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Magic of Incarnum
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CREDI
TS
DESIGNERS
J AMES W YATT , F RANK B RU N NER ,
S TEPHEN S CHUBERT
ADDITIONAL DESIGN
R ICHARD B AKER
DEVELOPMENT TEAM
A NDY C OLLINS , D AV I D N OONAN , R OB W ATKINS
EDITORS
M ICHELE C ARTER , R AY V ALLESE ,
P ENNY W ILLIAMS
EDITING MANAGER
K IM M OHAN
DESIGN MANAGER
C HRISTOPHER P ERKINS
DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
J ESSE D ECKER
DIRECTOR OF RPG R&D
B ILL S LAVICSEK
PRODUCTION MANAGERS
J OSH F ISCHER , R ANDALL C REWS
SENIOR ART DIRECTOR RPG R&D
S TACY L ONGSTREET
COVER ARTIST
H ENRY H IGGINBOTHAM
COVER PHOTOGRAPHY
N. E RIC H EATH
INTERIOR ARTISTS
W AY NE E NGLAND , C ARL F RANK ,
D AV I D G RIFFITH , E RIC P OLAK ,
M ARK P OOLE , W AY NE R EYNOLDS ,
R ON S PENCER , A NNE S TOKES ,
C HRIS T REVAS , F RANZ V OHWINKEL
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
D EE B ARNETT
ART DIRECTOR
S TACY L ONGSTREET
CARTOGRAPHER
M IKE S CHLEY
GRAPHIC PRODUCTION SPECIALIST
E RIN D ORRIES
IMAGE TECHNICIAN
T RAVIS A DAMS
Some information in this book is taken from or derived from these products: Bastion of Broken Souls by Bruce R. Cordell; Planar Handbook
by Bruce R. Cordell and Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel; Manual of the Planes by Jeff Grubb, Bruce R. Cordell, and David Noonan; Monster
Manual II by Ed Bonny, Jeff Grubb, Rich Redman, Skip Williams, and Steve Winter; Fiend Folio by Eric Cagle, Jesse Decker, James Jacobs,
Erik Mona, Matthew Sernett, Chris Thomasson, and James Wyatt; Miniatures Handbook by Michael Donais, Skaff Elias, Rob Heinsoo,
and Jonathan Tweet; and Frostburn by Wolfgang Baur, James Jacobs, and George Strayton.
Based on the original D UNGEONS & D RAGONS ® rules created by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and the new D UNGEONS & D RAGONS game
designed by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Richard Baker, and Peter Adkison.
This product uses updated material from the v.3.5 revision.
This W IZARDS OF THE C OAST ™ game product contains no Open Game Content. No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form with-
out written permission. To learn more about the Open Gaming License and the d20 System License, please visit www.wizards.com/d20.
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ISBN-10: 0-7869-3701-7
First Printing: September 2005
ISBN-13: 978-0-7869-3701-1
D UNGEONS & D RAGONS , D&D, D UNGEON M ASTER , d20, d20 System, W IZARDS OF THE C OAST , Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, Monster Manual, Magic of Incarnum, all
other Wizards of the Coast product names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., in the U.S.A. and other countries. All Wizards characters, character
names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof are property of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Distributed to the hobby, toy, and comic trade in the United States and Canada by regional
distributors. Distributed in the United States to the book trade by Holtzbrinck Publishing. Distributed in Canada to the book trade by Fenn Ltd. Distributed worldwide by Wizards of the
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contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. This product is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, places,
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Visit our website at www.wizards.com/dnd
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Contents
3
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Introduction
Lidda emerged from the bushes, startling Ragnara.
“Well?” Tordek demanded in a loud whisper. “What did you see?”
Lidda pulled some briars from her cloak as she considered her
answer. Impatient, Tordek drummed his fi ngers on his waraxe as
Ragnara leaned closer to hear. “Well,” the halfl ing said, “it looks
a bit like the asylum decided to relocate. Only there’s no walls or
doors and no healers. Just a bunch of crazies wandering around
the ruins.”
“Crazies?”Tordekspluttered.
“Are they armed?” Ragnara asked.
