Warrior-Mage Prestige Classes: which are viable & which are not

[Felon]

There are now a lot of prestige classes out there that that try to wed the warrior and mage archetypes. Some are more viable than others. I haven't tried any of them, so I wanted to discuss them here along with some basic observations.

Abjurant Champion
Source: Complete Mage
The hook: A warrior-mage that focuses on abjuration spells.
Levels: 5
HD: d10
BAB progression: Full
Caster progression: Full
Viability: Excellent. The requirements are steered towards a warrior who dabbles in magic (sort of the opposite of the eldritch knight in that respect), and that isn't lost upon entry to the class. The class features are pretty much just icing on the cake.

Enlightened Fist
Source: Complete Arcane
The hook: Combines an arcane caster with a monk; smack your foes with your scorching ray fist.
Levels: 10
HD: d8
BAB progression: Medium
Caster progression: Full except for 1st and 4th.
Viability: Low. Monks are pretty mediocre combatants, and this class has even less to offer (no improvement to flurry of blows, for instance). Worse, this PrC requires 3rd-level arcane casting, which means a lot of levels in a low-BAB, low-HP class. Unlike its divine counterpart, the Sacred Fist, the class only offers medium BAB, and the prime ability scores of a sorcerer (Cha) or Wizard (Int) are dump stats for a monk.

Eldritch Knight
Source: DMG
The hook: Not sure it has one, per se.
Levels: 10
HD: d6
BAB progression: Full
Caster progression: Full except for 1st
Viability: Mediocre. Isn't much of a warrior, actually, as it all it really gets is a BAB boost. The class is largely obsolete due to the more attractive packages offered by classes (both prestige and base) that came after it. Still, if you're a wizard or sorcerer and you really gotta have a full BAB for whatever reason, this will do it.

Havoc Mage
Source: Miniatures Handbook
The hook: Cast a spell and make a weapon attack as a full-round attack action.
Levels: 5
HD: d8
BAB progression: Medium
Caster progression: Every level except 1st and 3rd.
Viability: Good. If you wanna throw a fireball and cleave heads with a greatsword, this will let you do it--in the same round!

Spellsword
Source: Complete Warrior
The hook: Vanilla warrior-mage.
Levels: 10
HD: d8
BAB progression: Full
Caster progression: Every odd level
Viability: Acceptable. This serves as a good baseline for a warrior-mage, as its requirements don't require a heavy investment in either warrior or mage (warrior-mage PrC's tend to be made or broken at the starting gate). However, it's debatable whetehr or not every-other-level spell progression is compensated for adequately by anything else the class gets. Channel spell is a very good single-target killer though.

Feel free to discuss. What else we got out there?

 

[wildstarsreach]

There are now a lot of prestige classes out there that that try to wed the warrior and mage archetypes. Some are more viable than others. I haven't tried any of them, so I wanted to discuss them here along with some basic observations.

Abjurant Champion
Source: Complete Mage
The hook: A warrior-mage that focuses on abjuration spells.
HD: d10
BAB progression: Full
Caster progression: Full
Viability: Excellent. The requirements are steered towards a warrior who dabbles in magic (sort of the opposite of the eldritch knight in that respect), and that isn't lost upon entry to the class. The class features are pretty much just icing on the cake.

Enlightened Fist
The hook: Combines an arcane caster with a monk.
HD: d8
BAB progression: Medium
Caster progression: Full except for 1st and 4th.
Viability: Low. Monks are pretty mediocre combatants, and this class has even less to offer (no improvement to flurry of blows, for instance). Worse, this PrC requires 3rd-level arcane casting, which means a lot of levels in a low-BAB, low-HP class. Unlike its divine counterpart, the Sacred Fist, the class only offers medium BAB, and the prime ability scores of a sorcerer (Cha) or Wizard (Int) are dump stats for a monk.

Eldritch Knight
Source: DMG
The hook: Not sure it has one, per se.
HD: d6
BAB progression: Full
Caster progression: Full except for 1st
Viability: Mediocre. Isn't much of a warrior, actually, as it all it really gets is a BAB boost. The class is largely obsolete due to the more attractive packages offered by classes (both prestige and base) that came after it. Still, if you're a wizard or sorcerer and you really gotta have a full BAB for whatever reason, this will do it.

Havoc Mage
Source: Miniatures Handbook
The hook: Cast a spell and make a weapon attack as a full-round attack action.
HD: d8
BAB progression: Medium
Caster progression: Every other level.
Viability: Good. If you wanna throw a fireball and cleave heads with a greatsword, this will let you do it--in the same round!

