All of the Tier threads for base classes have been completed. In the spirit of keeping things organized and making the character optimization process better for all of us, I'm now moving on to prestige classes.
From Zeal's (in-progress) Tier System for PrCs:
Down Two or More Tiers: These PrCs completely fail to do what they were trying to do, or makes heavy sacrifices for little to no gain. Expect characters with these to be unplayable without heavy optimization effort, or some cunning trick.
Examples: Acolyte of the skin, Apostle of Peace (not broken, but blatantly contradictory text on material possessions), Arcane Archer, Bereft, Blighter, Brimstone Speaker, Cavestalker (Druid entry), Defiant, Dirgesinger, Duelist, Entropomancer, Evangelist, Eye of Lolth, Fochlucan Lyrist (unless Evasion is gained without dips, then Up One Tier), Green Star Adept, Incarnum Blade, Insidious Corrupter (Arcane Spellcaster entry), Lifedrinker, Master of the Unseen Hand, Metamind (higher with abuse of the capstone), Mindbender (except for 1 level dips), Ollam, Reaping Mauler, True Necromancer, Wavekeeper, Witchborn Binder, Wonderworker, Yathrinshee
Acolyte of the Skin
Logical Entry: Wizard5? Really open, any spellcaster/user of spell-like abilities with Knowledge (The Planes) as a class skill.
Cons: Only 5/10 caster progression...Do I need to explain this further? -TheWordSlinger
Pros: Fiend Skin gives you some minor defensive buffs which might be useful to a caster type. Gets some other minor abilites, chief among them the ability to shoot lazer beamz from his eyes. -TheWordSlinger
Apostle of Peace (not broken, but blatantly contradictory text on material possessions)
Logical Entry: Cleric 7, although it's the furthest from ideal. Actually, 7 levels in any class with a good Will save and Concentration and Diplomacy as class skills. That's mostly Bard, Cleric, Druid, or Monk, and of them the Monk is probably the most synergistic (Wis focus, no armor, leads in to Sacred Fist).
Cons: The entry, mostly. It takes 4 feats that will hamstring you and make it very difficult to participate in the game as it's normally played (Vows of Poverty and Peace). In addition to being unable to own armor due to VoP, you're especially unable to wear it as a class feature.
Your class features are mostly nonexistent. Turning is useful but only for Divine feats. Pacifying Touch is redundant with your existing Vow of Peace aura. Censure Fiends is actually okay, since outsiders tend to have HDs similar to their CRs, so this has a decent success rate, but it's still only effective against a limited set of enemies. And nothing else but spellcasting for the remaining 6 levels.
You have your own spell progression with a very low caster level (compared to what full casters normally have for the spell level and character level). The spell list being its own distinct thing means no expansions with other splat books. You don't get all the lovely healing and buff spells in CDiv or SpC that Clerics get, despite the similarities in your spell list to that of a Core Cleric. On the upside, you do get a good selection of buff spells to start off with, although your aforementioned stunted caster level makes it harder to make use of them (easily dispelled, short duration). When you start off, you have 1st-level spells, despite being character level 8. You don't catch up on spell levels with a straight Cleric until ECL 15 (8th level spells) or with a Bard until ECL 11 (4th level spells).
Pros: 9th level spells from a list that isn't that terrible for buffing and support. Turn Undead means Divine Metamagic shenanigans (not that you have that many spells worth shenaniganing). You get Gate, Miracle, and the Planar Ally line. Practiced Spellcaster can help make up for the low CL.
Oddities: VoP says you can't own any magic items. Apostle of Peace says you especially can't wear armor, but you can wear other protective magic items. But how can you wear them when you can't own or borrow them thanks to VoP? What?
Arcane Archer
A note about the Arcane Archer: The arcane archer is good as a two level dip and could merit a +0 adjustment just for the imbue arrow ability.
There's also the funny wording about imbue arrow that lets you cast any spell and fire the arrow as a standard action. I'm sure there's some mild abuse there with long casting time spells. -Surreal
Logical Entry: Full BAB class(es)6/spellcaster1
Cons: Doesn't advance spellcasting at all. The Greater Magic Weapon spell replicates enchance arrow so it's almost pointless. Your other class features other than imbue arrow are only 1/day. Arrow of death's DC save of 20 is weaksause against anything you really want to kill with a single arrow. -Ninjarabbit
Pros: Grants martial weapon proficiency, useful if you didn't have it before. Imbue arrow is actually pretty nice and is the only worthwhile class feature. Epic Arcane Archer is actually nice because it penetrates DR/epic. It gives you full BAB, good fort and reflex saves (good since most Full BAB and spellcasting classes have poor BAB) and 4 skill points/level. -Ninjarabbit
Bereft
Logical Entry: Any character level 9 with the ability to put 13 ranks into truespeak, preferably something with a higher BAB like a duskblade or a fighter.
Cons: Sure, it's got a snazzy flavor, the sample picture is pretty bangin' and it's name doesn't hurt. But, it's still a truenamer, and that already sets it to -2. It gains an über circumstantial feat, it's highly dependent on gear to even be worthwhile, the law of resistance =( (just like a truenamer), and it's capstone ability is almost useless. At the lowest possible entry, for a level 2 bereft(lowest character level is 11), you get to replicate a level 2 bard spell. Most of the abilities are useless vs undead, or mind immune mobs. -Paradox
Pros: Really easy feat reqs, it gets class features every level, which is a good thing. I hate dead levels. You get a no save ability to bestow 2 negative levels, can throw around an 8d6 every round or so.
