Is the Arcan Trickster (T&B) a playable prestige class?

[Tome]

What do you all think of the Arcan Trickster from Tome & Blood? It seems as though it works, but I'd like other opinions on it.

Thanks,

TOME

 

[Geoff Watson]

Very powerful class, compared to a normal wizard or rogue/wizard.

Geoff.

 

[Crothian]

It's a good class, not too powerful. You give up some things as both a wizard and a rogue to get it.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

I think it works out fine. Like any class/presitge clas it can be abused. But on its face it is balanced and works fine IMO. Honestly I'd get a lot more bang for my buck out of a rogue 3/wizard 17 than a rogue4/arcane trickster10/wizard 6.

 

[kreynolds]

No. It was a monster class meant for Colossal Spiders. It was an accident that it got into Tome & Blood.

Seriously though, I dig it.

 

[alaric]

I'd just like to point out that Decipher Script is a rogue exclusive skill, so you need at least 4 levels of rogue, and 5 of wizard (or 6 of sorcerer) to get into Arcane Trickster, which makes it the most difficult entry requirements of any of the splat book prestige classes. The character in my campaign is still working on getting there. I really don't see anything unbalancing about the class.

 

[Rashak Mani]

Many similar threads like these have popped up and the general consensus was this was the best way to allow for a Mage/Thief to exist... otherwise you have only single class mages or possibly with one or two levels of rogue at most.

The Mage/Thief was one of the most popular multiclass combinations of former editions... and per the current rules they would be very very unpractical... the Arcane Trickster allows for this and so is good.

Seems a little powerful ? Yep... too much ? Nope is what many say. We havent played one yet. Just recounting what many other threads "said".

 

[Killer Shrike]

I personally am very fond of it and think that it is one of the best pClasses around from both a design and a playability standpoint. It is a powerful pClass, but it has stiff entry preReqs. If you want a Mage-Thief type character there is no better option.

It is on the high-end of pClass power, but it doesnt go completely over the top because most of its abilities are X-per-day; usually this is a bad thing, but thanx to the generous class features and spell progression it works for the Arcane Trickster.

One of the PCs in the campaign I run is an Arcane Trickster (Sor/Rog) and manages to pull thier weight without being too powerful, and a PC I play in another campaign is ramping up to it in a few more levels (Wiz8/Rog2/Barb1/with 2 levels in another pClass that grants +1 spellcasting); basically I need to take another level of Barb to avoid XP penalties and then another level of Rogue before getting into Arcane Trickster for my last 5 levels of progression.

BTW, yes my PC is widely scattered. He is basically an experimental character: he is the do-everything-possible character; he has the Tracking feat, Wfinesse & focus Short Sword, the Leadership feat twice (1 cohort is a dual wielding Fighter/Ranger/Barbarian maniac and the other is a Rogue/Cleric of Trithereon), and his Wiz spells (he's a Transmuter) are primarily buff spells---taken altogehter with his cohorts he's like a 1 man army and a very nasty piece of work. His 15th level feat will be Leadership again most likely, and I will probably take a Sorceror/Barb/some pClass or a Bard just to cover all the class bases. We just finished playing the original ToEE (converted and altered to fit 3e), and will possibly push on to do the Scourge of the Slave Lords after I DM my homebrewed Greyhawk campaign for awhile.

 

[Magus_Jerel]

I'd just like to point out that Decipher Script is a rogue exclusive skill, so you need at least 4 levels of rogue, and 5 of wizard (or 6 of sorcerer) to get into Arcane Trickster, which makes it the most difficult entry requirements of any of the splat book prestige classes. The character in my campaign is still working on getting there. I really don't see anything unbalancing about the class.

actually - you don't need at least four levels of rogue - you just need to take the level late enough to "dump" skillpoints into decipher script

 

[GuardianLurker]

actually - you don't need at least four levels of rogue - you just need to take the level late enough to "dump" skillpoints into decipher script

Erm - unless you're playing with a house rule, this is incorrect. Because Decipher Script is an EXCLUSIVE skill, only the Rogue levels count towards the max rank, NOT the character level (as would be the case if it wasn't exclusive). This means that you MUST have a minimum of 4 levels of Rogue to acquire the PrC.