Prestige classes

[F0X7713]

Hey Everyone!!

Well, I am currently in between campaigns right now, I will be starting a new one in January. In the meantime, some players have asked me to show them some builds and such, so we are still meeting once a week just to build classes and test them in encounters.

Most of my players don't have that much experience, and are pretty unsure about Prestige Classes, so I wanted to suggest them some good PrC's that they could explore. (also note in this process I hope to raise their optimization level)

So, what would you guys suggest for players who have the following base classes: Cleric, Rouge, Swift Hunter (Scout/Ranger Archer build), Barbarian/Warblade with pounce.

Any thoughts or ideas would be great!

[Dr.Epic]

So, what would you guys suggest for players who have the following base classes: Cleric, Rouge, Swift Hunter (Scout/Ranger Archer build), Barbarian/Warblade with pounce.

Any thoughts or ideas would be great!

Um, kind of vague on these two especially since there are a ton of different builds for the two classes. What sort of rogue is he going for? Combat focused or more charisma? And cleric is even more diverse considering all the different alignments, deities, and domains they could have. A little more info about these two would be appreciated.

Also, what race is everyone playing as that can also play a large factor in picking a PrC?

As for the barbarian, you can never go wrong with Bear Warrior or Frenzied Berserker. Just make sure someone has a wand of Calm Emotions if he goes for the latter.

[F0X7713]

Um, kind of vague on these two especially since there are a ton of different builds for the two classes. What sort of rogue is he going for? Combat focused or more charisma? And cleric is even more diverse considering all the different alignments, deities, and domains they could have. A little more info about these two would be appreciated.

Also, what race is everyone playing as that can also play a large factor in picking a PrC?

As for the barbarian, you can never go wrong with Bear Warrior or Frenzied Berserker. Just make sure someone has a wand of Calm Emotions if he goes for the latter.

Sorry about that, the Cleric is currently CG, Elf, follower of Corellon Larethian. I know Champ. of CL is good, but she is going for a healing/controlling build, so Idk if that was still a good choice. Rouge is going 2 handed Melee, def. not CHA based, basically damage is her priority.

[Dr.Epic]

Sorry about that, the Cleric is currently CG, Elf, follower of Corellon Larethian. I know Champ. of CL is good, but she is going for a healing/controlling build, so Idk if that was still a good choice. Rouge is going 2 handed Melee, def. not CHA based, basically damage is her priority.

Well, for the rogue, Invisible Blade from Complete Warrior isn't a bad choice. As for the cleric, I'm not too familiar with cleric PrCs (especially healing based ones, martial ones I'm slightly better with) so I can't really say.

[Andreaz]

but she is going for a healing/controlling build, so Idk if that was still a good choice."healing builds", in d&d, amount to wands of cure light wounds, extended "Vigor" spells, the "Heal" spell for emergencies and the healing Reserve Feat.
Make sure whatever your elf cleric friend does, she does not bother preparing "Cure" spells (these are spontaneous), nor expect to need to use healing spells during the fight at all.

In combat she only really needs Heal, due to how massive a boost it gives.
Outside combat she can take her time and use the reserve feat to up heal them up to 50% and fill with CLW wands. Vigor will keep the hp trickling in during the fights.

To give you an idea...she gets more healing out of summoning outsiders with healing spells than using healing spells. And even these summons are much more awesome for stuff other than healing.
(Summoning is excellent with clerics!)

[F0X7713]

"healing builds", in d&d, amount to wands of cure light wounds, extended "Vigor" spells, the "Heal" spell for emergencies and the healing Reserve Feat.
Make sure whatever your elf cleric friend does, she does not bother preparing "Cure" spells (these are spontaneous), nor expect to need to use healing spells during the fight at all.

In combat she only really needs Heal, due to how massive a boost it gives.
Outside combat she can take her time and use the reserve feat to up heal them up to 50% and fill with CLW wands. Vigor will keep the hp trickling in during the fights.

To give you an idea...she gets more healing out of summoning outsiders with healing spells than using healing spells. And even these summons are much more awesome for stuff other than healing.
(Summoning is excellent with clerics!)

