Two feats in Races of Stone have as one of their prerequisites being a whisper gnome. This made me wonder: Does a whisper gnome count as a (generic, untyped) gnome for meeting prerequisites or is whisper gnome an entirely different race from (generic, untyped) gnome and unable to meet (generic, untyped) gnome prerequisite?
DnD 3.5e Feats Races – Does a Whisper Gnome Count as a Gnome for Meeting Feat Prerequisites?
dnd-3.5efeatsraces
Related Solutions
Yes: curses, ability damage, and ability drain causes loss of the ability to use the feat. You don't actually lose the feat, however - you just don't gain it's benefits until you meet the prerequisite again.
From the Players Handbook 3.5 page 87.
Prerequisites
A character cannot use a feat if he or she has lost the prerequisite. For example, if your characters strength drops below 13 because of a ray of enfeeblement spell, he or she can't use the Power Attack feat until the prerequisite is met again
When you lose a feat that is a prerequisite of another feat only the abilities of the prerequisite feat are lost, because you only have to have a prerequisite feat to qualify for another feat and losing the abilities doesn't change the fact that you have the prerequisite feat, you don't actually have to be able to use the prerequisite feat to qualify for the other feat...
...So if your dexterity was dropped below 13 you would lose access to Two-Weapon-Fighting but you would not lose access to Oversized-Two-Weapon-Fighting.
The two terms are not synonymous, but from a rules perspective, they are very near it. At least a few rules citations - some from your examples, and a few more I've cited below - indicates that "casting spells without preparation" qualifies as "casting spells spontaneously", but casting spontaneously isn't the same as casting spells without preparing them.
First, to clear up the part I feel is most importent: Sorcerer and bard spellcasting is "spontaneous" for the purposes of feats like in your examples. Please see the Quicken Spell feat description on page 98 of the Player's Handbook:
Special: This feat can’t be applied to any spell cast spontaneously (including sorcerer spells, bard spells, and cleric or druid spells cast spontaneously)
While the only mention of "spontaneous" in the actual Sorcerer's entry is in a lore section regarding how they start learning magic, it's pretty clear that the rules were written where "casting a spell you haven't prepared" qualifies as "casting a spell spontaneously". Other mentions include:
- The introduction to magic, page 169
- The introduction to the bard, page 26.
This section contains speculation: It's weak, but it's there. I find it very likely that when 3.0 was first being developed, they didn't have a name for it yet (and wrote up the sorcerer's class entry before coming up with a name for their casting style) - and then that wording stuck, especially to the feats and definitions when they were ported to 3.5 with little context. I find it especially telling that while Quicken Spell definitely refers to sorcerer casting as spontaneous, the glossary specifies that spontaneous casting is a cleric and druid ability. It's a recurring problem in OGL d20 games, as there is a LOT of copy-pasta to swallow - the language evolved, but the text did not, even when "updated".
I will try to get some more detail when I can get my hands on a 3.0 corebook, but as far as 3.5 is concerned: The wording has been spotty, but at least one rules reference starting with the core PHB has always suggested that a sorcerer or bard's spellcasting has always been considered spontaneous.
However, it should be noted that the terms are not transparent in the other direction. Clerics and druids do not cast spells without preparation; they must have prepared spells in order to have spells to sacrifice to power their spontaneous casting of three letter abbreviations. While this primarily only affects corner cases, this does mean the terms are not synonymous. For example, a wizard who has taken the Elemental Adept feat (and thus is capable of casting spontaneously) still doesn't qualify for the Air Bloodline feat, which requires the ability to cast without preparation.
So to conclude, while the terms can be used interchangeably to refer to sorcerer and bard spellcasting, there is a divide when referring to divine casters (as well as casters like wizards who've taken the Elemental Adept feat) that can matter in some cases. It is probably best to think of "casting without preparation" as a subset of "casting spontaneously": if you can cast a spell using a slot you didn't prepare that spell in, whether or not you prepared any spell in that slot, then you can cast spontaneously; but you have to be able to cast a spell using a slot you didn't prepare any spell in to be able to cast without preparation. So no, the terms are not synonymous, although sorcerer spellcasting is spontaneous. Casting without preparation is always casting spontaneously, but there are many cases in which casting spontaneously is not casting without preparation.
Best Answer
All gnomes have a subrace like rock or whisper
There's no such thing as a gnome without a subrace. Although not called out as such by the Player's Handbook (16-17), the gnome race described therein is the rock gnome, "the most common variety" of gnome (Monster Manual 131), and the game includes a fairly large number of gnome subraces, yet the larger classification—the gnome race (and, perhaps, kind, what PH 310 calls a "subcategory of creature")—encompasses all gnomes in its warm, gnomish embrace.
This means both a whisper gnome and a rock gnome and any other kind of gnome are all broadly gnomes. This also means a whisper gnome can meet the prerequisites of feats that include gnome and whisper gnome, but a whisper gnome can't meet a feat's prerequisite if the feat's prerequisite were rock gnome like the feat Rock Gnome Trickster (Races of Faerûn 167). (Also see this question.)
Just in case further proof is needed, the Exemplars of Evil NPC Draen Ralgael is a wererat whisper gnome rogue whose subtypes include gnome (52-3).