[d20/3.5] Arcane Knight PrC

[Thurbane]

Just flipping through an old 3rd party book I bought a while back, Love and War (Atlas Games), and was wondering what people think about the following PrC: The Arcane Knight.

Reqs: BAB +3, 3rd level arcane spells, Combat Casting, group membership.

For what (I imagine) is supposed to a gish-type PrC, it oddly has poor BAB and d4 HD (and doesn't add any weapon or armor profs). It's 10/10 casting, good Fort and Will saves, 2 skill points/level. It's main gimmick is the ability to convert your prepared spells (not spontaneous) into healing energy (1 point/spell level) - first as a standard action, later as a move action, and finally as a free action. The only other things it gets are Quicken Spell as a bonus feat, bonus on Concentration checks, and finally a reduction of Quicken from +4 to +3 levels.

Is this PrC as underwhelming as I think it is? If it were full or medium BAB, I could see the point. Even if it gave weapon profs or armored casting. But as written? I just can't see it. Can anyone think of any way to use this class as written?

People often accuse the balance of 3rd party material of being unbalanced, and this seems to be unbalanced on the nerf end of the spectrum.

Cheers - T

[gkathellar]

Well ... it doesn't sound bad. It might be worth it if there weren't other PrCs to take for your wizard.

[Greenish]

Are you sure it's supposed to be a gish? :smallamused:

[Dusk Eclipse]

To be honest the only saving grace I see for this PrC is the quicken reduction and that it is 10/10, the other abilities sounds pretty underwhelming (the healing is a joke, what good will do to heal yourself 9 points of damage at level 17?).

I would say bumping it's HD to d6 at the least; but most probably to d8 and giving it 3/4 BAB would make for a nice Gish PrC, not the best but an option for Wizard bases gishes who have already finished Abjurant Champion and don't want to loose more CL.

Edit: @Greenish: The name and pre-requisites does imply it is some sort of Arcane warrior, the execution on the other hand...

[deuxhero]

Could be for arcane casters in service to a feudal lord, but...

[dextercorvia]

It is horrible for a gish, but it is a full casting PrC that any full caster can get into after level 6. It gives a bonus metamagic feat, and reduces the cost, and has a second good save. Depending on what level you get the quicken reduction, that is probably better than more wizard, and definitely better than more sorcerer.

[Randomguy]

It seems about as good a gish as the warmage. It seems like it would be good for flavour, like if the PC's were in a war, without substracting anything. Pretty meh overall.

[Thurbane]

To be honest the only saving grace I see for this PrC is the quicken reduction and that it is 10/10, the other abilities sounds pretty underwhelming (the healing is a joke, what good will do to heal yourself 9 points of damage at level 17?).
It says once you can use the ability as a free action, you can convert all of your memorised spells at once - by extrapolation, I would assume you can convert multiple spells at once without using all spells.

It is horrible for a gish, but it is a full casting PrC that any full caster can get into after level 6. It gives a bonus metamagic feat, and reduces the cost, and has a second good save. Depending on what level you get the quicken reduction, that is probably better than more wizard, and definitely better than more sorcerer.
Quicken reduction kicks in at 7th, so ECL 13 for a Wizard 6 entry. The spell healing specifies memorised spells, so a Sorcerer would miss out on that class feature, unless they took Arcane Preparation or similar.

It seems about as good a gish as the warmage. It seems like it would be good for flavour, like if the PC's were in a war, without substracting anything. Pretty meh overall.
Agreed.

[Coidzor]

Sounds horrible for anything that wants to be anywhere near combat and like it doesn't compete with real wizard PrCs at first glance...

[dextercorvia]

Quicken reduction kicks in at 7th, so ECL 13 for a Wizard 6 entry. The spell healing specifies memorised spells, so a Sorcerer would miss out on that class feature, unless they took Arcane Preparation or similar.

I was ignoring the healing ability. It is not Halruaan Elder, or Incantatrix, but it is a way to get Quicken as a +1 metamagic. That isn't awful. It beats any PrC that drops a level of casting(with few exceptions), which WotC had no problem producing. You aren't getting as much as some of the best PrC's have to offer, but your investment is relatively minor, as well.

[Dusk Eclipse]

It says once you can use the ability as a free action, you can convert all of your memorised spells at once - by extrapolation, I would assume you can convert multiple spells at once without using all spells.


Even if you convert several spells at once, the trade-off is too low, heck Heal at CL 11 gives almost the same healing as using all the normal spell-slots(without taking into account specialization or bonus for high Int) of a level 17 wizard (110 vs. 124).

*(A wizard can get heal via Arcane Disciple: Healing Domain)