Class Articles: The Totemist Part 3

Section 3: Class Features

The Totemist really only has one class feature: Soulmelds. The Totemist's unique lists of Soulmelds is what sets him apart from all the other classes in the game, and the bulk of his other little class features are designed to supplement Soulmelds. Aside from that, the Totemist has the unique Totem Chakra. No other classes can Bind stuff to their Totem Chakra, since they don't have one, and it works a bit differently from other Chakras:

The Totem Chakra, unlike the other Chakras, doesn't correspond to a specific slot on your body, but nonetheless you need to Shape a Soulmeld somewhere else on your body to Bind a Soulmeld to said Totem Chakra. For example...

You're trying to Bind Girallon Arms to your Totem Chakra. When you Bind Girallon Arms to your Totem Chakra, you must also have first Shaped Girallon Arms somewhere. If you're not Binding Girallon Arms to any other Chakra, then Girallon Arms can be Shaped wherever you like.

But also keep in mind: aside from the Totem Chakra, Soulmelds need to be Shaped to a Chakra they can be Bound to if you want to actually Bind them. For example...

You're trying to Bind Girallon Arms to your Arms Chakra. For this to be possible, you need to first Shape Girallon Arms to your Arms Chakra—only then can you Bind Girallon Arms to your Arms Chakra.

Most Totemist-specific Soulmelds give you some kind of Natural Weapon when Bound to the Totem Chakra, whether it's a Bite attack or a couple of Claws. These Natural Weapons make up most of the Totemist's offensive options—hence, the Totemist being mainly a melee class.

As you go up in levels, your Totem Chakra gains a few tricks:

At Level 2, the maximum amount of Essentia you can invest into your Totem-Bound Soulmeld is increased by 1. So at Level 2, you can invest up to 2 points of Essentia into your Totem-Bound Soulmeld.

At Level 6, the meldshaper level for your Totem-Bound Soulmeld increases by one. This basically makes it harder for enemies to force your Totem-Bound Soulmeld to be unshaped.

At Level 11, you can Bind your Totem-Bound Soulmeld to another available Chakra—this means you get both the Totem-Bound effect from the Soulmeld and another Chakra-Bound effect from that same Soulmeld.

At Level 15, the maximum amount of Essentia you can invest into your Totem-Bound Chakra increases by another 1. So at Level 15, the max Essentia you can invest into your Totem-Bound Chakra is 5 (3 from character levels, +1 from Level 2, +1 from Level 15).

Soulmelds:

Your bread and butter. A large number of them give you Natural Weapons, but they also let you do all sorts of other crazy things. This is what gives Totemists the flexibility that, say, Warblades and Swordsages have, the flexibility that Fighters and Barbarians typically don't. Fly, Dimension Door, turn someone into stone Basilisk-style, Detect Magic...

And remember that you automatically “know” ALL Totemist Soulmelds at level 1! Now, a lot of the effects won't be available to you until higher levels since to use them you need to Bind Soulmelds to Chakras you don't have access to until later, but from level 1 you can start Dimension Dooring all over the place, or spam Detect Magic. On top of all of this, you can switch all your Soulmelds out just be resting for 8 hours. This gives you a surprisingly large amount of strategic flexibility if you can somehow know what you'll be up against the next day.

Speaking of Chakra Binds, you unlock the following Chakras at these levels:

Totem: Level 2

Crown, Hands, Feet: Level 5

Arms, Brow, Shoulders: Level 9

Throat, Waist: Level 14

Heart: Level 17

No Soul Chakra for you! You ain't got no Soul, son.

As for the lesser class features...

Wild Empathy:

As the Druid ability. Roll 1d20 + your class levels + your Charisma bonus to use Diplomacy on animals. If you're using this on a magical beast and you happen to have its signature Soulmeld Bound to your Totem Chakra, you get a +4 bonus (so if you have Basilisk Mask Bound and you're up against a Basilisk, you get a +4 bonus). Better than nothing, I guess.

Illiteracy:

Yeah, you can't read. [Nelson]Ha ha![/Nelson].

Totem's Protection:

A +4 bonus on saving throws made vs the supernatural abilities of magical beasts. Not bad; you really don't want to be missing those saves against, say, Basilisks.

ReBind Totem Soulmeld:

At Level 8, once per day, you can unBind the Soulmeld you have Bound to your Totem Chakra, and replace it with another Soulmeld that you already have shaped. This lets you switch out your Totem-Bound Soulmeld on the fly. It's a full-round action that provokes Attack of Opportunities, so be careful. That said, this can give you a LOT of tactical flexibility; if you find yourself in a Bind (har har) because you Bound the wrong Soulmeld this morning, you can fix that quickly instead of having to wait another 8 hours. You can do this twice per day at Level 12, three times at Level 16, and four times at Level 20.

Totem Embodiment:

At Level 20, go Super Saiyan on your enemies. Once per day, for a number of minutes equal to your Constitution bonus, you can increase the max Essentia capacity for your Totem-Bound Soulmeld to double the usual amount, and each point of Essentia you invest into your Totem-Bound Soulmeld counts for 2 points. With this, you can boost your offense quite a bit: a lot of Soulmelds get their damage boosted the more Essentia they have Invested, so this ability pretty much doubles your firepower. Just make sure to yell, “Were you just talking about Krillin?!” every time you activate this.

And that's it for the Totemist's class features! As you can see, they almost all supplement your Soulmelds in some way—knowing your Soulmelds, therefore, is kinda important for playing the Totemist.