Blackguards and Summoning Prisms
Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2021 8:32 pm
So, I realized today and was kind of surprised by that blackguards can't learn summoning streams through imbued prisms. Obviously I realize that they shouldn't be able to access summons of a stream that isn't keyed to their class, but they can't learn the contents of even the fiendish line of prisms. What happens instead, is that you trigger a message saying that "you must have an inkling of either arcane or divine magic to use this item."
That got me thinking, though. How do we define an inkling? A blackguard is a class whose central feature is the binding of powerful outsiders. If that's not what you're into, you may as well leave the class at a 3 level dip for Divine Might and Shield. A blackguard can furthermore learn the same streams from books. Doesn't the ability to comprehend and emulate an indepth treatise on the same matter constitute an inkling?
The blackguard doesn't have a spellbook (though they do in 3.5th edition PnP), but is keyed in as a divine class. It has innate access to divine wands, and falls within cleric alignment restrictions regarding deities. More importantly, it's a class more versed in the conjuration and binding of high-end outsiders than all but warlocks.
Thus, I'd argue that blackguards being locked out of accessing the prisms for their relevant summon streams is a bit of an oversight. Obviously, they shouldn't gain access to summons from Mechanus, Celestia or what-have-you, but they're already locked out from learning the latter from books, so the technology to restrict which streams they can and cannot learn is evidently there already.
In conclusion, then, I think blackguards should be able to learn the Demon, Devil, Yugoloth and Unseelie streams from prisms, which is the same ones they can learn from books. It makes for a bit of cool mentoring roleplay that I don't think a class so immersed in the summoning of outsiders should be excluded from.
Thoughts?
That got me thinking, though. How do we define an inkling? A blackguard is a class whose central feature is the binding of powerful outsiders. If that's not what you're into, you may as well leave the class at a 3 level dip for Divine Might and Shield. A blackguard can furthermore learn the same streams from books. Doesn't the ability to comprehend and emulate an indepth treatise on the same matter constitute an inkling?
The blackguard doesn't have a spellbook (though they do in 3.5th edition PnP), but is keyed in as a divine class. It has innate access to divine wands, and falls within cleric alignment restrictions regarding deities. More importantly, it's a class more versed in the conjuration and binding of high-end outsiders than all but warlocks.
Thus, I'd argue that blackguards being locked out of accessing the prisms for their relevant summon streams is a bit of an oversight. Obviously, they shouldn't gain access to summons from Mechanus, Celestia or what-have-you, but they're already locked out from learning the latter from books, so the technology to restrict which streams they can and cannot learn is evidently there already.
In conclusion, then, I think blackguards should be able to learn the Demon, Devil, Yugoloth and Unseelie streams from prisms, which is the same ones they can learn from books. It makes for a bit of cool mentoring roleplay that I don't think a class so immersed in the summoning of outsiders should be excluded from.
Thoughts?