Master Specialist (Transmutation)

[Seto]

What are your thoughts on this prestige class from Complete Mage ? Is it worth taking ? At first glance it seems good enough, but is it worth the two bonus feats that you'd have if you just went straight Wizard ?

I'd say it looks really useful to a Necromancer with undead minions, but I was considering it for a Transmuter and most of the School Esotericae seem... meh.
"You're an Enchanter ? You can bypass the "threatened or no acts against the target's nature" restriction, and if the target makes their save they'll have to make it again on the next turn." "You're a Transmuter ? Behold, your Baleful Polymorph now deals 5 damage if the target makes their save !"

Though I guess the caster level increase could be useful on CL-dependent-duration buffs.

[Pluto!]

It definitely could be worthwhile for the feats in the first couple levels (Skill Focus comes up in prereqs fairly often) but I can't argue about the capstone, and the other two esoterica are situational.

[Necroticplague]

The capstone is crap, the moderate esoterica is 'meh', the minor esoterica is excellent, the improved caster level is useful for durations, the improved DC is good for debuffs. The fact it's a full casting PRC that's pretty easy to enter (two skills you're gonna take anyway, an option that's for the better, a feat that's not half bad, even if it is boring) make it better than just going straight wizard, but it's still overall pretty meh. Not horrible, but nothing particularly potent.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Only if you need Skill Focus (Spellcraft) and Greater Spell Focus for something. Otherwise i'd rather get Wizard 5 for Spontaneous Divination and get a different PrC at level 6.
Compared to straight wizard i'd say "maybe", depending on the sources allowed and what feats you actually take. Compared to one of the better arcane PrCs? Not a chance.

It may be useful for Necromancers, but other classes give more over 10 levels and most dedicated necromancers are either Dread Necros or divine anyway.
I do like Master Specialist 4 on Abjurers because the Minor School Esoterica is helpful and it flows naturally into IoSV, but otherwise i don't think it's worth taking over Wiz 5/PrC X.

[Heliomance]

Master Specialist (Illusion) is great for Shadowcraft Mages. Get the minor esoterica and bail.

[ZamielVanWeber]

A lot of the minor esoteric are good, but I never see a reason to take it past that because the esoteric get more niche and more unwieldy as you level up.

[Dread_Head]

Master Specialist grants Skill Focus (Spellcraft) which is useful for entry into Archmage and Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil (possibly amongst others). It also grants Greater Spell Focus and CL boosts which are also useful abilities.

Of the school esoterica

Abjuration
Minor: Excellent if focused dispeller, still useful otherwise though
Moderate: Evasion + Mettle whenever you cast an Abjuration spell is an excellent ability
Major: Great for putting Antimagic Field on the Barbarian or similar, has a couple of other uses but that is the best one
Conjuration
Minor: Good bonus for a summoner or someone who plans to use summons fairly regularly
Moderate: Pretty mediocre boost
Major: Free quicken 3/day is very nice
Divination
Minor: This one is pretty mediocre
Moderate: Pretty mediocre, uncanny dodge is best for protecting you when you haven't acted yet. To cast a divination and gain the ability you must have acted.
Major: Free True Seeing is pretty nice. Adds some utility to other divination spells.
Enchantment
Minor: Makes some of your best spells easier to use.
Moderate: This is a great defensive ability, combined with your good will save you should never fail
Major: Free Repeat Spell (albeit not quite as good) 3/day is a reasonably good ability
Evocation
Minor: Another pretty mediocre ability
Moderate: Energy resistance is always useful. Actually this probably sucks, many creatures that deal energy damage are immune to that type so either your resistance or your spell is wasted. (May grant force resistance which I'm not sure exists elsewhere?)
Major: Effectively free Empower Spell 3/day is a reasonable ability
Illusion
Minor: Boosts the DC of some of your best spells
Moderate: Concealment is useful, especially without any restrictions on using it to hide.
Major: This one isn't great, nice for a sneaky caster I guess.
Necromancy
Minor: Excellent ability helps prevent the negation of your minions
Moderate: Some solid immunities there
Major: This one is pretty nice as well, solid fast healing for your undead
Transmutation
Minor: Pretty mediocre mediation of dispelling
Moderate: Pretty mediocre as there aren't that many offensive transmutations
Major: This is terrible.


So taking this on a Transmuter or Diviner is terrible but for the rest you get some pretty reasonable abilities. Necromancer, Conjurer and Abjurer are probably the real winners.

Master Specialists best features are it's ease of entry (level 3 with one ok feat) combined with it's fairly modular nature. Either you stay in long enough to grab the features you want, or you use it as filler around the PrC you want to base your focus on.

Edit: Plus it's pretty flavourful. It allows you to differentiate your specialist further from the standard wizard class but without diving into the specifics of a more specialised prestige class.

[Zombulian]

Definitely not a bad choice. But as everyone else has said: dip for 4 levels (may be considered a dunk at that point) and move on to something better.

[DrMotives]

I know the class is only for specialist wizards, but as a thought exercise I wonder how useful the class would be to other arcane casters. The DN, the Beguiler, the Bard, the Warmage...

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

It's generally not worth taking more than four levels in it, simply because there are just so many better prestige class choices out there. Two of those four levels can replace two of your Wizard levels, but Wizard 5 is often worth having for the Spontaneous Divination or Domain Power ACFs.

The first level is almost required if you're taking Archmage or Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil, since it gets you a feat prerequisite in exchange for the Spell Focus feat you probably needed anyway, especially if you're going Archmage.

[daremetoidareyo]

The interaction of the changeling ACF and master specialist is interesting.

"At 1st level, a changeling wizard can to shoose to pursue a dual specialization in illusion and transmutation. To do so, he must give up three other schools of magic (...can't give up divination...) A changeling wizard can prepare one addition spell per level chose from either specialty school...This substitution feature replaces the standard wizard's specialization option"

The master specialist language for esoterica reads:

"You gain an ability from those below based on your chosen school."

So, in theory, you could 2 for 1 your esoterica. All the abilities are kinda lame however.