[3.5] Losing the prerequisites of a feat

[ShadeBlade0]

If you take a feat and then later lose the prerequisites for the feat, do you still keep the feat?
Like for example, if you take an elf specific feat and then through magic your race permanently changes to dwarf, would the elf feat still apply? (A more rules accurate example might be a requirement for BAB/class level, and then you have levels drained by failing your saves from a negative level. As far as I'm aware, there is no spell that can change your race permanently beyond Wish with the DM's approval)

[Doctor Despair]

If you take a feat and then later lose the prerequisites for the feat, do you still keep the feat?


Losing the prerequisites for a feat means you no longer gain the benefits of that feat.

Losing the prerequities for a prestige class you have level(s) in has no bearing on your ability to use the abilities from (or even continue advancing in) that class unless the class comes from two specific books (I believe they are Complete Arcane and Complete Warrior).

In that sense, feats are more vulnerable to the effects of ill-intentioned magic, as you mentioned above.


As far as I'm aware, there is no spell that can change your race permanently beyond Wish with the DM's approval

May I introduce you to Baleful Polymorph (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/balefulPolymorph.htm?ref=driverlayer.com)? Magic Jar (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicJar.htm) (iirc with 2 or more uses of Magic Jar, the effects can permanently swap creatures into different bodies) The same trick may work for Mind Switch (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/mindSwitch.htm), although I'm sure someone will correct me if that's incorrect. True Mind Switch (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/mindSwitchTrue.htm) is permanent, however.

I'm sure there are others.

[ShadeBlade0]

Thanks for the answer.
Duh, I completely forgot about Mind Switch, I had a friend who had a psion that wanted to use that as their ultimate goal.
Baleful Polymorph is.... oh.... oh no.... what is this thing

[ShurikVch]

Actually, neither of those spells/powers are changing your Race - because RAW doesn't says it was changed

Game have very little ways to actually change your Race
You're already mentioned Wish
Add in rituals from the Savage Species
Reincarnate (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/reincarnate.htm) - unlike the most other spells - is directly says your Race may be changed
Also, various "propagation by transformation" monsters may - in theory - actually change Race of the victim (I don't mean various Undead, but more like Slaad, Meenlock, or Chosen One)

[Kelb_Panthera]

Losing the prerequities for a prestige class you have level(s) in has no bearing on your ability to use the abilities from (or even continue advancing in) that class unless the class comes from two specific books (I believe they are Complete Arcane and Complete Warrior).

In point of fact, that's simply the compromise that the community landed on for that bit of rules oddity.

In the 3.0 DMG there was a clause in the lead-up to prestige classes that said if you lose prerequisites then you lose the class features of the prestige class. This clause was omitted in the 3.5 update to the DMG.

When complete warrior and complete arcane were released, the change over was still very recent and they were largely just compiling 3.0 options. A sidebar was included in both with a reminder that losing prerequisites removed prestige features but that rule had been removed and so the reminder is in error.

The alternative interpretation is that these sidebars reintroduced the rule. Since it is phrased as a general rule with no mention of a limitation to just those books, including either book in your game means that -all- prestige classes inherit that new limitation. This creates some issues; most infamously, Schrodinger's Dragon Disciple.

Argument over both of these positions got quite heated back in the day and the idea they only apply to their own prestige classes by way of the primary source rule was posited. That rule doesn't actually apply since there is no explicit rule contradiction to call it into the matter but it was acceptable enough to most parties that it simply became accepted in spite of its lack of rules validity.

Personally, I am and have always been firmly in the first camp because it makes the most sense and applying the rule to complete warrior, much less the whole system, exacerbates the caster/ non-caster disparity for no discernable benefit to the game as a whole.