What 3.5 prestige class do you miss the most in Pathfinder?

[Thomas Long 175]

Personally I'm a barbarian fan so I miss the Bear warrior. The ability to turn into a dire bear and just thrash everything that moved

(yes I know you can still multiclass druid barbarian and use wildshape but thats not the point)

[Doomed Hero]

the Factotem.

[Distant Scholar]

Enlightened Fist. Or maybe Shadowbane Stalker.

[jpomzz]

alienist. so much. abujrant champion in second place, just because of how hilarious all the mistakes in its write up were. it listed mage armor as an abjuration spell..

[Phneri]

Frenzied Berserker....

[Gorbacz]

Abjurant Cheesecake
Ur-Priest
Planar Shepherd

[Davachido]

jpomzz wrote:

alienist. so much. abujrant champion in second place, just because of how hilarious all the mistakes in its write up were. it listed mage armor as an abjuration spell..

I think whomever was writing it got confused by shield which is an abjuration spell. I don't think it ever lists mage armor as an abjuration spell, though the example character assumes it is, so all the confusion.

Back on topic,
I miss the Chameleon the most especially when you started as a Factotum.
Shortly followed by Initiate of the sevenfold veil, because causing prismatic effects is always cool.

[Stiehl9s]

Pale Master

[Douglas Muir 406]

Overall I'm really glad that Paizo cut way back on prestige classes. By the last couple of years of 3.5 the prestige classes had gotten completely out of hand. There were hundreds of them, most of them were useless, and many of them were incredibly badly playtested. (Remember the Tainted Scholar from Heroes of Horror? With a very little forethought, you could build a spellcaster whose spell DCs would be 30+ spell level from 6th level onwards.) And just having so many of them worked against the whole idea of a prestige class as, well, prestigious -- something that was relatively unusual and special. This was a subset of 3.5's general "why would anyone play a straight core class" problem.

But anyway. While there's no 3.5 PrC I was deeply attached to, I remember the Dread Commando (from Heroes of Battle) as looking pretty promising, as were the Five Nations PrCs (don't remember from where). Also, the Topaz Guardian and Darkrunner from Heroes of Horror were both balanced and interesting -- the Topaz Guardian was specialized for fighting aberrations (especially aboleths and mind flayers), while the Darkrunner was a specialized explorer / messenger class for the Underdark. Both could be used to make interesting, memorable NPCs.

Doug M.

[shallowsoul]

Ultimate Magus

[Douglas Muir 406]

But honestly, if the question is "which do I miss the most", the answer is "I don't really miss any of them". The few that were worth keeping have been redone as well or better in PF, and the rest are well lost. In a year of playing PF I've never once felt the urge to go back through the old 3.5 splatbooks for a PrC.

Doug M.

[DeathQuaker]

I can't think of a specific one I "miss" but I wish there was a divine PrC with rogue abilities (allows casting and sneak attack), which I think there were a few back in the day. Oddly I think there were aspects of those specific classes I didn't like but I'd still like something with that theme.

[WWWW]

Probably malconvoker.

[sunbeam]

Horizon Walker

I hate the way they implemented the one of the same name.

The 3.5 Horizon Walker had dimension door every 1d4 rounds. (I don't think too many people ever took this class without angling to this feature).

My man of inconstant location is sorely missed. This is one ability you could build a character around. Since you had to invest so many levels in it, it was entirely a non-caster class.

Runner up might be Planar Champion.

[Beckett]

I miss the Raven Knight from Ravenloft.

I miss the Ordained Champion from Complete Champion, the Warmage from Dragonlance, the Templar, Radiant Servant, and Seeker of the Misty Isle from Complete Divine. I miss the Knights of Solomnia (all), from Dragonlance materials, and the Ambient Tempest (which allowed you to apply negative metamagic feats to spells to reduce their levels).

[Kolokotroni]

None, if I want to use a 3.5 prc I use it.

[Douglas Muir 406]

DeathQuaker wrote:

I can't think of a specific one I "miss" but I wish there was a divine PrC with rogue abilities (allows casting and sneak attack)

This.

