So I just realized that a bard might get a skill point penalization for even using Versatile Performance if he/she wants to qualify for a prestige class :/
Ex: Lets’ say a bard (Drake) decides at 2nd level to take Versatile Performance (Act), because he’s in the council of thieves campaign and it would make for a great bit of background flavor. Now come around 8th Level Drake wants to take Master Spy and he meets all the requirements except that instead of having 7 ranks in Bluff & Disguise he has 7 ranks in Perform (Act), which thanks to Versatile Performance counts as both of those skills for him.
So is poor drake locked out of the gates of master spydom simply for following his class’s given features, even though he would be in fact an excellent candidate for its ranks?
RAW? Yes, possibly RAI as well. You aren't treated as having ranks in the skill, you can simply fake it with an appropriate Perform skill, and ranks in the actual skill are the prerequisite.
My initial impulse is to allow it though, Drake's just as effective at Bluff and Disguise as any other Master Spy candidate regardless of how he acquired the skill.
Thanks for the feedback Sevus, and that’s pretty much how I viewed it too. If anyone else has come to this dilemma before I’d love to hear what your group/DM decided on as well.
using another skill inplace of a skill doesnt equal having ranks in it.
its like how the spell glibness adds a huge bonus to bluff checks, but doesnt help if you are bluffing by using the acting skill inplace of the bluff skill
Actually Name, that's another one I've never really understood. A good number of the Versatile Performance options use bluff, which would seem to indicate that its one of the favored skills to use that class feature on. And yet, here we have a bard only spell "glibness" that RAW would not work with it.
That whole concept seems rather counter intuitive to the class's design.
Note: For those of you who have not read the spell, it clearly states that the bonus only applies to when the subject of the spell is lying about something. Therefor, it still couldn't be used to affect the other portion of whichever Versatile Performance you're using.
|
One way to look at versatile performance is to see it as replacing the ranks needed in the skill (say bluff or fly). Looking at it this way it seems really unfair that they don't count for prereqs.
Another way to view versatile performance is to see it making the Performance (xxxx) skill not totally useless and a skill point sink. If you look at it the second way you'll realize that you shouldn't be worried about not having "true ranks" in those skills because without versatile performance I wouldn't have even "effective" ranks in them anyway.
Edit: it's kinda a half full or half empty idea
Raw no But I would let it fly. yeah that it I let fly. that the ticket
This is just another example of how sucky prestige class mechanics are.
You will NEVER adjust prerequisites evenly, and the more the game increases in size, the worse it gets.
On the flipside, is easy to houserule, but still :/
Paizo did well to not pay too much attention to PrCs IMHO.