Questions

[Delia2531]

5 hours ago, Blue Jay said:

Another note: "Retraining" only refers to the Retraining rules from PHB2. The maneuver-swapping rules from Tome of Battle are not referred to as "retraining", so I try not to call them that, specifically because it might confuse people. So, if I ever say "retraining", I'm specifically talking about the Retraining rules from PHB2.

This is the point I was trying to make most recently, but perhaps to a non-native English speaker the difference between 'to retrain' as a verb and the proper noun 'Retraining' doesn't come through easily; it perhaps I just explained it badly.

 

I think we've resolved the discussion in the end?

[DragonFriend]

1 hour ago, Steel Warrior said:

It's from a 3rd party source. Bastards and Bloodlines

LOST TRADITION [GENERAL]
You are descended from a group of spellcasters who had very different ways of mastering magic, and you follow in their tradition.
Benefits: Choose one spellcasting class. You may change which ability score governs spellcasting with that class. That ability cannot be changed again.
For example, Meishel Ellazen is a houri cleric. She takes the Lost Tradition feat and chooses to base her clerical spellcasting on Charisma instead of Wisdom. She now uses her Charisma score to determine her bonus spells, spell save DCs, maximum spell level she may cast, and any other calculation regarding her cleric spells.
Special: You can take this feat only at 1st level.

So literally just Academic Priest but for any type of spellcaster and a bit more versatile?

[Faeryl_]

Yes. As far as I know, it's also the only way to change an arcane caster's casting stat. Again though, 3rd party source.

[DragonFriend]

So is Academic Priest and it is allowed here. Only issue with Lost Tradition compared to Academic Priest is that it allows you to select your casting stat instead of it being fixed, so it is a more "powerful" feat.

[Rudolf]

8 hours ago, paladinred said:

I have a question regarding multiclassing with classes that have 2 distinct spellcasting paths that need two different stats. Could we make a feat that would allow us to use just one of those stats?

I don’t like it. The character creation rules are generous enough. Sure, characters with one main stat have higher bonuses, but is that needed? We’re not comparing characters to theoretical perfection. We’re comparing them to the actual encounters they are up against. If you want to present evidence, show me that existing characters are getting stomped by the ogres and skeletons they’re up against.

[DragonFriend]

I feel like that is the wrong thing to consider, monsters can be and have been homebrewed to high hell and back in missions with little to no oversight. The thing to compare against should be the options already available to the player and other existing player characters. Here in the RFT we have a tarasque character and he isn't even the most powerful character. We have characters that can literally deal hundreds of damage per turn, possibly even nearing a thousand damage with some support spells and lucky rolls. Academic Priest and Lost Traditions are basically just something to make bookkeeping easier compared to what martial characters are capable of here.

I say that with what I said above, Lost Traditions is more powerful than what is already approved, but it does give arcane casters an option that divine casters already have. I also find the idea of a charisma wizard being the guy who just BS'd and schmoozed his way through college and career hilarious.

Edited April 18 by DragonFriend (see edit history)

[Delia2531]

12 hours ago, DragonFriend said:

So is Academic Priest and it is allowed here. Only issue with Lost Tradition compared to Academic Priest is that it allows you to select your casting stat instead of it being fixed, so it is a more "powerful" feat.

Being able to 'pick' just saves there being separate 'use Int as your casting stat', 'use Wis as your casting stat', and 'use Cha as your casting stat' feats.

 

There are feats that let you swap Str for Dex on attacks (and damage) which then allows better Fighter/Rogue synergies etc and I'm sure we've got some somewhere that allow swaps that benefits Monks to multi-class; so the idea isn't completely alien.

 

I'd draw the line at anything that let you use Str/Dex/Con as a casting stat though.

[DragonFriend]

Yeah, it does specify mental stats only. Though I do think you could write up the fluff for constitution based sorcerers to make sense.

 

But anyway, I'm not arguing specifically for Lost Traditions. While I think it has merit for RFT specifically being a gestalt game and mental score bonuses being much harder to come by, and gives arcane casters an option that divine casters have, it has several points against it. Compared to Academic Priest it is more "powerful", as in it gives more options. It is also 3rd party, and the only 3rd party published material listed for consideration is PF1E, Dragon Magazine, Dungeon Magazine, and Dragonlance books, and then Oslecamo if you count forum stuff. So I guess Academic Priest isn't even an exception, it is Dragonlance 3rd party material that was requested and approved.