Waaay back in the early days of 3.0 -- like, 2002 or 2003 or so -- I had a cleric character named Brother Qualls. He was a fat, cheerful, jolly guy who liked wine and women and song. He had a surprisingly high CHA and a surprisingly good way with the ladies. In play he was a bit of a coward and tried to dodge combat if possible, and he also had the annoying habit of disappearing into taverns whenever the party reached town. Still, he was quite wily and clever and useful in urban situations and negotiations (if you could keep him sober), and deep down he had a heart of gold and would come through in a pinch. Sort of a Falstaff, Friar Tuck kind of character. His backstory was that he'd offended his superiors by riotous living and conduct unbecoming, so he was told to go off and help a group of adventurers as part of his penance.

I had trouble making him work within the rules, because clerics have such miserable skill points. A level or two of rogue would have helped, but it didn't really seem to fit the character. He wasn't really a rogue/cleric; he was a cleric who sometimes acted like a rogue. Multiclass bard, same problem only more so.

I ended up sort of kludging the character... gave him a high Int to get more skill points and threw in some feat that gave him more class skills. But it wasn't really satisfactory.

In PF there are some new ways to kludge this (Trickery domain, Inquisitors and Oracles and such) -- but there really should be a PrC for the rascally cleric; it's a minor but real archetype, after all. It's sort of weird that 3.5 managed to produce something like three! hundred! PrCs, but never came up with one for that.

Doug M.

[Lex Starwalker]

Bladesinger

[Trinite]

DeathQuaker wrote:

I can't think of a specific one I "miss" but I wish there was a divine PrC with rogue abilities (allows casting and sneak attack), which I think there were a few back in the day. Oddly I think there were aspects of those specific classes I didn't like but I'd still like something with that theme.

Well, there was Temple Raider of Ollidamara, but it was rather underpowered, as I recall...

[StreamOfTheSky]

Guess I'll just go alphabetical...

Bear Warrior
Bloodstorm Blade
Cabinet Trickster
Church Inquisitor
Cragtop Archer
Dervish
Drunken Master
Fist of the Forest
Frenzied Berserker
Geometer
Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil
Invisible Blade
Kensai
Master of Many Forms
Master Thrower
Mindbender
Mind Spy
Nightsong Enforcer and Infiltrator
Sacred Fist
Scarlet Corsair
Shadowcraft Mage
Soulbow
Stormcaster
Sublime Chord
Thrallherd
Unseen Seer
Warchanter
Warmind
Warshaper

3.0 but still missed dearly:
Deepwood Sniper
Forsaker
Lasher
Ninja of the Crescent Moon
Order of the Bow Initiate (yeah there's a 3.5 version; it lost all the coolness)
Weapon Master

I'm pretty sure I missed some. Intentionally not going back to my books to look through classes because I only want to list ones I can think of and remind myself of how enjoyable the class was to play, DM (NPC made), or play alongside someone else w/ it. And I assure you, that is far from the total list of PrCs I've actually seen in play, I'm limiting my list only to ones not duplicated by PF and that I really enjoyed. Others, like Archmage or Eternal Blade, weren't unenjoyable, they just didn't have much of an impact or "cool" factor.

[Vinja89]

i think i might be the only one but... Green Star Adept. i just loved that class, the flavor was awesome, he had his own built in plothooks, one of my favorite characters i ever played. not to mention as a gish it was VERY fun to play at least for me

[A CR20 Seagull]

Ultimate Magus and Master of the Unseen Hand.

[Kydeem de'Morcaine]

Emancipated Spawn (spawn with monk was pretty kool)

Survivor (I know no one else like it, but I used it for some almost unkillable NPC's)

All the ones that actually changed you into some other creature: like a yuan-ti pure blood, half-dragon, half-tentacle face (which must not be named), half-floaty eyeball (which must not be named), controlled lycanthrope, etc...

[jpomzz]

What, no one else missed alienist? That class meshes really well with the new focus on big nasty eldritch abominations! There's a shoggoth in the game for petes sake....

[Grey Lensman]

Lasher, Deepwood Sniper, Chameleon.

[LazarX]

None, I never invested that much in PrC's in 3.5, and all the ones I've ever played or had an interest in, have already made the transition to Pathfinder core rules.

