[Dragon] Earthshaker PrC too dang good?

[Pielorinho]

I just got the latest Dragon, and was thrilled to see a PrC specifically for earthy druids: that's what I'm playing, and I've been looking for a good PrC for awhile.

And the one they have looks pretty good: steep entry requirements that mean you can't join until 10th level at the earliest, +1 spellcasting at each level, a limited but scalable tremorsense, and a few other abilities.

Including the Earth Domain, available at first level.

Wha-? You mean I can take one level in a prestige class and gain one extra spell per level?! And that's in addition to all the other benefits of the class?

That looks far, far too good to me. Even ignoring the secondary benefit of the earth domain (which, since it's based off Earthshaker levels, is nearly useless), this is an incredibly useful perk.

What do y'all think? Overpowered? If so, how would you fix the class? If not, am I missing something?

Daniel

 

[Joshua Randall]

Gaining an extra spell per level is given out like candy: to all clerics with their domains; to specialist wizards; and to many PrC's that gain access to a domain. So if it's overpowered, it's also overused.

Also - if you're looking for earthy druids, check out Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves, which has a cool druid PrC.

 

[Carnifex]

I haven't seen the Dragon in question, but when it grants the Earth domain, does the PrC specifically say that non-clerics gain a bonus domain spell slot?

If not, then they don't get anything from the domain other than the granted power, while clerics gain a slight boost as they do in any PrC where they get an extra domain.

 

[Pielorinho]

Carnifex, they explicitly gain the bonus domain spell slot. First thing I checked .

And while specialist wizards and clerics both gain those bonus spells too, that's figured into the core class. It's one of the core benefits to being a cleric (along with spontaneous casting and turning/rebuking undead), and specialist wizards give up an important amount of flexibility in exchange for that extra slot.

I'm unaware of any other PrC that actually gives free spell slots out.

Daniel

 

[Joshua Randall]

Hmm... I guess I was being sloppy in assuming that all PrC's that granted domains also granted the bonus spells. My mistake.

 

[Pielorinho]

Huh -- you may be right on that, Joshua. I'm pretty sure that most of those PrCs, however, require the person joining to have some levels in cleric (usually by requiring the ability to turn or rebuke undead). The earthshaker class is custom-made for druids.

Daniel