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Champion of Irori. Is great, and it lives up to the idea of a holy monk. It also makes a great starting point for adjustment to make holy monks dedicated to other deities(like Korada) easier.
Magaambyan Arcanist is high up their for there flavor as well. It's fun possibly seeing a bit of what Jatembe was like through this class.
Red Mantis Assassins are still high up there.
Student of War.
A real incentive to play a SMART fighter.
Roy from Order of the Stick would be a student of War.
I love the idea of the Rage Prophet. I just couldn't make it work in game, though.
I had quite a bit of fun playing an Inheritor's Crusader. But, it was just some flavor for a fairly standard Paladin.
My point is this -------------> Agent of the Grave.
Student of War.
A real incentive to play a SMART fighter.
Roy from Order of the Stick would be a student of War.
This strip says differently. ;)
In all honestly it is a cool class (finally a fighter with perception!), and Roy would fit perfectly into it.
Veiled Illusionist.
The EverQuest Enchanter in D&D form.
Pathfinder savant is pretty decent, and you can qualify for it in sevrral different ways.
Hellknights are awesome. I am not so sure of how good the Signifers are gameplay-wise (seems that the melee counterparts are better), but I certainly love them more for the story value than anything else. I've been interested in playing a Paladin/Hellknight of the Scourge for quite a while now. Shame the character concept ended up glued to the homebrew race my DM had banned.
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The Mammoth Rider ("Let me get this straight--I have a HUGE saber-toothed tiger that I can ride around and still cast animal growth on, and somehow this is explicitly legal?").
The Brother of the Seal ("Let me see if I understand this correctly--I can punch a prismatic wall SO HARD that it ceases to exist and still have enough ki left over to kick a Colossal dragon across the room, and somehow this is completely legit?").
Chevalier!
You mean my Swashbuckling Chaotic Bard can become a semi-paladin? Yes please!
I kind of dig the Lionblades, myself.
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I really like the Magaabyan Arcanist. But after taking over GMing duties for the past year among my friends, I really would like to introduce our party to a Noble Scion or a Sleepless Detective in our Carrion Crown campaign. The Hellknight Signifer, Tattooed Mystic, and the Daggermark Poisoner are others I'd love to play someday. I'd love to make a Blackfire Adept and Umbral Court Agent as antagonists in future games. Paths of Prestige was really full of win.
I'm a big fan of the student of war.
Pathfinder savant.
I like the Noble Scion. If we were starting our campaign over, I would probably create a character who would take that class at first opportunity.
His cohort would be an Elf Rogue who would get as many spell-like abilities as possible from racial features and eventually enter the Lantern Bearer prestige class.
And I am still trying to persuade our Halfling Paladin to enter the Mammoth Rider prestige class.
Just picked up Paths of Prestige, so I may have to change my answer. The Bloatmage was neat, but I'm really intrigued by the Golden Legionnaire. Whenever I play instead of GM games I tend to get urged to become party leader, so it'd be cool to play a PrC specialized towards that role (and I've tried Battle Herald for that, but that PrC just wasn't what I expected it to be).
Also the Golden Legionnaire class as a whole can be pretty diverse, since anyone can qualify for it. All it takes is levels for BAB, and feats for anyone who isn't proficient with heavy armor.
I'm actually considering a Golden Legionnaire ray-caster/natural weapon-using Ancient Lorekeeper Oracle at this point... Though I'm not sure how I'd get decent natural weapons on an elf. Maybe a magic item, or additional multiclass...
Spherewalker, for obvious reasons ;-)
Aldori Swordlord
So many melee class builds tend to be built around the "rocket-tag" model where if you can hit your opponent harder and more often then it doesn't matter what your defense is like, you're going to win.
The Swordlord turns this model on its head. High defense, incentive to use CMB to disarm your foes, cool flavor. The Swordlord embodies skill and finesse over brute power. I love it.
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Thanks for asking James, and representing the past 40 gamers I've spoken with---we don't use prestige classes.
It has always seemed to "us" that prestige classes were just written examples of character style archetypes that we simply didn't need rules for. Besides, ever since 3e the prestige class system always seemed "wonky" to "us".
As much as I praise Pathfinder, the use of prestige classes still does not inspire me, nor most anyone I've spoken with.
They seem to have originated from a time when either gamers or game-designers attempted to quantify "what would that type of character, fully integrated into the fabric of a campaign look like statistically?"
Whereas, for me (and a horde of others), "we've" simply found it unrealistic to base a campaign around the development of player characters into those or any prestige classes. The prime reason is that we start our campaigns by asking players to create (if possible) characters that are woven into the context of the setting and general campaign milieu... but once the campaign starts rolling, the characters become who they are... and 99% of the time don't evolve into a textbook prestige class. To many/most of "us" prestige classes are wonky because characters tend to evolve into something of a "prestige class" on their own contextual merits within the campaign, but hardly ever into something pre-defined, and definately not in the layered level-by-level advancement described in the text of prestige class descriptions.
I will share with you my design suggestion, that it would be 10x better to create an Ultimate Prestige Elements book for any gamemaster wishing to "develop" his player characters, however discourage other players from actually reading it, unless the context provided is "these are some elements of prestige advancement your gamemaster may bestow upon those demonstrating great playership to develop the context of the campaign story.
