Tell me about the Chameleon...

[Hussar]

I have a player who has just requested to use the Chameleon PrC from Races of Destiny in my World's Largest Dungeon game. Anyone seen one of these in use? I'm pretty open to whatever, and I don't really have a problem with higher powered PrC's. Just curious to see if this class has seen the light of day in your games.

 

[Nifft]

I've never played one, but I've wanted to, and therefore looked carefully at the class.

Why did I want to play it? Our group doesn't always have people show up to all sessions, so I felt like I could cover a variety of "positions" on a day-to-day basis.

The major "abuse" that you can accomplish with a Chameleon involves a lot of down time -- basically, you use your floating feat to take item-creation feats, and craft some good stuff. You need a previous spellcasting class to get access to item-creation feats though.

My most abusive qualifying pre-Chameleon build would have been Rogue 2 / Ranger 2 / Cloistered Cleric 1 (with Practiced Spellcaster: Cloistered Cleric), and I'd play a back-up Archer & Healer until I got access to Divine Power. The module was low-wealth but high-death, so I thought the abusive item crafting trick would have been appropriate, if we got the downtime.

(Ooo, another fun trick is to have feats that boost a specific class feature like Favored Enemy, and use your floating feat to pick Extra Favored Enemy against whatever foe you expect to see a lot of today.)

IMHO, it's a fun & interesting class that allows a group to compensate for missing members more easily.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Kaodi]

A marshall or warlock combined with bard or rogue could make an interesting chameleon, I think. The unlimited nature of the marshall and warlocks abilities seem to me like they would shore up a chameleons weakness for unpreparedness quite nicely.

 

[Slife]

It's also nice for jailbreaking as a wizard. When they imprison you, you can't cast spells spontaneously. Switch around your bonus feat, and suddenly you can.



Here's the info on the class for reference:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20041210b&page=1

 

[AFGNCAAP]

I dunno, the Chameleon wasn't really one of my favorites from Spidey's rogues gallery...

Oh, wait...



The Chameleon PrC really goes the "jack of all trades, master of none" route. I'd say ti'd work great for a "5th-man" character (working on the idea of the "designed" primary 4-PC group of a warrior, rogue-sort, arcane spellcaster, & divine spellcaster), but I don't know if it'd be a good option as a primary character instead of as a support character (i.e., the one to do the heavy lifting for certain tasks like trapfinding, arcane magic, etc.).

Now, being a WLD-campaign player (not one of yours), I can say that having the options possible with a Chameleon wouldn't be bad, but the party would really benefit from having the "classic 4" of fighter/cleric/rogue/wizard in the group, with any additional PCs taking up useful support roles.

For an added twist, perhaps the Chameleon PC could start off with levels in a psychic class, to really cover as many bases as possible.

 

[Hussar]

Well, considering we've got 6 players, that's not a huge issue.

 

[Kaodi]

A 5th level Shaper *could* easily meet the prerequisites, and they would also have access to Use Psionic Device.

I might go with Deja Vu, Detect Psionics, Energy Ray, Inertial Armour and Force Screen for 1st level powers, Cloud Mind, Forced Sense Link, Psionic Identify, and Specified Energy Adaptation for 2nd level powers, and Dispel Psionics and Time Hop for 3rd level powers.

All of those powers I think could be useful to any character. A practiced manister feat would probably be a good idea though to strength them.

 

[Driddle]

Game mechanics aside, how do you intend to work out the chameleon school campaign background or otherwise justify the PC's severe twist in career? ... You know, that pesky "roleplaying" part of the game.

 

[rowport]

Game mechanics aside, how do you intend to work out the chameleon school campaign background or otherwise justify the PC's severe twist in career? ... You know, that pesky "roleplaying" part of the game.

Driddle-

Did you find the flavor text in Races of Destiny to be unclear or weak, or are you just being snarky?

 

[Driddle]

Did you find the flavor text in Races of Destiny to be unclear or weak, or are you just being snarky?

Me? Snarky?! Nevah!

Really, I'm just curious about the story implementation of this particular prestige class within the campaign. The initial post mentioned that the gamer is playing in the World's Largest Dungeon, but the WotC Chameleon text explains that the class involves an organization with certain ulterior motivations. The vast majority of chat in this thread so far has focused on game mechanics -- class combos, skill ranks, etc. -- and not so much on explaining how the heck a person (aka "character") would shift his career in that direction. What's the background leading to that development?