Alienist: what's the cost?

[0-hr]

I have a player considering this PrC so I was looking it over from a balance perspective. Since he's a wizard and so has familiar Alertness for free, what is he actually giving up to get into this class?

The prerequisites are:

8 ranks Knowledge Arcana
8 ranks Knowledge Planes
Alterness
Ability to cast one Divination and on summoning spell of 3rd level or higher.
Prior contact with an alienist or pseudonatural creature.

These all seem pretty trivial for a PrC that grants +1 spell casting every level on top of it's other powerful class abilities. What (if anything) is supposed to balance it out? This isn't Forgotten Realms after all...

 

[Voadam]

Doesn't the class drive you mad? I haven't read it in a while but I seem to remember it had mechanical aspects for that.

 

[Crothian]

The fact you can kill his familiar and he looses everything?

16 ranks in knowledges is not a small sacrifice. Also, meeting an alienist or Pseudonatural creature is as easy or as hard as the DM makes it. So, if you feel the other requiremnents are too easy, make this one extra hard.

 

[mzsylver]

there is the wisdom hit, that hurts.

and as someone mentioned... tasty tasty insanity... ya cthulu!

 

[Ramien Meltides]

The downsides, (game mechanics wise) are the permanent wisdom loss and the phobia penalty.

Roleplaying wise, there's that funky looking tentacle you grow at 10th level.

 

[shilsen]

The downsides, (game mechanics wise) are the permanent wisdom loss and the phobia penalty.

Roleplaying wise, there's that funky looking tentacle you grow at 10th level.

My current RttToEE party has an alienist in it, and the PrC's definitely much stronger than a regular wizard. The permanent Wis loss isn't as bad as it looks, since it occurs at the same time as a +1 insight bonus to all saves. The phobia penalty depends more on the DM and roleplaying for effectiveness. The summoned pseudonatural creatures tend to be more effective in combat than the celestial or fiendish versions. Overall, it's a PrC that gives you a lot for very little.

 

[Crothian]

My current RttToEE party has an alienist in it, and the PrC's definitely much stronger than a regular wizard.

How difficult was it to locate another Alienist or pseudonatural creature?

 

[Dr_Rictus]

Since he's a wizard and so has familiar Alertness for free, what is he actually giving up to get into this class?

The prospective alienist can only get out of actually taking the Alertness feat if he wants to lose all of his prestige class abilities when his familiar is not in arm's reach.

Note that there's a whole 'nother thread to discuss this fact, so please (please please) let's don't go off on a tangent about it here.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

Wow and here I felt that the benefits of the alienist were so minor it wasn't worth the effort. What are these benefits that make the alienst much more powerful than the straight wizard. I see a list of tiny benefits not worth 5 skill points.

 

[0-hr]

Ok, so not much in terms of real cost. Thanks for the input eveyone, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.