Is Tainted Scholar worth it?

[Chester]

I was planning on running my Dread Necromancer without a PrC, but my group may agree to allow Taint rules--do Tainted Scholar just became a possibility.

Is it worth it? I'm aware of the issues with switching out etc., but what would you recommend as far as planned levels, chosen abilities, etc?

[The Glyphstone]

Figure out how Taint works with Undead. There are two competing schools of thought - Undead have a fixed Taint score that never changes, or that Undead have no maximum Taint score. One will make TS amazing, the other makes it suck, and if it's the former, be a Necropolitan.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Figure out how Taint works with Undead. There are two competing schools of thought - Undead have a fixed Taint score that never changes, or that Undead have no maximum Taint score. One will make TS amazing, the other makes it suck, and if it's the former, be a Necropolitan.
To be precise, "no maximum Taint score" renders the class ludicrously broken:

Save DCs and bonus spells based on Taint
Gain Taint by casting spells
Cast spells and intentionally fail the Will save until your Taint is arbitrarily high.
Enjoy nigh-infinite irresistible spells.

JaronK used to talk about a Wizard/Binder/Anima Mage/Tainted Scholar as among the most powerful characters you could make, if I remember correct.

[Karnith]

Even if you can't go Undead for an arbitrarily high Taint score (and I, personally, am inclined to think you can't; it's not like it'd probably fly at most tables anyway), Tainted Scholar is still absurdly powerful. It's very easy to get Taint scores preferable to your casting stat. For example, character with a 9 Wisdom and Con and at the minimum thresholds for severe taint (18 depravity and corruption) has the equivalent of a casting stat of 28 for the purposes of bonus spells and spell save DCs (DC 19 + spell level), with the score increasing the more you cast spells and having an upper limit over 20 points higher. And it's not at all hard to get higher ability scores than those, and therefore be able to tolerate higher taint scores. The secrets are good, with Blooded Metamagic, Wholesome Corruption, and Clarity of True Madness being the standouts, and the various Lore abilities are nice as well, if unspectacular.

Dread Necromancer has a lot of nice abilities, but it's really hard to compete with the craziness that Tainted Scholar gets you. If you're serious about taking Tainted Scholar levels, I'd recommend going into it as soon as possible.

[Ravens_cry]

Yeah, it's powerful, as it should be. Otherwise, it doesn't present any kind of temptation, now does it? You can't have forbidden fruit if that fruit is bitter.

[BWR]

Going by legacy, their Taint score should become fixed. Only a very, very few beings can increase their Taint score once they've become undead or Lost.
Of course D&D messed up a lot of other L5R stuff they adopted so it would not surprise me if they didn't think there should be a cap.

[Ellowryn]

Why not just have your maximum taint score be capped by the Dead/Insane cutoff? I.E. wis/con 9-12 has a max taint of 42, 13-16 has a max of 56, etc. Or if that feels to high you could use a fraction of it. Without being Undead or have the Evil Subtype playing the class just becomes a ticking time bomb before you have to reroll, with the possibility of giving the DM a very powerful new BBEG.

[Alex12]

To be precise, "no maximum Taint score" renders the class ludicrously broken:

Save DCs and bonus spells based on Taint
Gain Taint by casting spells
Cast spells and intentionally fail the Will save until your Taint is arbitrarily high.
Enjoy nigh-infinite irresistible spells.


It's slightly more complicated than that.
Yes, getting functionally-infinite spells is effectively effortless, since your number of spells keys off depravity, which is increased each time you cast a spell and fail the save (which you can do voluntarily).
However, arbitrarily high save DCs are slightly tougher. That one's keyed off corruption, which doesn't increase with your spellcasting, you have to actually make an effort to increase it. Plus, it's not truly irresistible. It might be more accurate to say they have a save DC of natural 20.

[Karnith]

Without being Undead or have the Evil Subtype playing the class just becomes a ticking time bomb before you have to reroll, with the possibility of giving the DM a very powerful new BBEG.
Though it is more difficult than it used to be (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/taint.htm#cleansingTaint), controlling your taint level isn't a big deal unless your DM is gunning for you (which, granted, is a realistic prospect if you're running a Tainted Scholar). It's fairly easy to control with items and spells during your downtime past mid-levels, particularly if you have a friendly spellcaster who doesn't use tainted spellcasting of their own. Additionally, the thresholds for taint are pretty big - even with Con and Wis scores of 9, you would need to gain 24 points of taint to go from the threshold of severe taint to dead/insane. From the threshold of moderate taint, which is the minimum requirement to get into the class, it's 36 points. With Con/Wis of at least 13, those numbers increase to 33 and 48 points of taint.

[Chester]

OK, thanks for the feedback, everyone!

By next question: Do I need to take both Corruption and Depravity, or do we choose one?

[Karnith]

OK, thanks for the feedback, everyone!

By next question: Do I need to take both Corruption and Depravity, or do we choose one?
Well, a Tainted Scholar's spellcasting is based on the character's Corruption and Depravity scores (the former for spell save DCs, the latter for bonus spells per day), so if you plan on taking advantage of Tainted Spellcasting you'd want your character to have both. Depravity is easy to gain, because you can get it whenever you cast a spell, but it's harder to control your Corruption gains.

[Alex12]

OK, thanks for the feedback, everyone!

By next question: Do I need to take both Corruption and Depravity, or do we choose one?

Corruption and Depravity are both aspects of taint. Corruption is physical, Depravity is mental.
Tainted Scholars get the number of spells based on Depravity. But the saving throws are based on Corruption. Everyone always forgets that Corruption doesn't increase with TS spellcasting.