Awesome non-game-breaking Prestige Classes

[Zephykinns]

This is basically the Thread everyone can come to glom over any fun prestige classes that aren't munchkin magnets.

I personally found my favorite prestige class to take as a character that heals/inspires people. It is called the Heart warder. They don't get much battle wise, but they would be GREAT to roleplay as. I wanna give it a shot if I can ever get ahold of a higher level campaign, or a dedicated group that wants to make a good story.

[Saph]

Loremaster is one of my favourites. It does what a PrC should do; makes you better at the thing it's supposed to specialise in and gives you extra abilities that are fun and useful without being broken.

[The Glyphstone]

The Fleshwarper will still always hold a special place in my [Silthilar Graft] heart.

[Kylarra]

Swiftblade.

[Starbuck_II]

Radiant Servant of Pelor is relatively balanced. It makes you a better healer/turner.

[Longcat]

If it weren't for the "non-game-breaking"-part, I'd say Planar Shepherd. From the flavor point-of-view, Druids turning into Outsiders is just awesome. Balance-wise, not so much.

Otherwise, my vote goes to Ruby-Knight Vindicator. You get to be a clerical martial-artist assassin with the flavor of a Warhammer 40k Inquisitor.

[Zephykinns]

I know ALOT of people that hate prestige classes because they say it "overpowers" them. It does not do that. It just specializes them. And peopel tend to be better at something they can do. It isn't like they all of a sudden became good at EVERYTHING.

[Vizzerdrix]

I'm a fan of Effigy Master, Alchemist Savant and Spell Sovereign (Dragon Magazine #357)

And the Techsmith too. I'm generally a big fan of constructs.

[Boci]

What about an incantrix who took a vow to never target an unwilling creature with their magic, or use it to force others to serve her? (I.E. never summons, just buffs party members and uses the ocasional divination spell to help learn stuff)

[Swok]

Totem Rager. Mostly because of the whole "angry beast" vibe it has.

[Yuki Akuma]

I know ALOT of people that hate prestige classes because they say it "overpowers" them. It does not do that. It just specializes them. And peopel tend to be better at something they can do. It isn't like they all of a sudden became good at EVERYTHING.

Except of course the prestige classes that are actually overpowered.

Planar Shepherd, for example, which makes you even better at everything than a normal Druid.

[Sinfire Titan]

What about an incantrix who took a vow to never target an unwilling creature with their magic, or use it to force others to serve her? (I.E. never summons, just buffs party members and uses the ocasional divination spell to help learn stuff)

Still broken. Free metamagic on any spell cast means auto-Persist buffs.


Sapphire Hierarch for me.

[Raiki]

I have to go with War Weaver. It's good, but it doesn't break the game. It takes the wizard, and nudges it gently in the direction of Not Being A Jerk™. On top of that, it gets points for style.

Now, people using legacy champion or uncanny trickster to overpower it. That is worth a Backhanded Troutslap (also ™).

~R~

[Drascin]

Jade Phoenix Mage is extremely cool, and while powerful, I wouldn't call it gamebreakingly overpowered - or at least not as much as a singleclassed Wizard.

Also, I love the Pyrokineticist. Yes, it kinda sucks, but I have made it a point in many of my melee builds to splash a level of it just because creating a fire whip with my mind is always cool.

[Sinfire Titan]

Jade Phoenix Mage is extremely cool, and while powerful, I wouldn't call it gamebreakingly overpowered - or at least not as much as a singleclassed Wizard.

JPM is a +1 PrC, so no, it isn't that powerful. It's the people who say the Bo9S is broken that claim it is OP'ed.

[Boci]

Still broken. Free metamagic on any spell cast means auto-Persist buffs.

It overpowered but is it broken? No one is going to feel useless because your character is taking down challanges without breaking a sweat, and the DM doesn't have to spend ages making encounters that will be challanging for you without slaughtering the other players.

[Felyndiira]

Back when I played Drizzt-clone Eilistraee clerics, one of my favorites was the sword dancer. It's a class balanced towards martial abilities, has nice flavor, and isn't excessively unbalanced (it makes the cleric stronger, but all cleric PrCs make them stronger). The PrC also ended up inspiring one of my favorite characters - an Eilistraee cleric who was a generally curious person didn't give a crap about drow-surface relations or traditions, and simply gained the goddess's favor by doing things she thought were fun that accidentally advanced said objectives.

Right now, my favorite is probably the divine oracle. It fits my illogical like of clerics and offers a really nice flavor along with a few fun abilities. It's especially fun to, instead of playing the Cassandra effect, to cryptically remark at the consequences of other PCs' habits and leave them flabbergasted.

[Sinfire Titan]

It overpowered but is it broken? No one is going to feel useless because your character is taking down challanges without breaking a sweat, and the DM doesn't have to spend ages making encounters that will be challanging for you without slaughtering the other players.

Every encounter in the campaign becomes "Dispel Magic, did it work?", "No", and "Oh, well crap. Here's your XP".


Incanatrix, even when holding back, can ruin the challenge of encounters by sheer nature of it's abilities. The same goes for Planar Shepherd (which can be used to simply Drown anyone within a set radius, as the weakest ability they have), Tainted Scholar (which really screws with MAD, even when played as intended), and Dweomerkeeper (SU Spell is just that damn good because it renders the spell immune to Dispel Magic).

