Question about #7–13: Captive in Crystal boon [Spoilers]

[Partizanski]

If you have not played Captive in Crystal, I do not recommend you look at the following spoilers, as it is a very nice surprise. I just wonder how these two boons interact(important bits are in bold).

7-13 Boon:

Elemental Saturation (Earth): The Lucent Archive is suffused with powerful elemental energy, and long-term exposure can transform a humanoid's body. Before you begin an adventure, you can expend 20 prestige points and check the box that precedes this boon to permanently transform yourself into an oread. In doing so, you must retrain any race-related options associated with your original race(e.g. alternate favored class bonuses, race-specific archetypes, and race-specific spells) at no cost. Any of your equipment re sizes to medium size at no additional cost, and if you lost proficiency with a weapon(such as by losing the dwarven weapon training racial trait), you may sell back the weapon at full price. When creating a new 1st-level PC, you may instead spend 10 prestige points and check the box that precedes this boon to create an oread PC.

Other Boon:

Elemental Dilettante: Somewhere in you family tree, you ancestors human blood intermingled with that of a janni. By combining this boon with three other boons that enable you to play an ifrit, oread, and undine respectively, you may play a suli character, beginning at level 1 as normal. By using these boons ins this way, they can no longer be used to create characters of their respective races. Croos out the chronicle sheets' texts (except for Elemental Dilettante), and write "Suli" on each one. Keep these chronicle sheets along with this one in the associated characters records.

Question:

So the questions is can I use the oread boon from Captive in crystal to fulfill the requirements of the Elemental Dilettante boon and be one step close to having a suli?

[RealAlchemy]

Not sure on that one, but it does bring up the related question of how said boon interacts with Core Campaign.

[Kalindlara]

RealAlchemy wrote:

Not sure on that one, but it does bring up the related question of how said boon interacts with Core Campaign.

I'd assume (key word) that it works the same as it would if there were a non-Core magic item, such as a wand of ill omen, on a Chronicle.

[Slothsy]

I believe that this boon is an exception to the normal rule in the Core Campaign if earned by a Core Campaign character.

I do not believe that this boon was intended to be combined with Elemental Dilettante. To me, this will keep me personally from using it in that way and I would not encourage others to do so. I think this is an example as to why the dual use of boon, both for scenario rewards and special chronicle sheets earned, is a poor language use.

[andreww]

Kalindlara wrote:

RealAlchemy wrote:

Not sure on that one, but it does bring up the related question of how said boon interacts with Core Campaign.

I'd assume (key word) that it works the same as it would if there were a non-Core magic item, such as a wand of ill omen, on a Chronicle.

The problem is that the core mode rules explicitly exclude the operation of this sort of boon.

[Muser]

This was ok'd to go by Compton in the gm thread. Yay for Core!

[Serisan]

andreww wrote:

Kalindlara wrote:

RealAlchemy wrote:

Not sure on that one, but it does bring up the related question of how said boon interacts with Core Campaign.

I'd assume (key word) that it works the same as it would if there were a non-Core magic item, such as a wand of ill omen, on a Chronicle.

The problem is that the core mode rules explicitly exclude the operation of this sort of boon.

Actually, John Compton specifically commented on this in the GM discussion thread.

John's quote:

Actually, the oread boon is entirely compatible with the Core Campaign, and it represents a way for someone in that campaign to play a non-Core race. Note, however, that this boon does not open up other oread options from other books, so the Core oread would not have access to variant racial abilities, oread feats, the oread spells from Advanced Race Guide, etc. What you see in Bestiary 2 is what you get.

[John Compton]

Combining Boons:

Sure, that sounds reasonable. Spending 5–10 Prestige Points and that boon to simulate one quarter of the suli qualification if fine by me.

Just barely beaten to the punch by posts above

Core Campaign:

Ah, I see what you're talking about with the "...except Chronicle sheets that open new races" part. That's intended to prevent the use of the traditional "race boons" handed out at conventions from appearing in the Core Campaign. The oread in #7–13 is unlocked through play, and so long as a Core character earned that boon, that player can use it to build (or transform into) an oread PC.

I'm interested to see how this functions for the Core Campaign. It's my assessment that the rare inclusion of a special race earned through play and at some cost (Prestige Points) can introduce additional variety to that campaign in a way that sustains the spirit of the program—much as we introduce non-Core magic items on Chronicle sheets. Do note that only the base oread is available in the Core Campaign; special oread options such as the alternate racial traits, oread-only spells, and feats in the Advanced Race Guide are not available.

[andreww]

Muser wrote:

This was ok'd to go by Compton in the gm thread. Yay for Core!

We shouldn't be dependant on clarifications from developers on the forums to know how things work. As written the boon on the chronicle doesn't work in core, it is explicitly excluded by the core rules in the guide on page 20:

Quote:

Any item appearing on a Chronicle sheet earned in Core Mode play, regardless of source, is allowed to be used by a Core Mode character, except Chronicle sheets that open new races.

I have no issue with Paizo making exceptions but they need to be noted on the chronicle. We shouldn't have to go hunting for a forum post perhaps years after the event to prove that something is legal.

[Hmm]

I have a question:

How can you spend 10 prestige points as a 1st level PC? Or can your other PC spend 10 of their Prestige points to give your new character a start with this boon?

[Serisan]

Hmm wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

Answer:

The character who earns the chronicle spends the PP, whether it's to apply the boon to itself or a newly minted level 1 character.

[Hmm]

Thanks!

[Vanlo Dariav]

If I have a PC with more than 3 XP that has not yet been built or played at second level, can this boon be applied to him? This assumes that another of my characters pays the PP, of course. I'm asking because of the wording in the boon: "When creating a new 1st level PC, you may...."

I've never built a character above first using GM credit, so not sure what special rules there might be for this situation.

[The Morphling]

The devs have said that other "when creating a new 1st level PC" boons can be applied at any time during the pre-level-2 rebuild phase.