Life budding in salted earth and masterpiece requirements

[NyxEdon]

Hello, first time poster here and I'm just sort of dropping by to get something that made me scratch my head clarified.

I'm currently playing a supportive bard and I plan to have a focus on Masterpieces and performances, and since I'm approaching 4th level I started to look the masterpieces over once more.

Life budding in salted earth is right down my alley, but when I saw the requirements it made me do a double take.

The requirement for learning it is 4 ranks in string, wind or song, meanwhile the cost for learning it is either a level 3 spell or a feat.

Now this might just be a grave misunderstanding on my part, either of the rules or the impact of the masterpiece, but shouldn't either the performance requirement be higher or the spell cost lower? Because as it stands, a bard with 4 ranks in perform (aka an level 4 bard) CAN'T actually learn this masterpiece

On the masterpiece page, under creating masterpieces, it says that;
"Masterpieces should generally be no more powerful than a cleric or sorcerer/wizard spell available to a caster of the same level as the minimum level needed to select the masterpiece (a masterpiece requiring 7 ranks in Perform requires a 7th-level bard, and thus should not be more powerful than a 4th-level cleric or sorcerer/wizard spell)."

A caster of 4th level (the requirement in perform from life budding) are just getting their 2nd level spells, as are bards, hence me believing that's what it actually should be. Either that, or the perform requirements might be off.

If anyone can clear this up for me I would be really grateful!

[Artificial 20]

Masterpieces are generally a little curious. The "feat or spell" approach generally favours the latter, since you learn more spells than feats, with the feat option along the lines of "get it earlier at a premium".

This one is more curious still, but the intent may be that you take it at level 5. This sort of thing sometimes happens, for example the feat Arcane Blast has the requirements "Arcane spellcaster, caster level 10th", even though very few arcane spellcasters can take a feat when they hit caster level 10. Personally I would wait to pick it in place of a spell.

[NyxEdon]

Thank you for the quick response!
I guess it might be intended for the 5th level pick, but I find it odd nonetheless that you technically qualify for it at 4th level when you A) don't have the spell slot to pick it and B) don't get a feat to exchange for it before level 5. Why not just make the requirement perform 5?

The original reason I though the spell level might be wrong is because it seems to mimic the spells Infernal or Celestial healing, both who are 1st level spells, but since there no 1st level masterpieces and that it's a tad bit stronger that it was amped up perhaps. But I digress.

I think I am going to do as you suggest, wait for a spell, or pick it through versitile performance.

[avr]

There's a possibility that the masterpiece was changed during editing and a mistake made. If the cost was originally a level 2 spell or a feat that'd be consistent with the 4 ranks in a skill required.

In any case it's a fairly minor weirdness.

[NyxEdon]

Seeing as both The dance of 23 steps (perform 4), The cat-step (perform 5) and The dance of kindled desires (perform 5) all require only level 2 spells, along with some others I'd think so too.

It's not before you get up to the perform 7, like The canticle of joy and The heart of it all that it starts to cost 3rd lv spells, which a bard actually would have at that point.

Sorry for dragging this topic on but it just confuses me alot, and I'm not a fan of not understanding stuff like this

[Cavall]

The masterpiece system is an imperfect beast to begin with. Much like the bardic feat discordant voice, it has a prerequisite that simply doesnt work for taking with a feat.

Prerequisites: Bardic performance class feature, Perform (oratory or sing) 10 ranks.

But...that's ok. One could simply use the retraining option to learn it.