“I didn’t see weapons, but I did see two of them fi ghting each
other—tooth and nail, you might say.” Lidda smiled sardonically,
but her voice dropped to a whisper as she heard a rustle in the nearby
woods. “Shh! Someone’s out there!”
“Hold your fi re, strangers,” came a voice from the brush, stern
and quiet. “I offer aid against the enemies you have chosen.” A
moment later, a man strode into the clearing—a man such as the
three companions had never before seen.
He was clad in full plate formed of a metal none of them could
name. It was rich gold in hue, and the greatsword he carried
over his shoulder was the same color. It was his eyes, however,
that caught their attention, glowing with a faint blue light in
the gathering dark.
“Who are you, man?” Tordek demanded. “And what do you
propose to do about those lunatics?”
“I am Arstor, pentifex monolith and guardian of the ancient
temple that lies yonder.” The man gestured in the direction of the
ruins Lidda had scouted. “Those that infest the temple are not
lunatics; they are the lost.”
“The lost?” Ragnara’s voice betrayed her keen interest.
“Their spirits have been corrupted by stray wisps of incarnum
that bonded with powerful emotions of hatred, anger, or despair.
They are now wholly given over to those destructive passions, and
must be exterminated before their corruption spreads.”
“Incarnum?” Tordek interrupted. “What in the Nine Hells is
incarnum?”
can shape it into physical objects (called soulmelds) or simply
use it to imbue themselves with power.
Shaping incarnum has no ill effect on the soul energy
used. Incarnum is not consumed when it is manipulated
by a meldshaper or other character—it is merely “bor-
rowed” from the nigh-infinite supply in the multiverse.
That said, the wielders of incarnum recognize that the
substance is more than mere magic. It is, ver y literally, the
essence of all creatures. Talented wielders of incarnum
learn to harness specific qualities of incarnum (and by
extension, properties of the souls tapped for this power),
including particular alignments, insights, experiences, and
the like. In fact, most wielders of incarnum have strong
moral and ethical outlooks inextricably linked to their use
of the substance.
SOULMELDS
A soulmeld is a semipermanent magical effect crafted from raw
incarnum. Soulmelds are “worn” much like magic items. Once
shaped (a daily process much like prepping spells), a soulmeld lasts
as long as its creator wants it to.
The characters who make use of the options in this book—
new classes, prestige classes, feats, and other options—gain
the ability to shape incarnum into magical objects called
soulmelds. Characters who can shape soulmelds are
called meldshapers.
A soulmeld somewhat resembles a magic item or a spell
effect in physical form . It is the physical embodiment of incar-
num, linked to the meldshaper’s body and worn almost like
a physical item. Shaping incarnum into soulmelds requires
time and effort, much like a wizard preparing spells. Unlike
spells, though, soulmelds generally last until the meldshaper
decides to unshape them, withdrawing the incarnum for
future use.
ESSENTIA
Essentia is a character’s personal store of incarnum. Most char-
acters can’t access this pool of energy, though certain classes
and feats open up this potential. Essentia can be invested into
soulmelds in order to enhance their effects. Essentia can be rein-
vested each round to augment soulmeld and other effects as the
meldshaper wishes.
This book came about as an attempt to do something brand-
new, something the vast multiverse of D UNGEONS & D RAGONS
had never seen before. We set out to create an entirely original
idea—not just interesting twists on existing mechanics and
familiar themes, but a whole new system to add new land-
scapes and horizons into an existing D&D game.
Likethe Expanded Psionics Handbook, this book presents a
new system that is similar to magic but different, a novel way
of looking at characters who deal with the supernatural. The
heart of this system is the substance called incarnum.
Chapter 4: Soulmelds presents the full rules system for the
use of incarnum; this introduction is intended to introduce
the core concepts used throughout the book.
Essentia is the substance of a character’s personal soul energ y.
Everybody has it, but only some characters learn to manipu-
late it to enhance magical effects. Meldshapers, for instance,
can invest it into soulmelds to make them more powerful.
Every soulmeld can be enhanced by investing essentia into
it, in much the same way as spells improve with higher caster
levels. Unlike caster level, a soulmeld’s invested essentia is
not a fi xed number; it can shift up or down as the meldshaper
desires. The more powerful the character, the more essentia
he can invest into his soulmelds and thus the more powerful
they can become.
