What is your favorite prestige class?

[NecroDancer]

The prestige class may not be optimized or easy to get to but if it holds a place in your heart please share it, also if you could give a brief explanation why that would be great.

My favorite prestige class is the Dirgesinger, it was my first prestige class and I love all the songs (except grief I haven't found a good chance to use song of grief, I keep forgetting about it). Also song of awakening was so worth it when I finally got to use it (I animated a wyvern and had it fly half the party to safety).

[JoshuaZ]

The prestige class may not be optimized or easy to get to but if it holds a place in your heart please share it, also if you could give a brief explanation why that would be great.

My favorite prestige class is the Dirgesinger, it was my first prestige class and I love all the songs (except grief I haven't found a good chance to use song of grief, I keep forgetting about it). Also song of awakening was so worth it when I finally got to use it (I animated a wyvern and had it fly half the party to safety).

The Dirgesinger is a really fun fluffwise; if the crunch supported it better I'd be happier.

My favorite might be the Jade Phoenix Mage for awesome fluff, good crunch and using the very fun Tome of Battle system. (My favorite 3.5 magic system is the binder but unfortunately all the official PrCs meh in one way or another.)

[Venger]

The prestige class may not be optimized or easy to get to but if it holds a place in your heart please share it, also if you could give a brief explanation why that would be great.

My favorite prestige class is the Dirgesinger, it was my first prestige class and I love all the songs (except grief I haven't found a good chance to use song of grief, I keep forgetting about it). Also song of awakening was so worth it when I finally got to use it (I animated a wyvern and had it fly half the party to safety).

My favorite prc is chameleon. it's from races of destiny. it gives you access to any divine list freely and any arcane list (depending on money)

I love bookdiving, so chameleon's fun. it also lets you mimic a number of other iconic class features.

[Nifft]

Anima Mage, because it allows me to enjoy the fun bits of being a Binder without losing too much of my shiny T1 spellcasting progression.

[Stealth Marmot]

Unseen Seer. The ultimate investigator.

[Eldariel]

One cool class of the top of my head is Master of the Nine. An awesome PRC overall with lots of fun abilities and grounds for getting the 9x9 builds as a martial adept. Counter Stance + Dual Stance + Stance of Alacrity in particular is great action- and combat-wise. Hard to get into and suffers of some design flaws, but it's quite decent in a T3ish high level game.

[Malimar]

Fleshwarper, from Lords of Madness. Nearly impossible to get into before level 10, and most grafts are too expensive to be worth the effort even if you're crafting them, but you can't beat the fluff of slowly transforming yourself into an abomination of science.

Similarly, Renegade Mastermaker, from Magic of Eberron. At least it's easy to get into, but the capstone is "you're a warforged now", which you could have just started out as and skipped the prestige class. But again, you can't beat the fluff of slowly transforming yourself into a steampunk magitek cyborg.

[Remuko]

I havent played it yet but I really love the idea of Walker in the Wastes. Its such a cool concept.

[danielxcutter]

There are so many awesome PrCs, but one of my favorites has to be Spellwarp Sniper. Crunch-wise it's a good choice for an Arcane Trickster or Unseen Seer build, but the fluff is pretty cool as well. Shooting rays in every different flavor, from energy damage to level-draining, never fails to be awesome.

[Hogsy]

The PF's Eldritch Knight is one of my favourite concepts. An awesome concept executed in the poorest of ways. It has such a cool name too. Shame.

Well, I'm not too bummed by it considering the Magus is a base class and is awesome!

[Clopin Silk]

The shadowdancer used to be my favourite for the sheer coolness of shadowstep. But right now, I'm a sucker for the Swiftblade. I mean, first off, it just makes me imagine something that feels like it came out of an anime; a swordsman moving faster than the eyes can follow is a pretty cool mental image. Next is the fact that other magic users look down on them; I can't help but love an underdog. And finally, there's a certain bloody-minded stubbornness to them, almost contrarian; they're a magic user, typically a wizard or sorcerer, devoting all of their magic to close combat, the thing they're never meant to do.

