Sort of just playing devils advocate here, as every answer I've seen from people, seem to agree, that a lvl 1 character, must meet the spellcasting requirement at lvl 1, to take the war caster feat, if say, a variant human.
But... What in RAW says this?
If you are going 100% RAW, the step-by-step character creation, you pick race before choosing a class, and record all traits before even selecting a class. So you would either A) Ignore requirements?? or B) Not be able to take the feat, even if you plan on choosing a spellcaster at lvl 1? Since you aren't a spellcaster yet as of choosing.
This question had been brought up to me recently, and although the answer at first, seemed obvious, but less so now.
Has there ever been any official ruling on this? Or lvl 1 feats with requirements in general?'
And yes, obviously it still comes down to the DM, I'm just playing devils advocate on the RAW
It's less of splitting hairs, and more a genuine curiosity. And also, as I said, mostly playing devils advocate, but genuinely am seeing in RAW, a good argument that you either could take the feat, or an argument that nobody could take any feats, that have requirements at all, at lvl 1 as a variant human.
I guess this is a question of RAW, the order in which you create a character. RAW, you choose your race, and write down all racial traits (which, as variant human, includes the feat) before moving on to choosing a class. At that moment, you have no class, no ability scores, and would technically not be able to meet any feat requirements (other than racial). So would a character being created, at lvl 1, who "Plans" on being a Wizard, also not be able to take War Caster?
There are specific rules that govern what happens if you have a feat, with which you don't meet the requirements for.
"If you ever lose a feat’s prerequisite, you can’t use that feat until you regain the prerequisite. For example, the Grappler feat requires you to have a Strength of 13 or higher. If your Strength is reduced below 13 somehow — perhaps by a withering curse — you can’t benefit from the Grappler feat until your Strength is restored."
So I could also see an argument saying, "sure you can take it, but you don't get any benefits from the feat, until later, when you finally do learn some form of spell to meet the requirement"
The War Caster feat prerequisite: is the ability to cast at least one spell so if you're a Variant Human with the ability to do so, you can take it. Claiming that RAW you can't this feat during character creation because the prerequisite is not met might too rigidly apply the concept of Step-By-Step Characters creation since players build characters in different order and not necessarily as the guideline presents them.
I mean, look at it this way: even though you're picking race before you get to class, you're not building a character until you have a level in something, or you'd be building a commoner NPC.
The way I see it, the variant human traits "replace the human’s Ability Score Increase trait". The Ability Score Increase trait normally cannot be fully resolved until you have finished rolling for ability scores. You write down the trait itself when picking the race but you make a note that you have to come back later to resolve it. Similarly, when you choose a class you write down your hit die, but you cannot resolve how many hit points the character begins with until you've rolled for your Constitution score. So you write down the Hit Die and Hit Points class features when selecting your class which will have a formula that includes the Constitution modifier. This gets fully resolved after rolling for ability scores.
Since the variant human traits are replacing a trait that isn't resolved until after rolling for ability scores, we likewise do not resolve the variant human traits until that time as well. You write down the trait right away, making a note that you will be getting two ability score increases, one skill proficiency and one feat and then you come back later to resolve all of these after rolling for ability scores, at which point you have also already determined the class and so all possible feat prerequisites can be met.
While I appreciate the Devil's Advocate notion, this is more about nit-picking unimportant details. Someone pointed out that not all players create a character by FIRST picking their race. That's because a lot of folks have a class in mind before choosing a race. The fact that the PHB has the steps listed in a numerical order doesn't mean that's how most people create a character. It also doesn't really fall into RaW (the feat bit) since there is no mention of a feat in the character creation section of the PHB.
This is one of those questions that would be posed by a rules lawyer and if he/she threw this at me, as a DM, I would advise that they will play without feats, which are an optional thing anyway. Try to stir the pot and you may find your choice of spoon tossed on the floor.
