Tempest PrC question!

[The Cardinal]

damn - I won't get the MotW until March 6th...
...so would somebody *please* tell me the preqs for the Tempest PrC??!?

 

[Chun-tzu]

To qualify as a tempest, a character must fulfill the following criteria:

Base Attack Bonus: +9.
Feats: Ambidexterity, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Two-Weapon Fighting, and Weapon Finesse (any) or Weapon Focus (any).

It's a nice PrC, but isn't much better than a Fighter. You get some two-weapon fighting feats, including an improved version of off-hand parry (sacrifice attacks from secondary weapon for armor bonus). The only unique ability that Tempests get is Absolute Ambidexterity at level 8, which reduces their penalties for TWF by 2 (so no penalties if using light weapon in off hand, -2 on each if not).

 

[The Cardinal]

thanks!

 

[kreynolds]

Chun, don't forget they get a crap-load of off-hand attacks. Currently they are the only class that can get 8 attacks per round without using magic of any kind.

 

[Chun-tzu]

Good point. I forgot that Supreme Two-Weapon Fighting isn't available as a feat.

I do like the class, but it's still very close to a Fighter. It just improves on existing abilities, without really adding any new ones. I'd rather trade in the off-hand bonuses for some NEW abilities, like maybe some kind of special attack usable once a day, to make the Tempest a little less vanilla. Also, they should have allowed the Tempest's TWF feats to be used with double weapons. As it is now, a double weapon fighter has no PrC options to capitalize on using a double weapon.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

And don't forget - off-hand parry is useless unless your off-hand weapon is light. So if you choose to use two long swords, rapiers (my favorite), etc., you're screwed.

 

[reapersaurus]

I do like the class, but it's still very close to a Fighter. It just improves on existing abilities, without really adding any new ones. I'd rather trade in the off-hand bonuses for some NEW abilities, like maybe some kind of special attack usable once a day, to make the Tempest a little less vanilla.

Surface thought:
Ya, but see that would require WotC to be actually creating new fighter stuff, instead of just re-arranging bonuses to hit/damage, etc.
That would apparently be too groundbreaking for them.