hasteroth |
7 people marked this as FAQ candidate. 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So with the announcement that PFS would soon allow the elemental races to be played, I have to ask as I can't find an answer anywhere.
By my reading of RAW, it looks like the [element] Affinity racial traits don't work with Bloodrager (or for that matter, Blood Arcanists).
Am I correct in this reading? Hoping I'm not.
EDIT: I found a FAQ answer that seems to lead to the idea that it might work. The FAQ answer about Dragon Disciple Bloodragers here
Dragon Disciple and Bloodrager: The dragon disciple’s blood of dragons ability increases draconic sorcerer bloodline powers. What about draconic bloodragers?
Yes, dragon disciple's blood of dragons ability should also increase draconic bloodragers’ bloodline powers.
and Dragon Disciple says this
Blood of Dragons: A dragon disciple adds his level to his sorcerer levels when determining the powers gained from his bloodline. If the dragon disciple does not have levels of sorcerer, he instead gains bloodline powers of the draconic bloodline, using his dragon disciple level as his sorcerer level to determine the bonuses gained. He must choose a dragon type upon gaining his first level in this class and that type must be the same as his sorcerer type. This ability does not grant bonus spells to a sorcerer unless he possesses spell slots of an appropriate level. Such bonus spells are automatically granted if the sorcerer gains spell slots of the spell's level.
and since Bloodragers don't have an "effective sorcerer level" of any kind, by RAW (without the FAQ) it wouldn't seem that there is anything to suggest that they stack. Rather a Bloodrager would be (by RAW without the FAQ) treated as not having a Sorcerer level and would have the same bloodline twice without it increasing from Dragon Disciple. But with the FAQ this is overridden. So this leaves me very unsure how to interpret Fire/Water/Wind/Earth affinity with a bloodrager. This also has me questioning EVERYTHING in Pathfinder which directly calls out Sorcerer in reference to Bloodlines, as there are a number of archetypes of various classes that grant Bloodlines without "effective sorcerer levels" such as the Eldritch Scion, which gains a Bloodrager Bloodline. What of anyone who takes Eldritch Heritage?
Ascalaphus |
Basically, that FAQ actually changes the rule, it doesn't just clarify something about it. And it's scope is only the stuff it talks about (because that's how FAQs work), so the FAQ does nothing for the elemental races.
So we need to look at the races themselves;
Fire Affinity: Ifrit sorcerers with the elemental (fire) bloodline treat their Charisma score as 2 points higher for all sorcerer spells and class abilities. Ifrit spellcasters with the Fire domain use their domain powers and spells at +1 caster level.
Earth Affinity: Oread sorcerers with the elemental (earth) bloodline treat their Charisma score as 2 points higher for all sorcerer spells and class abilities. Oread clerics with the Earth domain use their domain powers and spells at +1 caster level.
Air Affinity: Sylph sorcerers with the elemental (air) bloodline treat their Charisma score as 2 points higher for all sorcerer spells and class abilities. Sylph spellcasters with the Air domain use their domain powers and spells at +1 caster level.
Water Affinity: Undine sorcerers with the elemental (water) bloodline treat their Charisma score as 2 points higher for all sorcerer spells and class abilities. Undine clerics with the Water domain cast their Water domain powers and spells at +1 caster level.
So basically, real sorcerers only. I went looking to see if the Bloodrager might have gotten some text along the lines of "if you have a power that helps a sorcerer bloodline that matches your bloodrager bloodline", but there's nothing like that there.
I totally support adding it, and the best place to do that would be in the bloodrager itself, that way it'd be future-proof for any other bloodline stuff in the pipeline.
hasteroth |
Yeah it strikes me as a really strange oversight. I also strongly feel that the elemental races ought to have some level of elemental affinity with other non-bloodline classes as well. Such as Wizard, Magus, and especially Kineticist. It also seems very bizarre and arbitrary that its exclusive to Sorcerers and not Wizards in any capacity (which isn't even due to "future proofing" problems, but a thematic decision or oversight).
At the very least, a FAQ answer which allows elemental races' affinities to work with Bloodrager, Blood Arcanist, Eldritch Scion, etc would be really nice. Otherwise it's unnecessarily restrictive.
hasteroth |
Hopefully "Planes of Power" will address this and if the relationship between Kinetists and geniekin. Either that, or they need to make a Blood of Elements volume 2.
I forgot about Planes of Power, fingers crossed we get a host of new racial traits for geniekin. I mean with PFS Season 8 coming up you'd think they'd be prepared to address these issues.
Hubaris |
LizardMage wrote:Hopefully "Planes of Power" will address this and if the relationship between Kinetists and geniekin. Either that, or they need to make a Blood of Elements volume 2.I forgot about Planes of Power, fingers crossed we get a host of new racial traits for geniekin. I mean with PFS Season 8 coming up you'd think they'd be prepared to address these issues.
I'm really hoping they fix the 'issue' with the Affinity Racial Traits not working with the Efreeti, Marid, Shaitan and Genie bloodlines; considering most of them stem from there.
hasteroth |
hasteroth wrote:I'm really hoping they fix the 'issue' with the Affinity Racial Traits not working with the Efreeti, Marid, Shaitan and Genie bloodlines; considering most of them stem from there.LizardMage wrote:Hopefully "Planes of Power" will address this and if the relationship between Kinetists and geniekin. Either that, or they need to make a Blood of Elements volume 2.I forgot about Planes of Power, fingers crossed we get a host of new racial traits for geniekin. I mean with PFS Season 8 coming up you'd think they'd be prepared to address these issues.
Or how all 4 races have Sorcerer exclusive affinity but one has a CHA penalty and only one has a CHA bonus?
I mean the geniekin were more or less fine with home games as resolving most of the issues with bloodlines and such just requires a GM handwave... But as I said, with them becoming PFS legal there's going to be a lot of people getting irritated with the restrictiveness of the trait.
hasteroth |
hasteroth wrote:Or how all 4 races have Sorcerer exclusive affinity but one has a CHA penalty and only one has a CHA bonus?Well, we saw that ability on tieflings too, before they were anything else than a -2 Cha race.
With the Tiefling I feel the intention there was to cancel out the penalty at the very least if they were made as a Sorcerer. But with only one geniekin having a +2 to CHA... its doubtful many would even consider the others if making a Sorcerer.
CraziFuzzy |
So did Planes of Power end up addressing this? I've got a sylph air-blooded eldritch scion, and really don't know what my effective cha should be.
Nervermind, sadly already answered my own question about that. Surprisingly little player option in that softcover (hadn't paid enough attention to notice that it's a campaign setting book, not a player's companion).