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I know there are some magic items that (while they don't grant feats) allow the character a benefit as if they had a feat.

My question is this... is there any way, at all, to gain the verminfriend feat (book of vile darkness page 50 or drow of the underdark page 53) without actually taking the feat?

An item? A graft? Anything.... I mainly just want it to get into the arachnomancer class...

I know this is likely a long shot but figured I would put it out there.

I recently noted a similar post mentioning enchanting mirror move into an item... but that it was one of those "you may get dice thrown at you" kinda things.

I normally run the game as the DM and occasionally play, so I want to be sure I don't introduce something way unbalanced or crazy.

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    \$\begingroup\$ What about the prestige class arachnomancer do you find attractive? (Maybe a substitute can be found!) \$\endgroup\$ Commented Oct 30, 2017 at 19:15
  • \$\begingroup\$ It is more for narrative than anything, my character really likes spiders (for various reasons) and as opposed to straight optimizing I wanted to do a class like verminlord or arachnomancer for the insect fluff! The hard part is it is really killing me optimally as opposed to just being a flavor thing. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Oct 30, 2017 at 20:26

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None that directly give that feat, no.

Arms & Equipment Guide, a 3.0 book, suggested that a bonus feat should be worth approximately 10,000 gp in item form. This suggestion was not repeated in 3.5, even in the (sort of) 3.5 analogue to AE&G, Magic Item Compendium, and most DMs won’t go for it most of the time. Still, perhaps worth asking.

Other than that, what you’re looking at are shenanigans for extra feats or for rearranging your feats. Psychic reformation can swap any feat for another you qualify for, which means that you could take Verminfriend, and then after you have taken the 1st level of arachnomancer, swap it to something you actually want. Worshiping elder evils, the dark chaos feat shuffle, and myriad other ways of cheesing extra feats also exist.

Note that neither of these get you out of taking Verminfriend in the first place, which means you still need to meet its prerequisite: being a drow. Since drow have LA +2, they are quite poor, but consider the half-drow from Races of Faerûn or lesser drow from Player’s Guide to Faerûn or this web article, which count as drow without the LA. Otherwise you could use alter self to turn into a drow, use psychic reformation to swap a feat for Verminfriend, and then use psychic reformation again later to swap it back to what you actually want.

But anyway, those kinds of shenanigans are rarely accepted at actual game tables. Rather you should talk to your DM about possibly waiving the Verminfriend requirement altogether: it’s not as though arachnomancer is a high-power prestige class in need of taxes to balance it out.

Alternatively, you might consider trying to get your DM to allow you to be my homebrew swarm druid, which gets a class feature that counts as Verminfriend for prerequisites. That way you avoid having to take the feat.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Wouldn't replacing the verminfriend feat mean that the character can no longer use any of his arachnomancer abilities? Or are the requirements "to get in" only and not "to keep the class". I thought I read somewhere that if you have an item that helps meat a prereq (say something that gives you a skill bonus or something) and you lose the item you also lose the class features it was a prereq to get into. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Oct 30, 2017 at 18:04
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Khaldhool At least officially, that’s incorrect. Dungeon Master’s Guide specifies that a character must meet the prerequisites of a prestige class in order to take its 1st level. After that 1st level is taken, the prerequisites no longer matter: you can cease to meet them and not only keep the class features you have, but also retain the right to continue taking more levels of that class. See this question for details. But many DMs dislike that kind of thing and prevent it. \$\endgroup\$
    – KRyan
    Commented Oct 30, 2017 at 18:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ does this apply to feats as well or just classes? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Oct 30, 2017 at 21:16
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    \$\begingroup\$ @KRyan: There is a special note in Embrace the Dark Chaos, on p. 92: If the lost feat was a prerequisite for other feats or prestige classes, the subject loses access to those feats or prestige class abilities until it once again meets all the prerequisites. So using the DCFS to gain the feat to qualify is okay, but using it to lose the feat afterwards is a losing proposition. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Oct 30, 2017 at 22:22
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    \$\begingroup\$ @KRyan Where does it say that? Afaics, PHB2 retraining a class feature or rebuilding a class level does tell you to re-evaluate whether you still qualify for later choices; but retraining a feat or skill doesn't. \$\endgroup\$
    – Topquark
    Commented Oct 31, 2017 at 1:51

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