Alienist

[Hexer]

Why do I never really see this class mentioned? Does noone play it? If so: why?

What are your thoughts on the class?

Personally I'd think one could have some great fun playing one at least if you go flavour over optimisation. I'm not an experienced player though so I'd like to see what you guys think.
HAS anyone played one (or is playing one of course)? How do/did you go about it?

 

[libermortis]

i could be a great roleplaying charecter, but i wouldent choos it because its hard to fit into a party.
face it your charecter is a freaking alien lover, " wow look at the spaceship lets hug it"

your charecter is going to be alone and thenn the fun wears off :S

 

[RedTonic]

You can see the Alienist PrC in play if you check out Shilsen's Eberron storyhour and Sepulchrave's Tales of Wyre (and its sequel) storyhour. Those pair are frightfully effective and very well played. Personally, I haven't played one yet, since I haven't been in a campaign where such a PC would make an okay fit.

 

[Hexer]

I think it would be best if you can pull off to really play out that insane, weird, creepy side of it.

Maybe it would be best in a generally non-good party?

After all being a freaky alien lover doesnt mean your char cant have its bright moments and/or even come up with greatly helpfull stuff (though his/her mind might get to those points in very strange ways)


lol I kinda imagine something like:

*demon apears*
demon:
other PCs:
Alienist: awwww you're a demon, right? Come on guys, nothing to be shocked off, there are far worse things out there. Oh, while we're at it, have a look at this for example...

 

[Rhun]

I don't mind the class, just hasn't fit any of the PC concepts I've come up with thus far. But I could say that about a whole bunch of classes.

 

[the Jester]

I love the alienist but am almost always the dm.

However, I played an alienist in a short epic campaign and she was AWESOME!!! And awesomely creepy!

She had great custom spells, like one that made a tentacle sprout from your own body and attack you. Also, she treated sending like kids today treat text messaging.

 

[Eldritch_Lord]

From a mechanical perspective, the alienist can't summon non-pseudonatural creatures, which means no non-templated outsiders on the SM lists, which means you don't get all the outsiders' SLAs, which drastically cuts down on your utility.

From a flavor perspective, a summoner of Far Realms aberrations isn't likely to be welcome in polite society, so you can severely handicap your party if you have any obvious aberrant deformities (which you really should, if you're getting into the spirit of the thing ) or summon aliens in the presence of others.

Essentially, the only time it's a good choice to play, as opposed to a substandard one or merely somewhat acceptable, is if you're in a low-powered game or are holding yourself back and you're in a party with other weird/monstrous party members...and let's face it, that doesn't come up all that often.

 

[Ahnehnois]

I likd the 3.5 revision a lot; really clarified the drawback mechanics.

I've never seen one played. I suspect it's rare for the same reason any character focused on summoning is rare: it takes a lot of bookkeeping and monster knowledge to actually get anything out of a character like that. I could see playing an alienist though.

 

[Hexer]

From a mechanical perspective, the alienist can't summon non-pseudonatural creatures, which means no non-templated outsiders on the SM lists, which means you don't get all the outsiders' SLAs, which drastically cuts down on your utility.

From a flavor perspective, a summoner of Far Realms aberrations isn't likely to be welcome in polite society, so you can severely handicap your party if you have any obvious aberrant deformities (which you really should, if you're getting into the spirit of the thing ) or summon aliens in the presence of others.

Essentially, the only time it's a good choice to play, as opposed to a substandard one or merely somewhat acceptable, is if you're in a low-powered game or are holding yourself back and you're in a party with other weird/monstrous party members...and let's face it, that doesn't come up all that often.

From what I read an Alienist only gains any alien deformities at PRC level10 but I'd actually find it fun to play around with something like that earlier I think

Ah, so the main drawback is that you can summon pseudonatural versions of "normal" creatures (making them outsiders) but cant summon "normal" outsiders? Is that the case? As I said, I'm pretty inexperienced still and especially so with magic classes. Thats one of the reasons why I stay away from them for now: sooooooo much reading and learning to do, even more that with other classes

oh and the weird party thing has actually come up in the game I'm playing in right now which is my first game (if you dont count that one that only lasted like 1.5 sessions). I will soon play a human hellfire warlock with a kinda insane and very dark touch and a few abyssal herritor feats (by the time I'll be ready to play something like the Alienist I'll probably be used to hiding weird features lol), other characters include a drow, a hafgiant barbarian, an imp, a goblin (hope thats the right translation) cleric.... and as far as I can remember, none of the party members is more good than chaotic neutral muhaha.
actually worked pretty well so far

 

[Dandu]

You also get tentacles.