I got Races of the Wild, you got the questions

[Kae'Yoss]

Does Able Sniper work beyond 30ft? are these elf only feats? What are some of the elven feats?

Able Sniper *only* works at 30+ feet.

Elf only feats are:
Elf Dilettante (you get a bonus on untrained skill checks and can try anything untrained)
Focused Mind (a bonus in int or int-based skill checks when taking 10 or 20)
Lightfeet (you leave almost no trail, tracking you is harder)

 

[Ty]

Arcane Hierophant

Questions on this PrC so I can anticipate what my PC's are going to be gunning for.

So let me get this straight. Does the arcane hierophant increase the wildshape druidic ability and the animal companion strength? What about the wizards familiar?

As a side note, I've heard the prerequisites are easy for druids but possible for rangers. What are the prereqs perchance? Thanks in advance for any help guys.

 

[Ranger REG]

Can you post Races of the Wild TOC?

 

[ivocaliban]

Note that Dallah Thaun is not for "psychopatic" halflings, anyway.

This is not to say that many a "psychopathic" Halfling player won't chose to follow Dallah Thaun as a way to validate the behavior of their characters.

Those halflings who turn their back on the halfling race turn their back on both Yondala and Dallah Thaun.

This continues the dual-goddess theme that I dislike for Halflings. You either serve Yondalla/Dallah Thaun or you serve nothing in this new interpretation of the pantheon? I prefer having a pantheon that extends beyond one goddess with two aspects. It seems to me like a way to save space in this book by shortchanging the Halflings.

Furthermore, I just don't like the idea of messing with the central deity of a pantheon. It's a major change that rocks the underpinning of Halfling faith. It might be wonderful for a new campaign, but it's not something you can suddenly introduce to an already established Halfling community. How do you explain what happened to Urogalan, Brandobaris, Cyrollalee and so on?

What I liked about the deities from Races of Stone is that many of them can be used in addition to the widely accepted Forgotten Realms pantheons*. They can add depth to a pre-existing pantheon. In short, they provide additional options. The Yondalla/Dallah Thaun option presents more of an either/or decision.

In the long run, however, it makes the Halfling pantheon far more limited, unless you happen to be one of those DMs/Players who only have the core books. It ends up benefiting those who have less material and less information at their disposal. Again, that's perfectly alright, it's just not of any use to me and my current campaign.

*Many of these deities are also included in several lists of Greyhawk gods.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

So let me get this straight. Does the arcane hierophant increase the wildshape druidic ability and the animal companion strength? What about the wizards familiar?

Yes, yes, and yes. Note however, that you don't have an animal companion or a familiar any more. You have a companion familiar, as your old animal companion becomes your familiar, too, and gets both sets of benefits

As a side note, I've heard the prerequisites are easy for druids but possible for rangers. What are the prereqs perchance? Thanks in advance for any help guys.

Nonlawful, BAB +4, Know arc 8, Know nat 8, 2nd-level arcane, 2nd-level divine, trackless step class feature.

So unless they made an error with the trackless step (could have meant woodland stride), rangers still need 3 levels of druid.

Can you post Races of the Wild TOC?

I'll try (without pages, thoug)

Introduction
What is a Race of the Wild?
Inside this book
- What you need to play


Chapter 1: Elves
A day in the life
description
psychology
elven life
elf society and culture
elves and other races
religion
- Alobal Lorfiril
- Corellon Larethian
- Deep Sashelas
- Elebrin Liothiel
- Hanali Celanil
- Lolth
- Sehanine Moonbow
- Vandria Gilmadrith
Elf History and Folklore
Language
Elf Cities and Settlements
- The Elven Economy
- Example Settlement: Windingwater
Creating Elf Characters
- Elves as Characters

Chapter 2: Halflings
A day in the life
description
psychology
halfling life
halfling society and culture
religion
- Yondalla
- Dalla Thaun
- Arvoreen
- Brandobaris
- Cyrollalee
- Sheela Peryroyl
- Urogalan
Halfling history and folklore
language
halfling caravans and towns
- halfling economy
- example settlement: Fanta's Meadow
Creating Halling Characters
- Halflings as characters.

