.
"Pretty Terrible" tell that to the Dire-bear/wolf/boars I one-shot with an intel draining strike...0 intel aaand comatosed. easy peasy.
Psychic Veil: Cheap invisibility on will? At a class that's good at sneaking?
I think this is awesome for a rogue! - maybe a bit expensive for combat, but it allows this rogue to infiltrate and steal at will or near-sure escape from anything, even an otherwise TPK.
Big fan of this subclass. I kinda wish that the blades leveled with you like everything else in the subclass, and rend mind is definitely disappointing, but all in all I’m a big fan.
Psionics was my favorite thing about DnD 3.5 e, and the soulknife does not disappoint! I would have liked a "Wilder" sorcerer instead of the aberrant mind, but this is good.
do you know where I could find like the class flavor text for a wilder class? This is my first time hearing about it and all I'm finding are the mechanics.
@@elliotbryant3459 They were in the Expanded Psionics Handbook, but there is probably an SRD or wiki that can summarize. Basically, charisma based psionicists who can release their emotions for greater bursts of power at the risk of feedback.
You can see Soulknife is immediately a powerful Rogue subclass but, as with the Assassin, BOY do I find it thin in flavour!
A contract killer is thin in flavour?
A person who can take out a jagged sliver of their soul and stab people with it, HAS THIN FLAVOUR?
Hate to see whatyou think thick flavour is....
@@ReverseUnicorn
haha I hear you
What I really mean is that I feel the RP opportunities behind the subclass are quite limited. Of course it could just be the limitations of my own imagination, but I just feel all previous Rogue subclasses have offered more fertile grounds for a creative backstory. I find the Soulknife and Assassin (and to a lesser extent, the Phantom also) to be a much more 'narrow' in terms of width for creative interpretation.
@@mongoliandude I'm about to run an Investigator background variant human Soulknife whose adventuring backstory is she disappeared one day and reappeared a month later with weird psionic powers and a creepy tattoo on her back. She doesn't remember ever having been gone, and also doesn't remember what it was like not having her powers to help out. She has nonetheless been repeatedly, reliably informed that she was gone for a month and also didn't used to have these crazy powers, so she's adventuring to try to find out what happened to her. That seems like fun flavour to me.
@@FlameUser64
Yeah, I think the 'forgotten past' trope is one of the backstories that better fit the Phantom and Soulknife subclasses.
@@mongoliandude The variation on that here is that she remembers everything about her life beforehand… except for what it felt like to have to do things the mundane way, and except for the time she was gone.
Hold on can you take the psychic blade action while holding a rapier?
The soul knife is great to make Gambit from X-Men.
How would Psi warrior and Soul Knife work as a multiclass?
Not being able to manifest Psychic Blades on a Reaction is a major oversight.
For AoO?
@@dragonhearthx8369 And for other abilities, such as if you would be the recipient of Commander's Strike from your Battlemaster friend.
> You do get more, though.
But wait! There's more!
Psychic Blades' "After you attack with the blade..." does not require the attack >action
Yes, but in practice no. You can only make the blade in the first place with an attack action. But if you could make a blade and attack with it without an attack action, you would be correct.
Really wish Soul Knives had the option of making a magical weapon their Soul Knife similar to Pact of the Blade. Rather than the knife reappearing in your hand (though feasibly teleportation can be classed as a psychic ability) it just is telekinetically pulled back into it after the attack. Psychic teleportation is also pretty bad. It on average only gets you around the same distance as a bonus action disengage would get you as a rogue. I feel like whoever wrote this ability forgot rogues can do that. In most situations you would think to use the bonus action teleport, you could just Cunning Action disengage instead.
I also disagree on Rend Mind. The effect is a Wisdom save based on your Dex and Stunned is a powerful condition. It's free for the first use and doesn't impact your ability to function as a rogue. Furthermore, at that level you have 12 dice. That is A LOT and the class doesn't call for you to use tonnes of dice since it only affects some aspects and refunds them if it doesn't change the outcome. It's not broken or game changing, but I still think it's good since you can do it repeatedly at a minor cost. It won't do anything vs a boss with legendary resistance, but it will be useful for crowd control during fights where you are outnumbered.
