Any interesting Prestige Classes for favored souls?

[Thelion]

At the moment I'm a tenth level favored soul and I'm having a good time with the character. Me and the cleric are both worshippers of the same god The Artisan (homebrew). He's the not very charismatic, but wise mentor, whereas I am a not very knowledgable (my character doesn't have a lot of clues about his god's religion, but he is incredibly enthusiastic nonetheless) converter of unbelievers through the power of enchanted ales (profession: brewer and brew potion). The cleric has the battlesmith prestige class, my favored soul uses a variety of buffing spells, there's a twf paladin (not a very effective character, the player has a thing for twf, but keeps moaning about the fact that she never does that many damage compaired to the divine casters) and a beguiler with some PrC's that no one keeps track of.

I like playing a favored soul, but I get the impression that there's not a lot of interesting PrC's for this class because of the lack of turn undead. At least not in Complete Divine anyway, does anyone know if there are fun choices in other books, or might the favored soul be at its best when he's completely optimized in his single class?

[Red Fel]

I like playing a favored soul, but I get the impression that there's not a lot of interesting PrC's for this class because of the lack of turn undead. At least not in Complete Divine anyway, does anyone know if there are fun choices in other books, or might the favored soul be at its best when he's completely optimized in his single class?

Well, I can't think of any specific to Favored Soul, so let's just see what the class has to offer, and what would be advanced by a PrC, shall we?

First, there's divine spellcasting. I think that's a fairly major component of the class. Safe to say a good Favored Soul PrC should include divine spellcasting advancement.

Second, you're getting 3/4 BAB and solid saves all around, plus proficiency in simple weapons, light and medium armor, and shields, so a gish build is a possibility. This is reinforced by weapon proficiency and specialization.

Other than that, you get energy resistance, wings, and DR. And that's it. It's honestly a fairly unimpressive spread of abilities, and they're not the type that advance with a PrC. So really, your PrC would just be advancing spellcasting.

Let me point out, with regard to your question about the Favored Soul being "completely optimized in his single class," the only thing optimized about the Favored Soul is his spell list. He is a Tier 2 class, not based upon his class abilities - which are lackluster - but because he receives an extremely solid divine spellcasting progression with the Cleric spell list. (Also, Ex wings are nice.) As a result, any PrC that gives you 8/10-10/10 spellcasting progression will simply make you better, because you maintain your defining trait (spellcasting) while picking up actual class features.

So let's start there. What kind of class features would you want in a PrC? What do you like doing with this character? Melee? Full casting? Crafting things?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Anything that gives you a domain will expand your possible spell list. You would still need to spend spells known on them, but you could use wands, scrolls, etc. of those spells as well. There aren't a lot of interesting prestige classes for FS because it's not a very interesting class.

One of the greatest disadvantages of the Favored Soul is that this trick (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?267805-Sorcerer-Handbook#4) won't work with it, since it only works for arcane casters. You can't even take Arcane Preparation to be able to cast sanctified spells, because it only works with arcane spellcasting.

On top of that, your casting is split between Cha and Wis, and its class features are extremely mediocre. There's no reason to even make a Favored Soul when you could have made a Cleric and given it the same flavor. There's even the spontaneous domain casting ACF in PH2 and the Domain Spontaneity feat in CD to help Cleric feel more like a FS.

Edit: If your group were to make a house rule that gives Favored Soul a 1st level class feature which allows them to count as an arcane spellcasting class and count their spells as arcane spells for purpose of qualifying for and using items, feats, prestige classes, etc. then it could be redeemed. As it stands, it falls extremely short of being an attractive option in both mechanics and flavor.

[prufock]

Contemplative: Bonus domains, a few decent defensive abilities, full casting. One level dip for the domain is good, up to 7 levels is okay if you have no better options, only go 10 if you want to abuse some sort of shapechanging with your new creature type.

Sacred Exorcist: Will get you turn undead at level 1, and is a decent class beyond that, with full casting, but nothing particularly outstanding.

Church Inquisitor: Full casting, a decent domain if you have dispel magic, some good defensive abilities.

[Cruiser1]

One of the greatest disadvantages of the Favored Soul is that this trick (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?267805-Sorcerer-Handbook#4) won't work with it, since it only works for arcane casters.
If you're a divine caster, make your Ancestral Relic a Domain Staff (CC) instead of a Runestaff (MiC). All Domain Staffs cost 36K, so once you reach level 12 your item can cover any Domain Staff. You may need to UMD if the domain isn't one you have already, but other than that you can freely switch the ancestral Domain Staff to any domain in the game, and therefore cast spells from any domain. :smallbiggrin:

[Juntao112]

Walker in the Waste.

[Shining Wrath]

Demonwrecker? Full divine spell progression, 3/4 BAB, good will save, and class features that help you fight chaotic evil Outsiders. Only a 5 level PRC but the capstone is both powerful and limited:

Perfect Breach (Ex): At 5th level, you automatically overcome a chaotic evil outsider's spell resistance.

That's AMAZING - but only against demons.

Master of Radiance? Again, only 5 level PRC but adds the ability to turn undead. 3/4 BAB, good fort and will saves, and the ability to bring Light. You lose one caster level.

[Thelion]

On top of that, your casting is split between Cha and Wis, and its class features are extremely mediocre. There's no reason to even make a Favored Soul when you could have made a Cleric and given it the same flavor. There's even the spontaneous domain casting ACF in PH2 and the Domain Spontaneity feat in CD to help Cleric feel more like a FS.