If that were done, imagine a GM having at his disposal a hundred lists of level-attributed powers which he can bestow upon player characters. It would be ESSENTIAL that these remain addative, rather than using the "replacement" method described by Monte in 3.0. In fact, the rub IS the "replacement" method that takes away the base class features in favor of the new "prestige" powers. Conceptually, this has always rubbed me wrong, primarily because in actual play, the advancement of the story line and the advancement of the campaign by the players is the effortful act that merits the "prestige" power widgit/domain/power. The acquisition of the power/skill/whatnot is EARNED and not planned for as a "build". In this way, it would give GMs a merit system for encouraging and rewarding excellent storyline narrative roleplay, rather than exist (as I feel it does now) as a "build-option" decoration. As I recall the late 90s and early 2000s were full of decorative faceplates for phones, and many other things, as a means of "customizing" your objects. But as a GM of 1000s of hours of play with 50-60 different players over the years, this type of facade isn't satisfying.
I implore you to reconsider the "prestige system". After all, the merits of prestige in terms of depth of character play in a campaign may be much more interesting to many more people, than the existing "custom-build" class system currently known as prestige classes.
There's my honest answer, as articulately as I can muster, with an aim not to criticize but to explain my observations. If every Level-designated power/skill/whatnot were broken apart into lists of options... as a GM I would take note to develop and reward my players' characters as the campaign develops, ultimately allowing them to name their prestige title or suggest one more contextual to the campaign I was running after several addative benefits were bestowed (as rewards for good campaign-contextual roleplay).
Regards,
Pax
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Claims of representing 'hordes' of pathfinder players who don't like prestige classes in a thread that was asking about favourite prestige classes.
Great, start a different thread about that.
My current favourite is Champion of Irori for pretty much the reasons Mikaze stated. I've never particularly wanted to play a paladin or a monk before but now I'm looking forward to it.
One of my players loves the duelist prestige class, it just suits their play style. I haven't shown them the Aldori Swordlord yet but I imagine that they'll weep tears of joy.
Another is going to love the Blackfire Adept for their fledgling summons focused sorcerer.
Winter Witch here. Liked it when it was just an archetype and seeing it fully prestiged out was too cool. Made me want to instantly play one.
I like the Shadowdancer.
Without a doubt, Pain Taster!
As a matter of fact, the leveled up version of Laori Vaus in my current game has been given levels in this PrC. Appropriate, I say!
For mechanics... not sure... the Halfling Opportunist?
For flavour, the Lion Blade of Taldor is tied with the Daivrat and the Demoniac.
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I love the Master Spy, but have never had the chance to play one since most of its abilities don't seem to work well in a group setting. It would be my favorite hands down if it didn't seem like such an NPC class. In fact, most prestige classes feel this way. Alot of them are tied to organizations that, while cool, would probably prohibit their members from joining up with a random group of murderous hobos for a bit of freelance adventuring. The Pathfinder Society is an obvious exception, of course.
Of the prestige classes with an organization attached (other than the Pathfinder Chronicler) I like the Agent of the Grave the best. A 5 level class is easy to finish in a mid-level game, and the class seems to mesh well with enough PC concepts that I can see players becoming members of the whispering way and taking the class.
Red Mantis Assassin, then Demoniac, Master Chymist
Mage of the 3rd eye. Because you will never be caught off guard again.
Arise thread, and live again!
I like the Magaambyan Arcanist - a very versatile jack-of-all trades sort of class. Druid, some cleric magic and spell flexibility augmenting a full caster class.
Champion of Iori, brother of the seal, and Red Mantis Assassin(usually with monk levels)...hmmm I'm starting to see a pattern here.
Definitely the Golden Legionnaire. There's a lot to love about that Prestige Class.
1) The idea of building a Prestige Class based around buffing the party is a great idea.
2) Making an often overlooked action (Aid Another) into a juggernaut is cool.
3) It has AWESOME synergy with the Cavalier, which is something that I almost never get to say ever.
4) Compared to many of the other Prestige Classes, it doesn't feel like it has "dead" abilities. Others have super specific or niche abilities that only make sense for a specific character in a specific organization. I could easy take this Prestige Class out of Golarion and drop it into Forgotten Realms and no one would bat an eye.
I think that's important for a good Prestige Class. Having strong world flavor is all well and good, but when the mechanics make it impossible to divorce the class from its setting, its sort of a letdown for people like me who don't play in Golarion much.
Normally I'd be all like, "That's what the Core Rulebook line is for!" but sometimes it seems like James is the only person at Paizo who has any love for the Prestige Class mechanic anymore. : /
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Tie between Magaambyan Arcanist, Sleepless Detective, and Aldori Swordlord.
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Sleepless detective does everything the inquisitive was supposed to. I love it and go to it like a bear to honey. It was made for gunslinging rogues.
Should give armor proficiencies for the armored jacket/trench coat and fedora though
Im partial to the battle herald myself. Im finally going to play the character i had in mind when i read the apg cavalier. In an upcoming wrath of the righteous campaign im doing a cav/bard into battle herald with the marshal mythic path.
I hate picking favourites...
favorite 3.5 PRC
the Unseen Seer
favorite PF RPG PRC
Arcane Trickster
Favorite Golarion PRC
Red Mantis Assassin, Hellknight, Hellknight Signifier
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The Hellknights are pretty interesting but I kind of see them as poor replacements for the Knights of Takhisis from Dragonlance.
Bloatmages!