I need your recommendations for Prestige Classes

[hong]

I suppose more than anything i want a list of PRC's to avoid.

B0rken PrCs:
Windrider
Hospitaler
Ninja of the crescent moon (pre-errata)

Powerful PrCs:
Initiate of the bow
Arcane trickster
Mage of the arcane order
Bladesinger
Duelist
Weapon master
Contemplative
Frenzied berserker
Deepwood sniper

Middle-of-the-road PrCs:
Candle caster
Dragon disciple
Ninja of the crescent moon (post-errata)
Virtuoso
Thief-acrobat

PrCs that got teh shaft:
True necromancer

Dumbest PrCs evar:
Warmaster
Gladiator
Ghostwalker
Oozemaster

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I liked the Shifter Prestige Class (Master of the Wild), but this might be to specialized. And it is probably not powerful. (Though shifting into a troll, giant or etting will probably not to bad. )

Oh, and I think the Spymaster is interesting. But absolutely nothing for RttoE.

The loremaster from the DMG is good.
Hey, he gets Use Magic Device and several bonus feats/abilities!

 

[jontherev]

Sounds like the Temple Raider of Olidammara would fit perfectly, since you are going through RttToEE. I'm using it, and it's really fun.

 

[Frosty]

I play a Spymaster in Freeport. It's a lot of fun. You get to have secret identities which you can use when ever it strikes your fancy to role-play your character a little differently. First the character is known as a shady Olidammara-cleric by the name of Dorn-Felder Syrah. (That's the real character) Secondly the character is Tudor Trubbleton, Esq a private investigator with office in Freeport. Last but not least the character is Black Esther, a female pirate feared on the high seas!

Clr3/Rog3/Ran1/Spm5

 

[The Dungeon Nazi]

duelist monk if almost untouchable- his touch AC is the same as his regular (with int, dex and wis bonus to Ac)

and his saves are amazing also- but his attacks lack luster- but nothing magic weapons cant fix...

Or feats. My own Duelist wields a keen rapier with Improved Critical, and his threat range extends from 20 down to 12.

 

[shurai]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned the other prestige classes in the DMG. The Dwarven Defender and Loremaster are pretty good.

If you'd like some advice, design your own prestige classes that are custom-fit for the campaign. That's really what prestige classes are for: to add flavor and depth to your setting by being specific about the culture and people living in your world.

Also, the Duelist/monk won't be insane unless you're letting people play with 35 or 40 point characters, or else characters with very strange ability scores. Remember that D&D 3rd Edition is designed for use with 25-point characters with only one or two scores above 14. If you're letting people play with a 16 in dex, wis, and int, that's already a 30-point character if they have 8s in everything else.

How good will the duelist/monk be with the default array? That's 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8.

Obviously, the 15 goes in dex and the 14 into wis, leaving a 13 for int. He's probably gotten 8 levels by now so that's a 16 dex, 14 wis, 14 int. He also gets a +1 for being a monk and likely +2 or +3 for magic items and such.

So that's an AC of 21, and its also great because most of it applies to touch attacks, and the flat-footed is okay too. Remarkable for someone who doesn't wear armor, but for a 10th level character (or so), it's not that impressive.

Consider that a fighter, paladin, or cleric of about 10th level can have an AC of 23 without too much effort: Dex 12, Full Plate +1, Large shield +1. Granted, his movement suffers for it and his touch AC will be nothing at all, but this is with very little material investment and the good ability scores saved for other things.

Just my two cents.

-Shurai

 

[Benben]

A bad on for PCs, but great for NPCs

Ghostwalker.

A waste of time for a PC in a standard campaign, but if you want an enemy who *really* hates the party, and can do a lot of damage to them, then this is a grea villian class.

 

[johnnype]

From your list it doesn't look like you have Faiths & Pantheons for the Forgotten Realms. If you pick it up you might want to take a look at the Silverstar PrC. It originaly apeared in Dragon Magazine. It's a PrC best suited for Clerics although I also see it as a good fit for Rangers and even some fighters. Silverstars are followers of Selune, Godess of the Moon and good lycanthropes among other things. What I love about them is that get to wield devine magic, a huge mace, and in later levels they actually get to become a lycanthrope of yor choice. How cool is that?!

 

[jontherev]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned the other prestige classes in the DMG. The Dwarven Defender and Loremaster are pretty good.

