So, what's the deal with the Fiend-Blooded?

[rgard]

Warmage and beguiler both lack Knowledge (the planes) as a class skill. Duskblade could do it, but you'd drop to 1/2 BAB, which probably wouldn't be worth it.

I was just pointing out that the sorcerer isn't the only class that can qualify for this.

Sorry we weren't able to help you with this.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Pazu]

The real story is that the designers forgot that Knowledge (the planes) isn't a sorcerer class skill.

Did one of the authors actually come out and say this? It sounds dimly familiar, like someone might have said, "Oh yeah, it was supposed to be 4 ranks" or something like that.

Note that the sample character is able to qualify at 6th level despite being a single classed sorcerer without any of the above mentioned feats.

Neither sample character qualifies for the class, as I noted above.

 

[Dagredhel]

I agree that it looks more like a typo than an intentional hurdle. It should probably be 4 ranks, as Pazu suggests.

But as already pointed out, the Education feat overcomes the problem, staying within the RAW. This works for the already mentioned spontaneous casters, as well as the Dread Necromancer.

For a human, the Human Paragon class (UA) would also do nicely, adding the necessary skill, a bonus feat, and +2 CHA among other benefits at the cost of a level of spellcasting.

 

[Drowbane]

Heroes of Horror presented the Fiend-Blooded prestige class, a 10-level arcane casting class that seems to be aimed specifically at sorcerers. However, as one of its prerequisites is 8 ranks in Knowledge (the planes), it would appear that a single-classed sorcerer can't enter this prestige class until 13th level, and thus can't take all 10 levels. Is this intentional, or has this been addressed somewhere? I notice that neither of the sample NPCs for this class has 8 ranks in Knowledge (the planes) either.

Back when HoH was coming out and I saw the description of the Fiend-Blooded PrC I thought "holy crap! finally a cool Warlock-related PrC!!!"... then I saw it in my (at the time) FLGS and well... "Or not. Crap!".

 

[Pazu]

I agree that it looks more like a typo than an intentional hurdle. It should probably be 4 ranks, as Pazu suggests.

But as already pointed out, the Education feat overcomes the problem, staying within the RAW. This works for the already mentioned spontaneous casters, as well as the Dread Necromancer.

For a human, the Human Paragon class (UA) would also do nicely, adding the necessary skill, a bonus feat, and +2 CHA among other benefits at the cost of a level of spellcasting.

You could also have a sorcerer with the Domain Access (Knowledge domain) alternative class feature from Complete Champion: the loss of one spell known from each level would be partially offset by the bonus spells that the fiend-blooded grants you.

 

[starwed]

This is kind of amusing. There's a psionic prestige class which has exactly the same mistake: it's clearly intended for wilders, the sample PC is a wilder, and yet it requires 8 ranks in Knowledge(The Planes), which is a cross-class skill for wilders.

 

[amethal]

Its another example of crap design. It drives me mad. The sample NPCs are pretty much a waste of space, but you'd think having to actually design a character would at least point out flaws like this.

My prefered option is to take the Apprentice (Spellcaster) feat fom DMG 2.

It allows you to treat one knowledge skill (and use magic device) as class skills, plus gives a few other goodies.

 

[Pazu]

My prefered option is to take the Apprentice (Spellcaster) feat fom DMG 2.

It allows you to treat one knowledge skill (and use magic device) as class skills, plus gives a few other goodies.

That sounds like an interesting option. What are the details of this feat?

 

[Pazu]

Having done some digging at the Wizards boards, I notice that someone brought up this exact issue in the Heroes of Horror errata thread back in 2005. Unfortunately, no "official" answer to this problem was given (although Mouseferatu very helpfully supplied a number of other clarifications).

rgard, I understand what you're saying, but that wasn't really my original point. As has been pointed out, it's relatively trivial to kludge a sorcerer (or any other spontaneous arcane caster) into this class--heck, as I said in my OP, a vanilla bard can take it without any additional feats or PrCs!

I think Hammerhead and dagredhel have it right, honestly. Hopefully, with the return of "official" errata, this question can be resolved at some point.

 

[Hammerhead]

Although there's actually a legal fix that doesn't involve taking a worthless feat or another prestige class to accomplish this. You take the Planar Substitution level at 5th for Sorcerers, which will give Knowledge: The Planes as a class skill. You lose a 2nd level spell known, but gain the ability to convert half elemental damage on spells into force damage.