Perhaps not the best optimized prestige class, but there are wonderful aspects of it that fills my imagination with combinations of rogue, assassin, and master spy. But anyhow. The jist.
This would be for a campaign starting at level three. Obviously I'd start out as a rogue of course. The setting is vaguely oriental. The GM only has that lined out for us unfortunately. The GM, however, is heavily oriented on roleplaying. He prefers exquisite backgrounds, and interesting roleplaying. I don't mind this at all. I've been looking over the APG, thinking of different concepts, and I think a Poisoner rogue, combined with a little bit of assassin, and a ton of focus on the Master Spy prestige class.
What I'm looking for, are opinions on the Master Spy prestige class.
Also, what do you think of a 6 rogue/4 assassin/10 master spy? I think that would give me plenty of wonderful bang for my buck, as well as be insanely interesting.
The master spy is god in social scenarios. In combat, maybe a handy backup but nothing flash. Of course, if you're a master spy you probably don't want to attract attention in a fight.
As far as races. I'm looking at Human, and Half-elf. Either Gender is open of course. A master spy, probably would play at both genders time to time.
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Yeah, I loved the idea of the Master Spy, even moreso with the illustration of her turning around embarrasedly as if she just got caught looking at someone's porn collection in the Complete Adventurer.
But mechanically it just didn't work so well.
I've only had one Player want to play one over the years and, because we both loved the character concept he wanted, I encouraged him to play it in my game.
But I had him modify it to a Base Class. He took the Rogue, Scout, Master Spy, Temple Raider of Olidammara and Akashic (Arcana Evolved) and made a 1-20 progression.
It worked pretty well but he certainly wasn't as "powerful" as the other PCs. He was a very niche PC -- so when certain situations came up in the campaign, he was great. (And it was sometimes a pain for me to design some of those for the PC in that campaign). But mostly he was a little wimpy compared to the other PCs. On two occassions I had to get him to add something to his PC concept so he could be more equal to the others.
He had lots of fun with his PC, though, he had never really gotten to play that character concept before and he really enjoyed it.
My advice is to talk to your DM and see if he'll let you design a Core Class with a 1-20 progression based on the Master Spy and your character concept. Of course, he'll have to work with you a bit and approve everything. You should also let him know that altering the design after the campaign starts is fine if you end up too powerful or too weak.
But I had him modify it to a Base Class.
Why ?
As for OP's question, I really don't like the decision from paizo to base this class on supernatural and spell-like abilities. First because there's no reason for it and because it clashes with my idea of roguish characters to have them have innate magical powers. Then because most are just limited versions of existing (3.5) spells, and leave the character less versatile or efficient than a dedicated spellcaster.
It doesn't fit the name of Master Spy if it's just a weaker version of the bard.
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Yeah, I loved the idea of the Master Spy, even moreso with the illustration of her turning around embarrasedly as if she just got caught looking at someone's porn collection in the Complete Adventurer.
But mechanically it just didn't work so well.
I've only had one Player want to play one over the years and, because we both loved the character concept he wanted, I encouraged him to play it in my game.
But I had him modify it to a Base Class. He took the Rogue, Scout, Master Spy, Temple Raider of Olidammara and Akashic (Arcana Evolved) and made a 1-20 progression.
It worked pretty well but he certainly wasn't as "powerful" as the other PCs. He was a very niche PC -- so when certain situations came up in the campaign, he was great. (And it was sometimes a pain for me to design some of those for the PC in that campaign). But mostly he was a little wimpy compared to the other PCs. On two occassions I had to get him to add something to his PC concept so he could be more equal to the others.
He had lots of fun with his PC, though, he had never really gotten to play that character concept before and he really enjoyed it.
My advice is to talk to your DM and see if he'll let you design a Core Class with a 1-20 progression based on the Master Spy and your character concept. Of course, he'll have to work with you a bit and approve everything. You should also let him know that altering the design after the campaign starts is fine if you end up too powerful or too weak.
I would note I think we're probably talking about the Master Spy in the APG, rather than a 3.5 class (although it sounds like your experience probably still applies.)
the APG version is almost worth taking. the only turnoff to me is that it doesn't get a favored class bonus.
Looking at from the perspective of a pure rogue.
Lose rogue talents and a slight loss in sneak attack progression for boost to social skills + lots of protecting from magic. Really great if you want to play a character whose alignment is out of place(evil in a mostly good campaign or vice versa), or if you are trying to play a social character in a magic heavy world(where alignment and truth detecting are more common)
From a rogue/assassin stand point, it meshes well, but only at higher levels. Rogue 5/assassin 2 you have a DC 12+int death attack. Then you become a master spy, and for 7 levels you death attack stays at 12+int. Finally at level 15 you get a DC 20 + int death attack.
Actually the death attack bonus from master spy kicks in immediately as you progress. I <3 the master spy / assassin combo. It really is the only way to get those last levels for your death attack DC. Without the increase its usefulness gets left behind.