Most interesting caster PrCs

[Eldan]

Just a little informal poll. I've done quite a bit to write my own magic system over in homebrew and I think I'd like making a few prestige classes for it. Now; do have a few ideas of my own,but I'd probably like to also convert a few from other books.

Which prestige classes for casters do you think are the most interesting? Arcane casters prefered, but I can work with divine or even psionic. Note that I did not say most powerful. I am instead looking for unique and interesting class features.

[GutterFace]

My top 3

Blood Magus!
hilarious flavor. Interesting abilities.

Jade Phoenix Mage.

and

Zentharim(sp) Skymage

[The Trickster]

I have always had a spft spot for the malconvoker. I also like tge shadowcraft mage, and not just because it can be broken.

[Harrow]

I like the Malconvoker, which gets a bit of love in the mainstream because it's very usable, but there are more off-the-beaten-path caster PrC's I wish were more usable, like the Bonded Summoner from the Miniatures Handbook, which turns your familiar into an elemental, but no one will ever take it because it gives 5/10 casting. For the first few levels, the loss in spellcasting isn't great, and you get a bit of a boost from the elemental for a familiar, so it pretty much works out. A few levels later, you are very much behind equal level casters, but your familiar is so good you almost don't care. Almost. Then, in the final levels of the class, you are so far gone you'll want to roll up a new character. Your familiar isn't as relevant as he used to be and you're as many as 3 spell levels behind. The worst part is after you finish the class. Assuming you do so as early as possible, that's at level 15. You spend the next 5 levels not advancing your elemental, which wasn't quite keeping up when it was advancing, so every level things just get worse and worse for it, while you do your best playing catch-up on caster levels.

Other honorable mentions include the Truenaming Prestige Classes, such as the Fiendbinder (you may be noticing a trend in the kind of character I like to play), the Acolyte of the Ego, and the Bereft.

[NeoPhoenix0]

i'm a fan of the Wild Mage for all the fun randomness. especially for playing russian roulette.

i also like the flavor of wayfayer guide but it suffers form caster level loss and very situational usefulness.

[Eldan]

Hm. I don't have the Miniature's Handbook, but, well. With my system, you get near-permanent summons anyway. And it sounds like you could just make it a feat and not lose much. The Malconvoker has the problem that Planar Binding isn't a spell anymore, but a ritual.

Blood Magus is difficult to do, but Blood magic is clearly a theme I should cover.

The Jade Phoenix mage I already had on my list, along with a massively redone Arcane Archer.

I'll have to look into the Skymage and the Truenaming PrCs, I'm not familiar with them.

[herrhauptmann]

Zhentarim skymage seems to have some typos when you look at the bab/save advancement. It doesn't really fit the standard pattern.

I'm a fan of casting PrC that give you a separate casting set.
Suel Arcanamach and Sublime Chord to name 2
I guess ur-priest as well, but I don't like how it states you have to be evil. Adaptation is possible, even encouraged, but it sucks having to argue for it each game.

[Doorhandle]

Blackfire adept is my personal pathfinder favorite but there's too much in common with the malconvoker.

Cyphermage is pretty awesome as well if you can dig scrollcasting.

Blood Mage is also awesome but again, overlap.

[TaiLiu]

Geomancer, from Complete Divine, is quite the oddball. It claims to combine arcane magic and divine magic, but only advances one. It also causes strange physical changes within the spellcaster.

[Harrow]

Oh, I LOVE the geomancer! I've had a few chances to mess around with it in gestalt, where you really get options with it. You can keep full hybrid casting while adding on all the weird transformations, or you can do something silly like pick up levels of Paladin and Battle Blessing to make all of a Wizard's spells Quickened for free.

[WhatBigTeeth]

I think the most interesting casting PrC from a tactical/in-play perspective is the Dragon Prophet from Magic of Eberron.

It's a class built around the Dragon Prophesier feat line, which gives a spellcaster the ability to spend a full round action to get some interesting abilities like swift magic item use, temporary action points and automatic Empower spells for enough rounds to last most combats, but not to treat as a long-term buff.

The class itself makes the feat even more interesting by giving it effects like swift evocations, rerolls and immediate-action retributive spellcasting while the DP effect is active.

The Prophet and Prophesier feats give casters a constant tactical balancing act between using early actions to assert their influence on combat early or instead using those first actions to gain powerful bonuses and a potential action advantage through the later rounds.