Retraining/Realerning: Self Qualifying?

[Necroticplague]

This is just a quick question about retraining rules trading out maneuvers:Can a PRC or a maneuver qualify for itself? Just wondering because it occurred to me that since the the Warshaper's only prerequisite (aside from special) is +4 BAB, so could a level six with a former build of of Fighter 4/warshaper2, could you retrain the levels to be a warshaper 5/fighter 1 (3 BAB from warshaper, 1 from fighter)? Could you do something similar with most spellcasting classes until you only have 1 level of a base spellcasting class, with the rest being qualified for by the PRCs progression of spells?

And on a similar note for maneuvers, could it count to keep itself when you swap out maneuvers? For example, if my only two Tiger Heart maneuvers are Hunter's Sense and Rabid Wolf Strike, could I change Rabid Wolf Strike for Douse the Flames, since Hunter's Sense is a Tiger Claw maneuver?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Stances known count as maneuvers for purposes of qualifying for additional maneuvers/stances. You only need to meet a maneuver's prerequisite when selecting it, after you already know it the prerequisites are irrelevant. When you trade out maneuvers at the even numbered martial adept class levels, you can lose a maneuver's number-known prerequisite and it doesn't matter, because they only apply when selecting maneuvers.

The rules on rebuilding your character's class levels in PH2 is pretty specific about prestige classes. It says you must be able to show that you qualify for a prestige class with your other class levels, which a Fighter 2/ Warshaper 5 cannot accomplish. It has one slightly ambiguous sentence regarding when this applies, "...if you want to take levels in a prestige class that's new to your character," which would imply that it can be ignored for your specific example considering you would already have level in Warshaper and thus it would not be a new prestige class. However, it could also be interpreted to mean that if you want to take levels (in a prestige class) that are new to your character, which would definitely apply to any scenario in which base class levels are traded for prestige class levels. It's ultimately up to your DM, and for an actual game you can't really count on something like this being allowed.

With regards to other self-qualifying prestige classes, specific prerequisites can be fulfilled by abilities from the class itself. For example, a Sorcerer takes levels in Sacred Exorcist, and gains its Dispel Evil spell-like ability. He can then repick a different spell in place of Dismissal, since that class's own ability meets that prerequisite.

[eggs]

There's nothing specifying that a ToB character has to qualify for a maneuver once after learning it. That could get cheesy and metagamey with temporary Martial Studies or Crowns of the White Raven, but it works as far as I know (and the errata won't be shutting that down...)

On rebuilding, I believe the classes can qualify for themselves, but I'm less familiar with those rules.

[panaikhan]

I've recently been doing some retraining for my signature Warforged character, getting rid of levels of Fighter to up my levels in Juggernaut (sinse the fighter levels were there purely for the BAB)
I'm doing this however by making sure my BAB never drops below the minimum for Jugg, not including my actual jugg levels. This is a little trickier than is seems, sinse Jugg is not a full BAB PrC.

As DM, I have let characters retrain feats if they have picked them, and later gain them as bonuses or class features (including wordings like "Class gets X even if they do not have the pre-requisites") but, if retraining class levels, a player needs to show me that their new class levels satisfy the prerequisites of any PrC without including it's own levels.