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Do class abilities override racial abilities?

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 7:36 am
by Jonathan of White Haven
The recent question about racial abilities prompts me to pose this situation:

Consider an elvish Cleric PC. Clerics normally cannot use either a short or long bow. Yet elves automatically have background (racial ability) experience with both short and long bows, and also receive a +1 to hit using them.

With that example in mind, could an elvish Cleric PC legally ("by the book") use a long bow and, if so, what restrictions and/or limitations should s/he receive? Or does the Clerical class limitation take precedence?

Similar questions about other Class weapon restrictions/abilities vs. racial abilities come to mind...
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"You don't understand, Beaufingle", said Lungwort cryptically. "You ARE dinner." -- M.M. Moamrath

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 1:03 pm
by serleran
Any character can use any weapon; if the weapon is not on their class list, it is considered non-proficient. A non-proficient weapon suffers a -5* attack penalty. An elf receives a +1 bonus when using a bow. That means, if the elf were to use it (remember that there might be class-based ramifications for its use, such as loss of spells), the penalty would, instead, be -4. Most Castle Keepers would likely allow an elf of a traditional elf god to use a bow without loss of spells, but by the book, this is not necessarily true (clerics are a special exception as the deities have a "preferred weapon" which is to be added to the list, so the Castle Keeper must decide if it is, or not, based on their milieu; if the bow is added to the weapon list, then there would be no penalty for it being non-proficient so the elf would get the flat +1 from race ability.)

[*Or whatever the hell the non-proficient penalty is. I don't allow characters to use weapons not on their list, but the point is the same.]