If you'd like some advice, design your own prestige classes that are custom-fit for the campaign. That's really what prestige classes are for: to add flavor and depth to your setting by being specific about the culture and people living in your world.

Also, the Duelist/monk won't be insane unless you're letting people play with 35 or 40 point characters, or else characters with very strange ability scores. Remember that D&D 3rd Edition is designed for use with 25-point characters with only one or two scores above 14. If you're letting people play with a 16 in dex, wis, and int, that's already a 30-point character if they have 8s in everything else.

How good will the duelist/monk be with the default array? That's 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8.

Obviously, the 15 goes in dex and the 14 into wis, leaving a 13 for int. He's probably gotten 8 levels by now so that's a 16 dex, 14 wis, 14 int. He also gets a +1 for being a monk and likely +2 or +3 for magic items and such.

So that's an AC of 21, and its also great because most of it applies to touch attacks, and the flat-footed is okay too. Remarkable for someone who doesn't wear armor, but for a 10th level character (or so), it's not that impressive.

Consider that a fighter, paladin, or cleric of about 10th level can have an AC of 23 without too much effort: Dex 12, Full Plate +1, Large shield +1. Granted, his movement suffers for it and his touch AC will be nothing at all, but this is with very little material investment and the good ability scores saved for other things.

Just my two cents.

-Shurai

I agree. Plus, the keen rapier w/Improved Crit (mentioned earlier)is not that big of a deal for someone who shouldn't have a very high strength (see post above for WHY). IMO, the duelist is better off not wasting a feat on Improved Crit and the money on keen, and just getting bonus damage, like Flaming. BUT, if you have an Incantatrix in the party, or you have really high stats, particularly in strength, then it's a good thing.

 

[hong]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned the other prestige classes in the DMG. The Dwarven Defender and Loremaster are pretty good.

If you'd like some advice, design your own prestige classes that are custom-fit for the campaign. That's really what prestige classes are for: to add flavor and depth to your setting by being specific about the culture and people living in your world.

Eh. There's absolutely nothing wrong with reusing other people's work. One might even say that's the whole point of the OGL.

The key point is to ensure that the PrCs that you do use have a reason for being, rather than being tossed into the world willy-nilly. If you don't have any insane alien-summoning cults, for instance, you probably won't get much use out of the alienist. However, niches like the archer, the mounted knight, etc are encountered in just about all campaign worlds; and for these more conventional niches, you might as well use the existing PrCs.

This is basically the approach I'm taking with my Britannia 3E conversion. I have a bunch of PrCs from assorted splatbooks, but they all have a part to play in the milieu. I also have a couple of PrCs I made myself, but I don't really want to reinvent the wheel when it comes to cavaliers, guardsmen, loremasters, thief-acrobats, etc.

Also, the Duelist/monk won't be insane unless you're letting people play with 35 or 40 point characters, or else characters with very strange ability scores. Remember that D&D 3rd Edition is designed for use with 25-point characters with only one or two scores above 14. If you're letting people play with a 16 in dex, wis, and int, that's already a 30-point character if they have 8s in everything else.

How good will the duelist/monk be with the default array? That's 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8.

Eh. If D&D couldn't handle a bit of power inflation, it wouldn't be worth squat as a ruleset. Yes, the DM has to do a bit of work to adjust the power level of the challenges faced by the party, but that's part and parcel of being a DM.

Obviously, the 15 goes in dex and the 14 into wis, leaving a 13 for int. He's probably gotten 8 levels by now so that's a 16 dex, 14 wis, 14 int. He also gets a +1 for being a monk and likely +2 or +3 for magic items and such.

So that's an AC of 21, and its also great because most of it applies to touch attacks, and the flat-footed is okay too. Remarkable for someone who doesn't wear armor, but for a 10th level character (or so), it's not that impressive.

Consider that a fighter, paladin, or cleric of about 10th level can have an AC of 23 without too much effort: Dex 12, Full Plate +1, Large shield +1. Granted, his movement suffers for it and his touch AC will be nothing at all, but this is with very little material investment and the good ability scores saved for other things.

Eh. Try AC 30, in both cases.

This is evolving into a semi-smackdown thread, and should probably go into the D&D rules forum. Lots of power comparisons and associated number-crunching goes on there.