Martial Study Feat

[Zurai]

This is from the Tome of Battle FAQ which gathers its Q and As from all official sources:

Q: All of the new base classes from Tome of Battle offer the option of swapping out an old maneuver to gain a new maneuver at certain levels.
What happens if, as a result of swapping out an old maneuver, I can no longer meet the pre-requisites for another stance or maneuver that I currently know? Suppose, for instance, that I currently only have the following 2 maneuvers/stances from the Iron Heart discipline: A) Absolute Steel, and B) Disarming Strike. Absolute Steel is a stance that has one Iron Heart maneuver as a pre-requisite. Disarming Strike currently fulfills that pre-requisite for me. Suppose I reach 4th level and decide to swap out Disarming Strike for another maneuver from a different discipline. I no longer meet the pre-requisites for the Absolute Steel stance. Am I still allowed to use the Absolute Steel stance? What if Absolute Steel were a maneuver instead of a stance; would I be allowed to use it?
A: Going with a strict interpretation of the rules, you would only need to have the appropriate number of maneuvers to meet a prerequisite when you needed to learn the maneuver, not if you wanted to use that maneuver later. So the character in question would still be able to use the Absolute Steel stance even though you have given up your only Iron Heart maneuver. So again, you only have to meet the prerequisites when you learn the maneuver or stance, not when you want to use ready or use it. I hope that clears things up.

 

[Arkhandus]

Even the Sage is less contradictory/random in responses than Customer Service/the FAQs, though. :\ Aside from the occasional obvious slip-up, I'd consider the Sage's clarifications to hold more weight.

 

[saucercrab]

If using feat retraining from PHB II (& that's what I was referring to, but didn't specify), One is incorrect. But looking that up, it would only be a useful for relearning a maneuver or stance when a character gained a higher initiator level; it wouldn't help towards prerequisites.

I was still off on this.

Using feat retraining, a character could replace Martial Study (or Martial Stance) with another feat at a lower level, then take it at a later level, effectively switching the level where it's gained, so as to fill higher initiator requirements for a better maneuver/stance (but min. # of maneuvers known still need to be fulfilled).

Zurai,
Thanks for the link. Some of it is helpful.

 

[Zurai]

Even the Sage is less contradictory/random in responses than Customer Service/the FAQs, though. :\ Aside from the occasional obvious slip-up, I'd consider the Sage's clarifications to hold more weight.

CustServ doesn't screw up any more often than the Sage does - and that FAQ draws from the Sage as well, btw.