Abjurant Champion - actually worth anything?

[Abstruse]

In theory, the Abjurant Champion prestige class would be an enormous benefit from the Abjurant Armor ability. I mean, who wouldn't like a few extra points of AC, garnered from that class level? Mage Armor, Shield, Protection from Evil -- not to mention a few of the nice AC-boosting spells out of the Spell Compendium and PHB2.

But in taking a second look at it, I noticed that the specific wording seems to hamstring any truly substantial bonus. First off, the ability is limited to only abjuration spells -- which knocks out Mage Armor, being a conjuration spell. Second, it only benefits spells which grant an armor or shield bonus -- which knocks out Protection from Evil, since the bonus it grants is deflection. Ditto Deflect and Lesser Deflect.

Basically, if you jump into the prestige class, all you're gaining for your five levels is +5 to AC that lasts a few rounds. Unless I'm missing some fine details that somehow make it worthwhile?

[Douglas]

The intent is clearly that it was supposed to work with Mage Armor, the writer just neglected to look up the spell's actual school. Point out to your DM that Mage Armor is explicitly mentioned as an example in the ability's description and that the example character's stat block shows the armor bonus from Mage Armor as +9 and ask him to houserule it while we wait for errata to fix it officially. If the BoED's is allowed and your character is good aligned, use Luminous Armor and Greater Luminous Armor instead.

[Zagreen]

Well, that and +5 BAB and a full 5 levels of spellcasting and all your abjurations have their duration doubled and you can cast level 1-3 abjuration spells as swift actions and in a pinch you gain various swift 1-round bonuses fueled by spell slots.

It's not the most broken class in the game or anything but it's still an awesome class for any melee spellcasting types and not shabby for any arcane spellcasters in general.

[Tor the Fallen]

Sounds good for mixing up with switchblade for a reliable gish.

[Ramza00]

Sounds good for mixing up with switchblade for a reliable gish.

Its perfect for mixing with swiftblade. Both classes require profiency with 1 martial weapon, thus you can choose your race or use just a feat to get into both without a lvl of fighter or similar class.

Swiftblade also requires dodge and mobility (pre-reqs for spring attack which you get with swiftblade 1). That and 3rd lvl spells with which you can cast haste exclusively. +3 BAB and some skill points are the only other pre reqs.

Abjurant Champion requires +5 bab, combat casting, and 1 abjuration spell of at least 1st lvl.
---------------------------

Then again Abjurant Champion is a perfect for any gish.

[Thrawn183]

Mage Armor may not work with Abjurant Champion RAW, but you could instead use Greater Luminous Armor from Book of Exalted Deeds which is an abjuration spell. +13 to AC from a single spell? Yes please!

[Nebo_]

For a Gish build, that class is a godsend. Before it came along, you had to take more squishy caster levels and/or more levels of a non-full casting PrC like Spellsword.

[Ikkitosen]

Yeah, even for a full caster, free quickening of dispel magic, magic circle against, protection from energy and other great abjurations is well worthwhile. Full BAB for your ranged touches. Pretty darn good. Not IotSV broken, but pretty darn good.

[Epiphanis]

What everybody else said. Also, I wouldn't sneeze at an extra +5 to AC, even if it doesn't stick very long. This is probably my favorite gishy PrC.

[Annarrkkii]

How about this puppy?

Sorcerer/Monk/Abjurant Champion with Ascetic Mage. That's right. Charisma to AC instead of Wisdom (less MAD!), nigh full casting, +13 from Luminous Armor, unarmed fighting...

[Ikkitosen]

Poor unarmed fighting though - no monk abilities from AbjChamp. Plus you'd need to have quite a few levels to get the +5 required BAB.

Maybe Enlightened Fist before AbjChamp?

[ravenkith]

Don't forget the chunky HD.

In fact, the Abjurant Champion PRC is vastly superior to straight sorceror levels, and, In my mind, edges out straight wizard levels in most cases.

Against other PRCs, it starts to lose it's luster, unless you're out to make a gish.

In combination with other PRCs, it can really be quite nasty.

Consider:
Abjurer 3/Master Specialist 10/Abjurant Champion 5/Abjurer 4-5 - A powerful and tough counterspeller, with the right feats. Replace the last two levels of abjurer with archmage if you're feeling froggy.

Fighter 2/Diviner (Martial Variant) 5/Abjurant Champion 5/Eldritch Knight 8 - A very nice gish, weighted with a lot of feats on the front end, to set you up for some good combos. Picking up arcane strike, two weapon fighting, combat reflexes, and Karmic Strike sets you up to deal incredible amounts of damage starting in the mid ranges and going all the way to twenty.

It's really Sorceror that gains the most benefit from this class, however, it takes significant investment to get into it.

Fighter 1/Sorceror 1-6/Eldritch Knight 1/Abjurant Champion 1-5/Eldritch Knight 2-8 is vastly superior to sorceror 20, for instance (not that hard to do, sadly), especially combined with two weapon fighting, arcane strike, karmic strike, and combat reflexes.

+9th level spells
+Swift abjurations (AC benefit)
+Extended abjurations (AC benefit)
+6d10+8d6+6d4 HD vs. 20d4
+17 BAB
+2 bonus fighter feats
etc., etc., etc.

(AFB atm)

[Annarrkkii]

Not a bad idea. I've never even looked twice at Enlightened Fist, but I suppose it would help speed the build up, and flavor it pretty well. It works better with Sorcerer's than wizards, certainly, since you have all those spell slots to burn.

So something like... Sorcerer 5/Monk 2/Abjurant Champion 5/Enlightened Fist 8?