[KillingAScarab]

It's a tough choice, but I think I have to go with Doomguide. I really like Kelemvor, so a prestige class based around him is pretty great, to me. Even in 3.0 it was better than Cleric 20.

[ryu]

Anima Mage, because it allows me to enjoy the fun bits of being a Binder without losing too much of my shiny T1 spellcasting progression.

You do realize you can get in with feats and lose none right?

[RoboEmperor]

Shadowcraft Mage.

1. I love expendable minions
2. I love creating expendable minions
3. I hate summoning

Minion creation in this game horrendous. They are not expendable, ridiculously expensive, and impossible to upgrade.

My love for minions beats my hatred of summons, so I've been gritting my teeth and just using the summons, but then I discovered shadowcraft mage! They don't summon. They create shadow creatures out of shadow. Sure the shadow creatures are vastly inferior to normal summons since everything they do requires will and SR checks, but who cares. Important thing here is in a setting where planar travel is impossible, or a creature is now completely extinct, I can still use my shadow creatures because I am creating them, not bringing a random one in from who knows where.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Fleshwarper, from Lords of Madness. Nearly impossible to get into before level 10, and most grafts are too expensive to be worth the effort even if you're crafting them, but you can't beat the fluff of slowly transforming yourself into an abomination of science.

Similarly, Renegade Mastermaker, from Magic of Eberron. At least it's easy to get into, but the capstone is "you're a warforged now", which you could have just started out as and skipped the prestige class. But again, you can't beat the fluff of slowly transforming yourself into a steampunk magitek cyborg.

These are really cool.

I'm a big fan of the Mind Mage and Swiftblade classes. And anything that manipulates magic.

[Inevitability]

Cancer Mage, for having some of the best (and most abusable) class features for a non-casting class.

[danielxcutter]

Cancer Mage, for having some of the best (and most abusable) class features for a non-casting class.

I hear that they have one of the most damaging spells in the entire game: Fist.

No, really, how does that work?

[Inevitability]

I hear that they have one of the most damaging spells in the entire game: Fist.

No, really, how does that work?

The Festering Anger disease (from BoVD) increases your strength at the cost of decreasing your constitution every day: the original intent must've been for people to keel over after a week or so. However, a Cancer Mage can just ignore all drawbacks, gaining more and more strength at no cost every day.

Eventually (a Fast Time plane would be helpful there), the afflicted PC has a strength score best expressed in scientific notation, at which point anything with HP can be killed with a single punch.

It gets better: an illumian with the right combination of sigils can gain bonus spells based on strength. Say hello to infinite spells of every level!

[Venger]

I hear that they have one of the most damaging spells in the entire game: Fist.

No, really, how does that work?

Cancer mage's disease host ability allows them to ignore the negative effects of disease. If you infect yourself with festering anger, your strength goes up by 2 every day with no cap on it, so you have a nigh-infinite score in very little time.

[Nifft]

You do realize you can get in with feats and lose none right?

If you're playing without a sane DM, that's entirely reasonable.

I tend to play under different circumstances.

[Chulehdoido]

Max charisma and Zhentarim Skymage! Dread Linnorm pet and share spells with him ! Ride Dragons is always fun!

[Inevitability]

Max charisma and Zhentarim Skymage! Dread Linnorm pet and share spells with him ! Ride Dragons is always fun!

Aaaaaand he's back. Again.

[Chulehdoido]

Aaaaaand he's back. Again.

Again!! I am stealth!

[Troacctid]

The Festering Anger disease (from BoVD) increases your strength at the cost of decreasing your constitution every day: the original intent must've been for people to keel over after a week or so. However, a Cancer Mage can just ignore all drawbacks, gaining more and more strength at no cost every day.

Eventually (a Fast Time plane would be helpful there), the afflicted PC has a strength score best expressed in scientific notation, at which point anything with HP can be killed with a single punch.

It gets better: an illumian with the right combination of sigils can gain bonus spells based on strength. Say hello to infinite spells of every level!

Of course Cancer Mage does basically nothing to support this trick, so it feels kind of like you're using UMD on a Scroll of Wish, initiating an infinite loop with it, and then claiming the rogue class is broken.