Spellsword
Source: Complete Warrior
The hook: Vanilla warrior-mage.
HD: d8
BAB progression: Full
Caster progression: Every other level
Viability: Acceptable. This serves as a good baseline for a warrior-mage, as its requirements don't require a heavy investment in either warrior or mage. However, it's debatable whetehr or not every-other-level spell progression is compensated for adequately by anything else the class gets. Channel spell is a very good single-target killer though.

Feel free to discuss. What else we got out there?

Bladesinger from the complete warrior. Spell progression every other level, full base attack.

I don't think the Eldritch Knight obsolete. With a proper build, F2/W7/Spellsword 1/Eldritch Knight 10 you have a BA+16 with 4 attacks, 9th level spells, can wear most light armors with no chance of failure. This is hard to do with any other combination.

 

[Seeten]

Jade Phoenix Mage
Source: Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords
The hook: A Sorcerer who has an interest in blade magic as well as normal magic.
HD: d6
BAB progression: Full
Caster progression: All but 1st
Viability: Excellent. The requirements are steered towards a wizard who adds some martial maneuvers, none of the Martial Adept classes can go very wrong with this one. In theory, you COULD take this class without any Martial Adept levels, by spending all your feats on martial maneuvers and a stance, but that leaves you without much of a recovery method, so I wouldnt do it.

 

[szilard]

I disagree with your assessment of Enlightened Fist... of course, the viability of the class does depend upon the Ascetic Mage feat. Given that, though, it works fairly well.

-Stuart

 

[Darklone]

I disagree with your assessment of Enlightened Fist... of course, the viability of the class does depend upon the Ascetic Mage feat. Given that, though, it works fairly well.

-Stuart

That feat helps, but it does not help with the low BAB and the other problems which are IMHO severe.

 

[StGabe]

Most of those classes are totally broken. At least in the sense of what they give on a per-level basis. For example the Abjurant Champion is basically gaining all the meat of Fighter and all the meat of Sorceror -- at the same time.

Even the Enlightened Fist is crazy like that. Let's see, make me basically a monk except I get full priest spell instead of a bunch of wonky abilities (and I still get a lot of those abilities). Yeah, that's good.

In general, a lot of the caster prestige classes are broken. To see how they stack up just compare them to the base classes. If they are getting full spell progression and abilities that are better than the base wizard feats then they're too powerful. If they are getting a better attack progression / better hit die, etc., then they have to give up something for that. Since casters don't have much to give up this generally means they are losing spell progression.

The other aspect to the balance of such classes, of course, is the requirements to obtain them. I.e. some can be balanced by basically forcing the player to build a character very suboptimally in order to meet the prereqs in the first play. Generally, however, this is a poor way to balance them. For one, it rarely works. For two, it forces the player to be crappy for a long time before finally getting a character that actually works.

The best balanced warrior/mage? Someone who takes levels of fighter and levels of wizard or sorceror. Such a character tends to end up a bit low on the power curve but is still closer to the right power level than most of these prestige classes are.

 

[jasin]

Knight Phantom from Five Nations is cool.

Eldritch knight spellcasting (but no ASF in light armour), but d8 and some cool and useful special abilities: summon phantom steeds by the bucketload and as a single standard action each (compared to the 10 minute casting time), cause fear in enemies, ending with melee attacks as touch attacks for up to 10 rounds per day, split as you like. IIRC.

Some slightly more difficult requirements than EK.

IMO, it's just about right: stronger and more interesting than the EK, but not as much of a free ride as the abjurant champion.

 

[Corinth]

A PrC for spell-casters of any kind that doesn't grant full caster progression isn't worth taking. You need both spell levels and caster levels to be able to compete as you level; these two things are that important, and nothing published to date trumps the ability to toss wish/prayer spells and reliably beat top-tier Spell Resistance. If that means that fighter-mage PrCs have to offer the meat of both parent base classes to make them viable PrCs, so be it. It's not like DMs are required to have them in a given campaign.

 

[wayne62682]

I agree with the main assessment of the classes. Eldritch Knight is a poor choice to shoot for straight out of the box due to not being able to wear armor. It makes a good end to a standard G-word build.

To those who think they're too powerful: I disagree. Most of the really good PrCs help to offset the fact that 3.x punishes you for multi-classing. IMO that's a good thing, although easily open to abuse by diehard optimizers.

 

[Wish]

Eldritch Knight is fantastic for a touch spell caster. A lot of the touch spells are great spells, but reliably hitting with cover and melee penalties can be hard for a 1/2 BAB class. The bonus feat and fighter level you need to get in can get you point blank and precise shot, and the BAB will both help you hit and eventually qualify you for improved precise shot.

For a more classic fighter/mage? Not really. The lack of armor is a real drawback, unless you also dip into Spellsword (or Abjurant Champion and self-buff for AC).