Viability of the Grey Warden PRC (PF)

[Oncoming Storm]

I'm currently playing in a Pathfinder campaign (we're level 7) and I'm playing a Battle Oracle, oriented towards combat DPS, with a side-order of utility and charisma. I'm looking at entering this PRC next level, and I'm wondering whether it's actually worth the loss of casting levels. The sneak attack seems nice, as does the Bane, but is it enough without the inquisitor levels to stack with?

For reference, see link:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/e-h/gray-warden

[rollforeigninit]

I gotta say no. It has nice flavor but you lose 9ths gaining all the levels. I'd bet you can meet or beat the effects of the PrC with Spells alone.

[Drachasor]

You become a full spell level behind at 5th level in this PrC (and lose another caster level later). Consider what you can do with 5th level spells at 10th level or 6th level spells at 12th level compared to having fewer spells of lower level. The higher you get, the spells just get better.

[Oncoming Storm]

Hmm.
Pretty much what I thought with the losing out on CLs. How about just the first 4 levels? get better saves, sneak attack, bane, bonus feat, and only lose 1 CL.
As for how bad it is, is it just 'suboptimal' or actually bad? Our party isn't precisely optimized (Cavalier, gunslinger, scrollmaster wizard, paladin, and nothing fancy on any of them) and I'm probably the biggest optimizer of the lot, so I could almost certainly get away with being suboptimal.

[Psyren]

As long as you don't take more than 8 levels I would say it's merely "suboptimal." Bane is quite powerful, particularly on a ranged weapon. More spells will generally be better but in terms of nonspell resources it's hard to beat, on par with smite. The sneak attack is negligible, but if you can trigger it without too much trouble it will add even more damage to your attacks. This class is more for clerics though, as evidenced by Slaying Judgement.

The rest of the abilities aren't very impressive. The judgments are weak, anonymity is only as successful as your DM wants it to be, and Dramatic Interrogation is interesting but unlikely to come up.