[JoshuaZ]

If you're playing without a sane DM, that's entirely reasonable.

I tend to play under different circumstances.

All the feats are in the exact same section of the book as the PrC itself, so it seems that the designers intended that to be an option.

[GrayDeath]

If it wasnt terrible regarding prerequs and BAB Dup, I love the Kensais Flavour. And its (pre ToB unequalled) "WIll over Enemy" Abilities. And its "Soulblade" ^^.

Regarding Prc`s that atually work the way they say they do probably alker in the Wastes. Strong and cool, plus non LA Lichdom. ;)

[Inevitability]

Of course Cancer Mage does basically nothing to support this trick, so it feels kind of like you're using UMD on a Scroll of Wish, initiating an infinite loop with it, and then claiming the rogue class is broken.

Nowhere did I claim anything is broken.

Also, Cancer Mage is probably the best way to deal with the disease's drawbacks. Having Restoration prepared or binding Naberius works fine against the constitution damage, but fails to protect you from the fits of anger that come with the disease.

[Troacctid]

Nowhere did I claim anything is broken.

Also, Cancer Mage is probably the best way to deal with the disease's drawbacks. Having Restoration prepared or binding Naberius works fine against the constitution damage, but fails to protect you from the fits of anger that come with the disease.

It's a highly inefficient solution. It costs you multiple feats and a class level, where you could have done it just as well with a single feat, or a single cheap magic item, or a dip in a different class that doesn't require a tax of three feats, or even a single spell slot if you're the right kind of caster. Compare it against a warblade dip for save-replacement maneuvers, for example. Now you auto-pass your saving throw, so it's no problem, and you didn't need to take janky feats like Toughness, and, plus, on top of that, you can also nab Mountain Hammer or Iron Heart Surge or White Raven Tactics or whatever. Waaay more powerful.

Besides, since IIRC Cancer Mage doesn't do anything to make you actually contract Festering Anger, it seems like false advertising to talk about it as if it's a class ability. I actually like Cancer Mage a lot, and it's a super-cool class for rogue-types, but let's be honest, Festering Anger is not and should not be a selling point, and it bugs me a little that the optimization community seems to have pigeonholed the class into this TO trick that it really isn't even that good at.

[Doctor Awkward]

The Charlatan

A 5 level prestige class found in the back of Dragon #335. It was the winner of the Origins Prestige Class design contest.

Very low entry requirements of Bluff, Knowlege arcane and religion, Perform (acting), and Spellcraft, and Skill Focus (Bluff).

It's primary feature is breaking the campaign with Bluff. Highlights include tricking people into thinking they are subject to spells (like Command, Scare, Crushing Despair or Bestow Curse) by rolling successful Bluff checks, fooling divination spells into picking up only on the lies you tell people about yourself, counterspelling real magic by rolling Bluff checks, and culminating with altering an entire cities attitude towards a specific person.

I played one in a campaign once as a changeling Rouge 5/Charlatan 5/Chameleon 10. The arrangement I worked out with the party was that they agreed to prop him up as this massively powerful figure to which they were the followers in exchange for him being the target for the fallout for when things went sour. Pretty much everything the rest of the party did, he took credit for. I was also able to play him as an almost total non-combatant with Fade Into Violence, Combat Panache, and Master Manipulator out of PHB2.

The highlight of the campaign for him was when I bluffed a fallen paladin working for the big baddie into thinking I was not only a high cleric of his order, but that I had cast an atonement spell and forgiven him for his crimes so he wouldn't participate in the final battle.

[Nifft]

All the feats are in the exact same section of the book as the PrC itself, so it seems that the designers intended that to be an option.

Given that Ari Marmell, the designer of the Shadowcaster -- from the same book -- has very explicitly complained that his design was not what got printed, that's your own speculation, and nothing more.

Furthermore, the idea that what a random designer intended is identical to what a sane GM will allow is also based on nothing.

You're saying things that are either outright ignorant of the source material, or simply a non-sequiter.

If you had tried to argue RAW, you might have a point.

It would not be relevant to this discussion, but at least an RAW argument could be supported.