God DAMN are Illumians poorly written

[Amechra]

Alright, so I recently heard that you get an extra Power Sigil every time you hit the 2nd level of a class. When I went to look, well...

Here's the ability in question:

On attaining 2nd level in any class, an illumian gains
a second different power sigil, and the bonus granted
by each power sigil increases to +2. Depending on the
combination of power sigils she chooses, an illumian
gains one or more extra special abilities (see Illumian
Words, below).

By a strict reading, they only get 1 extra sigil; however, by a looser reading, they do get one every 2 levels. RAI seems to be that they only get two, so... yeah.

EDIT: And to further compound matters, the Enhanced Power Sigils feat states that the bonus from your power sigils is based off of the number of sigils you have...

I think that they half-assed the second iteration of the Illumian; given how overpowered the first iteration was...

[Raineh Daze]

Huh, I can't see where the 'every second level' reading is coming from. Maybe if you multiclass every two levels...

But the phrase 'second different power sigil' makes me wonder: am I suppose to have a first different power sigil to the first power sigil? :O

[Amechra]

Oops, I meant to link this. I forgot that they changed the version they had on their website.

[Raineh Daze]

Oops, I meant to link this. I forgot that they changed the version they had on their website.

That's not a reply to me, is it? I was reading the thing you quoted... XD

[Amechra]

No, it wasn't; I just decided to post the proper link separately instead of editing the first post (so the two or so people that read it before I realized that it changed don't get confused.)

[Unbeliever]

Ummm, it looks like that was a rough draft and it was heavily edited and altered before publication in Races of Destiny.  They are ECL 0 and have only 2 sigils, ever, if memory serves.  I'm AFB.

[Amechra]

I know that; it's still kinda funny to read through and laugh at (seriously? +1 HD when polymorphing/Wild Shaping is equivalent to +1/2 a point of damage when using one particular type of weapon? What were they thinking?)

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Yeah, poorly written.
Yep, a 2/2/2/etc build would do.

On attaining 2nd level in any class, an illumian gains
a second different power sigil, and the bonus granted
by each power sigil increases to +2. Depending on the
combination of power sigils she chooses, an illumian
gains one or more extra special abilities (see Illumian
Words, below).

By a strict reading, they only get 1 extra sigil; however, by a looser reading, they do get one every 2 levels. RAI seems to be that they only get two, so...

"On attaining 2nd level in any class ... "
If that 1st sentence could be split and isolated, I think the case would be stronger.

But since it continues
" ... an illumian gains a second different power sigil, and the bonus granted by each power sigil increases to +2."

Seems kinda nice for T.O. but otherwise r.a.i. is obvious to stop at 2.


WOW, gotta have those +1 LA Illumians please !!
 

[Leviathan]

I second the RAI. Since when has WotC ever written something to encourage multiclassing-heavy builds? (Besides broken prestige classes like Incantatrix or Planar Shepherd, obviously. Apparently, "casters are good" trumps "multiclassing is bad".)

[ketaro]

Hmm, I guess it does stop at 2 sigils as even the example characters in the Illumian chapter which are like X 4/X 5 or whatever only have 2 sigils; 1 to start and a 2nd for hitting 2nd level in one of their classes, rather than having a 3rd as well for the 2nd level in their second class.

Oh well. I only ever played an Illumian once and didn't really worry about the Sigil stuff.

[sjTaylor]

Alright, so I recently heard that you get an extra Power Sigil every time you hit the 2nd level of a class. When I went to look, well...

Here's the ability in question:

On attaining 2nd level in any class, an illumian gains
a second different power sigil, and the bonus granted
by each power sigil increases to +2. Depending on the
combination of power sigils she chooses, an illumian
gains one or more extra special abilities (see Illumian
Words, below).

.....

The only way to gain more than one special Illumian Word would be if you already had 2 sigils.
Other than gaining levels is there any way to gain more sigils as an Illumian? (I'm AFB right now)

If not it would seem we're 2 v 2 for text supporting every 2nd class level vs at 2nd level. Though the example Illumian is probably how it works.

[ketaro]

I thought there was an Extra Sigil kind of feat in RoD but apparently there isn't. So there doesn't actually seem to be a way to get more than 2 sigils.

[Arz]

No, but Enhanced Sigil is like a virtual sigil. You get the bonus but no sigil.