Erudite Class Level / Learning Powers Clause

[Yorae]

The Erudite class has a clause listed on pg. 154 of Complete Psionic that mentions that if a character with Erudite levels ever gains as many levels in a different psionic class as he has in Erudite, then he loses the ability to learn new powers other than the two they automatically gain per level.

My question is this: how does this interact with PrCs? My guess is that this severely hampers them - e.g., you'd need to have 6 levels of Erudite to take 5 levels in Slayer. Is this correct, or does the "you gain new powers as if you had gained a level in Erudite" make it so that the character can still learn new powers?

[Psyren]

The short answer is talk with your DM. Following the rule as written means you can never let your levels in another class catch up with Erudite levels or you lose your ability to learn powers.

All it would really mean though is entering a PrC, taking the first few levels, then alternating PrC and erudite levels. (e.g. 5/3, 5/4, 6/4, 6/5 etc.)

[Swooper]

Wow, I never knew this about the Erudite, not that I'd studied it carefully. And I thought paladins were multiclass-unfriendly :smalleek:

[Ephiel]

Do you mean Illithid Slayer?

When it comes to anything that says "different psionic class" I usually look at it like this:

If you are an Erudite, it means your primary method of gaining powers is through study and practice, like the 'wizard' of psionics. When it comes to a PrC that says "+1 level of existing class," I usually take that to mean all the original practices the character would've had prior would remain with that character, at least from an RP point of view.

If you meant Illithid Slayer as the PrC, then I'd imagine that you would simply focus your study of powers to those relevant to slaying illithids.

If the 'slayer' class you are talking about is a different base class though, I'd need to read about it to make a ruling. I'm pretty sure though that if it's not another Psionic class (I didn't see it in EPH or CP), I'd say it probably doesn't fall under this ruling, since it mentions "other psionic classes" specifically.

[Yorae]

Do you mean Illithid Slayer?

When it comes to anything that says "different psionic class" I usually look at it like this:

If you are an Erudite, it means your primary method of gaining powers is through study and practice, like the 'wizard' of psionics. When it comes to a PrC that says "+1 level of existing class," I usually take that to mean all the original practices the character would've had prior would remain with that character, at least from an RP point of view.

If you meant Illithid Slayer as the PrC, then I'd imagine that you would simply focus your study of powers to those relevant to slaying illithids.

If the 'slayer' class you are talking about is a different base class though, I'd need to read about it to make a ruling. I'm pretty sure though that if it's not another Psionic class (I didn't see it in EPH or CP), I'd say it probably doesn't fall under this ruling, since it mentions "other psionic classes" specifically.

"Slayer" is just the SRD name for Illithid Slayer, made very slightly more general.

[Ephiel]

My bad, I'm a newb on these forums. I still don't even know what [PEACH] means on the homebrew forums. I didn't mean to come off sounding rude or condescending or anything :smallredface:

My ruling on PrC's in general is that they are just extensions and focuses of an original class. Whatever the entry class to the PrC is, that same mentality and experience is the foundation for the PrC class. It makes more sense if you think about PrC's in a roleplaying style, imo.

[WinWin]

PEACH- Please evaluate and critque helpfully

As for erudite, yeah they don't multiclass well. Best option is to take short PrC's or a few levels in ones that have front loaded abilities.

[Yorae]

If it helps, I didn't know what PEACH stood for until now either. =p

[Bogardan_Mage]

Yes, my gut feeling is that a prestige class like Slayer shouldn't really count as a separate psionic class because it's just extending the Erudite manifesting progression. If it was something like War Mind, it would be different.

By the way, do you suppose Soulknife counts as a separate psionic class for that purpose?

[Psyren]

Again, it's up to your DM. I wouldn't enforce it myself, but some might.

Erudites (regular ones, anyway) don't really need the limiter as they are no stronger than your basic psion in practice. The idea, I think, is to keep you from being e.g. an Erudite 1/Psion X with a ton of powers known and no UPD limit on manifesting any of them. Or an Erudite 1/Psyrogue X who knows the entire Psyrogue list etc.

So applying it to PrCs doesn't serve much purpose as they couldn't really abuse it that way anyway.

[dextercorvia]

I think this is another case of the writers using the word Psionic instead of Manifesting when they would have used Casting as a modifier for class. There was quite a bit of debate about that and the Soulknife a while back. I would personally only enforce the rule in regards to manifesting classes.

[Yorae]

Again, it's up to your DM. I wouldn't enforce it myself, but some might.

Erudites (regular ones, anyway) don't really need the limiter as they are no stronger than your basic psion in practice. The idea, I think, is to keep you from being e.g. an Erudite 1/Psion X with a ton of powers known and no UPD limit on manifesting any of them. Or an Erudite 1/Psyrogue X who knows the entire Psyrogue list etc.

So applying it to PrCs doesn't serve much purpose as they couldn't really abuse it that way anyway.

Ahh, that makes perfect sense -- it forces you to abide by the Erudite unique powers / day limit. Thanks, that finally clarifies for me why the clause is there in the first place.