Nyambe PrC balance?

[Mr. Patient]

Has anyone here had a chance to playtest any of the PrCs from Nyambe?
There are some very interesting concepts there, but I'm worried about
balance. I'm thinking in particular of the Inyanga Yensimbi, who gets
fighter BAB, two good saves, d8, 4 skill points, a
number of nice abilities including natural armor and a little DR, and
then, to top it off, the spells per day of a 10th-level cleric (minus the
domain spells -- 6/4/4/3/3/2), all in five levels.

I have similar concerns about the Mask Maker (5 levels, d6, 4 skill points,
cleric BAB, all good saves, 6/4/4/3/3/2 cleric spells, plus some nifty
abilities).

On their face, these look overpowered to me, mostly because the spells
seem kind of gratuitous and unnecessary. Does anyone have any experience
with them (or other Nyambe classes)?

 

[Mindcrime]

If you use Nyamban PrCs in settings like Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk, then, yeah, they're overpowerful. But, within the constraints of the Nyambe setting they're pretty balanced I think. The core classes in Nyambe are also pretty powerful compared to those of other settings but that's because the Nyamban setting is a rather harsh one (no metal armor, different magic items, etc.)

Chris

 

[DM with a vengence]

In general Nyambe is slightly overpowered as compared to standard D&D, so a little bit of unbalancing is to be expected when everybody starts loading up on combat spells and Full Plste with Nyamban classes. Most of the PrCs looked okay, but I've house-ruled the ones with a full 0-9 level spell progression into +1 caster level classes.

 

[Mr. Patient]

Thanks for the replies. I haven't had a chance yet to actually play in Nyambe, so I wasn't sure how well any of the classes worked. I agree that the unique conditions in Nyambe could mitigate a lot of the potential problems. I'll have to see for myself, but I think I may end up following DM with a vengence's lead and turning some of their spell progressions into +1 caster level.