I always liked the soul knife as a concept but it never really impressed me with its execution. It's like your entire tool kit is to give you a +1 weapon with returning, and all the other things you would get from a class are missing.
I admit I haven't read this versions iteration though.
Personally pisve this subclass (and generally dislike rogues) so excited to see your take
I'm thinking about 3 in soul knife and the rest in way of the acended dragon monk be a dodge tank with not equipment needed and unlimited ranged attacks
The Soul Knife AKA Psylocke.
Got a rogue 3/fighter x build to get those knives for a psychic throwing build ^_^ Haven't gotten to play it yet, but its built out and ready, should be a lot off fun ^_^
Too bad you can't use your psionic power on most hide checks. And your psychic blades (off-hand) and psychic teleportation conflicts with your cunning action and each other.
So a lot of the features don't synergize as well with the base class. But that said, I think it's still a good subclass.
In my video review I go over some of the uniqueness and limitations of this subclass.
- The Innkeeper
Why can't the soulknife use psionic knack on stealth if they are proficient with it?
@@TheRobversion1 It depends on your table's interpretation of how Stealth works in 5e, but lots of tables will have you roll for stealth when you start sneaking and before it is contested, so when you make the roll you can't have failed it (and thus don't qualify to use Psi-Bolstered Knack).
@@shanebernier2483 ah makes sense. We dont roll stealth when entering stealth then we just roll when there's someone already who can do a perception check. So when the roll does come up, we've been able to use psionic knack to overcome high perception rolls.
@@TheRobversion1 like Rob said, generally stcealth is not a pass/fail unless you are rolling against someone's perception.
Most of the time in combat, you roll stealth not as a pass/fail but instead to SET THE DC at which enemies must roll against and their perception then becomes a pass fail against your stealth roll.
If DMs are running stealth as pass/fail in combat against multiple creatures, then they pretty much need to contest your rol lagainst every enemy in order to determine a pass / fail condition (or roll against the highest perception in the room).
In other words, too many hoops for pass/fail in combat. Now in social interaction, if the king has a passive perception of 15 and you are sneaking by him, the DM probably will determine your roll as a pass/fail.
- The Innkeeper
Bonus Action conflicts are nothing new for Rogues, as TWF and Cunning Action have been mutually exclusive since the start.
I wonder if the DM would get frustrated with the Bard + Soulknife combo and prohibit it after a couple sessions, heh. Can't wait for your opinion on the new Fighter stuff, even though there isn't particularly much to talk about
Unfortunately the Bard/Rogue doesn't work as advertised the video. That ruling has been reversed both by more recent Crawford tweets and by official errata. Makes me very sad.
thanks for another great video ! can't wait for your take on a post-tasha wizard build (fingers crossed!)
You make great content
Late to realize this, but technically the dueling fighting style would apply to both attacks from your soul blade.
Still, this is one of the few times I have to disagree with the overall assessment. Soulknife leaves me feeling very underwhelmed.
Despite the very cool flavor, in most combat situations, psychic blades is slightly worse than just having the two-weapon fighting style (which requires a one-level dip, or a feat).
And I get that rogues specialize in skills, but at a certain point you hit diminishing returns. Knack looks nice when you get it, but how often are rogues failing important saves, after level 6, when you will have something like +7 to +10 in your four most important skills? At levels 11+, you could literally never benefit from knack again, for the rest of the game.
The accuracy boost comes too late at level 9, and can only be applied to your psychic blades. (By this point you probably have a magic weapon you'd like to use.) The teleportation is neat but the variable range is clunky and annoying, and again, this is improving something rogues are already extremely good at: mobility.
The flavor is cool and I don't think it is a terrible sub-class, but I don't think it is particularly good.
Pro tip: start as a soul knife, then use TCoE’s “Changing Your Subclass” feature and swap to Phantom at level 9 when that subclass comes into its own.
