Reposting this from BG:
Anarchic Initiate (Complete Psion)
Logical Entry: Psion 5 with Overchannel feat is generally the best, but it can be incorporated into an Ardent or Wilder build with a bit of work.
You get a bigger hit die and more skill points per level than a normal psion. You get some wild surge progression (+2 in 10 levels is all you need). When you overchannel or wild surge, you can do a chaotic surge which will half your power's numeric values 25% of the time, but empower 25% of the time and maximize 25% of the time. Overall this increases the effectiveness of powers significantly. Postpone enervation at 8th level is handy, and you get a couple nice bonus class features. Also you can make a chaotic rift once per day which is pretty cool. And of course, there is chaotic breach which is pretty damn helpful and does not cost power points to use.
Overall this is one of the strongest psionic PrCs in existence, and it is way stronger than pure psion
Anima Mage (Tome of Magic)
Logical Entry: Arcane Caster 1-4 (Wizard or Wu Jen is best), Binder 1. You need the Improved Binding feat so you can get in with 1 binder level. If you take something like Improved Sigil Krau, Precocious Apprentice, Versatile Spellcaster + heighten, or Primitive Spellcasting you can get in at level 3
This is a dual progression class that can be accessed as early as level 3. Additionally, you can exploit your vestiges for an extra spell slot, and get free metamagic a couple times per day along with other minor boosts. Playing a binder is actually just as much intelligence intensive as it is charisma intensive due to skill point requirements, so Wizard and wu jen are actually better choices than spontaneous casters since they can use quicken spell and metamagic without increasing cast times.
You will most likely bind Karsus and Naberius which gives you a whole host of buffs to your spellcasting, magic item using, and skill using.
If you don't mind a single caster level hit this works out to be significantly stronger than straight Wizard or Wu Jen.
Champion of Gwynharwyf (BoED)
Logical Entry: Barbarian, possibly multiclassed with something else like Knight or crusader.
You have to take a couple of so-so feats to get in, but this class continues to advance rage progression (most important barbarian class feature), has a d12 hit die and full base attack bonus progression, and gives you a whole host of other class features that are better than straight barbarian. The stand out ones are Smite Evil (cha based) and spellcasting (Wis based). I believe that the spells can be cast while raging. There is a bit of MAD involved (I recommend ~14 Wisdom and some points in charisma), but this is way better than straight barbarian.
Hulking Hurler (Complete Warrior)
Logical Entry: Something big, most likely with Barbarian levels. A permanently enlarged Goliath/human/orc/dwarf might work with DM's permission, otherwise go for Half Ogre.
The hulking hurler allows you to throw ridiculously sized objects that deal absurd amounts of damage. There are ways to get potentially hundreds of D6s depending on your strength. Then you get a couple throwing tricks like the one that knocks the enemy prone or allows you to power attack. Massive damage output in 3 levels, and a d10 hit dice and full bab progression.
Improvised weapon damage is based on weight.
400lb is 5d6, each 200lb more does another 1d6. this doesn't sound crazy, does it? It is.
Let's say you're an Half-Ogre barbarian at ECL 10. Your strength score is
18 Base
+6 Enchantment
+2 Level
+6 Half Ogre
+4 Rage
=38 when raging.
Your medium load is 6400. 35d6 damage. This is on a build that many wouldn't even call optimized. What happens if you optimize? Shooting from the hip here...;
Illumian Archvist 17/Hulking Hurler 3
_18 Base (polymorphed into a Centaur)
+32 Giant Size
+06 Item
+05 Tome
+05 Level
=66 and you're a Colossal Quadruped.
You're medium load is 3766272lb. 18834d6. Who even cares what the strength bonus is, that's an average 65919 damage. Oh, yeah, you have 9th level spells. I didn't even feel like finding a better Quadruped form.
Planar Sheperd (Faiths of Ebberron)
Logical Entry: Druid 5 I think is the level you need to hit
This fully advances all of the three main druid class fatures (Spellcasting, Wildshaping, Animal Companion, you know those ones that are stronger than most other classes). And you can make planar bubbles a few times per day, causing your favored plane to appear in an area around you and cause negative effects on your enemies (which you of course are immune to). And what do you give up? Just that timeless body crap. Better than straight druid.
Planar Shepard
Pros:
- Amazingly easy entry (one setting tied feat, 8 ranks in a skill you were taking anyway, 4 in one you may or may no have)
- 10/10 casting, continued Fort and Will saves, .75 BAB, d8 hd and 4+ skill points make the chasis a good one, identical to the regular druid in most ways
- Continues your powerful abilities while neglecting your pointless ones (continues Wild Shape, Animal Companion, Spellcasting)
- Makes Wild Shape AMAZINGLY good (Wild Shape to Outsiders in particular)
- Planar Bubble
- Planar Bubble
- Planar Bubble (Yes, it deserves three mentions. Even if you aren't using 10:1 cheese, it's DAMN useful)
Cons
- RAW does not say you can be resurrected as an outsider, but I believe that may be part of being a native outsider.
