Appendix: Epic Level Meldshapers
Yes. It just says “Appendix.” It's not Appendix A or Appendix 1, it's just called “Appendix.” All the Appendices are named “Appendix.” There are three editors and an editing manager on this project, and the Appendices are not numbered. Since the days of
Dragon Kings, the epic rules for Dungeons & Dragons have not worked at all. Fighters don't get nice things, Mages get a pile of bupkiss and also get to break the game in half if they want to do that instead, and really nothing changed between 1992 and 2005 to make that any better.
Epic Meldshaping doesn't make a lot of sense. Opening your heart or soul chakra requires an epic feat, but if there's anything especially epic about either of those I don't know what it is. On the Soul side: The “Planar Chasuble” lets you cast a limited
gate once per week. No, I don't know what it means that a meld that is created and only lasts one day has an ability that can only be used once per week. Even with the most generous interpretation possible (that you get a new once per week
gate every day and therefore can cast it once per day), it's still just a single 9th level spell. With a Necrocarnum Shroud you can spend a standard action to do a touch range
enervation. That one's at-will, but it's a considerably powered down version of a 4th level spell, and again hardly an epic anything. On the Heart side: Lifebond Vestments with a Heart chakra bind allow you to transfer your hit points “at will to any given creature.” I don't even know what that
means, because maybe that lets you bypass line of effect and maybe it doesn't, but it's still just spending hit points to heal other people and no one fucking cares. If you bind the Dread Carapace to your Heart, you gain spell resistance. hat spell resistance is 5 + 4 per Essentia. That means that for a 21st level character (the lowest level you could take the Open Heart Chakra epic feat), you would need five Essentia invested to have a better than zero percent chance of stopping a spell of your level that had no spell penetration. The base Essentia Capacity chart caps out at 4. Even if you pick up both Essentia Capacity boosts, level appropriate enemies still blow through your SR on a natural 8, and it only gets worse as you level.
Appendix: The Essentia Tracker
Yes. This appenix is also named “Appendix.” This is where they suggest that you take a pile of glass beads for all the Essentia in your pool and stick them next to your things that use Essentia on your character sheet. Not a terrible idea, but I just described the whole thing in a sentence and they spend a page and a half explaining the concept.
There are a couple of major monkey wrenches in it, which this book pretty much chokes on. The first is that the things you put Essentia into aren't necessarily on your character sheet. Sure, there isn't much
reason to change your soulmelds every day, but you
can. Presumably you selected soulmelds that work with your build and magical equipment, but technically you can make your soulmelds fresh off the full list in the book each day. That's clearly too many possible entries to put on your character sheet, which leaves this book suggesting that you write and erase a new Essentia Tracker every day. That is too much fucking work.
The second of course is that Essentia has three main distinct refresh periods depending on what you're doing with it. The Soulmelds have an action based Essentia reshuffling mechanic, the spells drag off your Essentia until they are done with them, and the feats expend your Essentia for 24 hours. Since this was a book for focus grouping ideas and charging people money for the privilege, presumably they intended to get feedback on which version people liked the best, but by presenting it all as a single system that people had to use concurrently it all became an incomprehensible clusterfuck.
The third of course, is that the Essentia isn't remotely the only resource you need to be tracking. Many of these powers also have uses per day, and you have chakra limits and chakra binding limits and shit at the same time. There are feats where you burn Essentia into them for a day, and the amount of Essentia you burned gives you daily charges on another ability. How is
that supposed to work with an Essentia Tracker? The book doesn't even
try to sort that shit out.
And fourthly, what the fuck actually happens when you have temporary Essentia? I have no idea. I don't think anyone really knows. There are ways to get Essentia that don't last very long, and it's very easy to lock your Essentia into various things for a much longer period than that. I have no idea what is supposed to happen at that point. The rules in this book don't seem to address really basic questions. You invest an Essentia point that lasts for one minute into powering a Feat that keeps powered for 24 hours and... what? That's really fucking important, and this 221 page book doesn't seem to think it's worth discussing.
