Alienist: what's the cost?

[Crothian]

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.

The unwritten after effect of level 10 is the character is eaten by Cthulhu, other then that I think you got everything

 

[Ramien Meltides]

Ki Ryn,

I'm getting the impression I should choose a different prestige class.

 

[Crothian]

Ki Ryn,

I'm getting the impression I should choose a different prestige class.

It's a fine prestige class. I just encourage you to take Alertness, and not depend on the familiar. Heck, you can ask Ki Ryn to allow them to stack, Rule 0 has it's uses and that's not really out of line.

 

[Knightcrawler]

Its actually a really good class. Right now I'm playing a drow sorcerer/alienist. Lots of fun. We added in a possible alignment change due to the contact with the psudonatural. And we also really play up the phobia.

Searching for another alienist or psudonatural creature should not be easy. Mine actually involved two levels and about 5 gaming sessions. Of course my looking and research was done between the quest we were already doing. I had to work hard to get it.

I usually summon a fiendish creature and then tack on the psudonatural template and they have a lot of resistances. Very cool and very useful..

Thought of actually bringing in Cthulhu or Azoth in from CoC. Ir actually gives some details under their description in the D20 CoC on how to work them into a D&D campaign.

 

[Pax]

It's a fine prestige class. I just encourage you to take Alertness, and not depend on the familiar. Heck, you can ask Ki Ryn to allow them to stack, Rule 0 has it's uses and that's not really out of line.

Alternately, in the spirit of Spell Penetration / Greater Spell Penetration ... Spell Focus / Greater Spell Focus ... and so on: make a new feat, "Greater Alertness", which provides a +4 benefit (compared to the +2 of Alertness), and which has Alertness as a prerequisite.

Then, for the Familiar's Alertness effect ... reword it so the Familiar will, if the spellcaster already *has* Alertness, grant the benefits of Greater Alertness.

*poof* Problem solved.

 

[shilsen]

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

The PC joined the campaign at 6th or 7th lvl, so he came in with the alienist PrC already obtained.

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.

Here's what an alienist loses over the 10 lvls (in comparison to a regular Wiz):

2-3 bonus Metamagic or Item Creation feats, familiar progression, 2 pts of Wisdom, develops a phobia towards a type of creature, has to take Alertness as a prerequisite feat.

What he gains:

2 Metamagic feats, +1 insight bonus to all saves, +6 hp, all summoned creatures and familiar become pseudonatural, a free spellcasting slot at highest level (only usable for Summon Monster spells), immunity to aging, becomes an outsider.

Not drastically more powerful than a regular Wiz, but the gains do outweigh the losses. YMMV.

 

[radferth]

I would bet that the authors intended that the wizard need to take the alertness feat himself (it is a populat trick for prc reqs that the character take a useless feat). I made a highly customized version of the Alienist, but one feature that might work well in balancing this one is that the alienist I made loses his familiar entirely, as his mind becomes too warped to maintain the close bond. Of course, I would think just about any DM would need to look at tweaking the alienist depending on how he uses "pseudo-normal" in his campaign.

 

[Laslo Tremaine]

I usually summon a fiendish creature and then tack on the psudonatural template and they have a lot of resistances. Very cool and very useful...

Just a note Knightcrawler, but I am pretty darn sure that the pseudonatural template replaces the celestial or fiendish templates a summoned creature might have...

I also certainly would not let a character get away with using familiar granted alertness for fulfilling the prereq for a PrC (I am running a Wiz5/Alienist7 right now and I concidered it for about 2 minutes before ditching the idea as a bit too hyper-munchkin...).

 

[Shard O'Glase]

The PC joined the campaign at 6th or 7th lvl, so he came in with the alienist PrC already obtained.



Here's what an alienist loses over the 10 lvls (in comparison to a regular Wiz):

2-3 bonus Metamagic or Item Creation feats, familiar progression, 2 pts of Wisdom, develops a phobia towards a type of creature, has to take Alertness as a prerequisite feat.

What he gains:

2 Metamagic feats, +1 insight bonus to all saves, +6 hp, all summoned creatures and familiar become pseudonatural, a free spellcasting slot at highest level (only usable for Summon Monster spells), immunity to aging, becomes an outsider.

Not drastically more powerful than a regular Wiz, but the gains do outweigh the losses. YMMV.

OK, 6 hp and +1 insight bonus to saves I see as benefits. Immunity to aging I really don't see as a bennie, and in some cases a penalty.(If you find a real way to stop aging you are still stolen away at end of natural life span) Pseudonatural I see as a penalty. It is one template, with one templates resistences, as a standard wiz I gain two templates for my summoned monsters, so I get a wider range of resistences. (benefit is highly dependent on how often you use the sometimes seen as underpowered summon spell line) Outsider is kinda nice for wizard types, I see it as a penalty for monks who are mellee combatants who can't touch there foes whe a simple protection from lawful is up. But for wizards a kinda nice ha-ha I'm immune to suckers perk, not that I ever face suckers at my level but it is cool. One extra spell slot kinda nice.

But I have to blow some valuable skill points and a feat.( a good feat but a feat) The gains over a standard wizard are so small I not sure its worth the mechanical costs, roleplaying benies/penalties may make it fun though. The only thing I liked about the prestige class is that it is one of the few(in T&B) that don't lose spell casting levels. IMO for wizards virtually every prestige class that looses more than two spell levels over 10 levels isn't worth the paper to wipe your butt on.

 

[Knightcrawler]

Just a note Knightcrawler, but I am pretty darn sure that the pseudonatural template replaces the celestial or fiendish templates a summoned creature might have...

Drat your right. But thanks for pointing that out. As to the Alertness feat requirement I would make the player actually take the feat. To get the abilities you have to pay the price.

Slumber watcher till the sphere's, all these six and twenty-thousand years, have revolved and I return to the spot where now I burn. Other stars anon shall rise. To the axis of the skies. Stars that soothe and stars that bless with a sweet forgetfulness. Only when my round is over will the past disturb thy door.