What prestige classes are worth it?

[Sai Kyouji]

SO FAR, I have heard that Mystic Theurge is is a very poor decision for anything other than roleplaying.
How about the rest?
Stalwart Defender any better than a Barb n Fighter Tank?
Is dragon Disciple actually as good as it sounds?
etc

[Naked Granny]

Arcane Trickster and that's it.

Maybe Stalwart Defender for Val, but that's because she's already a bit pigeonholed based on her early feat selections and stat array.

If she didn't have that thing against paladins, she would make quite a good one. I'm not entirely clear if it's possible to push her into repenting / becoming a paladin...

[Larus]

Arcane trickster is fun if you want sneak attack with spells. Only 1 level of rogue or vivisectionist needed, so you don't end up as a weak spellcaster.

[Kerrovitarr]

Dragon disciple is like in NWN - prestige class for warriors. 4 str, 2 con, resistances and badass dragon form.

[Randomz]

Originally posted by Aunt Tony:

Arcane Trickster and that's it.

Maybe Stalwart Defender for Val, but that's because she's already a bit pigeonholed based on her early feat selections and stat array.

If she didn't have that thing against paladins, she would make quite a good one. I'm not entirely clear if it's possible to push her into repenting / becoming a paladin...

Unfortunately if I remember correctly her alignment restricts her. ):

[Selvokaz]

Dragon Disciple is a good 4 level dip for Gish types, and a good 10 level prestige class for Sorcs who specialize in transmutation (Dragon), and getting some gish like abilities strengths but don't want to give up their bloodline benefits. 7/10 Spellcasting for double the HP you would have otherwise had, high Str, Con, and Int, and stupid high Natural Armor bonus.

[Naked Granny]

Originally posted by Randomz:

Originally posted by Aunt Tony:

Arcane Trickster and that's it.

Maybe Stalwart Defender for Val, but that's because she's already a bit pigeonholed based on her early feat selections and stat array.

If she didn't have that thing against paladins, she would make quite a good one. I'm not entirely clear if it's possible to push her into repenting / becoming a paladin...

Unfortunately if I remember correctly her alignment restricts her. ):

It does.

But.... if she repents through some sort of story / conversation / romance dialogue or something? it could shift her alignment back up to Law / Good to become a Paladin again... Your Alignment is descriptive not prescriptive.

[Sai Kyouji]

Originally posted by Aunt Tony:

Originally posted by Randomz:

Unfortunately if I remember correctly her alignment restricts her. ):

It does.

But.... if she repents through some sort of story / conversation / romance dialogue or something? it could shift her alignment back up to Law / Good to become a Paladin again... Your Alignment is descriptive not prescriptive.

Yeah, that's what I envisioned
but sadly, we cant always trust devs to understand gamers' vision

Anyhow, no comment on Duelist n Eldritch Knight?

[vicheron]

Prestige Classes and multiclassing in general isn't quite as good in Pathfinder as it is in D&D. Most classes have very good high level abilities.

Edritch Knight could be worth it to for the Wizard to get a bit more hit points and if you want to focus on touch attack spells with the better BAB. It's not worth it for the other arcane classes since you'll be giving up too many class abilities.

But if you don't care that much about optimization and want to role play a certain type of character, none of the prestige classes will gimp your character and make the game that much more difficult.

[Naked Granny]

Originally posted by Sai Kyouji:

Originally posted by Aunt Tony:

It does.

But.... if she repents through some sort of story / conversation / romance dialogue or something? it could shift her alignment back up to Law / Good to become a Paladin again... Your Alignment is descriptive not prescriptive.

Yeah, that's what I envisioned
but sadly, we cant always trust devs to understand gamers' vision

Anyhow, no comment on Duelist n Eldritch Knight?

Well, I would hazard to guess that if she has no character development path that redeems her and turns her back into a paladin right now, then it's probably because it was content that was put on "hold" while they hurry the game out the door because of budget constraints - and it won't be difficult to mod. And modders absolutely will do it soon if the devs don't beat them to it.

As for Eldritch Knight... ♥♥♥♥ no. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ just ♥♥♥♥ no. No. No. No.

