Sometimes a choice you made for your character turns out to not work out the way you'd hoped it would, or perhaps your character took a different direction than you were expecting it to. Maybe you just stumbled upon a feature or class you didn't previously know existed and is exactly what you want for your character, but you didn't make the choices you need to meet requirements for it. Retraining allows your character to change course on some of these decisions and branch into a new direction. There are limits to what can be retrained, as well as costs associated with such retraining.
Note:
Retraining is intended to make small to moderate tweaks to a character to get them more in line with what you want to play. If you have issues with broad strokes of your character (you no longer enjoy the class, backstory, personality, general build, etc.) talk to the DM about doing a more extended redesign or even bringing in an entirely new character. Even if some retconning is required to make it work, the biggest goal is for everyone to enjoy play at the table, and that requires having a character you enjoy playing.
Retraining Process
The first step to retraining is to talk to the DM about what you would like to retrain, and why. Depending on how much retraining is desired, a cost of resources or time may be assigned, as well as a possible quest or task (such as finding a trainer to help or proving your worth to a divine entity) relevant to the change. In general, one option can be retrained each level for free, with more dramatic retraining requiring more from the character (see
Downtime for times and costs). The retraining options table summarizes what retraining is generally available to characters. Free retraining occurs when a character levels up, before making any choices for their new level.
Class Features
Some class features offer two or more different options, such as the choice of combat style a ranger must make at 2nd level. Class feature retraining allows you to swap out one such option for another. Maybe your ranger would prefer to be an archer instead of a melee fighter, or your cleric of Deneir feels that the Good domain would be a better option than the Knowledge domain. The character remains basically the same, since their class levels haven’t changed, but they're now highlighting a different aspect of their class.
Each instance of this retraining allows you to exchange one class feature option to another legal one. The new option must be a choice you could have made at the time you made the original choice. Talk to the DM first if there are any future choices that are invalidated by this change, as they will have to be changed as well. The Class Features Retraining Options Table offers some examples of class features that can be retrained.
Feats
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 their outlook. For instance, you might have selected Improved Initiative for your 1st level character because you pictured them as ambitious and a little reckless. But after falling victim to a wight’s touch because they just couldn’t wait until the cleric turned it, they decide it’s better to use a little more care in combat, causing you to regret your early feat choice.
Each instance of this retraining allows you to exchange one of the feats you previously selected for another feat. If the new feat has prerequisites, you must meet this prerequisite.
Skills
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 them to new challenges, skill retraining provides a simple method of adjusting your character’s capabilities in a small but measurable way.
Each instance of this retraining allows you to subtract up to 4 skill ranks from one skill and add an equal number of ranks to any one other skill.
Spells and Powers
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 psychic warrior), 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 spell 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 encountered.
Each instance of this retraining allows you to exchange 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 be of the same level as the spell or power it replaces. Wizards, Archivists, and other classes that can already learn new spells from scrolls or other sources may not use this form of retraining. This retraining works above and beyond any replacement options already available as a class feature.
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