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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Archer" data-source="post: 2009009" data-attributes="member: 2950">I'll give an analysis of all 22 prestige classes so you can make a properly informed decision. Please note that I do not care at all about the lack of art nor about wasted space so that has no influence on my rating. I did not expect new spells or feats. I expected some good prestige classes but was very disappointed. Here’s a little lesson on value: this PDF has 18,500 words for the prestige classes. This is about 17 pages in a WOTC core book. I'm paying 3-4x as much for content that is about 33% of the quality. This makes me very unhappy. I gave sword and fist a 1 and this product reminded me of sword and fist a lot (including the lack of ex, sp, and su on the abilities). If this had been a free download on a fan website it would have been a different matter.My complaints:1) Why give existing abilities new names? Stick with the existing format. Sneak attack is sneak attack, calling it brutal attack doesn't help anything.2) Prestige classes should stack with base classes whenever possible. Don't start every ability over at 1st level or make up a new name for an existing ability (see rule 1) so it won't stack.3) When you add abilities, make sure to mark them Ex, Sp, and Su.4) Don’t “fix” what not broken and don’t break rules that shouldn’t be broken.5) Don’t make a class out of a feat.On to the analysis:Classes marked with * are not total disasters and can be salvaged with a little revision.The format is (class name) (# of levels) (NPC only)2nd line is commentaryBounty Hunter 10Hello, this is WoTC calling. We want our class back. In case you didn't notice Star Wars is NOT open gaming material. Reducing the chosen target by 1 and sneak attack by 2d6 and adding skill focus and 2 exotic weapon feats does not make this original material. The cut and paste of the chosen target ability description did not go unnoticed. This class is decent but it wasn't written by the authors. I liked it better the first time I read it (in Star Wars.) Adding alertness at a Prereq and requiring 3 more skill ranks for gather information do nothing to improve this class. A fresh interpretation, such as the Bloodhound from MotW, is what was needed.*Chosen Warlord 10Warpriest anyone? but not as good. Would work better if adapted for OMCS. Level 10 class power does not fit with class at all.Corpulent 10 NPCDoesn't continue advancement as a cleric, text doesn't match chart and seems weak over all. Does get 9th level spells 4 levels early but I'm not impressed. What 3 domains would the corpulent have? A suggestion would have been nice here, maybe even creating 3 domains and publishing them with the class? Handy tip: A corpulent can be defeated by casting antimagic field and shooting/throwing things at it.*Dark Minstrel 10Doesn't stack with bard, but should. Has own spell list, but shouldn't.Dirty Monk 10 NPCA monk with 3 levels of rogue. Fails to clarify uses of monk stunning ability for powers. Doesn't matter though as the Dirty Monk will never live long enough to use all his stunning attacks in a normal combat. Typical of the sloppy design of the product,Feral Ravager 10 NPCThis is really more a fighting style from The Quintessential Fighter than a prestige class. If you take exactly these feats then you get these powers. Nothing 10 levels of fighter couldn't do. Has a “10' step” (which I think is a bad idea) and unlimited attack abilities (which is even worse).*Imperial Crossbowman 5OoBI for crossbows. Crossbows are slow, that's why fighters use bows. Too high level to be used as troops on a battlefield though. Could be taken by a PC, but won't.*Initiates of Cordun 10 NPCMerges arcane/divine/spontaneous ala Geomancer or True Necromancer.*Knight Channeler 10Cleric BAB for a fighter's class. Makes the turning substitution feats from DoTF free actions (as they should be) and give a bunch of turning attempts to power "channels" (their name for turning substitution feats). Ok, except for cleric BAB and the odd non-stacking turning ability. I would have just make channel attempts because no 10th level character is going to use a 2nd level turning ability especially when the whole point is to power your channels.*Longbowman 10Interesting way of trading melee ability for ranged attacks. Rogue BAB and sneak attacks but large bonuses to ranged attacks that more than compensate for lost BAB. This is really a 15 level prestige class (see sniper) 3000'+ range attacks are over the top.