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Sort of just playing devils advocate here, as every answer I've seen from people, seem to agree, that a lvl 1 character, must meet the spellcasting requirement at lvl 1, to take the war caster feat, if say, a variant human.
But... What in RAW says this?
If you are going 100% RAW, the step-by-step character creation, you pick race before choosing a class, and record all traits before even selecting a class. So you would either A) Ignore requirements?? or B) Not be able to take the feat, even if you plan on choosing a spellcaster at lvl 1? Since you aren't a spellcaster yet as of choosing.
This question had been brought up to me recently, and although the answer at first, seemed obvious, but less so now.
Has there ever been any official ruling on this? Or lvl 1 feats with requirements in general?'
And yes, obviously it still comes down to the DM, I'm just playing devils advocate on the RAW
Seems like you’re really splitting hairs here. If you can cast spells, you can take the feat. Don’t over complicate things.
It's less of splitting hairs, and more a genuine curiosity. And also, as I said, mostly playing devils advocate, but genuinely am seeing in RAW, a good argument that you either could take the feat, or an argument that nobody could take any feats, that have requirements at all, at lvl 1 as a variant human.
I guess this is a question of RAW, the order in which you create a character. RAW, you choose your race, and write down all racial traits (which, as variant human, includes the feat) before moving on to choosing a class. At that moment, you have no class, no ability scores, and would technically not be able to meet any feat requirements (other than racial). So would a character being created, at lvl 1, who "Plans" on being a Wizard, also not be able to take War Caster?
There are specific rules that govern what happens if you have a feat, with which you don't meet the requirements for.
"If you ever lose a feat’s prerequisite, you can’t use that feat until you regain the prerequisite. For example, the Grappler feat requires you to have a Strength of 13 or higher. If your Strength is reduced below 13 somehow — perhaps by a withering curse — you can’t benefit from the Grappler feat until your Strength is restored."
So I could also see an argument saying, "sure you can take it, but you don't get any benefits from the feat, until later, when you finally do learn some form of spell to meet the requirement"
The War Caster feat prerequisite: is the ability to cast at least one spell so if you're a Variant Human with the ability to do so, you can take it. Claiming that RAW you can't this feat during character creation because the prerequisite is not met might too rigidly apply the concept of Step-By-Step Characters creation since players build characters in different order and not necessarily as the guideline presents them.
I mean, look at it this way: even though you're picking race before you get to class, you're not building a character until you have a level in something, or you'd be building a commoner NPC.
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep
The way I see it, the variant human traits "replace the human’s Ability Score Increase trait". The Ability Score Increase trait normally cannot be fully resolved until you have finished rolling for ability scores. You write down the trait itself when picking the race but you make a note that you have to come back later to resolve it. Similarly, when you choose a class you write down your hit die, but you cannot resolve how many hit points the character begins with until you've rolled for your Constitution score. So you write down the Hit Die and Hit Points class features when selecting your class which will have a formula that includes the Constitution modifier. This gets fully resolved after rolling for ability scores.
Since the variant human traits are replacing a trait that isn't resolved until after rolling for ability scores, we likewise do not resolve the variant human traits until that time as well. You write down the trait right away, making a note that you will be getting two ability score increases, one skill proficiency and one feat and then you come back later to resolve all of these after rolling for ability scores, at which point you have also already determined the class and so all possible feat prerequisites can be met.
While I appreciate the Devil's Advocate notion, this is more about nit-picking unimportant details. Someone pointed out that not all players create a character by FIRST picking their race. That's because a lot of folks have a class in mind before choosing a race. The fact that the PHB has the steps listed in a numerical order doesn't mean that's how most people create a character. It also doesn't really fall into RaW (the feat bit) since there is no mention of a feat in the character creation section of the PHB.
This is one of those questions that would be posed by a rules lawyer and if he/she threw this at me, as a DM, I would advise that they will play without feats, which are an optional thing anyway. Try to stir the pot and you may find your choice of spoon tossed on the floor.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.