Losing Prestige Class Requirements...

[the Jester]

Makes perfect sense to me. A prc with a prereq of Str 13+ prolly uses strength-based techniques; lose your strength and you're too weak to use them.

But, as always, YMMV.

 

[Savage Wombat]

I can see this point - I think a better example is in order.

To become a Blackguard, you have to have the feats Power Attack and Improved Sunder. (I think there's another, but it's irrelevant.) So, to become a Blackguard, you have to have a 13 STR.

If someone drains a Blackguard's STR, therefore:

1) He loses his bonus to saving throws for high CHA
2) He loses his fiendish servant
3) He loses his sneak attack dice
4) He can no longer command undead
5) He can no longer use poison
6) He can no longer detect good
7) Arguably, he no longer detects as evil
8) He can no longer cast spells

Doesn't it seem a little silly to lose these abilities simply because you're no longer buff?

 

[Elvinis75]

I think that the levels of spellcasting are class specific to each PrCs. If you look at some of the other PrCs they assign special abilities and +1 caster level in the same column. Usually in the ones that don’t have +1 caster level at every level. That would assume that the rate of gain in spells is specific to each PrC. This is an interesting call.

I guess that it to me seems foolish to make a person forget everything they learned because they are a little weaker or less dexertous. I do not think this is the same as a Paladin. His abilities are granted by and rely on another continuing to grant them. In the majority of PrCs this simply isn’t the case.

Though blanket rulings help for speeding along the game they should also work within the normal frame work of the “do no harm” to that game. This type of ruling makes little sense. In the frame work of the man alone, no diety granted powers, the skills and powers are not just going to be forgotten. A school that requires that can lift xxx lbs over your head to join in no way removes the knowledge imparted later in life removes the skills when recruit’s muscles get weaker.

 

[psyronin]

If a Blackguard's Strength drops below 13 he loses the use of Power Attack but he still has the feat and is still meeting the prestige class requirements. Only if the requirements were along the lines of "able to use X feat" would he be screwed.

 

[Storm Raven]

I can see this point - I think a better example is in order.

To become a Blackguard, you have to have the feats Power Attack and Improved Sunder. (I think there's another, but it's irrelevant.) So, to become a Blackguard, you have to have a 13 STR.

If someone drains a Blackguard's STR, therefore:

1) He loses his bonus to saving throws for high CHA
2) He loses his fiendish servant
3) He loses his sneak attack dice
4) He can no longer command undead
5) He can no longer use poison
6) He can no longer detect good
7) Arguably, he no longer detects as evil
8) He can no longer cast spells

Doesn't it seem a little silly to lose these abilities simply because you're no longer buff?

Assume that a Paladin is no longer lawful good. Does it seem silly that he loses all of his class specific abilities because of that? Besides, your Blackguard doesn't lose the feat, just the use of it. He still has the feat, so he still meets the prerequisites for his class.

 

[Curugul]

Where

Can I find a quote or a page with the designers saying you loose access? I believe you, I'd just like to see who said it and it what context. So far I can't find any official word on it.


Thanks again,

Curugul

 

[Elvinis75]

It seems that most of the requirements paragraphs say that a character needs to meet the requirements to add a level in the PrCs. I don’t see anything about keeping those requirements or losing access. I’ll keep looking though.

 

[Elvinis75]

In 3.0 after looking through all the classes it seems that only the core classes can lose their abilities. Bard, Cleric, Druid, Monk, and Paladin. There were only two ways that they could become ex-classes. Either they change to a different alignment or an outside power intervienes and removes their powers. No PrC can lose its class.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I'm away from my DMG, and the text is absent from the 3E SRD, but from memory, in 3E both Feats and Prestige Classes had requirements that were continuous. If your Intelligence dropped below 13, you lost access to Expertise, which meant you lost access to Improved Trip, which meant you lost access to any class features of a Prestige Class that had Improved Trip as a requirement.

In 3.5, however, while Feats still have continuous prerequisites, PrCs do not. The prerequisites are only required for entry into the class.

"Prestige classes offer a new form of multiclassing. Unlike the basic classes, characters must meet Requirements before they can take their first level of a prestige class. The rules for level advancement apply to this system, meaning the first step of advancement is always choosing a class. If a character does not meet the Requirements for a prestige class before that first step, that character cannot take the first level of that prestige class."

So a 3.5 Blackguard who loses access to Power Attack still has all his class features, can still advance as a Blackguard, etc, etc. If he somehow loses all his Blackguard levels to Energy Drain attacks, however, he would be unable to take the first level in Blackguard again until he regained access to the requirement feat.

-Hyp.

 

[Camarath]

This is the rule in the 3.0 DMG.

Should a character find herself in a position (changed alignment, lost levels, and so on) where she no longer meets the requirements of a prestige class, she loses all special abilities (but not HD, base attack bonus, or base saves) gained from levels of the pestige class.