Single classes that walk into prestige classes?

[Particle_Man]

There are some cases where a single base class can get into a prestige class without any effort, not even needing cross class skills, much less any multi-class dips.

Ranger walks into Horizon Walker.

Duskblade walks into Green Star Adept.

Does anyone have any favourite “walk ins”?

[Buufreak]

I believe cleric is zero effort to get church inquisitor.

[Max Zoren]

Wizard into Master Specialist (Complete Mage). You need is 5 ranks in 2 class skills which any wizard would max anyway and the Spell Focus feat. Can enter at level 4 without any effort at all.

A dip is good for a lot of builds and Wizard/Master Specialist/Archmage is simple and effective from level 1 to 20.

[Gruftzwerg]

How about race+class combinations?

Changeling + 4lvls of Full BaB Class = enter Warshaper at lvl 5!

[Wildstag]

Druid and Predator Ranger walk into Warshaper.

[Inevitability]

Ranger into Abolisher!

Ironically, one of the best followups is to take Aberration Wild Shape...

[Nihilarian]

Barbarian into Bear Warrior

[Telonius]

Cleric into Thaumaturgist. (Technically requires a feat, but if you're summons-focused it's one you would want anyway).

Rogue into Spymaster (requires one feat)

Warlock into Hellfire Warlock.

Rogue into Assassin

Paladin into Gray Guard

Commoner into Survivor (Technically anything single-classed can get into it after level 5, but you can do it as Commoner1/Survivor1).

[Tzardok]

Does Druid into Master of Shapes count?

[vasilidor]

Fighter can (almost?) walk into divine crusader or occult slayer.
They will not need to multiclass.

[Frostmoon]

Expert can walk into any class that just requires skills with absolute ease; this includes classes like Paragnostic Initiate, Green Whisperer, Squire of Legend, and even something like Beastmaster or Beast Heart Adept, both of which just require a single feat. Presumably, Factotum and Savant should be able to do the same.

[Wildstag]

Does Druid into Master of Shapes count?

I got the impression the thread focuses on "automatically qualifies just through leveling up", not taking feat choice (but taking bonus feats) into account. Otherwise I'd say Barbarian also walks into Bear Warrior. Like, what Barbarian doesn't take Power Attack?

P.S. Every class with Concentration as a class skill walks into Incarnum Blade easily enough.

[Zombulian]

Archivist can just walk right into Divine Oracle once they get their 10th level bonus feat. Then you can decide if you value having Dark Knowledge (Dread Secret) at lvl11 more than Immune to Suprise at lvl20.

[Feantar]

Adept into Hexer. I mean, the race limitation is there I guess...

[Inevitability]

In what's an even worse move than using that class in the first place, Dragon Below cleric walks right into Alienist.

[Heavenblade]

Very esoteric and specific, but ranger 2 can stride into branch dancer. Combos nicely with exotic weapon master for a cool melee combatant

[Particle_Man]

Very esoteric and specific, but ranger 2 can stride into branch dancer. Combos nicely with exotic weapon master for a cool melee combatant

But isn’t there a requirement for 5 ranks of balance for branch dancer? Balance is not a class skill for rangers.

[Zombulian]

Very esoteric and specific, but ranger 2 can stride into branch dancer. Combos nicely with exotic weapon master for a cool melee combatant

Oh that reminds me as well. Paladin and Ranger can walk into Knight of the Raven.

[Metastachydium]

Ranger into Forest Reeve (don't look at me, it's the class that gives one +20' to speed that stacks with everything!). Also, Cobra Strike Monk into Duelist (don't do this; you've been warned!). Edit: Also also, Psion into Diamond Dragon, Psychic Warrior into Elocater (I love this one (sue me)!), Bard into Urban Savant, Commander Fighter into Tactical Soldier, Rogue into Perfect Wight, like, anything into Warchief and (I'm not sure why anyone would do that, but) Wizard into Anointed Knight.


Commoner into Survivor (Technically anything single-classed can get into it after level 5, but you can do it as Commoner1/Survivor1).

Hell, yeah! As a matter of fact, that( or, rather "one of the fastest ways to gain Improved Evasion involves a dip in Commoner")'s been my go-to example for just how weird 3.5 can get for a while now.

[vasilidor]

The thing with fighters is they don't really slide naturally into anything, but there are prestige classes they can get into without multiclassing.
Sword Sage into Shadow Sun Ninja is another almost, needs to take a feat.
Other classes fighters can get into without multiclassing include, but are not limited to, Cavalier, Dark Hunter, Dark Wood Stalker, Duelist, Deaths Chosen, Spur lord, Hida defender & Dread Commando.
Some of those require putting ranks in cross class skills, which makes it hard to enter, but not impossible without multiclassing. Whether or not any of them are good ideas are an entirely different story.

