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mootoall
2010-10-16, 04:12 PM
Okay, so I'm playing a conjuration specialist wizard, and I'm wondering, should I take levels of Alienist?

I'm reading the description off Crystal Keep, I'm away from most books ATM, and so far it seems to mean that I can change the type of any of my summoned little buddies to pseudonatural rather than, say, celestial. Does it mean this pseudonatural template?

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/pseudonaturalCreature.htm

If so, this seems incredibly good. Also, this is a twelfth level character.

Gavinfoxx
2010-10-16, 04:15 PM
You should totally be afraid of feathers. Damn Angels and their...feathers... *shudders*

raitalin
2010-10-16, 04:15 PM
Yeah, no, its not that Pseudonatural template. Its referring to the non-epic one from Tome and Blood, which I imagine you can find in Crystal Keep's template pdf.

mootoall
2010-10-16, 04:16 PM
So, is it worth it?

Kyrthain
2010-10-16, 04:17 PM
Actually, it refers to the psudonatural template from complete arcane. The one in the SRD is from the Epic Level Handbook. The complete arcane one is about as powerful as celestial/fiendish, methinks.

BeholderSlayer
2010-10-16, 04:17 PM
Pseudonatural Dire Weasels = nuclear weapons (okay not quite, but close)

mootoall
2010-10-16, 04:20 PM
Okay, so the one in Crystal Keep ... yeah, I like that. Although, since it's only giving me the first two levels of Alienist in Crystal Keep, can anyone give me an idea of its class abilities?

HunterOfJello
2010-10-16, 04:24 PM
The Alienist PrC is from Complete Arcane and their summoned monsters use the Pseudonatural template that is featured in Complete Arcane.

The template allows a creature to use True Strike 1/day and gives them a number of defensive boosts. They gain resistance to acid and electricity, dr/magic, spell resistance and an alternate form that does nothing but make them look ugly and give others -1 to attack them. These abilities all scale based on the hit die of the summoned monster.

mootoall
2010-10-16, 04:31 PM
Yes yes, I know that much, but as I said, I'm away from book at the moment, and Crystal Keep only shows me the first two levels of Alienist. So right now I'm looking for its other class features.

ranagrande
2010-10-16, 04:47 PM
It also gets two bonus metamagic feats, an extra spell slot, and some extra hp. It gives penalties to a bunch of social skills as the character goes insane. It becomes an Outsider for the capstone.

mootoall
2010-10-16, 05:03 PM
So, combined with a Wizard, when should I take the class? I'm thinking Wizard 10/Alienist 2?

Gavinfoxx
2010-10-16, 05:21 PM
So, combined with a Wizard, when should I take the class? I'm thinking Wizard 10/Alienist 2?

You should generally prestige class out of Wizard after your 5th level of Wizard.

So Wizard5/Prestige classes rest.

Have you read the Wizard handbook?

And looked at retraining and rebuilding rules?

Marnath
2010-10-16, 05:22 PM
So, combined with a Wizard, when should I take the class? I'm thinking Wizard 10/Alienist 2?

Go for wizard 10 / alienist 10. You don't lose anything except maybe one or two bonus wizard feats, and you get one of those back from alienist, and an extra spell slot to boot.

Eldariel
2010-10-16, 07:59 PM
That depends, do you want to limit yourself to summoning tentacle monsters and be about Far Realms and Things Worse Than Reality™? It's probably slightly weaker than standard Wizard, as you lose access to notably Outsiders (that have really good SLAs that are actually worth getting with your Summons) in all your Summons, but it's not much worse as the normal combat summons get pretty good this way, and the class features are useful. So it's mostly down to taste (mostly, do you like tentacles?).

If you do want to be an Alienist, take it ASAP. That is, level 6. PrCs should be entered as early as possible so as to get to the best class features as quickly as possible. You can finish off with Archmage or Thaumaturgist or whatever. The other, probably mechanically stronger option for a summoner is Malconvoker [Complete Scoundrel], but Alienist is fine if it's to your taste. See Mastering the Malconvoker (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872758/Mastering_the_Malconvoker) for that.

Kaje
2010-10-16, 08:27 PM
ignore

lllllllllllllll

Kaje
2010-10-16, 08:28 PM
In addition to summoned aliens, you get full casting, full familiar progression (and pseudonatural familiar), bonus to saves, penalty to wis, bonus metamagic feat, little extra hp, penalties to 3 social skills, extra summon slot, timeless body, outsider type and a pseudonatural physical feature.

Alienist is my absolute favorite PrC. I definitely want to make a sorcerer/alienist sometime.