*Lord of Sorcery 5Pick a school, take prohibited school(s) like a specialist. Spontaneously cast spells of that school. Simple enough and balanced.*Military Archer 10Very slight variation on the longbowman, double point blank shot instead of sneak attack. Suffers from lack of compatible mass combat system. Suitable for archers in mass combat as a 1st level warrior can enter.*New TreantVariation on dragon disciple. 7/10ths spell progression, get to be large, get tree wildshape, age slower. Barkskin ability could be better defined but you can make some personal ruling. Space is free, why not reprint the stats for the different forms of the New Treant instead of making people look them up?Phalanx 4 NPCToo high level to be troops in mass combat, useless for adventures. This is really just the phalanx formation feat from of the FRCS books and a new imp. phalanx formation feat that doubles the bonuses of the first feat. What is a +4 will bonus for?Practical Ones 10 NPCA assassin/ninja cross from DMG/S&F respectively. 60' blindsight? I don't buy the explanation.PsychoPyretic 10Gee, 10 levels dedicated to a Psionic Combat system that 90% of people scrapped. Nice one. I’ll admit psionic prestige classes are harder to make then others but this is better left alone.Raserei 10Lots of math, triple the damage of the first attack and that's the damage that must be deal in subsequent attacks unless the attacks of the 2nd party should exceed the threshold of the 1st party then triple the value of the second party should be added to the running total of the first party and sum value of criticals by the first party should be added to the damage of the second party and tripled. All this when the barbarian class does pretty much the same thing.*Sniper 5This is just an extension of the longbow class with no new abilities. This is tantamount to false advertising. I'm not getting my 22 prestige classes. You can't even take this class without taking the longbow class.SwashbucklerCanny defense, where have I seen that before. Does pressing attack expose you to AoO's? I would think so and with a -2 AC penalty, that must hurt. Is pushing someone into a wall supposed to make them go prone? Too many undefined aspects of abilities.Tainted Warlock 10 NPCLose 7 caster level progression and gain one permanent negative level to add +2d8 to single target spells on failed save (unless it is disintegrate or slay living as specifically mentioned in the text as having damage added on either a successful or failed save, lets see that's DEATH+2d8 on a failed save.) That's great. This is in a 3 way tie for stupidest class in the bunch. I'm serious, that's what the whole 10 levels does. D4 hp and wizard's BAB if you were wondering. Anyone who thinks this class is balanced has no understanding of the concept. Lets compare 10 levels of this class to 10 levels of commoner. The commoner has better HP, BAB, fort, ref, more skills and an additional choice of feat. The warlock has better caster progression, better will save, 17 bonus spells (3 6th, 8 5th, 6 4th) and +2d8 damage (enhanced lace from BoEM) to single target spells and the unholy lace ability from BoEM. Who comes out on top? Its practically a tie.Look to the AEG product Undead for what classes like this should be like.Two Fisted Sorcerer of T'arg 10Lose 4 caster levels for 3 rounds of haste per day. Hmmm, why don't I just learn haste as a 3rd level spell and skip this whole class. The third contestant for stupidest class. I could redesign this class so that it didn't suck. Still spell is a prereq because? My redesign: Full caster progression, student of perfection, certain touch spells as a free action, twin spell feat applied to certain spells.Zombie Master 5 NPCCommand twice as many undead. This is a whole prestige class? This is a feat in Quintessential Cleric. A wizard would get better fort saves and an average of 1 extra hp per level from this class but any other undead focused PrC would be better than this. Zombies are not exactly the top tier of undead. The ability to bolster undead and empower zombies are not very useful. A Master of Shrouds can summon 56 SPECTRES which are as a powerful as about 1000 zombies.There are 10 salvageable original classes of which 4 are essentially the same which leaves 7 different classes out of 22. That's pretty abysmal in my book.</blockquote>

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