In addition to its use in soulmelds, essentia can sometimes
be invested into feats, class features, and other abilities.
Chapter 3: Character Options presents a new type of feat,
the incarnum feat, which grants abilities that scale up with
INCARNUM
Incarnum is an amorphous magical substance made up of the soul
energies of all sentient creatures—living, dead, and, it is theorized,
those even not yet born.
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In its pure form, incarnum resembles a radiant mist, deep blue
in color. Those trained or gifted in manipulating incarnum
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invested essentia. Chapter 5: Magic introduces spells and
magic items that have similar scaling effects. Any character,
regardless of whether he can shape soulmelds, can gain access
to his personal pool of essentia by the selection of the proper
feat or other option.
or chakras it can be bound to, and the effects of binding it
to each chakra.
In general, binding a soulmeld to a chakra produces an
effect similar to that granted by a magic item worn on the
corresponding body slot. For example, binding a soulmeld
to the throat chakra often grants the meldshaper
abilities related to protection or discernment,
just as a magic amulet or scarab usually
does. Other thematic ties link
the powers of soulmelds
to their chakra
CHAKRAS
Chakras are the body’s ten centers of power: crown, feet, hands, arms,
brow, shoulders, throat, waist, heart, and soul.
Similar to and closely linked with ten of the magic item
spaces on the body described in the Dungeon Master’s Guide ,
the ten chakras represent locations on the body where a
meldshaper can place a soulmeld. Meldshapers have access
to all their chakras for the purpose of shaping soulmelds
to occupy them.
CHAKRA BINDS
A soulmeld can be bound to a chakra in order to gain a
secondary (and often more potent) effect from it. Doing so
cuts off the corresponding body slot from magic item use—binding
a soulmeld to your feet chakra means you can’t wear magic boots,
for example.
A skilled meldshaper can bind some of his soulmelds to
chakras to gain new powers from those soulmelds. When a
meldshaper binds a meld to a chakra, it becomes supernatu-
rally tied or affi xed to that body location. As a side effect of
the chakra bind, the meldshaper loses the ability to benefi t
from a magic item occupying the body slot associated with
that chakra.
A meldshaper can shape soulmelds to occupy any of his
chakras even at 1st level. However, the chakras are defi ned
by a relative level of power or diffi culty for the purposes of
binding soulmelds to them. As a meldshaper increases in
level, he learns to bind soulmelds fi rst to his least chakras
(crown, feet, and hands), then lesser (arms, brow, and shoul-
ders), then greater (throat and waist), and eventually to his
heart and soul chakras.
A meldshaper can only bind soulmelds to a limited
number of his chakras, but that number increases as he gains
levels. Each soulmeld description indicates which chakra
Arstor, a Pentifex Monolith
(see page 209)
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SWIFT AND IMMEDIATE ACTIONS
Some of the rules and features described in Magic of Incarnum
use two new action types: the swift action and the immediate
action. A description of how each works follows.
Swift Action: A swift action consumes a very small amount of
time, but represents a larger expenditure of effort and energy
than a free action. You can perform one swift action per turn
without affecting your ability to perform other actions. In that
regard, a swift action is like a free action. However, you can
perform only a single swift action per turn, regardless of what
other actions you take. You can take a swift action any time you
would normally be allowed to take a free action.
Casting a quickened spell is a swift action (instead of a free
action, as stated in the Quicken Spell feat description in the
Player’s Handbook ). In addition, casting any spell with a casting
time of 1 swift action (such as divest essentia ) is a swift action.
Casting a spell with a casting time of 1 swift action does not
provoke attacks of opportunity.
Immediate Action: Much like a swift action, an immediate
action consumes a very small amount of time, but represents
a larger expenditure of effort and energy than a free action.
However, unlike a swift action, an immediate action can be per-
formed at any time—even if it’s not your turn. Casting feather
fall is an immediate action (instead of a free action, as stated in
the spell description in the Player’s Handbook ), since the spell
can be cast at any time.
Using an immediate action on your turn is the same as using
a swift action, and counts as your swift action for that turn. You
cannot use another immediate action or a swift action until
after your next turn if you have used an immediate action when
it is not currently your turn. You also cannot use an immediate
action if you are currently flat-footed.
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