Warlock w/ Swordmage MC - Am I missing something?

[Ryujin]

I just had a, "I could have had a V8!" moment regarding my Warlock/Swordmage MC character. I originally took Arcana when I created the character then later add3ed the Swordmage multi, which gave me Arcana also. I've done a fair bit of searching, both here and on the WotC site, and I can't find an answer to this question. Is there anything in the rules that stops me from retraining the Arcana that I chose to take during character creation and which isn't a mandatory class skill, while still retaining the Arcana skill from my MC? I've made my character very heavy on Arcana (+18 at lvl8) so it isn't a skill that I'd give up, but if I can get another class skill with a little shuffle.....

 

[Dragongrief]

You can retrain your Warlock trained skill: Arcana, and still be trained in Arcana since it is granted by the MC feat.

 

[Colmarr]

Agreed.

 

[Seule]

The problem lies with Wizard/Swordmage multiclassing, both grant Arcana with no choice. Thus you get Arcana trained twice, and can't retrain either one.
I'm not expecting to see many people take that (otherwise obvious) multiclass combination due to that quirk.

--Penn

 

[Ryujin]

The problem lies with Wizard/Swordmage multiclassing, both grant Arcana with no choice. Thus you get Arcana trained twice, and can't retrain either one.
I'm not expecting to see many people take that (otherwise obvious) multiclass combination due to that quirk.

--Penn

Actually there is no requirement to take Arcana for the Warlock class in the first place, so presumably it could be retrained. You're right that there is no choice with Swordmage though.

 

[KidSnide]

The problem lies with Wizard/Swordmage multiclassing, both grant Arcana with no choice. Thus you get Arcana trained twice, and can't retrain either one.
I'm not expecting to see many people take that (otherwise obvious) multiclass combination due to that quirk.

This is true, although I would allow a house rule that you can pick another class skill if you find yourself double-trained in a mandatory skill. It's hard to see how this would be unbalancing.

-KS

 

[Mort_Q]

Ryujin is right. There's no need to houserule anything. Arcana is not a required Warlock skill... you can just retrain it.

 

[Ryujin]

My only concern was if it would be considered (effectively) the same skill and buy. Character Builder doesn't allow retraining of Arcana, at all, for the Warlock and I have a buig report in about that. It does, however, allow you to unselect the skill and then select another in the "Build" section.

I realize that it's an odd situation in taking a multi that gives a skill that you'd be presumed to take in an arcane class anyway. When I initially took the Swordmage multi I did it by retraining an existing feat, so retraining Arcana at the time wasn't an option.

 

[Mort_Q]

Character Builder doesn't allow retraining of Arcana, at all...

Weird, I tested it in CB before posting and it let me do it no problem.

 

[Ryujin]

Weird, I tested it in CB before posting and it let me do it no problem.

Do you have a subscription and the latest updates? I do. Does Arcana skill show up in the "build/retraining" section after you level up? It doesn't for me.