What are the most powerful prestige classes?

[Cedric]

Someone earlier said Zen Archer...what is the Zen Archer? Where do you find that class?

Just curious, cause it sounds very much like the way I am doing my Elven Cleric, whose main weapon is Archery.

Cedric

 

[hong]

Someone earlier said Zen Archer...what is the Zen Archer? Where do you find that class?

Probably means the order of the bow initiate, which is a slighly munchy PrC found in Sword and Fist. A lot of the PrCs in S&F are slightly munchy, IMO.

 

[reapersaurus]

surprised noone has noticed the incredible power inherent in the Mighty Contender of Kord PrC.

 

[Al]

I don't have FR or OA, but it looks like you guys don't have Tome and Blood.

Fatespinner: Devastating. At high levels, initiative is what counts, and you can reroll this twice. You can use the rerolling trick to set an absurd DC for your spells, coupled with spin. And then anyone who does manage to make it has to reroll their save (Ok, you can only pull this trick 1/day, but still...)

And no one said:

Elemental Savant: Nearly full spellcasting progression, stronger DCs and spell penetration and all elemental immunities.

Others:
Arcane Trickster: The old sneak attack Elemental Orb smackdown: eat 100d6+ damage (beat opponent on Init, throw 15 separate orbs, get sneak attack for each orb)

Templar: Dealt with exhaustively.
Order of the Initiate of the Bow is very powerful.
Lasher is nasty.

 

[hong]

Arcane Trickster: The old sneak attack Elemental Orb smackdown: eat 100d6+ damage (beat opponent on Init, throw 15 separate orbs, get sneak attack for each orb)

Note that you only get sneak attack dice on the 1st orb, not with all of them. It's the same as with shuriken.

 

[Thanee]

Arcane Trickster is my absolute favorite class (comes natural to me, since I like rogue/wizard the most)!

It's a very good class, but also far from being overpowered.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Archer]

If you fired 15 orbs at 15 flat footed people then you could apply sneak attack damage to each person once but then how different is this from just casting fireball?

 

[drnuncheon]

Arcane Archer: Anyone with Greater Magic Weapon spells totally steals all the abilities of an Arcane Archer.

Greater Magic Weapon lets you shoot a fireball arrow through walls and around corners?

Damn!

I never knew it was so cool. Must be in the errata.

J

 

[hong]

It's a very good class, but also far from being overpowered.

However, Thanee, note that in the very same post you've effectively said you're not an unbiased authority....

 

[Crothian]

It all comes from prespective. If I were to min max a character into a certain prestige class (nearly any) I'm sure I could make it to powerful for most people's games. However, I think it's unfair to judge a Prestige class by what abusers can do with it. We've had a fair number of prestige classes played at out table and none has been to powerful.

So, are their any instances where the power of a prestige class distrupted your game?