[Kaouse]

Host of Heroes Aegis into Awakened Blade is pretty much always my go to.

[Frostmoon]

...like, anything into Warchief...

I...never realized how easy Warchief was to get into. That's Ruathar level of "anything can get in", wow.

[thorr-kan]

Wizard into Mage of the Arcane Order. You're going to take metamagic feats anyways. Might as well get spontaneous casting out of it.

In fact, I can see Wizard->Master Specialist->Mage of the Arcane Order->Archmage, leveled as desired, as a very common career path.

[Metastachydium]

I...never realized how easy Warchief was to get into. That's Ruathar level of "anything can get in", wow.

Yeah, it's a marvelously demented little PrC and I love it.

[Rijan_Sai]

Might as well mention Swordsage into Master of Nine. A little feat-heavy, (although let's face it, you are taking Adaptive Style anyway, and Improved Initiative & I. Unarmed Strike aren't bad to have either... ,) but native access to 6 disciplines makes this one the (technically) easiest to qualify.

[Thurbane]

Dragon Lord is pretty easy entry for any Fighter 6 or Barbarian 6. Fighter especially - with such a limited skill list, why wouldn't you be putting ranks into Intimidate?

[noce]

Does anyone have any favourite “walk ins”?

Holy Warrior Charging Smite Paladin into Pious Templar, no base class feature wasted and the build works fine both for roleplay and mechanics.

[Metastachydium]

Rogue into Assassin

Assassin is an interesting one. Despite being a DMG PrC, it's really easy to qualify for it. Beyond the obvious classes, such as Rogue, Mountebank and Ninja, such classes as Bard, Beguiler, of all things (if you hate yourself, of course), and Jester all walk into it without issue, and it's trivial to enter for Rangers and Scouts (they can handle buying 4 cross-class skill ranks with relative ease).

[Frostmoon]

Assassin is an interesting one. Despite being a DMG PrC, it's really easy to qualify for it. Beyond the obvious classes, such as Rogue, Mountebank and Ninja, such classes as Bard, Beguiler, of all things (if you hate yourself, of course), and Jester all walk into it without issue, and it's trivial to enter for Rangers and Scouts (they can handle buying 4 cross-class skill ranks with relative ease).

It's also another class that the Expert/Savant/Factotum grouping can easily enter, too. ;3 Also, while Beguiler and Assassin sounds like an impressively bizarre mix, it does feel like the base for an interesting character. To go from having no direct attack spells to murdering people via death attack...it's certainly curious.

[Metastachydium]

It's also another class that the Expert/Savant/Factotum grouping can easily enter, too. ;3 Also, while Beguiler and Assassin sounds like an impressively bizarre mix, it does feel like the base for an interesting character. To go from having no direct attack spells to murdering people via death attack...it's certainly curious.

Heh. It sure is! As for the skillful, very true. And for Savant, it's even a kind of decent idea: Savant has a sneak attack progression of its own to improve on and its baked-in spellcasting is inferior to what Assassins get.

[Wildstag]

Does anyone have any favourite “walk ins”?

If this was about races, I'd say my favorite walk-in is Hengeyokai into Warshaper.

But as for classes, my favorite so far has been Cleric into Ordained Champion. Plus, the OC text discusses adapting it for other War-domain faiths, it allows for easy adaptation for clerics of Corellon Larethian, which makes it more fun. It's painstakingly easy to walk into that PrC.

[Jack_Simth]

Bard or Beguiler into Unseen Seer.

[Frostmoon]

The only base classes that can walk straight into Spellwarp Sniper are Spellthieves and Savants. Amusingly, both of these are bad choices. XD Savant gets a grand total of ONE warpable spell (Ice Storm) and no rays (two ranged touch attacks, though), while Spellthief is blocked off from the big blaster schools.

Adepts actually walk into quite a few classes; the mix of divine spellcasting + a good skill list (all Knowledges is huuuuuge) gives them access to some curious things. I like Contemplative quite a bit with 'em, as it helps round out their (already pretty good) spell list with two domains of one's choosing~ The weirdest walk-in is probably Guardian of the Road, which seems to give you Cleric spells no matter your class???? XD Note that it takes an ACF for a Cleric to easily take GotR, so Adept actually gets in easier. XD

Oh, and in a complete opposite direction to the Beguiler -> Assassin mix, Beguiler can walk into Apostle of Peace (assuming you grab the necessary feats). Given that the Beguiler's spell list features no direct damage spells, it's actually probably not a horrible theurge mix.