bypassing prereqs...

[Eman Resu]

Many of the prestige classes have only a skill requirement to fullfil to qualify, such as concentration 8 ranks (seems to be fairly common). I have read/heard of others, knowing ways to bypass/skirt, this rank requirment, entirely or partially, what "ways" are there?

...if the creators of the prestige class (any) intended for players not to have access untill 5th level. THEN WHY NOT PUT 5TH LEVEL AS A PREREQ!?

eman resu

 

[Sekhmet]

Because then something clearly for Arcane/Divine casters, Specialists, or Fighters could be accessed at level 5 by someone other than their intended user.
Otherwise, a player does not have access until (the earliest) level 11, and thats assuming they can dump all of their skill points into it.
This makes it so some 10 level PrC's won't be maxed out by CL 20.

 

[Rakusia]

well because if i have an item that gives skill points ion the prereq. most races give you bonus skill points. like say i need 8 ranks move silent can get 6 ranks at lvl three and my race gives me a +2 so while it was meant to be a lvl 5 with just that and some min maxing you can get it two lvls early

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

well because if i have an item that gives skill points ion the prereq. most races give you bonus skill points. like say i need 8 ranks move silent can get 6 ranks at lvl three and my race gives me a +2 so while it was meant to be a lvl 5 with just that and some min maxing you can get it two lvls early

Except those don't count; they affect your skill bonus, not your skill ranks.

The only thing that counts for such prereqs is skill ranks.

So, "Must have 8 ranks in Skill [X]" really means a couple things:

1 . You have to be 5th-level at a minimum to qualify for this PrC, and so can take it no earlier than as your 6th-level class

2. You have to have maxxed out that particular skill to take it that early, and it has to have been a class skill for you at least once.

3. This class is available to cross-classers much, much later.

4. [Sometimes] This is a skill point tax we are levying to put more powerful abilities behind a stronger door.

 

[Dandu]

You can get into prestige classes requiring the ability to cast 3rd level spells by taking Versatile Spellcaster and Heighten Spell as a spontaneous caster.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You can get into prestige classes requiring the ability to cast 3rd level spells by taking Versatile Spellcaster and Heighten Spell as a spontaneous caster.

Where is Versatile Spellcaster? I don't know that one.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Races of the Dragon. It allows a spont caster to use two level N slots to cast a spell of level N+1.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hm! Thanks!

 

[Wyvernhand]

The main way to get around the skill points issues are Favored Contact + Primary Contact (only works for 1 skill, one level early).

Other ways generally involve picking up temporary HD (such as Inspire Greatness, Polymorph into a Dusk Giant, etc), and then Psychic Reforming some of your skill points into another skill based on your current temporarily inflated HD. This works well, assuming you have enough skill points total to work even at high levels. If the bard in question has the proper feats (Songs of the Heart + Words of Creation), you can get into your PrC up to 5 levels early with that method. If you use the Dusk Giant method, you can enter many PrC with only skill reqs at any point after 1st level, assuming you can get the Polymorph and the Psychic Reformations cast.

Note that with the exception of FC/PC, you run into a lot of issues with DM cooperation, which generally defeats those options as a 1st-4th level character finding a 9th+ level bard with the right feats AND a 7th level Psion and purchasing their services is pretty unlikely.

 

[irdeggman]

Races of the Dragon. It allows a spont caster to use two level N slots to cast a spell of level N+1.

Hmm which would cost a spontaneous caster 2 feats. And since very few (I don't recall any) of the spontaneous casters get any "bonus" feats that is essentially a 6th caster, which by level 4 most spontaneous caster progressions would have given access to 3rd level spells anyways . Typically they run a level behind the faster progression casters, and almost never more than 2 levels behind.


An "expensive" work around and probably only viable for multiclassing dips.