Soulweave Knight

A soulweave knight adds Arcane Lore as a class skill.

You learn to weave the magic of akasha into temporary constructs known as veils, though at 1st level, you are only able to weave a Soulblade (see below). You may weave other veils beginning at 2nd level.

Your veilweaving modifier is Wisdom. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against your veils is 10 + the number of essence invested in the veil + your veilweaving modifier. Your veilweaver level is equal to your class level.

You can weave only a limited number of veils at one time, as given on Table: The Soulweave Knight. You know and can weave all veils on the guru veil list. You must benefit from a Long Rest and spend one hour in meditation in order to weave your veils for the day.

In addition, at 1st level, you gain access to your personal essence pool, granting you energy to invest into your veils and other essence receptacles. The amount of essence you gain is indicated on Table: The Soulweave Knight.  You can allocate essence investments every round as a swift action. Your total Hit Dice determines your essence capacity, which is the maximum essence you can invest into any one receptacle.

Soulblade

At 1st level, you are able to weave a powerful weapon called a soulblade. This is not a true veil, but you treat it as one for all effects, including the way it interacts with magic, abilities, and feats. You may invest essence into a soulblade and may bind it to certain chakras as if it were a veil. It does not count against your maximum number of woven veils and does not take up any chakra slot, unless bound to that chakra.

When woven, a soulblade takes the form of a weapon you are proficient with (your choice each time it is woven), which is sized appropriately for you and considered to be of masterwork quality. Damage you deal with a soulblade gains an alignment descriptor matching your alignment and penetrates damage reduction accordingly.

Your soulblade cannot be sundered or otherwise destroyed, except by effects that unravel veils. If your soulblade is unraveled, you may weave it again at any time with 10 minutes of meditation. If your soulblade leaves your hand for any reason, it returns to your grasp at the beginning of your next turn. If that’s impossible, it falls to your feet instead.

Any other creature attempting to wield your soulblade gains none of its special benefits but can wield it as a masterwork weapon of its kind. Your soulblade remains woven in a dead magic area and functions as a masterwork weapon, but it loses all special abilities as if it were a magic item.

Essence

The soulblade gains an enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls equal to the number of points of essence you invest in it.

Chakra Bind (Hands)

When bound to your hands chakra, the damage your soulblade deals increases by two steps on Table: Damage Progression. The actual size of the soulblade does not change.

You gain an insight bonus on attack rolls made to confirm critical hits equal to the number of points of essence you invest in your soulblade.

If you have at least 4 essence invested in your soulblade, the critical multiplier is increased by 1.

Chakra Bind (Head)

When bound to your head chakra, your soulblade gains one of the following enhancements: corrosive, flaming, frost, ghost touch, impact, keen, screaming, shock, or throwing. You may change the chosen enhancement at any time by meditating on your soulblade for 1 minute.

When you invest essence in your soulblade, the chosen enhancement is strengthened.

• Corrosive, flaming, frost, screaming, and shock do one extra die of damage for every two essence invested.
• A ghost touch weapon deals 1d6 extra damage against undead creatures for every two essence invested, and you can deal precision damage and critical hit damage to undead.
• Keen and impact weapons deal an extra 2 damage on critical hits for each point of essence invested, added before damage is multiplied.
• A throwing weapon will return to your hand immediately after making an attack as long as at least 2 essence are invested, allowing you to potentially throw it multiple times in a round as well as having it in hand to make attacks of opportunity, and you can make smite attacks with this weapon while within precision range.

Chakra Bind (Headband)

When bound to your wrists chakra, your soulblade gains one of the following enhancements: acidic burst, axiomatic, anarchic, flaming burst, holy, icy burst, screaming burst, shocking burst, or unholy. You may change the chosen enhancement by meditating on your soulblade for 1 minute.

You may only choose axiomatic, anarchic, holy, or unholy if the chosen enhancement matches your alignment.

For every two points of essence you invest in your soulblade, the chosen enhancement deals one extra die of damage to their normal damage. For every four points of esssence invested in your soulblade, the chosen enhancement also deals one extra die of damage on a critical hit.

By taking one point of essence burn as a free action, you may attempt to smite an opponent as part of an attack with a melee weapon, granting you a bonus on the attack roll equal to your Charisma bonus (minimum 1) and a bonus on the damage roll equal to your paladin level. The target of this attack must have at least one alignment component opposed to yours (Good vs Evil or Lawful vs Chaotic). If you accidentally smite a creature that does not have an opposed alignment component, the attack deals no damage, but you still suffer the essence burn. Your akashic smite attack gains your alignment descriptor, overcoming damage reduction of the appropriate type.

In addition, after successfully smiting an enemy, you gain a deflection bonus to your AC against attacks made by that creature equal to your Charisma bonus (minimum 1). This bonus lasts until the end of the encounter or that creature dies or otherwise leaves the encounter.

At 2nd level and every 3 levels thereafter, you unlock chakra binds in the following order: Hands, Feet, Head, Headband, Neck, Belt, Body. Once you have unlocked a chakra bind, you may choose to bind a veil to that chakra when weaving it to unlock its corresponding bind abilities.

Your mercy ability functions as normal for a paladin, except that you take 1 point of essence burn to activate a mercy rather than spending zeal.

Starting at 4th level, whenever you successfully use akashic smite against an enemy, you immediately gain a surge of akashic energy as your own strongly aligned soul rallies to do battle with its nemesis. After making a successful akashic smite attack, choose one veil you currently have woven (or your soulblade). The essence capacity of the chosen veil is increased by 1. At 10th level, the chosen veil’s essence capacity is instead increased by 2, and at 16th level, the chosen veil’s essence capacity is instead increased by 3.

Additionally, you gain temporary essence equal to your Charisma bonus, minimum 1, and may immediately invest this essence into any essence receptacle, including akashic feats, as a free action.

This effect lasts for 5 rounds. You may have multiple uses of this ability active at the same time. The temporary essence gained stacks, but the increased essence capacity must be applied to a different veil. All benefits last until all active instances of this ability have ended. This means that using this ability a second time effectively extends the duration of the first use, assuming it has not already expired.

Using temporary essence or stolen essence to activate akashic smite does not trigger this ability (the smite still functions as normal). Only your personal essence from your essence pool can trigger an akashic surge.

At 7th level and every four levels thereafter, you gain a bonus feat. You must meet all prerequisites of the feat you select. You may choose any feat from the following list: any Combat Feat, any Akashic Feat, or any other feat specifically noted as a Paladin bonus feat.

At 13th level, you can take two points of essence burn to grant the akashic smite ability to all allies within 10 feet, using your bonuses. Allies must use this smite ability by the start of your next turn. Using this ability is a free action.

Allies the same alignment as that targeted by the smite gain no benefit from this ability.

At 20th level, you become a conduit for the power of akasha. Your damage reduction from Aura of the Zealous increases to 20.

Whenever you use akashic smite and successfully strike an outsider with an opposed alignment subtype, the outsider is also subject to a banishment effect, using your paladin level as the caster level (your weapon and holy symbol automatically count as objects that the subject hates).

When using lay on hands, each point you spend heals an ally or yourself for 2 hit points of damage or deals 2 points of damage to an undead. In addition, the first mercy you apply does not cost a point of essence burn; however, additional mercies applied to the same use still cost essence burn as normal.

In addition, you heal one point of essence burn every hour, even when not resting.