A question about taking feats

[Kae'Yoss]

I'd say no to hoarding feat slots or taking them in advance, even as a house rule: Otherwise, they'd all take the big ones and then wait until they kick all in.

We had that smack thread once where they maximized HP, taking the toughness feats from MoTW: If you let people take them in advance, they'd just take dragon's toughness every single time and then have BIG HP.

As for permanent abilities: I would certainly allow to take magic items into account (or many feats, including most epic ones, would be inaccessible by any but the most fortunate chars).
I could also be convinced to take class features into account, like rage, but that would be it. No "I'll have Int 19 if i roll 5 at my Fox' Cunning Spell. It would last 4 hours. When I prepare that spell for the day.

Good thing about P&P is that the DM can recognize abuse, unlike a PC. If the player wears his gauntlets of ogre strength all the time, it's fine that he can take power attack with it. If he only wears it when he goes into melee and changes them every other round, putting out bracers of dex for ranged combat, I would not be so generous

 

[Bloodstone]

Sage has actually ruled that a Ring of Evasion can qualify you for certain PrC's that need evasion, with the cavaeet that it was an extremly dangerous way to try to get access to any PrC.

As such, I see no reason why only being able to Power Attack or Cleave while your character is Raging would be that bad. It's actually a rather cool concept that I have for one of my characters, who fights with the Expertise feat tree when he is calm and with the Power Attack tree when he is gripped by Rage...though admitedly he has a Str of 14, so he could do the Power Attack tree even when he is "himself"...but I digress.

 

[Madfox]

I have no problems with characters taking a feat when the character does not qualify for the attribute score. After all, those can be changed on a temporary basis. There is a difference with BAB requirements though. Those can NEVER positively be influenced by magical items on a temporary basis. A BAB requirement is a disguised level requirement.

This reminds me of a discussion I had with some friends a couple of days ago on the weapon master prestige class. The requirement is a dex of 13+ and we were wondering if there was a specific reason for this. After all, since the PrC also requires dodge the characters dex has to be 13 anyway. It made me wonder if a prestige class cannot be used (like the feats) if a character somehow loses the ability to use any of the requirements.

 

[kreynolds]

It made me wonder if a prestige class cannot be used (like the feats) if a character somehow loses the ability to use any of the requirements.

Technically, if you can no longer meet the requirements of the class, you lose access to those class abilities until you can meet the requirements again.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

The requirement is a dex of 13+ and we were wondering if there was a specific reason for this. After all, since the PrC also requires dodge the characters dex has to be 13 anyway.

That's the sole reason it's mentioned. They always repeat the prerequisites of all the feats that are prerequisites themselves. Look at Whirlwind Attack:

Prerequisites: Int 13+, Expertise, Dex 13+, Dodge, Mobility, BAB +4 or higher, Spring Attack.

It would be enough to say that you need Expertise and Spring Attack, but they repeat all the prerequisites those to feats have, and all prerequisites the feats you need for those feats have, and so on.


Also, I would insist that the character has the required ability score minimums. I would take into account magical Items that grant an enhancement bonus all the time (like the belt of strength), but no temporary stuff like a potion of strength). I would also ignore temporary ability damage (and maybe even permanent, but only if the character is able to get rid of that damage within the tenday or so). That's because I would probably strangle the DM that would force me to delay the acquisition of a feet by 3 levels only because I am poisoned right now.
Also, I would maybe allow ability scores that are only achieved via class abilities (rage or frenzy or whatever), but you could only use that feat when that ability is in use.

 

[LokiDR]

Deja vu

Take a look at http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23145

The question asked was "can you use familiars alterness for a PrC". Seems related.