Candle Caster

[cartejos]

With the interpretation that anything that would normally apply to scrolls or potions also applies to the candles you make that act as the scroll or candle.

Feat Tax by 12th level:
Great Fortitude
Brew Potion
Magical Artisan
Skill Focus
Arcane Disciple

Would it be worth it to go Wizard 5/Candle Caster 5/Master Alchemist 10
The goal here I think would be to be able to make potions of Extended double Buff spells for everyone in the party.
Trouble is, I'm not sure if the trick is better than a War Weaver, and even then maybe the simpler route of just Incantatrix and some Metamagic Reducers.

I guess the main question I have from here is: Does it matter if all 4 party members are combat buffed? Or can you get by with summon monster and buffing 1 or 2 party members?

[Segev]

It's kind-of sad, but a lot of the more flavorful ideas for PrCs came out early, but were horribly underpowered, mechanically, relying on already-weak subsets of mechanics or imposing limitations without actually broadening anything. Candle Caster is one such.

It needs a lot more to keep up even with basic wizard.

[daremetoidareyo]

It's kind-of sad, but a lot of the more flavorful ideas for PrCs came out early, but were horribly underpowered, mechanically, relying on already-weak subsets of mechanics or imposing limitations without actually broadening anything. Candle Caster is one such.

It needs a lot more to keep up even with basic wizard.

I ran a 1 shot with a player interested in Candle caster, we just doubled up the levels so that it was 5 levels long and replaced the great fortitude pre req with any metamagic feat

[Fizban]

Dropping out at 5th means your candles never activate on the turn you light them- you never actually shrug off the weird penalty they build in. And second, you seem to be stopping right at the Dipped Candle stage. So you're making candles that activate a spell next turn, and then the second spell the turn after that. (Edit: I thought it sounded like someone was saying it was a 5 level class, but I misread).

If you went up to 9th, you'd be able to made candles that activate two spells, right now, at no extra cost. I thought people loved Quicken Spell even when it cost +4 levels and a swift action?

The combo presented doesn't seem all that useful to me. The massive delay on a dipped unfettered candle kinda defeats the point. And if your baseline of power is the War Weaaver's spell multiplication or the Incantatrix's anything, well yeah it's not gonna compare, nothing ever will.

[PrismCat21]

Dropping out at 5th means...

I took it to mean that they took all the features of Candle Caster and stuffed them into only 5 levels. So they'd still get everything at only half the investment of time.

[daremetoidareyo]

I took it to mean that they took all the features of Candle Caster and stuffed them into only 5 levels. So they'd still get everything at only half the investment of time.

exactly. with the exception of spellcasting, all of the class features for levels one and two for candle caster get scrunched into level 1. 3&4 into level 2. 5&6 into level 3. etc. It's more balanced.

There are a number of prestige classes that become tolerable by half doubling them. Animal lord is downright passably playable with this. Most of the things in dragon compendium need this to be actually playable.

[Segev]

exactly. with the exception of spellcasting, all of the class features for levels one and two for candle caster get scrunched into level 1. 3&4 into level 2. 5&6 into level 3. etc. It's more balanced.

There are a number of prestige classes that become tolerable by half doubling them. Animal lord is downright passably playable with this. Most of the things in dragon compendium need this to be actually playable.

I'll have to look at Geomancer and see if that works for it, too. It might even become a theurge class at that point.

[flappeercraft]

This PrC actually seems like a decent buffer but I would say War Weaver is better IMO due to having no cost. However it does have quite a good offensive. If you can get Greater Arcane Fusion into your list or change from Wizard to Sorcerer you could cast 2 7th level spells and 2 4th level spells per round. That could also be quite decent for in combat buffing too.