It seems the bereft is good against powerful will weak enemies, as none of it's abilities are good vs mobs, or even resistant creatures. So in the end, the bereft can be summed up as a class that requires a lot of financial investment for little payoff. -Paradox
Blighter
Logical Entry: Druid 5
Cons: When you qualify for the PrC, you lose pretty much all of your druid class features, leaving you with an empty chasis for five levels. So, you go from a strong 5th level PC casting 3rd level spells to a 6th level PC only able to cast 1st level spells.
The spell list and bulk of class abilities are inferior to the abilities of a straight druid. -Robbypants
Pros: Your casting increases at double the rate, so you are getting a new spell level every level of the PrC. While you start out far behing (1st level spells at 6th level), you are able to hit 9th level spells earlier than a straight druid. So, from about level 15 to 16, you can have 9th level spells where a druid only has 8th level spells. Once the druid hits 17th level, this advantage is lost. -Robbypants
Brimstone Speaker
Logical Entry: Archivist 7 or Paladin 11 (provided that you take Truename Training feat)
Cons: 4 lost caster levels and 3/4 BAB. So no 9th-level spell for an archivist/cleric entry and barely making it past BAB +16 for a paladin entry. So what do you get in return? A "breath weapon" called Tongue of Fire that deals 3d6 damage at 1st level up to 8d6 at 10th as the only capstone ability. If it hasn't told you much already and need more convincing, let's go to the next lot of class abilities.
The remainder of the class is filled with heavenly entreaty and its lesser and greater counterparts. Basically, you can summon a Brelani/Word Archon/Astral Deva once per class level per day provided that you can hit the scaling DCs. So AD's a CR 14 creature, which means it's more powerful than most SM IX creatures. The catch is, that you can only have one of them at a time. Not even one Brelani and one Word Archon and so on. How about the DC? Starts off as DC 43, and by the time you try to summon your ninth Astral Deva of the day, say hello to nice DC 61. Unless you're going to boost your Int to the stratosphere, that's actually quite difficult.
So if you really, really wanted that nice summon and fluff, take 9 levels of the class (where AD becomes available) and never look back. You can live without +3d6 to your... breath weapon thingy. -Salt_Crow
Pros: Greater Heavenly Entreaty is actually not that bad at all. Say you've got a Paladin 11/Brimstone Speaker 9- BAB +17, so you can make that juicy 4th attack as well as 9/day Summon Monster X-ish ability! At the cost of 3 BAB and a few hp, I'd say it's a decent trade if you can hit the DCs. An archivist or a cleric would do much much better if they stay well away from this PrC. If you want a few celestials serving your will, try Planar Ally or something. It's much less painful alternative really.
Not unplayable to the extreme, has a limited use with Paladin but we know we can spend those 9 levels in a better place, don't we all? -Salt_Crow
Cavestalker (Druid entry)
Logical Entry:
Cons:
Pros:
Defiant
Logical Entry:
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Pros:
Dirgesinger
Logical Entry:
Cons:
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Duelist
A note on the Duelist: The duelist was basically converted into the Swashbuckler Base Class anyway. And no one takes that past 3 levels. It's not a surprise... -Generic_PC
Logical Entry:
Cons: It forces you into a horrible fighting style, using only a single light or one handed piercing weapon with nothing in your offhand. Precise strike gives you pathetic damage, peaking a 2d6 damage at level 10. Dodge and mobility are generally subpar feats. Canny defense and elaboate parry just stink since they depend on how many levels of duelist you have. Grace requires you to not weak armor and have a shield. -Ninjarabbit
Pros: Improved reaction is the only good class feature since initative is always good. You also get full BAB, d10 hit dice, and 4 skill points/level. -Ninjarabbit
Entropomancer
Logical Entry: Ranger 14
Cons: Before you say "what? why not cleric/druid 7?", it's just a big NO-NO. This is obviously not intended to be a spellcasting-focused PrC. Although the PrC requires 4th-level divine spellcasting, it does next to nothing in actually making that viable (5/10 progression) nor does it enable it to shine somewhere else (3/4 BAB). Combined with the fact that it requires two useless feats to qualify, one would imagine its class abilities would really be great.
Let's see: you have your Shard of Entropy ability that deals certain amount of damage (2d6 to later 7d6) in a SINGLE square for 1 round/class level. Usable 2/day at 1st level and 2/day at 10th level. Hey, it does have "drag others into the square" effect that targets the caster as well!
OK, let's skip to the next one: Entropic Field. Start 2/day at 3rd level and 2/day at 10th level. Haven't I seen that before somewhere? Nay, you must've been mistaken. What does it do? It stops magical healing of course. What did you expect? At 5th level, you get a free reroll 1/round which is quite an unparalleled ability to be sure. Is it worth losing 3 caster levels to get it though? I dunno, 10 rounds of free reroll sounds awesome, until the 7th-level wounding ability comes in. It affects the user too. So you get to reroll 1/round, but no magical healing works and whenever you're damaged you'll suffer 1 point of damage per round (stacks with itself). Weird, but reroll sound so awesome that made me look forward to its capstone ability. It must be something that forces reroll to an opponent or something or that awesome, right?
Of course it is: it replicates the full power of an artifact! Behold Control Sphere, which allows you to control a sphere of annihilation as if you had a talisman of the sphere. No. If I'm going to be using a sphere of annihilation, I'd rather take yet another journey to find a talisman, rather than wasting 10 of my levels to control it without one. To be what, 17th-level cleric or druid and use 6th-level spells? -Salt_Crow
Pros: Reroll 1/round for 1 round/class level twice a day is actually quite nice. So once you get your 4th-level ranger spell, hop in and and take 6 levels of it! You lose 2 BAB and a few caster levels, but you get some very nice reroll abilities.
But then again, if I really wanted rerolls I'd take Destiny domain with my cleric and have stuck with it. -Salt_Crow |
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