What are the most powerful prestige classes?

[Shadeus]

Viva la Dwarves!!!

I'll put my vote down for dwarven defender. I'm playing one now and I'm certainly enjoying the 1d12 hit dice. You do have to burn some feats on some crap (endurance feat...which I have actually used once!) but the advantages are the good attack progression, good fort/will saves, an AC bonus, uncanny dodge, damage reduction, and the defensive stance.

With heavy armor and a speed of 15 ft. anyway, not being able to move is not a huge penalty. Defensive stance does have limited uses, but its other intrinsic abilities (hit dice, ac, good attacks) make up for it.

 

[hong]

Re: Viva la Dwarves!!!

I'll put my vote down for dwarven defender. I'm playing one now and I'm certainly enjoying the 1d12 hit dice. You do have to burn some feats on some crap (endurance feat...which I have actually used once!) but the advantages are the good attack progression, good fort/will saves, an AC bonus, uncanny dodge, damage reduction, and the defensive stance.

With heavy armor and a speed of 15 ft. anyway, not being able to move is not a huge penalty. Defensive stance does have limited uses, but its other intrinsic abilities (hit dice, ac, good attacks) make up for it.

Let me guess, you haven't fought lots of things with Improved Grab and/or Swallow Whole, yes?

 

[Rashak Mani]

Against Grab and Swallow whole get the Close Quarters Combat ! Swallowing you will be at best a hard proposition...

Other comments:

Templar: People seem to forget that Paladins and Clerics dont have acess to Weapon Special and also dont tend to have 18 Str since they have to have good Cha and Good Wisdom. The wpn special for these guys makes the Templar very very good. Mettle is very limited in fact...

Arcane Archer: In campaigns with less magic they are better off.. if you dont have a mage along its good too. Most importantly he can get a common bow and start shooting magical arrows. So instead getting a +3 bow... you can get a +1 with +2 in special abilities and so forth.

Tempest isnt so good. Lots of feats to get...

 

[bret]

The character level as caster level is what makes dragon disciple appealing. You get caster progression and bonus spells that you could not normally get as rage mage alone or combining dragon disciple with other spell casting classes.

I looked in Tome & Blood and couldn't find anything in Dragon Disciple that modified your caster level. They give bonus spells (as per high Cha, so no additional spells known), but as far as I can tell never improve the caster level.

Is there errata or am I missing something?

 

[RogueJK]

No diety has a min/max weapon as a favored weapon.

Hah.

Finder Wyvernspur, Helm, Kelemvor, Eilistraee - Bastard Sword
Kossuth - Spiked Chain
Haela Brightaxe, Gwaeron Windstrom, Surtur - Greatsword
Anhur - Falchion
Thyrm - Greataxe

Just to name a few. Many other deities have other useful, powerful, and commonly min-maxed favored weapons, such as the Rapier, or Scimitar.

And this isn't even gettting into the deities of non-WotC settings.

 

[Shadeus]

Re: Re: Viva la Dwarves!!!

Let me guess, you haven't fought lots of things with Improved Grab and/or Swallow Whole, yes?

Unfortunately, yes. My contribution to the battle was keeping it occupied while the others in my party attacked it.

 

[Ancalagon]

Rembember folks that the bladesinger has been erataed (ie, upgraded in this case) by WotC. The one in the book is ok and kinda dull. The erataed one is quite potent.

The ninja spy, while not a "killer" PrC, is extremely versatile and usefull (from Oriental adventure... the guy who plays the rogue in our regular D&D game nearly cried)

Ancalagon

edit: Hong caught my mistake! oops!

 

[hong]

Rembember folks that the bladedancer has been erataed (ie, upgraded in this case) by WotC. The one in the book is ok and kinda dull. The erataed one is quite potent.

That would be the bladeSINGER, not the blade DANCER. The first is the munchy tra-la-la-ing elf master of snikt from 2E days. The second is the wuxia/jumping pogo stick guy from OA. It would be nice if the blade dancer got an upgrade (just finished playing one), but to my knowledge, that hasn't happened.

 

[gfunk]

Speaking of dancing, how about the Spelldancer?

I've always wanted to make a dwarven Spelldancer with a toad familar to make Ghostform Persistent at no cost...

 

[Burne]

Arcane Archers aren't overpowered, Archers in general are overpowered. Being able to take prestige classes in archery is just the icing on the Point Blank Shot-Weapon Focus- Weapon Spec-Bracers of Archery-It all stacks-Goodness.

Really, us melee fighters must start the petition for Bracers of Martialty (or maybe Beating) +2 to hit, +1 to damage that stacks is good stuff. 5,100gp, Sign me up! A feat that gives +1 to hit and +1 to damage 70% of the time! Double Sign me up!

Templers Anonymous:
My name is Burne and I am a Templer-holic. I've had 4 characters with 5 lvls of Templer between them. I've made up Gods, I've cast lame Templer spells on my friends. I once<sob>took a Bard lvl to qualify. When does the hurting stop!

My suggestion for a powerful PrC. Devoted Defender. d12, Fighter BAB, Great Saves (Ref+Fort), and it only sets you back 3lvls. Of and Free AC.

Recent pair of characters. Me: Pal3/Fgt2/Tmp2/Dev3. My friend Cleric7/Dev3. We worshipped Rod, God of Exotic Weapons, Carnival Freaks, Beer and Family. (It was a one-shot! Forgive us!)
We both used Spiked Chains and we always picked each other as our charge. Next time you have a 10th lvl character, find a friend and give it a try. You till will get to the point where you start provoking AoO's just so your partner can get a free attack and then Deflect the attack anyway.