![]() ![]() What makes it balanced is that its class features (while very flavorful and generally useful) also have a bit of a drawback to them. Prerequisites aren't too annoying since you're probably playing a summoner anyway. It progresses familiar abilities (and gives new ones), and gives bonus feats. Oddly, one of the best-balanced arcane prestige classes (in my opinion) is a something-for-nothing: the alienist. And three feats, two of which are prerequisites for the also-good Archmage (but note that the archmage requires you to give up spell slots, making it less of a something-for-nothing). The Initiate of the Unseen Veil is the worst offender here it gives very powerful defensive abilities (with defense being of concern to fragile wizards) in exchange for. One caster level lost right at the start is generally a good balancing factor, and recently, a lot of classes work that way (Malconvoker, Nightmare Spinner Unseen Seer and Spellwarp Sniper almost necessitate multiclassing, so they effectively have a lost caster level.) Losing more than one caster level is generally pretty harsh unless it grant something good, it's normally not worth it. Tangent: Obviously, caster prestige classes need to take away something in exchange for cool abilities. But really, any prestige class should have to be cleared, even if the answer is usually "sure". ![]() ![]() I'm not sure about the other two (and I know Forgotten Realms has produced some bad ones), but most Ebberon prestige classes aren't all that strong, with the notable exception of the Planar Shepherd. You might also just not allow people to take prestige classes from Eberron/Dragonlance/Forgotten Realms books without clearing them with you, since those books are, on average, significantly less balanced than the standard non-setting-specific books. (You'll never see a prestige class that grants full fighter bonus feats or sneak attack, 8 skill points, and other rogue special abilities, but full casting prestige classes are common.) See mild tangent below. Since casters have very few class features, they generally stand to lose less than other characters. Something-for-nothing classes are generally at least somewhat overpowered even if they aren't broken. Really, almost any prestige class that gives full casting progression without requiring a player to give up something significant in return (like taking a couple crappy feats, or losing good saves or secondary features of their primary class, or preferably some combination of the above).Īgreed. Anyways, still a very problematic class to allow into a game, even if it's not all too hard to defeat. And that "efficiently and reliably dispatches enemies in a variety of situations with a minimal expenditure of resources" is a far better definition of very powerful. Remember, though, that if an enemy has 500 hp, doing more than 500 hp of damage isn't going to actually help you at all, and that thousands of damage won't do any good at all if you can't land a hit. If your definition of "very powerful" is "does way more damage than he ever needs to in order to eliminate enemies, and poses a rather large disadvantage to a party, while suffering from most of the failings of run-of-the-mill melee classes that can prevent them from landing an effective blow" then sure. I find the feat more annoying than broken.Īs I understand it, Frenzied Beserker (Complete Warrior) is apparently very powerful. Don't underestimate just how great equipment is. Not only off-topic but not particularly true. Not exactly a prestige class, but the feat "Vow of Poverty". How something like that got printed is beyond me. Just by virtue of taking the prestige class in the "as intended" way and progressing in it normally, you attain ultimate potential. It's the lazy man's road to Pun Pun level power. The Planar Shepherd easily takes its place as one of the most broken PrCs in D&D. ![]()
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