Elf Wizard (RotW): If you've spent time perusing the various fora for 3.5, you'll likely have heard of the Elven Generalist and how it's really good. I'm going to be a naysayer on this one; while the effect of the 1st level RSL is quite good, there's so much support for Specialists out there that this has been outstripped. The bonus spell slot is only 1, and while the extra spell known/level is nice it only applies to Wizard class levels gained (and thus doesn't benefit you when you PrC out, which you should anyway). This sorely limits its applicability outside of the lower levels. The rest of the RSL here is horrible, for the record.
I checked the language on this.
Spells Gained at a New Level: Wizards perform a certain amount of spell research between adventures. Each time a character attains a new wizard level, she gains two new spells of her choice to add to her spellbook. These spells represent the results of her research. The two free spells must be of spell levels she can cast. If she has chosen to specialize in a school of magic, one of the two free spells must be from her specialist school.
Generalist Wizardry: A 1st-level elf wizard begins play with one extra 1st-level spell in her spellbook. At each new wizard level, she gains one extra spell of any spell level that she can cast. This represents the additional elven insight and experience with arcane magic.
The elf wizard may also prepare one additional spell of her highest spell level each day. Unlike the specialist wizard ability, this spell may be of any school.
This substitution feature replaces the standard wizard’s ability to specialize in a school of magic.
I don't see anything in Complete Arcane, Complete Mage or Rules Compendium that clarifies, and the text in both cases is "new wizard level". So, the two colourable readings are "all wizard PrCs give up all free spells entirely, including the base wizard ones" or "'(and spells known, if applicable)' in the text of every +casting PrC means the free spells in the wizard case, so you get free spells identical to those if you'd gained a level of wizard, so an elven generalist still gets the extra spells".
I suppose if you take the first interpretation, you might still consider some PrCs to be worth the cost, and then "elven generalist" would be less useful. But if the author thinks PrCs give any free spells, he's clearly in error about "elven generalist" not improving them.
