Knight Protector: are they as bad as they seem?

[Albonor]

Hi,

The group I'm Dming is steadily raising in levels and the Prestige class are looming over. One of the character already became a (human) Shadowbane Stalker with his 6th level (it is adapted to my campain but still), the human Divine Bard will go with Prestige Paladin with his 8th level (I replaced the turn undead with: must have defeated an evil opponent for no other reason than to stop it), the Wizard (true neutral gnomish necromancer) will go alienist probably with his 10th level, the half-orc druid still is looking (will probably not take anything since he is the primary divine caster but Wolflord would be perfect for his concept).

But me concern is for the elven Fighter/ranger who will probably go ftr6/ranger4 (I decided that elves had Ranger as a favorite class in this region of the world) and then go knight protector. The concept is an honorable soldier who prays to the LG goddess of my homemade setting (not a very popular option, the CN and LN deities are much more popular)

I warned them that I didn't think the campaing would go over level 16 so I ask you: if horseback fighting isn't really a great option in this campain and I took mounted combat away from the prerequisites: is it simply an unoptimal choice or a really bad one? Because I looked over the class and it didn't worked (AT ALL) in favor of increasing balance in the group...

Note: I mainly want everyone to have fun but at some point the meatshield will not have ANYTHING usefull to do...They are currently level 6 and 7 but since we play every two weeks...

EDIT: We stick to core material except for the PrC and I allowed luck feats (as well as a free luck feat at 1rst level) to half-elves (not a issue here). In the case of ToB PrC I replaced the required maneuvers by feats.

[Tokiko Mima]

Well, Knight Protector's primarily ability (Defensive Stance) requires that his target have fewer hit die than he does, and his party will generally have the same Hit Die as he does, so... kinda useless unless you're going to give them a lot of NPC escort missions.

It grants the same non-stacking morale bonus versus fear that Paladins have(and thus won't stack with your Prestige Paladin) and gets to add +1 to 4 to any one single skill check per day (semi-useful, but the 1/day thing is a big limitation.) They get Iron will for free, and an extra AoO every round which is nice if your monsters are clumsy and fight badly.

They have two situational skills that could be good, but one of them (Retributive attack) is gained so late you likely won't get to it. The other, Supreme Cleave, really depends on how often you intend throw in a ton of low HP monsters at the party. If the answer is 'not often' then it's pretty much useless.

It's not a very good PrC, you'd be better off sticking with ranger or fighter. Did you want suggestions as to similar fluff PrC's that work better?

[Albonor]

It's not a very good PrC, you'd be better off sticking with ranger or fighter. Did you want suggestions as to similar fluff PrC's that work better?

That would be great actually! I am at a lost of ideas to propose for his concept. I had planned on them meeting the ghost of a long dead elven "hero" so Eternal Blade with different prerquisites would work but other than that...

Any ideas? We are talking LG elven heavy armored soldier using a katana and a wakizashi in a very slightly oriental themed region of the world.