Weakest PrCs

[wayne62682]

Those articles refer to the Eldritch Knight as "god-like". It mentions Sorcerers being good by using direct-damage spells. This was in the first "class" of it that said Dragon Disciple is actually a GOOD class to take. I did not bother to read the others. I put about as much faith in those articles as if someone told me the sky was Green and cited a reference on the "intarwebs" that stated it was true.

 

[Ruslanchik]

The thing about PrCs is almost any one could be ridiculously over- or under-powered depending on the situation. Most PrCs are built to be situationally useful and usually gain great strength through specialization at the cost of versatility.

However, I have to put my vote down for Metamind as well. When I first looked at the class, I thought, "wtf? There must be something off here." The flavor text of the class seems to run completely opposite of the rules for the class. Metaminds seek to gain a lot of power points by having fewer power points and less powerful powers. Wierd.

 

[James McMurray]

Ah, but psions can be scary as hell at epic levels -- and if you run the numbers, I believe a metamind is always mechanically inferior to a psion. The class has some design issues.

I've seen epic metaminds consistently trounce almost all opposition at epic levels, including other full psions. Follow the link to Exodus in my sig if you want to read the fights.

 

[Someone]

Ah, but psions can be scary as hell at epic levels -- and if you run the numbers, I believe a metamind is always mechanically inferior to a psion. The class has some design issues.

Not really. Once you have 20 manifester levels, you can combine metamind with the practiced manifester feat and in the end lose just 1 manifester level.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Ah, but psions can be scary as hell at epic levels -- and if you run the numbers, I believe a metamind is always mechanically inferior to a psion. The class has some design issues.

If epic levels scaled sensibly, you would be right on the money, PC. Unfortunately, the way epic levels work with casting and manifesting is...regrettable. It makes giving up caster levels vanish if you have the Practised feat.

One place where low-level Metaminds do well is with gestalt--you take Metamind/Something Else on the levels that Metamind gives manifesting and Metamind/Psion on the levels it doesn't.

 

[Dark Dragon]

I considered the Hathran (3.0 version) a bit weak (especially the ability to cast 2nd level divine AND arcane spells as a prerequesite sucks).
However, getting a bodyguard for free and full spell progression on one spellcasting class is not that bad. Plus some flavourish abilities (fear, greater command, whip proficiency). So far, I like that PrC.

A comment on the alienist: From my experience, this PrC is not weak. Especially if you use the RAW that the Protection from Good/Chaos/Law (NOT Protection from Evil!!!) don't block summoned NEUTRAL monsters...
And it is quite a challenge to play a, err, 'social handicapped' (no pun intended) character. At least IMC the alienist is a very funny, but also very chaotic person. And he is paranoid of cats...

 

[Nifft]

* Alienists get to summon the non-templated creatures on the Summon Monster lists too.
* Alienists get Improved Toughness instead of Toughness.

This would probably do it. The single worst thing they did was to restrict their summoning list to only the suckiest choices.

Improved Toughness twice is strong. That's probably worth the skill penalties.

Cheers, -- N

PS: And how could I forget the Metamind?! Gah, that wins the worst PrC evar award. Evary year. Forevar.

 

[Piratecat]

I haven't played one, just read the reports, so I'm willing to offer the benefit of the doubt to those who are more familiar with them than I. Color me corrected regarding epic metaminds.

 

[Nifft]

Some of the other ones:

Arcane Archer -- Core version sucks. But you can dip into it for two levels and gain one useful ability, though that ability is most useful if your game allows non-Core spells.

Shadowdancer -- Core version sucks. But you can dip into it for one or two levels and gain a few very useful abilities.

C.Arc Mindbender -- Sucks if you take all 10 levels, because (like the Metamind) you are worse at your specialty than a regular Wizard or Sorcerer would be, yet you have paid for it by sucking worse at everything else. However, it's an excellent 1-level dip.

C.War Spellsword -- Again, it's a great one level dip, but you really gimp yourself by taking too many levels. Some of the gimpage is fixed by the Abj.Champion (C.Mage), but it's rather sad that an armor-focused caster PrC needs to be bailed out by an (allegedly) armor-less caster PrC.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Rystil Arden]

I haven't played one, just read the reports, so I'm willing to offer the benefit of the doubt to those who are more familiar with them than I. Color me corrected regarding epic metaminds.

Yeah, it's a big problem with the interaction between epic levels and PrCs that drop caster levels. Designers of the dropped caster level PrCs know that they can give massive benefits safely because the loss of the caster levels is incredibly brutal to the character, but because epic levels cap out the chart of increased spells (or increased PP for psions) at 20, the penalty disappears but the bonuses stay