[3.5] prerequisites

[Fliggl]

From the SRD:


A character can’t use a feat if he or she has lost a prerequisite

Okay, makes sense for a lot of feats.

But how do you explain the loss of reach from a LE character with Willing Deformity & Deformity (Tall) (both HoH) who becomes good?

“Through long and painful stints on the rack, bolstered by the surgical implantation of various splints and struts, you have stretched yourself to well over 7 feet in height.“

Or should i stop thinking and accept it?

[Grod_The_Giant]

The dark powers revoke the evil blessings that allowed you to acquire/tolerate said deformity. You suddenly find yourself on the ground bleeding and wracked with pain; once healed, you've lost the extra foot of height.

[Inevitability]

Vile feats are supernatural: they are ongoing magic that's either fed by your personal wickedness or some dark entity's blessing. Becoming good cuts of your connection to the powers and causes you to shrink. Compare the situation to a barbarian with Enlarge Person cast on him entering an antimagic field.

[Fliggl]

Vile feats are supernatural: they are ongoing magic that's either fed by your personal wickedness or some dark entity's blessing. Becoming good cuts of your connection to the powers and causes you to shrink. Compare the situation to a barbarian with Enlarge Person cast on him entering an antimagic field.

But there was no magic involved!
I quote it again: Through long and painful stints on the rack, bolstered by the surgical implantation of various splints and struts, you have stretched yourself to well over 7 feet in height.

I know d&d isn't logic but this is very unlogic

EDIT: even Willing Deformity isn't magical at all. You CAN gain the benefits through “supplication to dark powers“. But also through scarification. And scarification is art... like piercings...

[Inevitability]

But there was no magic involved!


As such, Vile feats are supernatural abilities rather than extraordinary abilities.

Yes there is, the book the feats are from says so right in the chapter the feats are from.

[Fouredged Sword]

But there was no magic involved!
I quote it again: Through long and painful stints on the rack, bolstered by the surgical implantation of various splints and struts, you have stretched yourself to well over 7 feet in height.

I know d&d isn't logic but this is very unlogic

EDIT: even Willing Deformity isn't magical at all. You CAN gain the benefits through “supplication to dark powers“. But also through scarification. And scarification is art... like piercings...

Without the evil energy the torture you endure is just torture. It is evil magic that allows your body to warp into a dark and vile shape so unnatural.

[Kayblis]

EDIT: even Willing Deformity isn't magical at all. You CAN gain the benefits through “supplication to dark powers“. But also through scarification. And scarification is art... like piercings...

Let's be honest here, if there was a way to make yourself taller through torture without magic and no further consequences with medieval equipment, there would be a medical procedure IRL that doubles your height. Magic is involved in the little processes, like making the torture have lasting consequences and your body not breaking down from the unnatural configuration your bones took.

Fun fact: Right now, there exists a medical procedure to increase height that revolves around breaking your legs in many specific places and fixing them with steel beams until the bones calcify and get together again. After many many months of cirurgies and medical treatment, you can get about 5cm taller. Your legs still won't be as strong as before though.

EDIT: But I agree it's a strange feat to have an alignment restriction from all things. Usually you don't change your alignment more than once in your character's life, and you'd be compelled to not do so with a character that took feats with alignment restrictions, be it a PC or NPC.

[ZamielVanWeber]

EDIT: But I agree it's a strange feat to have an alignment restriction from all things. Usually you don't change your alignment more than once in your character's life, and you'd be compelled to not do so with a character that took feats with alignment restrictions, be it a PC or NPC.

I believe the idea is that evil creatures are willing to go to any lengths for power, even as far as to destroy their own bodies. The weirdness is that in DND any form of body modification is evil and extreme forms are VERY evil. Put that up there with liking spiders is evil and liking bugs in general is INCREDIBLY evil.

[Inevitability]

I believe the idea is that evil creatures are willing to go to any lengths for power, even as far as to destroy their own bodies. The weirdness is that in DND any form of body modification is evil and extreme forms are VERY evil. Put that up there with liking spiders is evil and liking bugs in general is INCREDIBLY evil.

Don't forget the part where Good meanwhile gets to tear out souls and brainwash them, or afflict anyone who doesn't share their moral values with horrible diseases (oh wait, 'ravages', because disease is obviously evil).

[ZamielVanWeber]

Don't forget the part where Good meanwhile gets to tear out souls and brainwash them, or afflict anyone who doesn't share their moral values with horrible diseases (oh wait, 'ravages', because disease is obviously evil).

I honestly like the concept of poisons and diseases that only affect evil. The fact that they then said diseases and poisons are evil because they cause undue suffering. If they had simply said using poisons and diseases was evil because once deployed they cannot be readily recalled and can thus accidentally hurt non-evil targets (or even be turned on those targets by evil people). Thus diseases and poisons that only affect evil entities are useful because they avoid that problem.

[Inevitability]

I honestly like the concept of poisons and diseases that only affect evil. The fact that they then said diseases and poisons are evil because they cause undue suffering. If they had simply said using poisons and diseases was evil because once deployed they cannot be readily recalled and can thus accidentally hurt non-evil targets (or even be turned on those targets by evil people). Thus diseases and poisons that only affect evil entities are useful because they avoid that problem.

Minor problem is that there's tons of evil people who don't deserve to be afflicted with a deliberating and potentially fatal disease though. The guy who casts Cheat and unfairly takes others' money at the local bar every few weeks is Evil, but not deserving of death. Similarly, taking Willing Deformity shouldn't be an instant death sentence in the eyes of Good.

[Fouredged Sword]

Killing someone due to their alignment is evil. Good characters cannot just slay creatures because they ping detect evil. Otherwise there would be no evil humans in any city run by a good church with paladins. This is why Asmodian priests can just walk into a town and start making deals or such. Until the deals they make start to be illegal or immoral they are protected. Good requires people to be judged by their actions, not the color of their aura.

In theory one could take willing deformity and be a regular selfish bastard who isn't more than unpleasant and be not a valid target for evil slaying despite your alignment. Being evil doesn't mean you are out to murder the world after all. Some of them are just evil with a little e bastards.