Is Arcane Hierophant worth it

[Jackofalltrades]

Hello everyone.
so our group decided to take a break from are current Dm's campaign (where I'm a crusader) to play a campaign with a new DM for awhile. his rules are only core books are allowed (dungeon masters guide, Players handbook and 1 or 2 things out of the monster handbook, no flaws/traits) I'm playing a LV 1 Halfling sorcerer who hopes to become a Mystic Theurge with druid as the Divine caster part. but i'v heard that the Arcane Hierophant is good also because its basically the MT with class features. but since AH is not core and are new Dm is getting use to D&D 3.5 (DM for a Pathfinder group for a few years) do you think its would be worth my time trying to convince him to at least allow AH? i don't want to make it hard for him but then again AH isn't that complicated compared to the MT and is more appealing then MT.

[eggynack]

Well, it's probably a better option than going cleric followed by mystic theurge, both because you get actual class features, and because you can combine it with standard theurge to get a full theurge progression to 20. However, either option is generally a reduction in power compared to a straight casting build, especially when you're going slow anyway due to a sorcerer base. So, it's worth it relative to mystic theurge, and not really worth it relative to sorcerer, possibly plus a different prestige class.

[Flickerdart]

Arcane Hierophant takes off when you have access to other sources - Bamboo Spirit Folk is the best way to qualify, and exotic animals as the animal companion really bring up its power. In a core-only game, it isn't terribly worth it. If you really want the pet, go with standard druid. If not, standard sorcerer. If you want both arcane and divine spells, go Cleric with the Magic domain and buy some scrolls and wands.

[Jack_Simth]

Well, it's probably a better option than going cleric followed by mystic theurge, both because you get actual class features, and because you can combine it with standard theurge to get a full theurge progression to 20. However, either option is generally a reduction in power compared to a straight casting build, especially when you're going slow anyway due to a sorcerer base. So, it's worth it relative to mystic theurge, and not really worth it relative to sorcerer, possibly plus a different prestige class.
In terms of power, this is fairly accurate. For the most part, the only way to make MT and related dual-progression classes worthwhile from a power perspective is early entry (such as, say, the Illumian trick of making two selected spells count as a level higher, so a Cleric-2/Wizard-1 can qualify) or when combined with accelerated-progression casting classes (such as the Ur-Priest or the Sublime Chord). Even with most such tricks, however, you're still behind the power of a well-played pure caster. This is not necessarily a bad thing (well-played pure casters are often a bit over the top anyway) but it's something to keep in mind.

Do note, though, that if the DM is new to such things, the group probably isn't particularly optimized. In a low-op campaign, a MT is reasonably viable - the big pain is at lower levels, when you're just getting into MT. A Sorcerer-4/Druid-3/MT-1 has 2nd level Arcane spells and 2nd level Divine spells at level 8... where a Sorcerer-8 would be looking at 4th level spells and actually have more of them per day (if you ignore cantrips). Seriously: The 4th level Druid has a per-day line of 5/3/2 before bonus spells. The Sorcerer-5 has a per-day line of 6/6/4 before bonus spells, and that's what the MT build casts as. Total 11/9/6 before bonus spells. If you discount cantrips, that's 15 spells per day. The Sorcerer-8, on the other hand, has a per-day line of 6/6/6/5/3 before bonus spells. If you ignore cantrips, that's 20 per day. The pure Sorcerer will likely have a higher Charisma bonus (call it, say, +6 mod at 8th pretty easily - base 16 Cha, +4 Item, +2 level up = 22 Cha for a +6 bonus; could be +7 without much of a stretch) as the MT has to split stat points and equipment (so the MT will likely have something like an eighteen or a twenty in both Charisma and Wisdom at that point). So the pure Sorcerer's bonus spell line is something like +2/+2/+1/+1(and another +1/+1, but no 5th or 6th level slots to boost yet) while the MT's bonus lines are going to be something like +2/+1 (/+1/+1/+1, but not 3rd-5th level slots yet). With 20's in Charisma and Wisdom for the MT vs. the pure Sorcerer's 22 in Charisma, the Sorcerer has the same number of total bonus spell slots at level 8 as does the MT build. Levels 5-10 (give or take) is where the build is likely going to be the most painful to play.

To the OP:
You're starting at 1st. For a MT build, that's painful. You started with Sorcerer. For a MT build, that is also painful (starting Druid would have been straight-up better for your final state - 4 more HP, 8 more skill points, and a better skill list for them; likewise Wizard is better than Sorcerer for such things due to the faster spell progression - if you get Arcane Herophant approved, you'd be looking at casting at 17/17 at 20th level, which gets you 9th level spells as a Wizard/Druid; for a Sorcerer, you'll be looking at 17/16 casting, which only gets you 8th level spells at 20th).

For a sufficiently low-op table, that's fine; it's a game, and it's all about fun, after all - but D&D is, for the most part, a game that rewards specialists over generalists, and MT is a generalist-type class.