[3.5] What's good about Void Disciple?

[jiriku]

When I first read over teh Void Disciple prestige class in Complete Divine, it struck me as a pretty weaksauce interpretation of the Void shugenja from Legend of the Five Rings. I wasn't impressed.

Since then, I've seen people in more than one place refer to it as a powerful prestige class. I don't get it.

so, what makes the Void Disciple so good?

[Tshern]

When I first read over teh Void Disciple prestige class in Complete Divine, it struck me as a pretty weaksauce interpretation of the Void shugenja from Legend of the Five Rings. I wasn't impressed.

Since then, I've seen people in more than one place refer to it as a powerful prestige class. I don't get it.

so, what makes the Void Disciple so good?

You can get any feat you want without meeting the prerequisites.

[sonofzeal]

You can get any feat you want without meeting the prerequisites.

That, and horribly defined limits on the "Sense Void" thing. How long does it last? Is there any way to hedge it out? Can you use mental actions in that state? Can anything sense you attack you?

Oh, and "Void Suppression" is a no-save-just-lose against darn near anything.



....basically, it's a class that could be weaksause (feats require prereq's, unfavourable interpretation of Sense Void), or utterly unbalanced (can grant epic feats, favourable interpretation of Sense Void).

[Tshern]

That, and horribly defined limits on the "Sense Void" thing. How long does it last? Is there any way to hedge it out? Can you use mental actions in that state? Can anything sense you attack you?

Oh, and "Void Suppression" is a no-save-just-lose against darn near anything.



....basically, it's a class that could be weaksause (feats require prereq's, unfavourable interpretation of Sense Void), or utterly unbalanced (can grant epic feats, favourable interpretation of Sense Void).

I once built a very nice Ur-Priest/Void Disciple NPC. He was rather benign for an evil character, but he charged exorbitant prices for his services. A friend of mine used it in a game, also as an NPC, and he was used as a support player when the party annihilated a Tarrasque. Con 35 --> Con 3.

[Person_Man]

1) Sense Void is an unblockable Supernatural ability. Depending on your DM, you can essentially scry ANY area before you enter it. This lets your entire party prepare the exact spells/powers/etc that you need to defeat those specific foes.

2) Moment of Clarity lets you add almost any feat for 1 round per level (essentially one combat, often with enough time to add it just before combat starts). This includes Martial Study, Martial Stance, Expanded Knowledge, Shape Soulmeld, etc.

3) Void Release can be used to make an one of your ally's attributes equal to their highest attribute for 1/2 rounds per level. This ability is highly build dependent - but very useful if people in your party know that you have it when they make their build choices. You could give someone a ton of hitpoints. Monks could get more Stunning Fist uses and a higher DC. Anyone with Turn Undead could get a bunch more uses to fuel Divine and Domain feats. Incarnum builds can become instant Diplomacers. And so on.

4) Void Suppression does the opposite to an enemy, swapping a high score to a low one. The ultimate No Save debuff. (Note that some enemies have 0, 1, 2, or 3 in Con or Cha, which would will sometimes instantly kill them or render them nearly helpless if you swap it to another score).

5) 8/13 spell progression is pretty cruddy for most PrC. But for a PrC that has such awesome base abilities, this is a nifty extra - especially if you use a fast progression PrC to gain entry.