Master Arcanist: What do you think of this homebrew?

[St Fan]

Okay, so I was looking for a prestige class to complete an Ultimate Magus (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20061010a&page=3) progression (after level 15), and I stumbled on this one: the Master Arcanist ( http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/Master_Arcanist_(3.5e_Prestige_Class)) (an earlier version (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Master_Arcanist_(3.5e_Prestige_Class)), identical save for the Class Skills).

At first glance I just didn't understand where they were going or the interest of this prestige class, but reading much carefully, I came to the conclusion... that it could be damn powerful.

Now, I understand it's a homebrew, thus not likely to be accepted by many GMs. But besides that... is it balanced? Overpowered? Or is the spell slot cost too penalizing?

I can see some serious potential for abuse, especially with the Focused Specialist variant. Basically, the prestige class can pretty much negate all drawbacks of specialization, as long as the spells are present in another class list.

And after you have mastered all five levels... just taking 1 level in another arcane class give the equivalent of 6 spellcasting levels, along with the full spell list. And there's plenty of them in splatbooks...

Your thoughts? Any other way of breaking it even further than what I’ve mentioned above? (And not JUST with Ultimate Magus...)

[Wavelab]

In my experience, a DM won't allow a 5 level PrC that provides advancement to all arcane spellcasting at each level and gives a ability as unique as this.

If it was a tenth level PrC, with the abilities spread out more, which followed the Ultimate Magus progression, I can see it being allowed.

But that's talking Mid - High optimization games. In a game where optimization is essential to survival(or epic games) I can see this being allowed.

But yes, if you added it to the Ultimate Magus I can see it being a nice combination.