[Boci]

Every encounter in the campaign becomes "Dispel Magic, did it work?", "No", and "Oh, well crap. Here's your XP".

Because every party member is hasted they suddenly auto win challanges? I know there are some broken buffs like ironguard. They don't have to be used.

[deuxhero]

Loremaster is one of my favourites. It does what a PrC should do; makes you better at the thing it's supposed to specialise in and gives you extra abilities that are fun and useful without being broken.

This. Swiftblade is also cool for the balance between abilites and no-casting levels that make you actually want to take the class.

[taltamir]

I know ALOT of people that hate prestige classes because they say it "overpowers" them. It does not do that. It just specializes them. And peopel tend to be better at something they can do. It isn't like they all of a sudden became good at EVERYTHING.

that entirely depends on the class in question. Some ARE overpowering.
take incantantrix for example. its supposedly "abjuration specialized", but its power (and overpower) comes from free metamagic reducers.

[Pyro_Azer]

Silver Key

[Sinfire Titan]

Because every party member is hasted they suddenly auto win challanges? I know there are some broken buffs like ironguard. They don't have to be used.

Haste can't be Persisted. Variable range. However, the buffs you can persist all stack, so they eventually add up too much and overwhelm any opponent incapable of dispelling them.

I'm not talking broken buffs, I'm talking stacking buffs. On their own, they aren't that powerful. But when you apply 3 or 4 or 5 of them to everyone in the party (fairly easy when coupled with War Weaver) they get out of hand and make life difficult for the DM. A fully buffed party (via normal Wizard buffs) is usually capable of handling 4-6 encounters per day, all of which are 2-3 levels above their ECL (if everyone is at the same level of optimization).

With an Incanatrix in the party, suddenly every caster's buff spells are auto-Persisted. If you assume a standard Cleric/Wizard/Skill Monkey/Beat Stick party, that's twice the number of buffs that are lasting longer than they should. Between a 20th level party of 4, there's approixmately 40 spells from the Wizard and 50 spells from the Cleric (not counting bonus spells, but counting Domains). If even a tenth of those are just buff spells the Incanatrix can target with Persist, that's 9 spells the enemy has to deal with on a single character (likely the Beat Stick). Whoever gets targeted that day ends up being the most powerful weapon the party has until hit with an AMF or Dispel or MDJ.

When the DM has to resort to flinging a Dispel Magic every encounter, it means something has rendered encounters trivial. It's actually safer to just use a Standard GOD or Batman build than to allow Incanatrix.

[Greymane]

Until recently, my favorite was Archmage. Mastery of magic was pretty cool in my opinion.

Then I found the Fiendbinder in Tome of Magic.

You lose a few caster levels, but you get a harem of succubi in return, so it's all good.

[Boci]

Haste can't be Persisted. Variable range. However, the buffs you can persist all stack, so they eventually add up too much and overwhelm any opponent incapable of dispelling them.

I'm not talking broken buffs, I'm talking stacking buffs. On their own, they aren't that powerful. But when you apply 3 or 4 or 5 of them to everyone in the party (fairly easy when coupled with War Weaver) they get out of hand and make life difficult for the DM. A fully buffed party (via normal Wizard buffs) is usually capable of handling 4-6 encounters per day, all of which are 2-3 levels above their ECL (if everyone is at the same level of optimization).

With an Incanatrix in the party, suddenly every caster's buff spells are auto-Persisted. If you assume a standard Cleric/Wizard/Skill Monkey/Beat Stick party, that's twice the number of buffs that are lasting longer than they should. Between a 20th level party of 4, there's approixmately 40 spells from the Wizard and 50 spells from the Cleric (not counting bonus spells, but counting Domains). If even a tenth of those are just buff spells the Incanatrix can target with Persist, that's 9 spells the enemy has to deal with on a single character (likely the Beat Stick). Whoever gets targeted that day ends up being the most powerful weapon the party has until hit with an AMF or Dispel or MDJ.

When the DM has to resort to flinging a Dispel Magic every encounter, it means something has rendered encounters trivial. It's actually safer to just use a Standard GOD or Batman build than to allow Incanatrix.

That is scary. I don't hace access to the 3.5 Incantrix. Could it work with the 3.0 one?

[faceroll]

I really like the idea of the spellsword. If spells didn't get me so excited, I'd take more than one level in it.

Two prestige classes I'm a big fan of is the (Illithid) Slayer and the Mage of the Arcane Order. Walker in the Waste is really cool, too.

Edit
@ Sinfire Titan
Do you allow Incantatrixes to circumvent the limitations of persistent spell?

[Amphetryon]

A vote for Elocator. Flank from funny angles, mobility improvements and some additional Psionic abilities without being a full advancing class.

[Hyooz]

I like Walker in the Wastes, it combines two of my favorite themes: necromancy and deserts.

[Crow]

I have always liked the thaumaturgist.

[deuxhero]

Haste can't be Persisted. Variable range. However, the buffs you can persist all stack, so they eventually add up too much and overwhelm any opponent incapable of dispelling them.

Isn't ''swift'' haste 1:lower level (somewhat quicker) 2:self only (non-variable)