Temporary Tainted Spellcaster

[Anthrowhale]

I was fooling around and came across the "Tainted Spellcaster" prestige class in Dragon 302 which has this interesting entry:

If a tainted has one of his levels permanently drained or loses a level due to being raised, he can choose to have it be the highest level of the tainted class he has attained regardless of what class level was most recently gained.
That's a minor curiosity until you realize that every piece of text about losing class features through disqualification emphasizes that while you lose class features you retain BAB, Skills, and HD. Hence, even in a situation where prerequisites are checked always and class features are not allowed to qualify for a class, this creates an explicitly legal and reasonably-feasible way to bypass BAB and skill requirements.

For example, a gish could be created via:
Stalwart Battle Sorcerer 3/Tainted Spellcaster 4/Abjurant Champion 3
-> (using raise dead or other means of level loss)
Stalwart Battle Sorcerer 3/Abjurant Champion 3
->
Stalwart Battle Sorcerer 3/Abjurant Champion 5/Sacred Exorcist 1/Prestige Paladin 3/Spellsword 1/Sacred Exorcist 7

You end up with Sorcerer 19 spellcasting and BAB+17, modestly better than the standard Sorcadin with Sorcerer 18 Spellcasting and BAB+16.

In fact, if you are willing to give up on Divine Grace, you can even end up with:
Stalwart Battle Sorcerer 4/Abjurant Champion 5/Sacred Exorcist 8/Ruathar 3
For Sorcerer 20 spellcasting with BAB+16

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Good catch, but that issue was from ~2002, whereas Heroes of Horror was published in 2005 and contains taint rules and tainted prestige classes that supersede previous versions. While its Tainted Scholar is named differently from the Tainted Spellcaster of Dragon 302, I doubt any DM would allow you to use it, especially if it's just to exploit a loophole.

[Troacctid]

There's a similar exploit with lycanthropy which is probably more well-known. It's certainly clever, but of questionable practicality IMO, since you need to gain all those levels first anyway, so you can't actually get into the prestige class any quicker.


Good catch, but that issue was from ~2002, whereas Heroes of Horror was published in 2005 and contains taint rules and tainted prestige classes that supersede previous versions. While its Tainted Scholar is named differently from the Tainted Spellcaster of Dragon 302, I doubt any DM would allow you to use it, especially if it's just to exploit a loophole.
Disagree—it's the same name, but for an entirely different concept. More akin to the eunuch warlock from Oriental Adventures or the incarnate from Dragon #310.

[Anthrowhale]

There's a similar exploit with lycanthropy which is probably more well-known. It's certainly clever, but of questionable practicality IMO, since you need to gain all those levels first anyway, so you can't actually get into the prestige class any quicker.

A modest advantage is provided by the odd level half-casting of Tainted Spellcaster and the controllable incremental nature of prestige classes.


Disagree—it's the same name, but for an entirely different concept. More akin to the eunuch warlock from Oriental Adventures or the incarnate from Dragon #310.
Different name, but yes. This is more about possession than contamination as per Tainted Scholar. In that sense, it's more like Acolyte of the Skin.

Tainted Scholar on HoH page 118 claims derivation from Tainted Sorcerer (Unearthed Arcana) and Maho-Tsukai (Oriental Adventures). Oriental Adventures mentions dependence on several Dragon Magazines in the front matter, none of which are Dragon #302.

It also feels quite different. Tainted Scholar/Tainted Sorcerer/Maho-Tsukai are all good prestige classes while Tainted Spellcaster is not---it's more of a tortured soul character development choice.