Retraining 3 Monk / 2 Cav with Boon Companion to 3 Monk / 2 Cav with Animal Ally


Rules Questions

Sovereign Court

Okay, so, I want to go from this;

1 Maneuver Master (Monk); Nature Soul
2 Beast Rider (Cavalier);
3 Beast Rider; Boon Companion
4 Maneuver Master;
5 Maneuver Master;

to

1 Maneuver Master; Nature Soul
2 Maneuver Master;
3 Maneuver Master; Animal Ally
4 Beast Rider;
5 Beast Rier;

The prerequisites of Animal Ally are;

Quote:
Prerequisites: Nature Soul, character level 4th, must not have an animal companion or mount that advances as an animal companion.

The rules of retraining are;

Quote:

Can I retrain a feat to replace it with a feat I didn't qualify for at the level I originally gained that feat?

Yes. As long as the new feat is a valid feat for your current character, you can retrain the old feat and replace it with the new feat.

This rule allows me to retrain a feat at level 3 to Animal Ally. However, I would not be allowed to have cavalier levels. So, I retrain my levels as cavalier first to monk, which makes me inelligible for Boon Companion(I have to have an animal companion class feature), which I can then switch to Animal Ally for free. Then I retrain my fourth and fifth monk levels back to cavalier. It'll take a lot of coin and a month of training, but it can be done.

Now, I can level to 20 with two cavalier levels and a fully effective Animal Companion, without having to slog through the first seven levels where I'd use Boon Companion instead. It seems to be RAW, though I'm not sure if it is. From a character standpoint, it seems like it'd make sense to be able to retrain Boon Companion from and to Animal Ally like it were exchanging 1 feat.

Is there anything that I'm missing here?

Dark Archive

Well two things I see wrong.

1) Animal Ally requires character level 4 not 3.
EDIT: ah wait I see what you're doing, nvm ignore #1

2) Why would you be able to switch from Boon Companion to Animal Ally for free? That switch will still require time and gold.

Scarab Sages

Retrain your cavalier levels to daring champion, to trade out access to the mount. You keep your challenge and order, and then qualify for animal ally. It's easier to retrain archetypes than class levels.

Sovereign Court

That Crazy Alchemist wrote:

Well two things I see wrong.

1) Animal Ally requires character level 4 not 3.
EDIT: ah wait I see what you're doing, nvm ignore #1

2) Why would you be able to switch from Boon Companion to Animal Ally for free? That switch will still require time and gold.

Hey, you're right. I thought the rules states that if you no longer meet the qualifications for a feat, you have to wait until you qualify again or retrain. Drat. Adds 5 more days, then.

Imbicatus wrote:
Retrain your cavalier levels to daring champion, to trade out access to the mount. You keep your challenge and order, and then qualify for animal ally. It's easier to retrain archetypes than class levels.

That's very smart! If I did this, does this mean that I can then retrain back to beast rider and still have animal ally in the end?

Dark Archive

Sacredless wrote:
That's very smart! If I did this, does this mean that I can then retrain back to beast rider and still have animal ally in the end?

Yes you could, however that is going to be a bunch more days and gold. You need to retrain out Daring Champion all over again, and then retrain Beastrider back in. Depending what level you do that at, that's a minimum of 25 days.

Sovereign Court

That Crazy Alchemist wrote:
Sacredless wrote:
That's very smart! If I did this, does this mean that I can then retrain back to beast rider and still have animal ally in the end?
Yes you could, however that is going to be a bunch more days and gold. You need to retrain out Daring Champion all over again, and then retrain Beastrider back in. Depending what level you do that at, that's a minimum of 25 days.

It's better than 33 days that I'd spend otherwise.

Any other ways to optimize the transition?

Dark Archive

Also I disagree with Imbicatus. Retraining the entire level is going to be much cheaper and easier.

Retraining Beast Rider to Daring Champion:
- Remove Armor Proficiency (5 days)
- Remove Exotic Mount (5 days)
- Add Weapon and Armor Proficiency (5 days)
- Add Champions Finesse (5 Days)
Later
Do the above all over again backwards to get Beast Master back
Total: 40 days

Retrain 2 Cavalier levels into Monk Levels:
-Replace Cavalier level 1 (7 days)
- Replace Cavalier level 2 (7 days)
then back again
-Replace Monk Level back to Cavalier (7 days)
- Replace Monk level back to Cavalier (7 days)
Total: 28 days

So I'd just retrain the whole level, much easier.

Sovereign Court

The class skills between Beast Master and Daring Champion are the same, further more, Animal Companion and Champion Finesse replace the same class feature and it is worded as 'add, remove or replace'. That means that retraining Beast Rider to Daring Champion still costs only 10 days in total.

Dark Archive

Oh whoops, I was reading the Beastmaster not Beast Rider haha. Still math is identical since it still replaces two features each. In the retraining rules for archetypes you need to first revert back to the original class and THEN start retraining for the new archetype. So no still 20 days, and then doing it all over again for a total of 40.

I'll change the names of the above to fit.

Sovereign Court

That Crazy Alchemist wrote:

Oh whoops, I was reading the Beastmaster not Beast Rider haha. Still math is identical since it still replaces two features each. In the retraining rules for archetypes you need to first revert back to the original class and THEN start retraining for the new archetype. So no still 20 days, and then doing it all over again for a total of 40.

I'll change the names of the above to fit.

Ah, damn, you're right. Back to swapping levels, then. Any other tricks I need to apply?

And are we all positive that Boon Champion cannot be retrained as Animal Ally straight without retraining cavalier? Twice?

Scarab Sages

It's really bad design that it's easier to retrain to a completely different class than to change an archetype. Just sayin.

Dark Archive

Sacredless wrote:
And are we all positive that Boon Champion cannot be retrained as Animal Ally straight without retraining cavalier? Twice?

Correct, that cannot be done any other way. If this is not PFS (Im assuming its not otherwise this level of retraining would be impossible by 5th level) then just ask your GM if he'd allow you to retrain in directly, or to maybe double its direct retrain cost for the additional "difficulty" of such a retrain.

Imbicatus wrote:
It's really bad design that it's easier to retrain to a completely different class than to change an archetype. Just sayin.

Agreed...1000 times agreed...

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