Questions about qualifying for High Elemental Binder

[NecroRick]

Hi.

I'm interested in the following Prestige Class - High Elemental Binder (p104 Player's Guide to Eberron), and I have some (probably stupid) questions.

High Elemental Binder has various requirements, including the feats Bind Elemental and Craft Wondrous Item

The Bind Elemental feat has the prerequisites Craft Wondrous Item, caster level 9th.

(1) Okay - so they doubled up on Craft Wondrous Item - is this just pointless redundancy, or is there a way to pick up Bind Elemental that I'm overlooking? (e.g. class feature? PrC?)

(2) caster level? So does that mean my Ioun Stone(s) and Ring of Arcane Might count? Practised Spellcasting?

(3) If I choose not to seek early entry on boosted caster level and with a pure caster going from 8 to 9 can I take the feat at the same time as I gain the ninth level of whichever class that is, or do I have to wait till level 10?

(4) If I took it at level 12, and already had more than enough caster level at level 11 to meet the feat's prerequisite - could I also take the first level of High Elemental Binder at 12?

(5) Another way of looking at it, when levelling up can the feat come before the class, or does the class always go first? (Presumably class always has to be allocated before skills...)

(6) Can I hold or delay a feat till the next time I level up? I see lots of feats that would be easy to qualify for at level 7 or 8, but hard to qualify for earlier (because of BAB for instance)

[Diarmuid]

1) Unsure as I dont have the eberron books handy

2) Caster Level would let things like Ioun Stone and Practised Spellcaster help you fulfiill the prereqs. If you need the stone to meet the req and you lost the stone...you would then also lose all benefits of the PrC until you met them again.

3) You must meet all the prereqs to be able to take the feat, so you would not be able to take it at the same level that you attained CL9

4) By RaW, no you would then need to wait until lvl 13 to begin taking the PrC. Like Feats, you must meet all prereqs of a PrC before you can begin taking levels in it. Some DM's will allow for this to be fudged.

5) There is a section on the PHB that details what steps are taking in what order upon leveling up. In theory, all of it happens at the same time and you have to meet all prereqs for all level up choices before leveling up to qualify for them

6) Nope, no saving them up, not for skill points either.

[NecroRick]

Thanks Diarmuid.

I don't think your answer for #3 is right. At least not according to:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm


A character can gain a feat at the same level at which he or she gains the prerequisite.

There's a bunch of fighter-type feats like Improved Two Weapon Fighting that require multiples of three in BAB to qualify for, that'd be pretty harsh making them wait another three levels?

[Diarmuid]

I must have an old file cached or something, I was basing that off this:



Prerequisite: A minimum ability score, another feat or feats, a minimum base attack bonus, a minimum number of ranks in one or more skills, or a class level that a character must have in order to acquire this feat. This entry is absent if a feat has no prerequisite. A feat may have more than one prerequisite.


Checking my PHB it has the same text that you quoted. Sorry for the confusion.

[NecroRick]

Checking my PHB it has the same text that you quoted. Sorry for the confusion.

No problem. I was mainly interested in the other questions, and included that one for the sake of completeness - and when the answer came out radically differently than what I was expecting I did a big double take (I'd have been very naughty in my character design and planning otherwise).

The question about holding feats had occurred to me because I often have a build that I have nothing good at low levels, but several good things at high levels all competing for the same feat spot, that cannot be taken earlier due to prerequisite restrictions. And I hadn't seen anything written down that indicated either way (absence of restriction is not permission of course).

[Diarmuid]

The Level Advancement section says at 3/6/9/etc levels you get a new feat and to pick and goes into the restrictions and requirements. There's nothing there saying that you can hold that selection, but there's also nothing saynig you cant.

I'm sure this is covered in the WotC FAQ somewhere for clarification, but most work under the understanding that Skill Points, Attribute Points, and Feats have to be spent when they are gained.

[Afgncaap5]

Sorry for the thread necromancy, but I was researching, trying to figure something out for this specific topic since I have a character playing a gnomish artificer right now who'd like to take this class. Currently she's level 7, but we were wondering if there was some early way to get the Bind Elemental feat, because the example character given for the High Elemental Binder is listed as Illivanik Istravar Lonadar (LN male gnome artificer 5/high elemental binder 7). We can't figure out how a 5th level artificer has Bind Elemental.

I'd thought that caster level was pretty much caster level. Practiced Spellcaster doesn't apply since there's only class involved in the hit dice, I think. And none of the magic items seem to really... work. At least, not for the amount of gold they'd need to spend to get it.

Is it just a case of WotC messing up on the example character, or am I missing something?

[Farner]

Sorry for the thread necromancy, but I was researching, trying to figure something out for this specific topic since I have a character playing a gnomish artificer right now who'd like to take this class. Currently she's level 7, but we were wondering if there was some early way to get the Bind Elemental feat, because the example character given for the High Elemental Binder is listed as Illivanik Istravar Lonadar (LN male gnome artificer 5/high elemental binder 7). We can't figure out how a 5th level artificer has Bind Elemental.

I'd thought that caster level was pretty much caster level. Practiced Spellcaster doesn't apply since there's only class involved in the hit dice, I think. And none of the magic items seem to really... work. At least, not for the amount of gold they'd need to spend to get it.

Is it just a case of WotC messing up on the example character, or am I missing something?

So let me Necro your Necro.

WotC is on their game. Illivanik is caster level 12 (5+7=12).

High Elemental Binder advances your caster level as you go. See page 104 of Player's Guide to Eberron

And yeah, the Magic Item Economy is broke-d-broke in most 3.5 settings, Eberron in particular.

[Vaynor]

The Red Towel: Thread necromancy.