How Good is the Fatespinner Really?

[Business Scrub]

Hello playground!

A bit of backround before the question the title asks: I'm in a game that is implied to get to very high level, and am currently playing a Sorcerer 9/Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 2. Why sorcerer not wizard? Flavor reasons, and cause I'm not a huge fan of wizards.

Anyway, I've heard a lot of ranting and raving in my circles about the fatespinner PrC. (Complete Arcane, pg 37) It seems nice, but is it really as good as all the hubub, and is it as impactful in play as it seems? Really, I just need some fresh input on the PrC.

As of now, I'm planning on Sorcerer 9/Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 7/ Fatespinner 4. Is Fatespinner 5 worth the loss of spell level? In you opinion, is pausing IotSV worth going into some or all of Fatespinner?

As always, thanks for your input!

[heavyfuel]

Fatespinner is a REALLY good class mostly because its prerequisites are almost non-existent and gives you full casting for the first four levels and some really cool abilities (forcing re-rolls, anyone)

The fifth level is lackluster, especially with the subpar capstone, so I'd advise against it.

[Zanos]

I agree with heavy. The capstone seems great until you realize it doesn't work on anything with more HD than you, making the -10 penalty to a save that initially seems amazing pretty terrible. The first four levels are pretty good, and rerolls are one of the best ways to reduce the effects of chance, which is usually desirable in powerful characters.

[molten_dragon]

Hello playground!

A bit of backround before the question the title asks: I'm in a game that is implied to get to very high level, and am currently playing a Sorcerer 9/Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 2. Why sorcerer not wizard? Flavor reasons, and cause I'm not a huge fan of wizards.

Anyway, I've heard a lot of ranting and raving in my circles about the fatespinner PrC. (Complete Arcane, pg 37) It seems nice, but is it really as good as all the hubub, and is it as impactful in play as it seems? Really, I just need some fresh input on the PrC.

As of now, I'm planning on Sorcerer 9/Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 7/ Fatespinner 4. Is Fatespinner 5 worth the loss of spell level? In you opinion, is pausing IotSV worth going into some or all of Fatespinner?

As always, thanks for your input!

Fatespinner isn't amazing. It's got nothing on prestige classes like Malconvoker, Shadowcraft Mage, or Incantatrix.

What fatespinner has going for it, is the fact that the prerequisites are extremely easy to meet (basically you just need 5 ranks in a class sikill, everything else you'll likely get automatically as a caster), it offers solidly useful, if not amazing abilities, and you can take 4 levels of it without losing any caster levels. Basically it's better than going straight sorcerer or wizard, and costs you virtually nothing to get the benefits of the class. This makes it a perfect "fill-in" prestige class for when you'd otherwise just have to take sorcerer or wizard levels.

[Story]

The fifth level of Fatespinner is awful. It's best to think of it as a 4 level PRC.

And yes, it's strength is as filler levels, rather than something you build towards in its own right.