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FreakyCheeseMan
2013-03-08, 11:09 PM
Why have I not heard more about this class? It seems to be beyond powerful.

The entry requirements are laughable - a one-level binder dip and a single feat, and you're back to full dual casting progression. Hell, I strongly suspect there's a way in by 3rd level, I just haven't found it. (With cheese, you can get in by 2nd.)

After that... ignore the vestiges for a moment. (Only because I don't understand them thoroughly enough to brag them up.) Anima mage gives you an extra spell slot at every level, a bonus to initiative checks, and three free metamagic applications per day (Spontaneous swift actions, what's more.) That metamagic doesn't care about the level adjustment, by the way - persisting 9th-level spells is fine with it.

And then there's the capstone; once per day, you can cast any spell you have available as a swift, still immediate action. Considering how much high-level fights come down to "Whoever goes first wins", that seems... kinda extreme.

That strikes me as being good for a PRC already, and I've yet to even dig into the advantages of vestiges- except that a lot of them are continuous effects, so you're not even limited by your action economy the way other dual-casting classes are. A mystic theurge can still only cast one spell per turn, but an anima mage can cast and enjoy the benefits of vestiges simultaneously.

Oh, and you can get all that done with another seven levels free to invest in Incantrix, which is enough to get you most of the good stuff.

bigstipidfighte
2013-03-09, 01:36 AM
It is, in fact, all that and a bag of potato chips. I'm afb, but I'm pretty sure that you just get one extra spell slot (via trading a vestige ability when making a good pact) not an extra slot per level.

I'm surprised it doesn't get mentioned more often, though to be fair it comes from a very late book, without the print run or popularity of books like the Completes where a lot of the classic OP classes come from.

One nice thing you might not know about vestiges is with the investment of a feat OR an item, it's possible to switch them out during the day, so there's opportunity to take advantage of utility powers or prep for a specific fight.

Qualify at 3 is doable, I remember working out some feats to do it with that weren't Precocious Apprentice. All in all though, probably not worth the feat investment vs. just going in at Binder 1/Wizard 3.

FreakyCheeseMan
2013-03-09, 06:33 AM
*Checks* Yeah, you're right, it's just one spell slot, not one per level. Still a good trade, mind.

From what I've heard of the debate over Precocious Apprentice, the main argument against it is that you lose it when you "Gain the ability to cast 2nd level spells", which could be read as preventing it from use for early entry into Mystic Theurge. But... binders don't get spells at all. It seems like a slam dunk to me, but that's just me.

jywu98
2013-03-09, 06:42 AM
Anima mage is a very powerful class. I'm surprised you haven't heard of it; it gets mentioned quite a lot in handbooks.

Arcane_Snowman
2013-03-10, 12:22 AM
*Checks* Yeah, you're right, it's just one spell slot, not one per level. Still a good trade, mind.

From what I've heard of the debate over Precocious Apprentice, the main argument against it is that you lose it when you "Gain the ability to cast 2nd level spells", which could be read as preventing it from use for early entry into Mystic Theurge. But... binders don't get spells at all. It seems like a slam dunk to me, but that's just me. I was under the impression that Earth Spell (Races of Stone) was the "safe" cheese option under the circumstances, it's got a bit of associated feat tax, but is much less ambiguous. Not that you can't retrain out of the feats if you don't want them anyway.

FreakyCheeseMan
2013-03-10, 02:58 AM
I was under the impression that Earth Spell (Races of Stone) was the "safe" cheese option under the circumstances, it's got a bit of associated feat tax, but is much less ambiguous. Not that you can't retrain out of the feats if you don't want them anyway.

What's ambiguous about precocious apprentice?