Catch 22

[PnP Fan]

Okay, so I'm putting together a character using the Dragon Magic book. The character is not a sorcerer (cleric actually), but he has some draconic blood in his background. So, looking at the feats available, I notice the "Dragontouched" feat, that among other things, allows the character to select draconic feats as a sorcerer of equal level. Initially I think, "Neat! This might be what I'm looking for. . ." So, I poke around the other feats and find the following:

1. While many of the feats require the user to be "dragonblooded", half of them do not require sorcerer levels. Still nifty, I can add some of these to the character's repetoir.

2. Most of the feats that require Sorcerer levels also require the sacrifice of arcane spells slots, which of course my little part-dragon cleric doesn't have any. This seems peculiar, since the text clearly states that the feat allows the user to be treated as a sorcerer. My initial interpretation of this was that this feat was the route for non-sorcerers to go, if they wanted something on the character sheet to represent their dragony goodness.

So, my question is. . . .
Is this just bad writing on the part of WotC? Or should my divine spellcaster be allowed to sacrifice cleric spells to gain some of the Draconic Heritage abilities? Or am I embarrasing myself by not having read something in the rules that answers my question? (eep!)

For those of you who will want to "rebuild my nerfed character" please refrain from commenting on my nerfed build. It's not optimal, I know. ;-) But I've got a background to build to, and I'm looking at using character feats as an option to represent this draconic background thing, without turning the character into some kind of winged, beaked, monstrocity (sp?) that some of the draconic prestige classes turn PC's into.

Thanks for your help!
:-)

[Zincorium]

Casters who would benefit: wizards, bards, duskblades, beguilers, dread necromancers, warmages, and others I don't have on the top of my mind at the moment.

I think that WotC was considering those sorts of classes and didn't even think about divine casters. Ask your DM to house rule the feat to apply to any spell slot. If they don't, it just wasn't meant to be, sorry.

[Yuki Akuma]

There are many draconic feats in Races of the Dragon that require sorcerer levels but don't require you to actually have arcane spell slots.

..I think.

[Darrin]

2. Most of the feats that require Sorcerer levels also require the sacrifice of arcane spells slots, which of course my little part-dragon cleric doesn't have any. This seems peculiar, since the text clearly states that the feat allows the user to be treated as a sorcerer. My initial interpretation of this was that this feat was the route for non-sorcerers to go, if they wanted something on the character sheet to represent their dragony goodness.

Would Magical Training (Regional Feat from PGF) work? This gives you three 0-level sorcerer slots, but doesn't require you to take sorcerer levels.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

As Zincorium said, those feats only apply to arcane spells/spell slots. However, I don't think it would be out of line to house rule the use of divine magic as a source of power for those feats. Don't see why Dragons have to be "All Arcane Magic; All the Time."

[Jade_Tarem]

Ask for a houserule. If not, take the draconic feats that give passive benefits. Draconic Heritage, Draconic Toughness, Draconic presence, Draconic Resistance, and Draconic Legacy come to mind, although with legacy you would add spells to your cleric spells known list instead of your arcane spells known list.

[PnP Fan]

Thanks for the suggestions!
I kind of thought I was reading the rules correctly, but sometimes extra eyes can help on somewhat obscure rules.
The campaign is set in Eberron, so the PGF suggestion probably won't work, but the idea of using divine spell slots kinda works in Eberron, given the creation myth of the setting. I'll run this by the DM and see what he thinks.
Thanks again!

[Fizban]

I don't see why he couldn't use his divine slots, so I'm with the ask your DM crowd.

And, excellent thread title, that's the best book we've read this year in lit!