- No Full BAB (Which is pretty minor, really
Rainbow Servant (Complete Divine)
Logical Entry: Warmage 1-6. You want Versatile spellcaster for sure, and you may want to use Primitive spellcaster or Heighten Spell or something to get early entry. I recommend being a dragonwrought kobold with a sovereign archetype (Races of the Dragon, Dragons of Ebberron)
There is some controversy on whether this class is 10/10 spellcasting as specified in the text or 6/10 as shown on table. Some Dms take an intermediate view and rule it as 8/10. Either way, this lets you cast the entire cleric spell list and a few domains and their powers. Spontaneously off the entire list. Use Versatile Spellcaster to fuse lower level spell slots for higher level spells. If you are a Great Wyrm Dragonwrought Kobold, you can pick up the Child of Ebberron archetype to add druid spells, or Wyrm of War for fighter bonus feats, or whatever you like. And of course, you still have your warmage spells, some of which are pretty good (Sleep, Evard's black tentacles, Solid Fog).
Runescarred Berserker (Unnapproachable East)
Logical Entry: You want some barbarian levels for sure. I would probably do a multiclass barbarian/warblade simply because warblade is normally better.
Like Champion of That-place-I-can't-spell, this has full BAB progression, and progresses Rage (most important barbarian class feature!). 4 skill points per level and d10 hit die. Also like champion, you get some spellcasting keyed to wisdom, and scribe them in the form of runescars (basically scrolls carved into your body, it deals some damage when you prepare them). You can cast them in rage. You need Iron Will and Survivor feats to enter, which are not that good, but the Berserker lodge feats are great. You also gain some damage reduction and natural armor. Much better than straight barbarian.
Ur-priest (BoVD and Complete Divine)
You need a lot of spellcraft to enter, and a couple weak feats. I think the best entries are beguiler (simply due to the amount of skill points availbable), Ardent (Wisdom synergy), and Spell to Power Erudite (because it has spellcraft as class skill and its awesome) but anything works so long as you have the feats and skill points to spare
This is a super evil cleric that steals spells from the gods. You get 9th level spells in 10 levels. Turning attempts at level 2 are your gate way to Divine Feats. You get some other neat abilities later that let you steal abilities, but usually you PrC out of this class after level 2 and go for Mystic Theurge or Psychic Theurge or whatever. This makes otherwise weak dual progression classes like the Theurges, Eldritch Disciple, and Tenebrous Apostate worth playing. Pretty much better than any class played straight to 20, even if it creates some MAD issues
Soul Eater- (BoVD)
Negative levels on touch, no save. All full BAB, all good saves, 4 skills, and a d8.
1 level dip; +1 BAB, +2 to all saves, negative level on any unarmed strike or natural attack, no save. Totemist Monk anyone? It's not hard to throw 8 negative levels out, with no save to resist. You don't even need to good damage, just hit them HD many times and that's it. A one level dip in Swordsage gets you the WF too, and Tiger Claw has maneuvers to attack a buttload of times per turn.
6 level investment; Anyone you kill with negative levels you can shape change into (gaining all class abilities) for a 24 hour duration. This is so fucking good I'm not going to bother expanding on it.
7 level investment; You know those negative levels? Yeah, now it's 2 per attack. You have 4 iterative, 2 flurry, 1 snap kick, 1 haste, 2 claws, 1 bite, 1 slam (not hard at all to get by level 12). that's 12 attacks per turn, that's 24 negative levels. Anything not immune with under 24HD is dead.
9 level investment; Anyone you kill with negative levels becomes a wight under your control. No restrictions. EASIEST WORLD DOMINATION EVER. Jesus christ this is strong.
Capstone; +2 to all DCs, and all SpA and Su may be used twice as often in a day. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything, but I'm sure the Su ability can be broken to hell and back.
Void Disciple - bizarre signature ability that's ambiguous but potentially game-breaking. (CDiv)
3) Void Suppression. No-save-just-lose for 95% of the monsters out there. Requires a melee touch attack. Spectral Hand is (arguably, depending on your reading) your friend.
2) Moment of Clarity. Grant an ally any feat for a few rounds. Worth noting is that you specifically can't grant Ancestor feats, but Epic feats are, apparently, good to go.
1) Sense Void. Okay, so you can sense stuff anywhere except across planar boundaries, at the cost of a piddly Spellcraft check. This raises a whole series of questions: can others sense you when you're like that? Since you're leaving your body, can you use purely mental actions in that state? Can you move around? How long does it last? Does it count as a divination effect? What can block it? RAW's lack of statement implies very dire answers...
