Retraining

     Five different character aspects can be changed through through retraining.  Each time your character attains a new level, you can select one (and only one) of these options (see sidebar).  For instance, you can't change a feat selection and your spells known at the same level.  Since these options represent two different sessions of retraining, they must occur at different levels.

     The decision to retrain must be implemented before any benefits of the newly attained level are applied.  For example, if a 10th-level rogue wants to trade her improved evasion class feature for the opportunist class feature, she can do so immediately upon attaining 11th-level, before she gains any of the benefits for that level (such as additional hit points, skill points, and so on).

CLASS FEATURE RETRAINING

     Some class features offer two or more different options, such as the choice monks must make for their martial arts training.  Class feature retraining allows you to swap out one such option for another.  Maybe your cleric of St Cuthbert feels that the War domain would be a better option than the Law domain.  The character remains basically the same, since her class levels  haven't changed, but he's now highlighting a different aspect of her class.

The Process

     Change one class feature option to another legal one.  The new option must represent a choice that you could have made at the same level as you made the original choice.  Also, the new choice can't make any of your later choices illegal -- though it might automatically change class features acquired later if they are based on initial choice.

     Class features from the Player's Handbook that are subject to change in this manner are given on the sidebar.

     Example: A ranger who was fighting off rabid wolf packs at 1st-level may find that they don't cause him nearly as much of a problem at 6th-level and would want to change his favored enemy from Animal to Goblinoid.

     Example: Upon gaining a new level, a necromancer could change her school specialization to evocation, thus becoming an evoker.  At the time, she could also choose to change her prohibited schools from conjuration and illusion to abjuration and enchantment.  Doing so would cause her to lose access to all spells from the newly designated prohibited schools.  Even if her spellbook contains one or more such spells, she would lose the ability to prepare and cast them.

     Example: Upon gaining a new level, a wizard could choose to specialize in the enchantment school, thereby becoming an enchanter.  At the same time, she would have to select a prohibited school, as normal for a specialist wizard.

     Example: Upon gaining a new level, a conjurer could choose to become a wizard.  By doing so, she would lose the benefits of specialization.  But since she would also lose her prohibited schools, she could learn spells from those schools as normal.

FEAT RETRAINING

     Sometimes a feat choice looks great on paper, but it just doesn't work for your character in practice.  Maybe an early feat choice reflected the character's personality and style, but a little experience changed his outlook.  For instance, you might have selected Improved Initiative for your 1st-level character because you pictured him as ambitious and a little reckless.  But after falling victim to a wight's touch because he just couldn't wait until the cleric turned the undead, he decides it's better to use a little more care in combat, causing you to regret your early feat choice.  New supplements, with their wealth of exciting feat options, also provide plenty of reasons to reconsider your earlier feat selections.

The Process

     You can exchange one of the feats you previously selected for another feat.  If the new feat has prerequisites, not only must your character meet them in her current state, but you must also be able to show that she met them at the time you chose the previous feat.

     Example: A 4th-level fighter/1st-level rogue couldn't trade the Mobility feat he chose at 3rd-level for Improved Critical because he doesn't currently meet the prerequisite for the latter feat (base attack bonus +6).  He also couldn't trade that Mobility feat for Weapon Specialization, even though he currently meets the prerequisites (fighter level 4th), because he could not have done so as a 3rd-level character.

LANGUAGE RETRAINING

    It made a lot of sense to speak Goblin, Kobold, and Orc at 1st-level, but now that you're mostly fighting giants, demons, and dragons, it would be nice to understand your new enemies.

The Process

     Subtract one language from your list of known languages and add a new on to the list.  It doesn't matter how your character earned the original language -- it could have been an automatic language for her race, a bonus language gained from a high Intelligence score, or a language purchased with a skill point.

SKILL RETRAINING

     Some skills that are particularly valuable at lower levels become less useful later on, and vice versa.  For example, when everyone in the party is carrying a bag full of antitoxins and potions of cure light wounds, the need for successful Heal checks drops dramatically.  Whether your character has skill ranks that aren't as necessary as they once were, or you just want to adapt her to new challengers, skill retraining provides a simple method of adjusting your character's capabilities in a small but measurable way.

The Process

     Subtract up to 4 skill ranks from one skill and add an equal number of ranks to any one other skill (not including Speak Language).  The skill to which you add the ranks must be a class skill for one of your character's classes, including a class he is about to gain with his current level increase.  It doesn't matter whether the lost ranks were purchased as class skills or as cross-class skills.

     Example: You decide to give your 2nd-level ranger a level of rogue class as his third character level.  At this point, he could use the skill retraining option to lose 4 ranks in Handle Animal that he purchased with his ranger skill points and gain 4 ranks in any other ranger or rogue class skill (such as Wilderness Lore or Disable Device).  He couldn't gain ranks in any skill that isn't on either the ranger or the rogue class skill list (such as Spellcraft).

SPELL OR POWER RETRAINING

     Much like feats, magic spells and psionic powers sometimes look better when you select them than they do after you've used them for a while.  And when you're playing a character with a limited number of options (such as a sorcerer or a psion), every spell or power you choose represents a significant percentage of your character's overall options.  You can't afford to have dead weight taking up valuable spells slots, so ditch that sleep spell now that the party isn't facing foes with low Hit Dice anymore and replace it with the niftier 1st-level spell you just found in a new supplement.

The Process

     Exchange up to two currently known spells or psionic powers for other spells or powers.  Each new spell or power must be usable by the same class and of the same spell level or power level as the spell or power it replaces.

     Example: A sorcerer could change lightning bolt to fly or dispel magic, since all three are 3rd-level sorcerer/wizard spells, but he couldn't change it to wall of ice (a 4th-level spell) or to cure serious wounds (a cleric spell).

     Example: A 5th-level sorcerer advancing to 6th-level could use spell retraining to exchange up to two of his known spells (of any level he knows) for others of the same levels.

Option

Class feature

Feat

Skill

Spell

Time

1 week/2 levels*

2 weeks

1 week**

1 day

GP Cost

500 gp/week

50 gp

25 gp

5 gp/spell level

*: Based on the original level at which the class feature is gained.

**: Per skill rank changed.

Melinir

Torlynn

Ronabe

Hearth-Home

Bigby Accademy

Barbarian Tribes and Druidic Order

Most "human" type classes, including cavaliers, clerics, mariners, and paladins.

Capable of retraining rangers, mostly human and hobbits.

All "elven" style classes, including sorcerers and wu jen.

All "dwarven" style classes, but not sorcerers, witches, or wizards.  They must seek retraining elsewhere.

All arcane spell-casting retraining, as well as Item Creation and Metamagic feats, and bards.

The barbarian tribes and druid order of Thunder Rift are capable of retraining their own.  This, for the most part, includes barbarians, druids, tribal clerics and spellcasters.