Use Magus instead. I personally would create a mod to just remove that PrC from levelup list entirely. It only exists because it was in the OGL from 3.5 back before Magus existed. Paizo created the Magus to replace it entirely. It exists now as an unfortunate fossil of a legacy chunk of text in a 20 year old book that was regarded as a terrible trap option even back then in 3.5 which was full of trap options. The only edge case I can see for it now is for those weird obsessives who absolutely must use some other spell list than Magus for some reason.

Please. Just take my advice. Forget about Eldritch Knight.

If you want to play a gish, play a Magus, Bard, Alchemist, Inquisitor or something like that instead.

[Crow]

yes & no it all depends on the build

Personally i think an alch "grenadier + arcane bomber" with some archery class makes a crazy dps unmatched by all and the best healer is a cleric + paladin hospitaller... you can literlally skip "resting" completely for quite a few times.

[socialautiste]

I don't get the point of Dragon Disciple, since you can't get to level 20 in it (you need to be able to cast arcane spells plus I think arcane 5 to take it, which means level 5+...) and you can get everything and more from being a Magus. I honestly think its not working as intended, and should have 10 levels to get all the perks out of it for some wizard 10 + dragon disciple 10 combo to compete with Magus. If you are a Magus, you'd nerf yourself considerably taking it, since you basically are starting back at level 1 progression towards your dragon morphs. What is the point of a prestige class that has 20 levels?

Arcane Trickster is insanely no-brainer for Octavia- you just take 2 more rogue levels and all of your 5 wizard levels count towards your caster level. So at Arcane Trickster 2, you're still a level 7 wizard effectively (level 10 total) who can evade and sneak attack. If she didn't already have a rogue level wasting space, it might be debatable.

Valerie was never going to be a paladin. She was being trained to be a poster girl for Shelyn, not actually to fight in the field. That's why she left in the first place. She'd have been more a cleric than anything, if she'd stayed, but she was never interested in that part and never pursued any serious divine casting arts. She learned to knit and swing a sword, and not much else. There is absolutely no lore basis for her to ever become a paladin. An inquisitor, maybe, as some sort of divine joke on her, but never a paladin.

[socialautiste]

Originally posted by Larus:

Arcane trickster is fun if you want sneak attack with spells. Only 1 level of rogue or vivisectionist needed, so you don't end up as a weak spellcaster.

You need 3 levels of rogue to turn Octavia into an Arcane Trickster...

[Sai Kyouji]

I wish the highest level we can get is over 20. Then the multiclassing would makes sense.

[AzureTheGamerKobold]

Originally posted by Elisarion:

I don't get the point of Dragon Disciple, since you can't get to level 20 in it (you need to be able to cast arcane spells plus I think arcane 5 to take it, which means level 5+...) and you can get everything and more from being a Magus. I honestly think its not working as intended, and should have 10 levels to get all the perks out of it for some wizard 10 + dragon disciple 10 combo to compete with Magus. If you are a Magus, you'd nerf yourself considerably taking it, since you basically are starting back at level 1 progression towards your dragon morphs. What is the point of a prestige class that has 20 levels?

Arcane Trickster is insanely no-brainer for Octavia- you just take 2 more rogue levels and all of your 5 wizard levels count towards your caster level. So at Arcane Trickster 2, you're still a level 7 wizard effectively (level 10 total) who can evade and sneak attack. If she didn't already have a rogue level wasting space, it might be debatable.

Valerie was never going to be a paladin. She was being trained to be a poster girl for Shelyn, not actually to fight in the field. That's why she left in the first place. She'd have been more a cleric than anything, if she'd stayed, but she was never interested in that part and never pursued any serious divine casting arts. She learned to knit and swing a sword, and not much else. There is absolutely no lore basis for her to ever become a paladin. An inquisitor, maybe, as some sort of divine joke on her, but never a paladin.

The dragon disciple is unique because if you have levels in sorcerer usually if you cross class into another class you would stop progressing your bloodline traits. But a disciple KEEPS getting his dragon bloodline features in addition to the discple features. It's almost specifically for dragon blooded sorcerers, they gain a bunch of flavor, and stat boosts and they lose only a couple caster levels in exchange.

[vicheron]

Originally posted by Elisarion:

Originally posted by Larus:

Arcane trickster is fun if you want sneak attack with spells. Only 1 level of rogue or vivisectionist needed, so you don't end up as a weak spellcaster.

You need 3 levels of rogue to turn Octavia into an Arcane Trickster...

You only need 1 level of Rogue and the feat that gives +1d6 sneak attack.