I was just saying I think approval should mostly consider how it compares to other options already available to the player, not against arbitrary encounters the player could come across. In theory we have as many DMs as we have players, and the guidelines, no permadeath, and extremely powerful player characters gear themselves towards homebrewed or kitbashed, overpowered monsters. In my own game I'm running I threw 3 CR 2 monsters against the party of 5 level 3 characters. The d20 Encounter Calculator said that was "Very Difficult", and while I did forget about the damage reduction of the monsters the party was never in any real danger. The damage reduction would have just added a few turns of attacks to roll without actually making the encounter more difficult.

[Dnd4life]

I think I may have asked this before.. But for the two characters that I ported over, I was considering possibly retraining Sarah (Dread Necromancer/Pixie) from the ground up as she was made way back in the day and my knowledge was fairly limited. I'm still interested in keeping mostly the same classes but possibly some feat selection difference. Also, I think I recall reading somewhere online a slightly modified spell list for Dread Necromancer as there's a few spells that are repeated for no reason. If not all good. I know we just did the whole "retraining" bit but this is slightly different as it's not directly from a level up :P

[Rudolf]

Based on my whole one game of experience, our generous character creation rules appear to be worth +1 CL. I’ll let you know what I learn with game 2.
 

While I have the skills to customize every single encounter, that takes more time. I’d rather not do that, because it just starts the optimization arms race. Instead, I think it’s far better if we can run published adventures. We’ll have more GMs that way, and the busy GMs will get to take breaks.

[Rudolf]

LOST TRADITION [GENERAL]
You are descended from a group of spellcasters who had very different ways of mastering magic, and you follow in their tradition.
Benefits: Choose one spellcasting class. You may change which ability score governs spellcasting with that class. That ability cannot be changed again.
For example, Meishel Ellazen is a houri cleric. She takes the Lost Tradition feat and chooses to base her clerical spellcasting on Charisma instead of Wisdom. She now uses her Charisma score to determine her bonus spells, spell save DCs, maximum spell level she may cast, and any other calculation regarding her cleric spells.
Special: You can take this feat only at 1st level.
 

i see nothing here that prevents me from making a flexomancer, who uses STR to cast spells. Is it elsewhere in the book (which I don’t have)?

[Rudolf]

7 hours ago, DragonFriend said:

Here in the RFT we have a tarasque character and he isn't even the most powerful character. We have characters that can literally deal hundreds of damage per turn…

Depending on level, that might be an appropriate amount of damage.

The solution for a silly character should not be ‘silly characters for everyone’.

[Steel Warrior]

32 minutes ago, Rudolf said:

LOST TRADITION [GENERAL]
You are descended from a group of spellcasters who had very different ways of mastering magic, and you follow in their tradition.
Benefits: Choose one spellcasting class. You may change which ability score governs spellcasting with that class. That ability cannot be changed again.
For example, Meishel Ellazen is a houri cleric. She takes the Lost Tradition feat and chooses to base her clerical spellcasting on Charisma instead of Wisdom. She now uses her Charisma score to determine her bonus spells, spell save DCs, maximum spell level she may cast, and any other calculation regarding her cleric spells.
Special: You can take this feat only at 1st level.
 

i see nothing here that prevents me from making a flexomancer, who uses STR to cast spells. Is it elsewhere in the book (which I don’t have)?

Page

 

Edited April 19 by Steel Warrior (see edit history)

[DragonFriend]

1 hour ago, Rudolf said:

The solution for a silly character should not be ‘silly characters for everyone’.

I see no reason it shouldn't be as long as the overall peak power level of any individual doesn't increase.

1 hour ago, Rudolf said:

i see nothing here that prevents me from making a flexomancer, who uses STR to cast spells. Is it elsewhere in the book (which I don’t have)?

The listing I found for it says mental ability score, might be a reprint or some such.

Edited April 19 by DragonFriend (see edit history)

[Steel Warrior]

17 minutes ago, DragonFriend said:

I see no reason it shouldn't be as long as the overall peak power level of any individual doesn't increase.

The listing I found for it says mental ability score, might be a reprint or some such.

The page I showed was from the actual book. You might have found an online version that someone posted and modified. Don't think they made an updated version.

But I recall it was brought up in the past as well, that does it mean they could use Str or Con as an example. A Barbarian Sorcerer comes from the strength of his blood. :p