- There's no listed method of detecting if someone else is using this.
- There's nothing preventing the use of mental actions in this state, and there's not even a mention of it requiring concentration.
- There's no method of moving (but see the previous)
- There's no limit on duration given.
- It's never referred to as a divination, nor as scrying, despite the obvious similarities.
- Given that, there's no RAW method I've heard of to block it, short of planar boundaries. Illusions work, though.
In other words, it's potentially "Scry and Die" on steroids.
Conclusion: Void Disciple loses enough spell levels that it could be underpowered, depending on how Sense Void is ruled to work. RAW is vague enough that most of the overpowered potential is based purely on the lack of defined limits. I've personally seen this thing break campaigns though, and I wouldn't recommend it for general PC use. Game-breaking Up Two to a barely passable Down One, depending on how Sense Void is used.
Sentinel of Bharrai - gives your Wizard some Druid awesomeness with full Wiz casting progression (BoED)
Most spellcasters can enter this class pretty easily, as it only requires some common knowledge skills, spellcraft, and a couple poor feats. Gets full spellcasting progression and class features at every level. Granted, a number of the class features are more "cool" than "useful", but the energy resistances are pretty nice, as they tend to be pretty expensive otherwise at most levels. This alone is probably enough to at least justify the cost of entry for most Wizards.
The kicker is "Bear Shape". It's highly reminiscent of the Druid's Wildshape, only bear-specific but without all the limitations. It's at-will (meaning infinite easy free healing), has unlimited duration, you can still speak in that form, you can communicate with other bears, and most of your gear doesn't meld (but check animal item slots). There's virtually no reason whatsoever not to keep it up 24/7, letting you completely replace your physical ability scores with that of the bear of your choice, making Venerable all that much more seductive. All that, and uninterrupted Wizard casting.
In other words, refer to this:
(except full Wizard spellcasting instead of guns)
Conclusion: Sentinal of Bharrai won't break your game, but it's a pretty hefty advantage. Low +2, high +1.
Soulbow - saving the Soulknife since 2006 (CPsi)
Easy to enter for a Soulknife, and good enough to justify taking that horrible class just to get in. Possibly the best archery PrC in the game.
- Gains an free +5 equivalent weapon over ten levels, improvable to +9 if you use pure Soulknife for the rest of the levels, that function inside an AMF/NPF. Enhancement abilities limited though.
- Gains five bonus feats off an decent list that specifically encourages expanding the options using other books
- Gains Wis to damage, making for excellent synergy with "Zen Archery".
- Gains Close Combat Shot (since you can't always 5-foot-step to avoid AoOs) and Phase Arrow (for when you really really really need to make that next shot).
Conclusion: Very good, and a strong addition to most teams, but still "just" an archery PrC, and no threat to campaign balance unless you consistently have enemies protected by AMFs. "Up Two" mostly on the merits of what it does for the lowly Soulknife. You don't need much to improve what they have, but this is a cut above.
Thrallherd (EPH)
Easy to get into, any manifester that knows 8 ranks in K(Psionics), 4 ranks of Diplomacy, Manifester level 5th and mindlink (Kashalatar might be able to get into it without spending a power known, check with your DM)
Same hitpoints, saves, bab, and skills as a telepath, 8/10 manifesting progression and... class features! A couple boosts to your dominating abilities is nice but the big one is COHORTS. Yep, you gain an extra character to round out your abilities at first level. Can I recommend a Cleric? Or perhaps you prefer the Ardent/Ur-priest cheese? Or how about an artificier? Your leadership score increases with Thrallherd level, and at 10th you get a second one, though you lose your second caster level.
Note that the way that your leadership score is calculated counts your thrallherd level twice which can result in a very high leadership score. Its easy to get a cohort to within 1 level of you, and a bunch of followers.
Its a tough call to say whether this or Anarchic initiate is the strongest Psionic PrC out there. But this is definitely the most frequently banned.
Requirements
-Iron Will, which you can buy, and metamagic feats you're getting anyway
-Skill ranks in skills you're getting anyway
Class Features
-4 bonus metamagic feats
-Cooperative Metamagic : Not quite circle magic, but still sexy.
-Metamagic Effect : Persistification of any magical effect. Iot7FV becomes even more powerful with this.
-Metamagic Spell Trigger : Not just for artificers!
-Seize Concentration : I'll take that Elemental Monolith, Mr. Druid!
-Instant Metamagic : Persisting without the Spellcraft roll!
-Snatch Spell : And I'll take that Choose Destiny too, Mr. Cheater of Mystra!
-Improved Metamagic : This is an epic feat FFS!
Drawbacks
-Loss of one school of magic.
-Getting DM smote for being stronger than most lesser deities.
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