Wait. What?
There’s a brief section on Page 8 of Tasha’s about swapping subclasses whenever you gain a new subclass ability, and TM pointed out in his last video that phantom starts to really come online at level 9. So you can enjoy the low-level benefits of this class, then swap to Phantom at level 9.
@@Adurnis Please don't switch subclasses for optimisation purposes and without story reason. It's really gamey.
@@DaDunge I mean, I get your point, but isn’t this a game? Besides, a transition from soulknife to phantom makes total character sense to me.
@@Adurnis Ok let me put it this way, make sure everyone in your group are on the same page with playing this way. A powergamer in a group of RPers is going to ruffle some feathers doing things like this.
I've started playing a soulknife recently. Tbh I'm having a difficult time optimizing even with a 20 dex at level 5. Where do I go from here? Full rogue? Bard Mc? Couple of full caster levels?
I'm going to go with a few levels of Shadow sorcerer with shadow touched feat to boost spells- ones that dont need attack or saving throws. Invisibility, misty step, mage armour, shield, absorb elements,, darkness etc.
If your goal is optimization for combat, then getting as many attacks as possible is always the route to go. The fighter 2-5 + gloomstalker 3-5 chassis is always the best chassis to fit your soulknife. A full 20 rogue or any martial for that matter will always fall behind spellcasters. Martials are meant to multiclass.
I've run a 2 fighter, 5 gloomstalker, 3 soul knife that unloads 7 psychic blades from range on round 1 with dex bonuses, duelling and thrown fighting style bonuses at high accuracy (elven accuracy feat). Throw in the 2 1d8 bonus dmg from dread ambusher and 2d6 sneak attack and the lowest dmg i deal on round 1 (assuming i roll a 1 on all dmg rolls) is 74.
I function well enough as a healer post combat (healing spirit) along with being the party skill monkey (3 expertised skills + psionic knack) and provide utility (primal awareness, psionic whispers).
@@TheRobversion1 You only make a knife when you take the attack actin (not every time you attack) and it disappears after the first attack you make with it, regardless of if you hit or miss. It seems like an oversight by the designers, but RAW getting more attacks doesn't really help this particular subclass much at all unless you choose to ignore psychic blades entirely.
@@shanebernier2483 yeah dm and i read it differently as any extra attacks you get while being in the attack action means you get to generate more blades..but yeah i could.see how.it could be interpreted that way as it only happens at the start of the attack action and not within.
Stunned targets mean auto crits right? From everything that hits it....
That's correct
Maybe, it’s best to set up a boss for a kill.
If they were set up as stunned by a regular attack, it would be worth it because then u could sneak attack for a guaranteed crit.
my problem with psionic sublcasses is thematic - no official psion class where these people can learn stuff from
Psion wizard, wilder sorcerer, ardent cleric when?
The 3.5 book even had prestige classes for a fighter type, a druid type... I wonder if one could adapt pyro/cryokineticist to 5e as a monk subclass.
@@nevisysbryd7450 I dont care when, as long as a base 5e psion baseclass comes first
I can see how that would be an issue if you believe the only possible way for characters to manifest any kind of psychic abilities is by learning them from someone called a "psion" (even though no Psion would ever have their specific psychic abilities).
@@Philistine47 I am fine with randomly manifesting psionic abilties.
But I believe that is a feat called "psionic initiate", and not a subclass.
Its a worldbuilding issue for me. If psionics is new, it makes sense that there is not a single full fledged psion in the world to teach you how to controll your powers.
Because subclasses require beign taught, they go beyong random manifestation, they achieve specific effects designed for specific purposes.
But we know psionics is not new in faerun, because this is the 5th edition, taking place i na world that had psionics in previous editions.
So this comes across as they wanting to roll back "nono, psionics is totally new, the previous 30 years you were playing with it dont count".
@@texteel NPC's don't need to have a formalized player class though, players are generally not being trained by other player characters. A DM can just create a psionic master character/statblock, the archetype descriptions give some examples of where they might be found in your world. So it be written, so it be done.
