Metamorphic Transfer - is it broken?

[ST]

Yeah, this is a pretty easy one -- if you open up any advanced feats with difficult prereqs, and then basically remove the prereqs, then yeah it's not going to be balanced.

The feat as written assumes enough psionics to be able to change form psionically, and adds extra oomph (use of supernatural abilities) to that metamorphosis power. To the extent it's balanced, it's by the prereqs (5th level manifesting of psionics is pretty beefy), so handwaving away the prereqs will cause a problem. If you let them take the talent, you're letting them improve something they don't have.

What he's asking for, to me, sounds kind of like trying to take Innate Spell (fireball) because you have enough caster levels in Cleric that, were you a Wizard instead of a cleric and you knew fireball, you'd meet the prereqs.

edit: Oh, missed the bit where he's trying to fill the prereqs with innate racial abilities. Again, seems weird to me -- unless I should let PC-classed creatures with innate spell-like abilities buy metamagic feats that apply to those abilities. Or to put it another way, if pixies can spend a feat to do this crazy stuff the player wants, why don't they all do it?

 

[Wintergreen]

We are working under a psionics-magic transparency rule (which is the standard option), so manifester level counts as caster level and vice versa.

I do not believe transparency works that way.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't. And as other people have said, allowing innate abilities to count for caster requirements isn't how things are supposed to work. Check out what it says in Complete Arcane about the Warlock and their invocations and meeting caster requirements for prestige classes.

 

[Yair]

as other people have said, allowing innate abilities to count for caster requirements isn't how things are supposed to work. Check out what it says in Complete Arcane about the Warlock and their invocations and meeting caster requirements for prestige classes.

I'll do check that. I apparently interpret the transparency differently than you all do, I'll look into that.