Are there no PrC's for this though? Is should I suggest her just going 1-20 cleric? The idea was to suggest to her some ideas and get her interested in exploring Prc's. I know out of combat healing is really the way to go unless it's critical, but I just wanted to spark her interest in some PrC's.

Edit: What book is the Reserve Feat from?

And Dr. Epic, I will look at Invisible blade and suggest it as well =)

[Andreaz]

Well, depends on what she wants to do. (Going Cleric 20 is actually one of the most powerful setups there is...most PrCs only add emphasis to something or add cheese)
http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=420.msg8436#msg8436
This should give you a comprehensive list. I am a particular fan of Bone Knight, but it's a melee + undead build rather than pure control. Malconvoker is probably your best bet, focusing on summons.

[F0X7713]

So I think the characters have a good idea about what PrC's they are gonna try.

Rouge-->Invisible Blade, Barbarian is now going Barb. 2, Fighter 4, Frenzied Berserker.

However, the Swift Hunter still doesn't know if PrCing is worth anything. Only one that seemed appealing was the Highland Stalker, but he already gets a lot of skirmish just staying on his Scout/Ranger path. Any ideas for him?

And the Cleric is just going all Cleric, not PrCing at all.

[INoKnowNames]

If the Cleric is dead set on Healing, Radiant Servant wouldn't be a bad class, assuming the domains weren't an issue...

[F0X7713]

If the Cleric is dead set on Healing, Radiant Servant wouldn't be a bad class, assuming the domains weren't an issue...

Yeah she is pretty dead set on it, and she is also set on Celerity and Community as a domain. She has a strong backround for her that she doesn't want to stray from, so she is extra hesitant about doing stuff I guess, but I will suggest Radiant Servant to her. ^_^

[Urpriest]

If the rogue is going two-handed melee, Invisible Blade is actually kind of a bad choice, since it requires a substantial amount of fighting with daggers. I'd go for a good source of BAB like Nightsong Enforcer instead.

[Vaern]

I don't know about prestige classes, but there are several feats that a healer might be interested in.

>Augment Healing: Complete Divine. Makes healing spells heal a bit more, based on spell level. A nice perk for any healer.

>Sacred Boost: Complete Divine. Expends a turn attempt to automatically maximize healing spells cast on all creatures within a 60-foot burst. Can be a double-edged sword if there are enemies capable of healing within the burst, and can be a powerful offensive ability for attacking undead with cure spells.

>Sacred Healing: Complete Divine. Expends a Turn Undead attempt to grant all living creatures within a 60-foot burst fast healing 3 for a few rounds. This may not be the best choice for healing in combat, but it can be a great pick-me-up between encounters. Charisma increases the duration of the ability, and gives the cleric more turns per day to use on it, so it stacks up quite nicely.

>Imbued Healing: Complete Champion. Grants an extra bonus to anyone affected by the cleric's healing spells, based on her domains. Bonuses for Celerity and Community are not listed, but you could homebrew some bonuses for them (such as Celerity granting the subject a 5-foot bonus to movement speed, as listed for the Travel domain).

>Touch of Healing: Complete Champion. Reserve feat. As long as the cleric has a conjuration (healing) spell of 2nd level or higher available to cast, she can heal an ally for an amount based on her highest-level healing spell available. The downside is that it only works on creatures with less than half of their maximum HP, and can not raise their HP above half.

>Mitigate Suffering: Complete Champion. Reserve feat. As long as the cleric has a healing spell that restores ability damage, she can grant a temporary restoration effect to herself or allies. The temporary ability points can't raise an ability above its original value, and fade after ten minutes.

>Healing Devotion: Complete Champion. Domain feat*. This grants the cleric the ability to gain fast healing for one minute or grant an ally fast healing for one minute, once per day. The amount of fast healing increases based on her character level. The feat can be taken multiple times, gaining an additional use per day each time it is chosen.
I'd personally take Divine Healing over this since it's AoE, scales with an ability score, and has multiple uses that can be divided more easily, but Healing Devotion's full minute of fast healing will usually be enough to heal any single target from near-death to full health with a single use.
* The cleric does not need to have Healing as one of her two cleric domains, but she must at least worship a god who offers the Healing domain.