Literally Raziel from Soul Reaver
warlocks , finaly!! :D cant w8
TLDR: Soulbades are the teleporting mid-range sniper class.
In your thinking did you put together that this is not a melee focused build but a ranged one that they are begging you to use 1) blades attack at 60’ 2) the new Rogue option lets you get reliable advantage at range by setting your speed to zero 3) you can teleport with your Psychic Teleportation (both use bonus actions so one or the other). Basically you have to think three dimensionally and you can only pull this off every turn or two if you are alone but it is reliable!
And this is bolted on to a natural covert agent class. Built with one of the earliest magic weapons a rarely resisted attack type and not failing at any skill you have. Oh and if you attack your attacks leave no marks!
The biggest issue is that you as a rogue may want to actually have lucky to make sure your teleport gets the range you need (by the end it is up to 120’ and you may need it.)
Edit- for clarification doe other commenters (as if)
2:41 Crawford backed off on this later twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/895045493528469504
And the Sage Advice was revised to say they don't apply to the same roll (i.e. Jack of All Trades only applies to rolls that don't add your proficiency bonus, Reliable Talent only applies to those that do.)
Jack of All Trades does NOT combo with Reliable Talent.
JC later clarified his earlier tweet: twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/895045493528469504
You can have both on the same character, but not on the same ability check.
Regarding the Tweet shown at 2:41 According to this newer tweet from 2017 (the one shown is from 2015), Jack of All Trades doesn't interact with, e.g., Reliable Talent, suggesting that the bonus of JoAT doesn't count as proficiency.
twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/895054958378143745
I don't get why everyone is so hyped on the psionic rogue. If you want to use the psi-blades:
-No attacks with your reaction, at least not unless you stow and draw weapons all the time.
-Can't use booming blade and greenflame blade.
-Can't use magic weapons.
Also a bonus action attack is not that great on a rogue, as they have a lot to use their bonus action for already.
Even with the accuracy boosts, this looks to me like it will do very poor damage compared to a rogue that has booming blade and any way to make reaction attacks.
1) Incorrect. A psychic blade only takes one free hand so another free hand can have a weapon and use it for reaction attacks, this doesn't stop you from doing reaction attacks.
2) Only if you use the psionic blade to attack from range, in which case yes you can't - the same way you can't if you attack with a crossbow or a shortbow. Despite this you get a large range to work with.
3) Incorrect. One single hand, the other can have a magical weapon.
4) Not quite, if you're using the bonus action attack from this then you're most likely at a range of most likely 60 feet so none of your three cunning action options would offer you much, especially if you missed an attack (as in you're attacking a 2nd time to try to get sneak attack off if your first attack didn't land). It only is quote on quote ''bad'' if you're fighting at melee, most likely with a magica weapon if you're at higher levels.
5) Yes, because that's not the point of this at all. If you want to get a lot of damage with booming blade then go play a swashbuckler. This is meant to give you more social capabilities (adding die to checks), clever tricks such as telepathy & invisibility as well as giving you a free ranged attack that doesn't require any type of ammo.
What is happening here is that you are completely misunderstanding the subclass and you're expecting it to be a min-max for damage when that's not the purpose of this. Go play swashbuckler.
@@trappyboi8678
1) It requires two hands if you want to use the bonus action attack, if you are not using the bonus action attack, you are better off with a rapier.
2) Booming blade and Green flame blade have been changed to require a material component, that is a weapon with a value of at least 1sp, and you explicitly attack with the weapon you used to cast the spell. A reasonable DM might overrule this, but RAW psychic blades do not work with the blade cantrips. (They also no longer work with the shadowblade spell, which sucks.)
3) Again, same issue as number 1. If you want to utilize the bonus action, you need to have both hands free. Also most magic weapons aren't any good unless you attack with them. I value my +1/+2/+3 weapons very highly on a rogue, for the extra accuracy.