Chapter 3: Raptorans
A day in the life
description
- Overview
- Raptoran racial traits
psychology
raptoran life
raptoran society and culture
religion
- Nature Worship
- The Raptoran Pantheon
raptoran history and folklore
language
Example FLock: The Rifinti
- Important Rifinti Members
- Rifinti Cliff Dwelling
Creating raptoran Characters
- raptoran as characters.

Chapter 4: Other races
Using this chapter
- Monster classes
Catfolk
Centaur
Gnoll
Killoren
Vital Statistics

Chapter 5: Prestige Classes
Arcane Hierophant
Champion of Corellon Larethian
Luckstealer
Ruathar
Skypledged
Stormtalon
Whisperknife
Wildrunner

Chapter 6: Character Options
Skills
- (List)
Feats
- (List)
Tactical Feats
- (List)
Racial Substitution Levels
- (List)

Chapter 7: Equipment and Magic
Weapons
- Weapon Modifications
Armor
- Armor Modifications
- Special Armor Materials
Gear
Magic Items
- (List)
New Spells
- (List)
New Psionic Powers
- (List)

Chapter 8: Campaigns in the Wild
Assembling the Group
the setting
demographics
- elf communities
- halfling communities
- raptoran communities
Adventuring in Elf Communities
Adventuring in halfling communities
Sample NPC's
- (list divided by race and "npc's"/"groups")
Holidays
- (by race)
Friends of the Wild
- Brixashulty
- Chordevoc
- Dire Hawk
- Elven Hound

Appendix 1: One Hundred Adventure Ideas
Appendix 2: NPC's by CR

This is not to say that many a "psychopathic" Halfling player won't chose to follow Dallah Thaun as a way to validate the behavior of their characters.

That's always the case with dark deities. But this time, if they are violently psychopathic, the excuse doesn't work, for Dallah Thaun is agianst violence without reason.

You can play a halfling thief with her as patron (hell, you can play a halfling thief regardless of patron), but if you go assassin or thug, you have to seek another excuse deity.

This continues the dual-goddess theme that I dislike for Halflings. You either serve Yondalla/Dallah Thaun or you serve nothing in this new interpretation of the pantheon? I prefer having a pantheon that extends beyond one goddess with two aspects. It seems to me like a way to save space in this book by shortchanging the Halflings.

No. There is a pantheon for them. They just didn't provide the background stuff, only the game statistics, and referred to the FR books. It's something I don't like too much.
On the other hand, elves didn't fare much better. They did get new gods, and they did get a write-up of them all, but the real new gods were only a couple, the rest were taken from FR, too.

I do think that they did this because of space. The book is as large as the others, so they found use for that space after all. They did present a larger format for PrC's, and one I really like. So I don't really mind that they didn't present new gods (I use the setting-specific stuff, anyway, so this doesn't really concern me. I might be tempted to use Dallah Thaun for the FR, though)

Furthermore, I just don't like the idea of messing with the central deity of a pantheon. It's a major change that rocks the underpinning of Halfling faith. It might be wonderful for a new campaign, but it's not something you can suddenly introduce to an already established Halfling community. How do you explain what happened to Urogalan, Brandobaris, Cyrollalee and so on?

Well, what happened to them? They're still there. And introducing Dannah isn't more or less difficult than introducing any other new deity. It might even be less difficult: You just say that she did have that dark aspect of herself, but it just didn't take any active role until now, and didn't show up in the legends.

And if you decide not to use her, then everything's alright, because Yondalla is still the same.

What I liked about the deities from Races of Stone is that many of them can be used in addition to the widely accepted Forgotten Realms pantheons*

And so can Dallah Thaun

. They can add depth to a pre-existing pantheon. In short, they provide additional options. The Yondalla/Dallah Thaun option presents more of an either/or decision.

It is another option. The option to use the aspect. Beside the fact that she's an aspect of Yondallah, she's just another halfling deitiy.

In the long run, however, it makes the Halfling pantheon far more limited, unless you happen to be one of those DMs/Players who only have the core books. It ends up benefiting those who have less material and less information at their disposal. Again, that's perfectly alright, it's just not of any use to me and my current campaign.

