Knight of the Crown, AKA Did I just make a full-plate duskblade?

[Kaje]

So I was looking through the DragonLance Campaign Setting and saw this prestige class, Knight of the Crown, and it occurred to me that 7 levels of this could be paired with duskblade (probably in gestalt, as it doesn't advance casting) to get heavy armor with no ASF. Specifically, the class feature Armored Mobility, which explicitly states that you treat heavy armor as medium armor for all purposes. Obviously, this was probably not written with ASF in mind, but am I missing anything for why this wouldn't work by RAW?

[only1doug]

I don't have the dragonlance settings books but as described it sounds like it would work, not particularly unbalanced if you are sacrificing 7 levels of casting to it, even in gestalt there will probably be other things you'd rather do with those levels.

[Forged Fury]

Or just take the Battle Caster feat.

But yeah, I guess if you're gestalting and if it would otherwise be worth it.

[Greenish]

Seven levels, instead of buying mithral full plate. Doesn't seem too strong to me. :smallamused:

[Kaje]

Yeah, the exact build I was thinking of is Duskblade 20//Factotum 4/KotC 7/Factotum 9. I realize it'd be giving up quite a lot of Factotum goodies just to get heavy armored casting, but it'd be fun to fire off spells with full plate and a heavy shield, against all expectations.

[Greenish]

A straight wizard could do it. You can stack ASF reducers on armour enough to reduce full plate's ASF to 0%, though it's a bit tricky (you'd need to find a half-fey githzerai/githyanki armoursmith).

[Edit]: And the Battle Caster does the same thing with a single feat, as pointed out above.

[GoatBoy]

I suppose it would work for Duskblades, but I know that you make a full plate wizard by taking one level of Runecaster (Races of Stone).

[Tvtyrant]

I think you mean Runesmith, which you have to be a dwarf to qualify for.

[Forged Fury]

Or the Stoneblessed PRC to get into Runesmith. That should work.

[Aspenor]

Or be a changeling and blow a feat on Racial Emulation, which isn't really a blown feat in the first place since you can be a Runesmith/Red Wizard/Recaster/Shadowcraft Mage with it.

[Murmaider]

Or be a changeling and blow a feat on Racial Emulation, which isn't really a blown feat in the first place since you can be a Runesmith/Red Wizard/Recaster/Shadowcraft Mage with it.

What book is Racial Emulation from? I totally want to play a Wizard in adamantine full plate now who throws around level 9 spells, without being a dwarf, because who likes dwarfs?(right?)

[Aspenor]

What book is Racial Emulation from? I totally want to play a Wizard in adamantine full plate now who throws around level 9 spells, without being a dwarf, because who likes dwarfs?(right?)

Races of Eberron

[TroubleBrewing]

because who likes dwarfs?(right?)

... Everyone? They're the second-best race in the PHB, right behind humans.

Their list of bonuses is HUGE, and is only off-set by a -2 to Cha.

[Murmaider]

... Everyone? They're the second-best race in the PHB, right behind humans.

Their list of bonuses is HUGE, and is only off-set by a -2 to Cha.

Still, they are dwarfs. Small, hairy men(and women). What's to like?:smalltongue:

Racial emulation is not as awesome as I thought it would be, because I still would have to run around as a Small, hairy man.

[TroubleBrewing]

Dwarves are actually Medium. :smalltongue:

[Greenish]

Still, they are dwarfs. Small, alcoholic hairy men (and women). What's not to like?:smalltongue:Fixed that for you. :smallcool:

[Aspenor]

Still, they are dwarfs. Small, hairy men(and women). What's to like?:smalltongue:

Racial emulation is not as awesome as I thought it would be, because I still would have to run around as a Small, hairy man.

No you wouldn't. In 3.5, you do not have to continuously meet prerequisites of a PrC to keep its benefits. If you qualify when you take it, you gain the benefits of it forever. You do have to continuously qualify for feats, but not PrC's. This is a change from 3.0 where if you ceased to qualify for a PrC, you no longer gained its benefits.

In case you're wondering about the rules reference, it goes like this:
- Prestige classes in 3.0 contained a clause that if you lost the prerequisites for the class, you could no longer benefit from its special abilities
- This clause was removed entirely in 3.5, meaning that the authors intentionally omitted it since they essentially copy/pasted most of the 3.0 rules except that which they wanted to change
- In 3.5, the RAW states that you need only meet prerequisites to take the 1st level of a PrC. That's all.

[Alleran]

No you wouldn't. In 3.5, you do not have to continuously meet prerequisites of a PrC to keep its benefits. If you qualify when you take it, you gain the benefits of it forever. You do have to continuously qualify for feats, but not PrC's. This is a change from 3.0 where if you ceased to qualify for a PrC, you no longer gained its benefits.

In case you're wondering about the rules reference, it goes like this:
- Prestige classes in 3.0 contained a clause that if you lost the prerequisites for the class, you could no longer benefit from its special abilities
- This clause was removed entirely in 3.5, meaning that the authors intentionally omitted it since they essentially copy/pasted most of the 3.0 rules except that which they wanted to change
- In 3.5, the RAW states that you need only meet prerequisites to take the 1st level of a PrC. That's all.
That would make sneaking into the Beholder Mage or Illithid Savant (choosing those as examples because of their overpowered nature) classes much easier. You'd only have to qualify once (PaO + a couple of feats), and could then switch back to your regular form and Chaos Shuffle those feats away, while keeping all the benefits. Including, say, the antimagic-eye-as-spell-focus of a Beholder Mage when you actually regenerated it back.

[Aspenor]

That would make sneaking into the Beholder Mage or Illithid Savant (choosing those as examples because of their overpowered nature) classes much easier. You'd only have to qualify once (PaO + a couple of feats), and could then switch back to your regular form and Chaos Shuffle those feats away, while keeping all the benefits. Including, say, the antimagic-eye-as-spell-focus of a Beholder Mage when you actually regenerated it back.

Yes, I know. I didn't write the rules, so don't look at me. :smallbiggrin:

[Dusk Eclipse]

You need to qualify for EACH level so to chaos shuffle your feats you would have to take all levels of the PrC before shuffling. And the PrC in CWar and CArc do have the restriction about loosing benefits if you no longer qualify.

[Aspenor]

You need to qualify for EACH level so to chaos shuffle your feats you would have to take all levels of the PrC before shuffling. And the PrC in CWar and CArc do have the restriction about loosing benefits if you no longer qualify.

The DMG specifically states "first level." I was aware that Complete Warrior implemented the restriction on its PrC content, but hadn't noticed it in CArc, though I believe you.

Where is the rules support for "each" level? I'm interested.