Chak-Chak - 06's page

I am looking at starting a 1E game for some friends and this came up with a player looking into the Stonelord Archetype for Paladin.

"These benefits are halved when not touching the ground or a stone structure."

This is text about Heartstone, the ability to replace Divine Grace at level 2. I would have been really happy if it stopped at ground, but including stone structure (which I think was done as part of the flavor) makes me stop.

What if they end up on a boat? But I extrapolate from there, second story of the inn built of wood or just that boat runs onto shore and is stuck on land?

I think my answer is to say the character is on ground, mounted, airborne or waterborne? Just break it down mostly into those simple circumstances, but I ABSOLUTELY hate looking back to seeing the call out of stone structure.

I know this is an issue that should be a sit down talk with my GM and we work through the issue together, but I think I could use some outside perspectives.

My GM is using the Free Archetype variant with a catch, the free archetypes gained via the variant rule cannot have the Multiclass trait. I can get behind this idea, but I am doing my best to follow all the rules given and running into a wall while trying to just go to level 2.

I created a Dark Fields Kitsune, Bandit background, Cosmos Oracle (14, 14, 12, 10, 10, 18). Front line intimidation monkey is the idea here. The corresponding archetype I'd like to grab to go along with this is Marshal, which has a martial weapon proficiency prerequisite. To be able to gain this proficiency, my best answer is the Fighter Dedication which I do meet the prerequisite for.

Here is the big debate we have. Dedications' text!
"Special You cannot select another dedication feat until you have gained two other feats from the fighter archetype."
"Special You can't select another dedication feat until you have gained two other feats from the marshal archetype."

My response is that the Free Archetypes as a "variant rule" should vary the rules because of the supposed "increased access to archetype feats" the variant describes in the GMC. In this instance, I think it would be fair to think of the Class Feats and Free Archetype Feats as two different resources that hold the Dedication Feat special rule held separately against them. I see another issue with keeping strict to the special rules written into dedications, my GM has made their campaign hostile towards any character build that wishes to multiclass. Any character build that wishes to multiclass at level 2, by my GM's ruling, is not allowed a Free Archetype until level 8 (maybe 6 depending on how its seen) at the soonest while characters avoiding multiclassing are allowed to reap all rewards.

Response from GM copied from Discord:

"The rules for the free arch type still follow the base rules for the Dedication trait. You need to have 2 other feats from that Archtype before you can acquire another Dedication. You want to take an Archtype that has the Multiclass trait, you can hold off on the Free Archtype until you are able to qualify for it, probably at level 8. In the meanwhile, you are following the normal rules for Archtypes."

I will acknowledge that I can hold off on starting a Free Archetype until level 4 by taking Weapon Proficiency as a general feat at level 3. I welcome all feedback and maybe I need to be told that I am trying to power game the situation.

As written in GMC:

Playing with Free Archetypes
Free-archetype characters are a bit more versatile and powerful than normal, but usually not so much that they unbalance your game. However, due to the characters' increased access to archetype feats, you should place a limit on the number of feats that scale based on a character's number of archetype feats (mainly multiclass Resiliency feats). Allowing a character to benefit from a number of these feats equal to half their level is appropriate.