I respectfully disagree. While the cleric obviously is a more versatile class, the Favored Soul makes is still a divine spellcasting version of the sorcerer. While there is a problem with both charisma and wisdom being needed to make all his spells, with the right spell choices I think the group will profit a lot from the huge amount of spells that a FS can cast compaired to the cleric. At least in our group, the cleric is usually down to his last spell at the moment that my FS still has half of his low to high level spells left (and not just because the cleric is the one doing all the heavy work, that's divided equally between both our characters).

With my group it's more of a decision that started out of roleplaying motives. My scout transformed into a werewolf and decided to stay on the plain that belonged to the deity that cursed/blessed him with lycanthropy. Since he was an apprentice of the cleric (the only one in the group), the player who plays the cleric and me conversed about what would happen with the group after the loss of the scout. Roleplaying wise it was the most logical thing for him to leave the group, since he had lost way to many of his friends in the past and wouldn't want to continue adventuring if it meant losing loved ones all the time.

Since he did like his character, we figured it was the best for me to make a new character that actually had some history with the cleric. I conjured up Hans von Zwinckelheim, a flamboyant German speaking (we figured celestial must sound like German) favored soul who was once saved from a misunderstanding (that included him nearly poisening the major with his beers) by the cleric who taught him everything about his god The Artisan, that favors people who create beautiful things (alcoholic beverages is a beautiful thing). He told the young brewer that The Artisan has great plans for him (meaning to become a cleric). My character found this inner divine power that gave him a wide array of powers, but (unfortunately) not really the interest in becoming more pious, devout or scholarly about it. Hans doesn't know a lot about The Artisan, but sure tries to convert people through inconsistent parabels, stories that aren't really about our god and some of the weirdest motivational lines I can think of.

My character usually motivates people with a lot of, theologically, flawed reasoning and stories that are way out of there, but there's always some sense of truth in them when it comes down to the morality, making him a better diplomat than the cleric who doesn't even has a charisma bonus and likes playing the silent type that knows it all better. I guess I could've made a cleric, but I still think roleplaying the favored soul is way more fun and in the end: as long as the character works and isn't useless in encounters, I think that's the most important thing.

[Grim Reader]

Sacred Exorcist gives you turning, that opens doors. For melee, Bone Knight or Knight of the Raven.

For spellcasting, about the only direct advantage the Favored Soul has over the Cleric is the ability to take advantage of the Sand Shapers Desert Insight class feature. Finagling the Arcane Caster Level to qualify is normallt finicky, though.

Or Nar Demonbinder with Mystic Theurge topping.

[Kazudo]

The point that typically comes up, however, is that to qualify for the Really Good Prestige Classes™, you have to take dips in classes that actually make the Favored Soul essentially a spontanucasting Cleric. You have to pick up a Domain or three (which come gratis to Clerics). You have to pick up Turning Undead (see previous statement), you have to pick up the ability to substitute healing spells (again...) and other such things. There are Half Decent Prestige Classes™ that the Favored Soul can jump into fairly easily, but to get any of the iconic ones that make Divine Casters just the greatest, you have to blow some time, XP, and feat slots to become the Clericiest-Favored-Soul that you possibly can be. That coupled with the lower spells known (but better spells/day depending on how you view that, albeit a level later), you're beginning to wonder why not just...I dunno...be a Cleric, unless you're really into DMM and hate Vancian magic.

[Gildedragon]

And if you hate Vancian magic you might rather tack this (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/spontaneousDivineCasters.htm) onto your cleric rather than be a favored soul.
Sovereign Speaker is great for these shenannigans

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

The point that typically comes up, however, is that to qualify for the Really Good Prestige Classes™, you have to take dips in classes that actually make the Favored Soul essentially a spontanucasting Cleric. You have to pick up a Domain or three (which come gratis to Clerics). You have to pick up Turning Undead (see previous statement), you have to pick up the ability to substitute healing spells (again...) and other such things. There are Half Decent Prestige Classes™ that the Favored Soul can jump into fairly easily, but to get any of the iconic ones that make Divine Casters just the greatest, you have to blow some time, XP, and feat slots to become the Clericiest-Favored-Soul that you possibly can be. That coupled with the lower spells known (but better spells/day depending on how you view that, albeit a level later), you're beginning to wonder why not just...I dunno...be a Cleric, unless you're really into DMM and hate Vancian magic.

That's sort of the flip-side to what I was trying to say. A Favored Soul needs to invest a lot of resources into being as good as a Cleric, whereas a Cleric only needs to invest a little bit to be able to spontaneously convert prepared spells into a fairly large list. That spontaneous list is not as customizable as a FS's spells known, but there are so many domain lists that it can be tailored to any role you want the character to fill, including gaining many spells that a FS doesn't even have access to without a significant investment. The difference in spells/day should not even be an issue if you use the overabundance of high quality spells instead of relying on quantity.

[Kazudo]

Well, as a DM I don't like Vancian magic. My players are rarely going to play casters, so I want to reward the ones that do with versatility. It's a weird balance combination that I don't really care to explain. As a result of which, I usually use the Spell Recharge alternate rules rather than anything else simply because it basically makes them into ToB casters.

[Pluto!]

War Weaver/ Spellguard of the Silverymoon can get crazy. (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1473.0;msg=13083) Even though getting in requires ... shenanigans.