Feat Prereqs and Ioun Stones

[JaC381]

Can a feat granted by an item be used as a prerequisite for another feat?
Such as, a Scarlet and Green Cabochon Ioun Stone granting Endurance, allowing you to take Diehard.

Also, are ioun stones merged into your form when shapeshifting, or are they still buzzing around your head?

[Sandal Fury]

You don't have the feat, you gain the benefits of the feat.

So no.

[JaC381]

Oh? It says "This stone grants you the Endurance feat."
Scarlet and Green Cabochon.

[Nefreet]

Sandal Fury wrote:

You don't have the feat, you gain the benefits of the feat.

So no.

This is incorrect.

You possess the feat, and can thus qualify for prerequisites.

If you remove the item, you lose access to the rest of the feat chain.

There are many items that qualify you for feats.

The Phylactery of Positive Channeling, which gives the wearer +2d6 to their Channeled Energy, can allow the wearer to qualify for Channel feats that normally require a higher number of dice (such as Channeled Revival).

So long as the benefit is permanent, and not "X times per day", you can use it as a prerequisite.

[Shifty]

Although if you lose the item which was serving as a qualifier, the feats that were built on it will be a problem :p

Lose that Ioun stone giving you Endurance, lose the use of Diehard until you requalify.

[Sandal Fury]

Well that's... pretty dumb.

[Lost In Limbo]

Sandal Fury wrote:

Well that's... pretty dumb.

Many things are pretty dumb. That's why GMs have rule 0.

[JaC381]

Ok, thank you! But are ioun stones merged into your form when shapeshifting, or are they still buzzing around your head?

[Byakko]

As others have mentioned, you can use feat granting items to meet prerequisites, but if you lose access to the feat you also lose _everything_ dependent upon it. While normally this is straight-forward, it sometimes gets complicated if you lose, say, access to a prestige class. While the following rules text is from 3.5, I _believe_ it still applies to pathfinder (if someone has a more recent pathfinder rule that says the same or similar, feel free to post):

"If a character no longer meets the requirements for a prestige class, he or she loses the benefit of any class features or other special abilities granted by the class. The character retains Hit Dice gained from advancing in the class as well as any improvements to base attack bonus and base save bonuses that the class provided."

I would say ioun stones are attended magic items placed in "slotless" magic item slots, and thus would also merge with the polymorphing creature (while retaining their effects). I could easily see a GM ruling the opposite, however, since they're not physically in contact with the body - so expect table variation.

[TGMaxMaxer]

I would personally put it in a wayfinder just to be safe. An extra 500g insurance policy (or 250g for PFS, if you don't play the scenarios that get you one for free).