[Urpriest]

Clerics generally do want a PrC, unless they've got strong domain abilities, and neither Celerity nor Community work that way. For a caster, non-summoner Cleric, Divine Oracle is nice, if not amazing.

[F0X7713]

I don't know about prestige classes, but there are several feats that a healer might be interested in.

>Augment Healing: Complete Divine. Makes healing spells heal a bit more, based on spell level. A nice perk for any healer.

>Sacred Boost: Complete Divine. Expends a turn attempt to automatically maximize healing spells cast on all creatures within a 60-foot burst. Can be a double-edged sword if there are enemies capable of healing within the burst, and can be a powerful offensive ability for attacking undead with cure spells.

>Sacred Healing: Complete Divine. Expends a Turn Undead attempt to grant all living creatures within a 60-foot burst fast healing 3 for a few rounds. This may not be the best choice for healing in combat, but it can be a great pick-me-up between encounters. Charisma increases the duration of the ability, and gives the cleric more turns per day to use on it, so it stacks up quite nicely.

>Imbued Healing: Complete Champion. Grants an extra bonus to anyone affected by the cleric's healing spells, based on her domains. Bonuses for Celerity and Community are not listed, but you could homebrew some bonuses for them (such as Celerity granting the subject a 5-foot bonus to movement speed, as listed for the Travel domain).

>Touch of Healing: Complete Champion. Reserve feat. As long as the cleric has a conjuration (healing) spell of 2nd level or higher available to cast, she can heal an ally for an amount based on her highest-level healing spell available. The downside is that it only works on creatures with less than half of their maximum HP, and can not raise their HP above half.

>Mitigate Suffering: Complete Champion. Reserve feat. As long as the cleric has a healing spell that restores ability damage, she can grant a temporary restoration effect to herself or allies. The temporary ability points can't raise an ability above its original value, and fade after ten minutes.

>Healing Devotion: Complete Champion. Domain feat*. This grants the cleric the ability to gain fast healing for one minute or grant an ally fast healing for one minute, once per day. The amount of fast healing increases based on her character level. The feat can be taken multiple times, gaining an additional use per day each time it is chosen.
I'd personally take Divine Healing over this since it's AoE, scales with an ability score, and has multiple uses that can be divided more easily, but Healing Devotion's full minute of fast healing will usually be enough to heal any single target from near-death to full health with a single use.
* The cleric does not need to have Healing as one of her two cleric domains, but she must at least worship a god who offers the Healing domain.

Wow thank you so much! This will help her out so much!! And I will show her divine oracle as well, may be just the direction she may wanna go! =)

[F0X7713]

Okay two questions:

1) For the Cleric, would it be good to suggest to her to go Divine Oracle into Contemplative? That Prestige class seems strong, and she wouldn't have to do much at all to get it, and she would get 2 domains out of it not to mention the resistances of both. Just a thought.

2) I still don't have any good ideas for the Swift Hunter. I had mentioned before highland stalker before, but again I am not sure if it would be really beneficial to take that, or if he should just keep going with Ranger levels after level 5.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts and opinions! Much appreciated!

[Eldaran]

Swift Hunter doesn't prestige class very well, because the feat only scales with scout/ranger levels. It's a notoriously boring but effective build.

As for the cleric, Divine Oracle into Contemplative for 1, 6, or all 10 levels is quite nice. I'm a big fan of Paragnostic Apostle from Complete Champion, especially with Cloistered Cleric entry.

[F0X7713]

Swift Hunter doesn't prestige class very well, because the feat only scales with scout/ranger levels. It's a notoriously boring but effective build.

As for the cleric, Divine Oracle into Contemplative for 1, 6, or all 10 levels is quite nice. I'm a big fan of Paragnostic Apostle from Complete Champion, especially with Cloistered Cleric entry.

Yeah, that is what I was feeling about the Swift Hunter. And I thought the same thing about Contemplative! ^_^