Web Appendix: Psionics of Incarnum
The book actually has some shoutouts to Psionics in it. If for some reason you wanted more, there's an additional appendix on the web giving more Psionics / Incarnum connections. It wasn't written by the people who wrote this book. Indeed, only Mark Jindra has a real name. The other two people are web handles: “JaxRyan” and “Dark Psion.” Yes, really. A guy wants to be credited as “Dark Psion” on this piece, so you
know it's quality!
Anyway, the big contribution here is a Psion/Meldshaper Mystic Theurge. In case your DM wasn't sufficiently confused by your character and didn't have a good excuse to punch you in the dick. It's not
good or anything. You're still a Psion, a Meldshaper,
and a Mystic Theurge. You can't really do anything level appropriate. But you do what you do in a manner so complicated that you could probably just cheat and do something useful and no one would ever know.
There are a couple of bonus soulmelds which are supposed to have a “distinctly psionic flavor.” By and large, there's really nothing psionic about them. One of them adds to the DCs of your enchantment spells and is therefore broken as fuck, but the others are just dumb.
Wrapup
The very last part of the book includes a little “about the authors” section, in which we are given confirmation that the “designers” are actually the “writers.” The two “names” on this project were James Wyatt and Rich Baker. The other two guys felt the need to mention that they had written articles for Dragon Magazine in their “about the authors” paragraph, so they don't even matter.
Beyond the last page, we have a full page given over to chakras and body slots and some printable character sheets. I can't find just the body slots page online, but I can find it paired with a horse for some reason. Imagine that you were looking at just the page with the silhouette of the asshole as a full page to keep track of what went where on all the different body chakra slots this book thinks you need to track:
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[/img]
It's hard to say for sure whose fault these horribly complicated body slot thingies are, but I'm going to say Andy Collins. He was the head “developer” on Magic of Incarnum. When he got to rewrite the DMG in 2003, he went apeshit about body slots and “associated powers.” When he got to do the 4e body slots in 2008 he did all that crap about paragon ring slots and and shit. And the real kicker is that when he did the Magic Item Compendium in 2007, he included this:
Yes. That's the same fucking thing, but with Regdar instead of Stergan. Even though everyone fucking hated the overly complicated body slots of Magic of Incarnum, Andy Collins just wouldn't let it go. The entire
point of this book was supposed to be to decide if they were on the right track making 4th edition, the public and the market said “no” and they
didn't change tracks. This seems incomprehensible, but remember that in 2006,
David Noonan was doing the same thing! Having solicited feedback from the Monster Manual IV, it was determined that people hated his ideas, and then in making the Monster Manual V he just doubled down on all of them.
WotC corporate culture was apparently simultaneously obsessed with getting “feedback” from fans and totally disinterested in actually responding to any of that feedback by changing their designs or presentations. And I say “was,” but if anyone has been watching the D&D Next playtest, they know that WotC's design culture is actually still like that. Indeed, probably
more like that now than it was in 2005.
Somewhere underneath all the shitty accounting and multiple currencies that are all named the same thing, there were actually some decent ideas here. Having buffs and magic items count against the same limit is a fine idea – it puts a limit to how much difference it can make to have or not have good equipment or a buff-happy support caster. But keeping track of a “hands slot” or an “arms slot?” That's too much effort and doesn't even solve anything. Having fungible power points that you can shift from shields to engines to life support like you were a Star Trek engineer is fine. Some people want to do that. But for fuck's sake, keep it
consistent. Whatever the rate you can switch power from one thingy to another thingy has to be the same across the board – anything else is just more complexity for no gain. And if you
are going to be shuffling power points between thins on your character sheet, they had better actually
be on your damn character sheet. The proposition of dumpster diving through books to find things to temporarily have to divert power into makes me want to kill myself.
And finally, this book was all held together by bad math, a crappy last minute flavor rewrite, and a terrible understanding of how the game is played. While the Totemist is, conceptually, kind of cool (in a very weird way), it only actually comes alive for me because of two Wayne Reynolds' drawings. Even
he can't make Incarnates be something I care about. And he fucking tried:
Magic of Incarnum was so poorly done that it did a bad job even of properly focus grouping the underlying concepts that were supposed to be on display. The End.
-Username17