??? No it doesn't. This doesn't mean you cannot use any of the other deities. There is no line that says "if you use the Yondalla/Dallah Thaun couple and other halfling gods, a fiendish dire lawyer of Wizards of the Coast jumps out of the book and sues you". In fact, the book gives you the relevant info about several other deities in the halfling pantheon.

 

[ivocaliban]

??? No it doesn't. This doesn't mean you cannot use any of the other deities. There is no line that says "if you use the Yondalla/Dallah Thaun couple and other halfling gods, a fiendish dire lawyer of Wizards of the Coast jumps out of the book and sues you". In fact, the book gives you the relevant info about several other deities in the halfling pantheon.

Forgive me, but the impression I got from your earliest mention of Yondalla/Dallah Thaun was that the dual-aspect goddess superceded the previous pantheon. I didn't notice the mention of the other deities. It seems like Brandobaris wouldn't have much of a place with the newcomer on the scene as they essentially fill the same niche. How, if at all, do they deal with this?

EDIT: I'd also like to add that I never said the option was a particularly bad one. It was simply one that didn't fit my current campaign.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

It seems like Brandobaris wouldn't have much of a place with the newcomer on the scene as they essentially fill the same niche. How, if at all, do they deal with this?

They do have differing portfolios.
Brandobaris is the God of stealth, thievery, adventuring and halfling rogues.
Dallah Thaun is the goddess of halflings, secrets, guile, thieves and rogues, acquisition of wealth, death.
Domains: Luck, Travel, Trickery (Brandobaris); Chaos, Knowledge, Luck, Trickery (Dallah Thaun)

So both are halfling deities of rogues/thieves, which explains luck and trickery. But for Brandobaris, this is great fun, and adventure, while Dallah does it to accumulate wealth (and/or secrets). (Dallah Thaun also cares about the souls of dead halflings, and avenges wrongs done to her people)

 

[ivocaliban]

Yes, under the assumption that Yondalla/Dallah Thaun became the only deity (deities?) of the Halfling pantheon, it wouldn't allow Halflings much flexibility. I admit it was a faulty assumption on my part, but that was the impression I was operating under. Now that I know more details I just have more questions, of course. Urogalan was once the Halfling god of Death. Has he lost this?

 

[Kae'Yoss]

No, none of the other deities lost anything to Dallah Thaun.

But there were overlapping portfolios before. Arvoreen, for example, is the Defender of the halflings. But Yondalla is the protector, too. Both have the protection domains.

I think that pantheon chiefs/racial creators have always a broad portfolio, but their servitor deities have deeper ones, and serve their lords in a particular field, specializing in that and doing it all the time, while the main deity oversees everything. So we have Yondalla, who protects halflings, but Arvoreen is also the defender. We have Dallah Thaun, the receiver of souls, but Urogalan is the master of the realms of the dead. Brandobaris kinda serves both deities: Dalla Thaun because of his rogue/thief part of the portfolio, and Yondalla because of the part about adventuring. Come to think o fo it, arvoreen can also serve both, as he leads the defense and then the counteroffense.

 

[ivocaliban]

No, none of the other deities lost anything to Dallah Thaun.

But there were overlapping portfolios before. Arvoreen, for example, is the Defender of the halflings. But Yondalla is the protector, too. Both have the protection domains.

I think that pantheon chiefs/racial creators have always a broad portfolio, but their servitor deities have deeper ones, and serve their lords in a particular field, specializing in that and doing it all the time, while the main deity oversees everything. So we have Yondalla, who protects halflings, but Arvoreen is also the defender. We have Dallah Thaun, the receiver of souls, but Urogalan is the master of the realms of the dead. Brandobaris kinda serves both deities: Dalla Thaun because of his rogue/thief part of the portfolio, and Yondalla because of the part about adventuring. Come to think o fo it, arvoreen can also serve both, as he leads the defense and then the counteroffense.

Well, that clears up quite a bit. I've got different view of the new addition now. I'm still not sure she'll make it into my campaign, but I'll wait until I have the book and can soak up the details before I rule her out completely. Thanks for your patience and swift response.