4) At range you can most likely use the hide or the new steady aim action to get advantage on your attack. Thus having an equal chance to land your sneak attack. But if that is a +1 weapon, your chances are actually better at getting sneak attack at that point.
5) I am not saying those things aren't useful, maybe I wasn't entirely clear, but I see this a decent subclass, but people seem to think of it as a great subclass. Where I just think you lose too many points in combat to be great.
I took a look over the other subclasses, and to be fair, I think I have compared it too much to arcane trickster in my mind. I was a little surprised by how mediocre most of the abilities of the other subclasses seem to me. Still I think phantom delivers a comparable amount of non-combat boost, with a floating skill (That will work excellent with reliable talent), and abilities to go through walls. While also delivering in combat. I think arcane trickster outperforms in both combat and non-combat situations. And I think I would also personally prefer scout over this. But I can see how this beats out many of the other subclasses. I guess I was unaware how far above the rest of rogue subclasses arcane trickster is.
I guess another bias of mine is a high optimization level. If you consider a straight rogue build, that is not going to try to use reactions for sneak attack, a lot of the worst bits falls away. And a lot of people do play that way.
@@sharkforce8147 yes, that is true.
I'm currently playing a soulknife and psi warrior multiclass with throwing fighting style, it's alot of fun so far!
Technically dueling would be better for you ‘cuz you can use it with thrown weapons
@@Adurnis the thought is to get 3 attacks per round with +2 dmg to all of them, dueling would only work for 2 right? (not bonus action)
I've played one recently too. Ran a fighter, gloomstalker, soulknife. Better damage but gives up the defensive stuff the psi warrior provides.
@@kvazz4886 Sadly the psychic blades don’t work with extra attack RAW.
Was thinking of the same tbh with explodey knives how did you go about building it? And a typical round play by play for you?
Remember to like and comments so it gets into people's recommended videos
Your conclusions sound like you like this subclass yet over on the discord I still see a lot of anti rogue sentiment (not from you). So I am hoping you will incorporate this in a build soonish.
I have good news...
Psychic blades aren't blades or knives just a psychic energy discharge that for some reason uses DEXTERITY (physical accuracy + speed/momentum) as it only appears when you shoot your energy blast ..
Your energy blast is, bonus action using, wasting off hand functionality despite having no physical mechanic.
Just an illogical Kingsglaive Final Fantasy rip/plagiarism with (imaginary melee) energy blasts
Their version of "Psychic" Teleportation is blast based but random so you can't actually "aim" it before you try making it auto break game immersion !
Soulknife needs an area attack and still has never been done well in dnd ..
161 - 0! :D
Homing strikes isnt even a reaction
As a DM, I am getting sick of overpowered PCs. DnD 5e is broken for Dm's. You cannot run regular modules when the PCs keep getting stronger and stronger.
Then make your monsters stronger to balance and/or offset the power.
Employing strategies for your monsters helps as well.
@@b_olson542 The problem is that when you use modules and pre-made adventures like Tomb of Annihilation, the PCs are too strong now. The power creep is breaking the games.
So fatten up the monsters
@@b_olson542 I have actually made my own homebrew book of over 100 pages. On one page I have a chart of 91 levels of monsters and I can adjust them quickly to be more defensive or offensive and still maintain the same power rating. But I had to do that because DnD has broken the monsters... And they are making it worse for others who do not know how to homebrew. My toughest monster has 350 HP, AC22, 2 base attacks, 3 legendary actions and can do 111 points of damage per round. If I need a tougher monster, I can use multiple weaker ones. But I know how to do this... most don't.
Wow. That is comprehensive. I would consider modifying monster stats on the fly to be an essential DM skill.
Oh, I'm early. This is a first.
We played with it - because we thought that this was such a tasty sub-class - we have now banned it an all the tasha's abilities that work like this from our games... with "this" we mean all abilities that require the DM to tell the player whether they fail or succeed on ability checks... It is too gamey and not fun at all :( - not for our group... and we are all optimizers when we play!
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