Help Deciphering Mad Tailor Prestige Class

[ihatepigmen]

So my group and I are playing an evil campaign where characters such as mine are ok and fit, and I came across the Ultimate Prestige Classes 2 book and found the Mad Tailor prestige class.

The class involves a spellcaster (arcane or psionic I think) who has gone mad and begun sewing together dead creatures to make little minions for themselves that get different abilities depending on what creatures they're made of. Othe class features involve the concept of your character going mad.

The idea of creating the Mad Constructs is really cool to me, but I really can't figure out how creating these things works, or at what level some of the abilities are received. The class description seems really poorly laid out to me and I cant find anything else online discussing this class whatsoever. So if anyone has heard of this class or could figure it out better than me I'd really appreciate it. The PDF of the sourcebook is on Scribd.

[Uncle Pine]

First off, as you mentioned, the layout of the class and the third party book it comes from is pretty much a mess. This could be one of the reasons no one seemingly ever mentioned the class online.
Secondly, the class itself seems very much a worse alternative than simply going for a Shaper Psion (for the custom constructs with XYZ powers) or an Artificer or Sorcerer/Wizard Fleshwarper (if you'd rather invest permanent resources into stitching up amalgams instead of conjuring them up).

That aside, let's look at the actual class:

• As written, its entry requirements simply don't work: despite the sourcebook claiming the supplement is for 3.5e, polymorph other is neither a spell nor a power in 3.5e. Assuming the intended point of entry is around 8th level, since the various skill requirements can be satisfied by 7th level, the closest alternative would be the Polymorph spell and its psionic counterpart, Metamorphosis. Luckily, the fact that the Metamorphosis line is "Range: Personal" only doesn't make the PrC dysfunctional as neither the spell nor the power are ever referenced again.
• Similarly, Knowledge (anatomy) does not exist as such things are handled by the same branch of the Knowledge skill you'd use to identify a creature of a given type (i.e. "local" for humanoids).
• Psionic characters can't use their manifester level to qualify for Craft Wondrous Item and instead use the Craft Universal Item psionic feat.
• While we know that the Mad Tailor gets full spellcasting progression and that the class has at least 10 levels, which would normally make it at least better than simply taking 10 more levels of straight Wizard (but see below), there is no class table for it, leaving us guessing about its BAB and save bonus. This is bad, but at least we're basically guaranteed to not go wrong with poor BAB, Fort, and Ref and good Will.
• First Signs and Mad Construct I are available from 1st level. While a DC 20 Will save at the DM's discretion with minor RP consequences seem unnecessary and the "insanity penalties" should really be either morale or unnamed, they are pretty self-explanatory. When not said otherwise, Mad Costruct should most likely follow Craft Construct rules. They are the rules for crafting constructs, after all. You do not need the feat itself to craft mad constructs.
• The "Core Rulebook III" is the Monster Manual.
• If you decide to make a Mad Tailor stop at 7th level, as since hysterics follow the same rules as rage, they also prevent you from "using any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except for Balance, Escape Artist, Intimidate, and Ride), the Concentration skill, or any abilities that require patience or concentration, as well as casting spells or activate magic items that require a command word, a spell trigger (such as a wand), or spell completion (such as a scroll) to function." Yes, the spellcasting class has a built-in class feature threatening to prevent you from casting spells every single round of combat with increasingly high DC to resist. Wonderful.