Tainted Sorcerers and Wisdom

[PersonMan]

So, I recently ended up looking at the Taint rules in UA and Tainted Sorcerer. Now, I've heard all about how crazy it can get, Necropoltican Tainted Sorcerers casting yes spells with 'no' as the save DC, etc.

But assuming you aren't making yourself immune to taint, isn't it somewhat limited, as your taint can only get to ~2x your Wisdom score before you drop dead?

[Beheld]

So, I recently ended up looking at the Taint rules in UA and Tainted Sorcerer. Now, I've heard all about how crazy it can get, Necropoltican Tainted Sorcerers casting yes spells with 'no' as the save DC, etc.

But assuming you aren't making yourself immune to taint, isn't it somewhat limited, as your taint can only get to ~2x your Wisdom score before you drop dead?

They argument is that since "Only undead and creatures with the evil subtype can ignore taint." if you are such a thing, you can ignore the dying from too much taint thing but still keep increasing your taint.

Taint is just one of those poorly written mechanics. No matter how you interpret it, the rule breaks something, what it breaks is different based on the interpretation, but it gets lots of TO attention because one of the breaks is Yes spells with Save DC of No.

[PersonMan]

I'm aware of the [Evil] / Undead loophole, I was thinking about what a non-[Evil], non-Undead Tainted Sorcerer would end up as, due to the 2xWisdom limiting factor.

[ZamielVanWeber]

If you use the newest taint rules (HoH) you end up with some pretty ugh penalties for having a high taint so it is not really worth it. I mean, if you are already there it is pretty nice but getting there is not a good thing.

[Kaje]

Too bad Necropolitans can't use tainted metamagic though.

[One Step Two]

I'm aware of the [Evil] / Undead loophole, I was thinking about what a non-[Evil], non-Undead Tainted Sorcerer would end up as, due to the 2xWisdom limiting factor.

That's pretty much the overriding limit to Tainted Sorcerer in UA. When I read it, it seemed like a perfect DM NPC class to represent the fact that as the sorcerer used more and more Taint, he gained more power as it drove him mad.

[Quertus]

So, I recently ended up looking at the Taint rules in UA and Tainted Sorcerer. Now, I've heard all about how crazy it can get, Necropoltican Tainted Sorcerers casting yes spells with 'no' as the save DC, etc.

But assuming you aren't making yourself immune to taint, isn't it somewhat limited, as your taint can only get to ~2x your Wisdom score before you drop dead?

Ah, Tainted Sorcerer: one of my favorite classes!

Yes, 2x Wis is... well, beyond the limit, actually. At that point, you're in trouble. But, yes, there is a limit.

But, at, say, 50 taint in a 29 Wis character, you're looking as save DCs of 60 + spell level! Those save DCs actually get even higher on a properly-optimized Tainted Scholar.

IMO, the best part of being a Tainted Sorcerer - a part which Tainted Scholar lacks, therefore making it inferior - is the ability to ignore costly components. Arcane Spellcaster into Tainted Sorcerer for, among many other things, Animate Dead and True Resurrection for free. Woot, woot!

Oh, and in its original incarnation, with Maho Bujin and Maho Tsukai, undress and evil outsiders had set taint scores, which could not increase. If you minmaxed hard, you might find one with a taint score of 10. So totally worth all those racial HD and LA... on a caster class. Woot.