#anna's choice

[weareincarnate]

Bluesteel Bracers

“You harness the soul energy of mighty warriors past, present, and future, shaping that incarnum into bands of bright blue steel that surround your wrists and lower arms.  You feel a soft tingling in your wrists that grows stronger when danger is near.” Magic of Incarnum p. 62

The primary advantage of this soulmeld is the warning you get.  Mechanically, it makes it more likely for you to act first in combat, allowing you to close on enemies and distribute your essentia to prepare for a fight.  You can also invest essentia into these soulmelds to grant yourself a bonus on melee damage (this soulmeld is favored by Lawful or Evil incarnates due to its emphasis on melee combat, though Chaotic and Good incarnates have good reason to use this as well.  When bound, the warning you receive through the bracers also spreads to your nearby allies, allowing them to act earlier as well.

Increased damage potential and the ability to act first in battle and even help your allies do the same make this soulmeld a fearsome one.  Not as visibly impressive as others, the somewhat diversified effects of this soulmeld grant versatility and teamwork benefits to any combat focused incarnate.

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Lightning Gauntlet

mun, 2/23/17

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Mantle of Flame

Drawn by mun, 2/22/2017

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Spellward Shirt

“Incarnum forms into a cerulean tunic that covers your torso, fitting comfortably over any other clothing or armor you wear.  Except for its unusual color, it seems like a relatively mundane garment -- until you are subjected to any spell effect.  When that happens, the color of the shirt comes alive, forming intricate patterns of swirls, bursts, and spirals as the shirt attempts to deflect the magical energy.” Magic of Incarnum p. 88

This soulmeld is perfect for an incarnate preparing to face an enemy that uses magic.  It grants a chance to resist hostile offensive magic, depending on the amount of essentia invested.  If bound to the heart of the shaper, the shaper may choose up to four spells to which they are entirely immune.

This is an extremely useful soulmeld, allowing you to resist spells and spell-like abilities that you will constantly face.  The tiered resistance is particularly valuable, as it allows you to be comfortable facing casters of even your own level.

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Keeneye Lenses

“Incarnum forms a pair of transparent blue lenses that hover in front of your eyes.  As you peer through them, the world does not take on their blue color, but you find yourself more able to notice small details, even at long distances.” Magic of Incarnum p. 73

These lenses are utilitarian on a number of levels.  Unbound, they dramatically enhance visual acuity, and they can be bound two different ways for different, and useful, effects.  Binding these lenses to your brow allows you to see through invisibility, and can be done early on in an incarnate’s development.  For powerful and experienced incarnates, however, these lenses can be bound to the soul, allowing them to see all things as they truly are, ignoring illusions, invisiblity, magical deceptions (blur and displacement effects), and even transmogrification.

Not a combat meld, but one designed for utility, allowing incarnates to see through the deceptions and avoid traps.  Many soulmelds of this type exist, and more will be shown in the near future.

[weareincarnate]

Crystal Helm

“You shape incarnum into a light helm that surrounds your head and anything you might be wearing on it, including another helm. The substance of this helm is transparent crystal with a faceted appearance.  As it rests over your head, you can almost feel a barrier erected behind your eyes, barring the way to those who would intrude into your mind.” Magic of Incarnum p. 63

This soulmeld has a wonderful double effect.  It always grants a bonus to will saves, helping keep the shaper’s mind free from influence, but also grants a defensive deflection bonus as it is invested with essentia.  Finally, when bound, the crystal helm enhances all of the shaper’s attacks with its own augmented reality, lending them the force descriptor and allowing them to hit even incorporeal entities.

This helm, aside from a potentially odd appearance over another helm (solved, of course, by not wearing another helm) and not matching other armor, grants a variety of benefits both defensive and offensive.  A solid choice, especially since this is the first bind an incarnate learns.

[weareincarnate]

A note on the Current Soulmeld series

I had meant to post this before the first went up, but I think I missed that already.

There are ten categories of soulmelds, broken up by which location they can be bound to.  The categories are Crown, Feet, Hands, Arms, Brow, Shoulders, Throat, Waist, Heart, and Soul.  These are generally divided into Least (Crown, Feet, Hands), Lesser (Arms, Brow, Shoulders), and Greater (Throat and Waist), based on the difficulty of binding a soulmeld to those areas. Only the most accomplished meldshapers can bind to their Heart and Soul.  Sometimes, with special training, an incarnate can shape multiple soulmelds that bind to the same location, but normally it cannot be done.

This series, “Anna’s choice” is on which soulmeld from each of these categories she prefers.  She can shape two soulmelds from each category at once if she wishes, but the most soulmelds she can have shaped at any time is currently 6.