1st Level Smart hero

[takyris]

So if I have a first-level Smart Hero, can I pick anything other than Savant?

The Linguist talent has a skill pre-requisite -- and if I'm a first-level character, I don't have any skills until I've chosen my class, and choosing my class means that I'm choosing my talent as well -- hence, the screwedness. Is that right? The logic I'm using is the same logic that says that you can't be a Strong2/Martial Artist 1, because you need a BAB of +3, which you don't get until you TAKE a third level in Strong.

Or perhaps I'm overthinking it. I just wanted to take the Linguist feat at 1st level instead of the Savant feat.

-Tacky

 

[jaerdaph]

Yep, you're overthinking

Don't worry about order - during character creation, you can take the talent and then spend the necessary skill points to meet the prerequisites afterwards. Or spend the skill points and go back to take the talent.

As long as you meet any requirements or prerequisites as you are taking a new level (or your first level), you can take any feat or talent at the same time as you are earning those things.

(Edited a wee bit for clarity.)

 

[takyris]

Cool! Thanks. Linguistic Smart Hero, here I come.

-Tacky

 

[Mistwell]

As long as you meet any requirements or prerequisites as you are taking a new level (or your first level), you can take any feat or talent at the same time as you are earning those things.

Actually, not really. Only at first level is this correct. At other levels, you have to follow the order of events for gaining a new level, and if you don't meet the prerequisite by the time you get to an event, you cannot gain that ability (even if you are about to get to that event in the sequence of gaining a new level).

 

[jaerdaph]

Actually, not really. Only at first level is this correct. At other levels, you have to follow the order of events for gaining a new level, and if you don't meet the prerequisite by the time you get to an event, you cannot gain that ability (even if you are about to get to that event in the sequence of gaining a new level).

Can you give a page reference or specific quote from the book for that?

If that's true, it doesn't really make any sense...

We're not talking BABs here, just feats and talents, and how they relate to skills.

Thanks

 

[Unseelie]

No, no... you have it right. I think what the other poster was getting at is that if you, say, qualify for Infiltrator at third level when you advance as a fast hero, you have to wait until your next level to actually become an Infiltrator.

I think...

 

[jaerdaph]

No, no... you have it right. I think what the other poster was getting at is that if you, say, qualify for Infiltrator at third level when you advance as a fast hero, you have to wait until your next level to actually become an Infiltrator.

I think...

That's what I think too.

So to clarify, I'm not talking about taking about AdCs (why isn't anyone using the abreviation I coined a couple months back ) and PrCs here, just talents, skills and feats.

 

[cybertalus]

And to further clarify, with Talent Trees each class specifies which talents 1st level characters may take. For a Smart hero, it states (pg. 26 second paragraph under Talents heading) "A 1st level Smart hero can choose from any of the talents on the Research Talent Tree."

 

[jaerdaph]

Okay, since I'm now home I'm able to access my d20 Modern rulebook and check for myself.

There is absolutely nothing printed (or even implied) that I could find in the Gaining Experience and Levels section of Chapter One that says you can't take a talent at the same level you spend the skill points to meet the talent's prerequisite, or that you are have to follow the exact order presented in Level Advancement on page 39.

The only reference to a "set order" I can find in Chapter One is in the talent section for each class - some (not all) talents have a set order of progression - you have to have one talent already (gained at another prior level) to select another in the progression. But since you can only select one talent at a time at every odd numbered level, you'd never get into the situation above.

Edit: However, Mistwell is the Keeper of the Official Charles Ryan Errata (for which I am extremely greatful, btw ), so perhaps he knows of a rules clarification that we don't. I don't spend a lot of time at the WotC boards, so it is possible I have missed something.