[Starbuck_II]

jpomzz wrote:

What, no one else missed alienist? That class meshes really well with the new focus on big nasty eldritch abominations! There's a shoggoth in the game for petes sake....

The flavor was fine, but the mechanics sucked.

It nerfed summoning basically. It strips non animals/vermin from summoning choices (no elementals, no Lantern Archons, etc).

And the template isn't good enough to account for this loss. And unlike Malconvoker it doesn't make the summons stronger just switches Templates.

Malconvoker at least does something.

To save alienst, you would need to combine Malconvoker with it. That would let it be okay that you limited it to animals/vermin.
Malconvoker, for example:
1) gives chance at every casting to extend (and as you level) boosts it damage and hps (Bluff check in Complete Scoundrel as used)
2) 5th level, you summoned 1 extra when you summon (so in this combined Prc SM IV gives 2 Psuedonatural Dire wolfs instead of one)
It also had some Planar Binding mechanmics but we can ignore those since Alienist limits to Vermin/animals.

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

shallowsoul wrote:

Ultimate Magus

That. I loved how it auto-balanced as you went as opposed to having to take three levels of each first. Really minimzed the few levels that a multiclass character lagged.

[shallowsoul]

Tiny Coffee Golem wrote:

shallowsoul wrote:

Ultimate Magus

That. I loved how it auto-balanced as you went as opposed to having to take three levels of each first. Really minimzed the few levels that a multiclass character lagged.

Practiced Spellcaster bypassed the need to have to take 3 levels in each.

[Shalafi2412]

Master of Many Forms

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

shallowsoul wrote:

Tiny Coffee Golem wrote:

shallowsoul wrote:

Ultimate Magus

That. I loved how it auto-balanced as you went as opposed to having to take three levels of each first. Really minimzed the few levels that a multiclass character lagged.

Practiced Spellcaster bypassed the need to have to take 3 levels in each.

I don't recall it working that way, but it doesn't really matter anymore. I dont play 3.5 anymore and I never got a chance to play an UM.

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

Shalafi2412 wrote:

Master of Many Forms

Played one of those. That was a lot of fun.

[scary harpy]

So no one liked:

Archmage
Hierophant
Eldrich Knight

Why?

(In truth, I forgot they existed untile i reread my DMG 3.5 last knight.)

[WerePox47]

In no certain order i was very fond of:

Frenzied Berserker
Fatespinner
Fist of Raziel
Sublime Chord
Radiant Servant of Pelor
Knight of the Raven
Incantrix
Silver Pyromancer
Ultimate Magus
The Warlock/Sorcerer Progression one.. Eldritch somthin i think lol

My Favorite 3.5 is by far the Arcane Heirophant... I love duel casters and this guy was overflowing with flavor as well as actually being quite potent...

[TriOmegaZero]

Kolokotroni wrote:

None, if I want to use a 3.5 prc I use it.

This.

[Moro]

Artificer
Beguiler
Mindbender

[StreamOfTheSky]

scary harpy wrote:

So no one liked:

Archmage
Hierophant
Eldrich Knight

Why?

(In truth, I forgot they existed untile i reread my DMG 3.5 last knight.)

EK is in PF and lost nothing at all. It's also a really boring class, IMO. Archmage, I've seen some, playing one now. They're ok, but I don't miss them. Heirophant, another PC is playing one in a game I'm in now, first time I've ever seen one. Not particularly interested by it.

Moro wrote:

Artificer

Beguiler

And these are base classes, not prestige classes.

[ImperatorK]

I still use them, so I miss none.

But if I couldn't use them, I would say Fochlucan Lyrist.

[Animation]

Ultimate Magus

A close second would be Master of Many Forms or Shifter. I also like the Arcane Hierophant.

As for a base class I miss: Warlock.

[Moro]

StreamOfTheSky wrote:

scary harpy wrote:

So no one liked:

Archmage
Hierophant
Eldrich Knight

Why?

(In truth, I forgot they existed untile i reread my DMG 3.5 last knight.)

EK is in PF and lost nothing at all. It's also a really boring class, IMO. Archmage, I've seen some, playing one now. They're ok, but I don't miss them. Heirophant, another PC is playing one in a game I'm in now, first time I've ever seen one. Not particularly interested by it.

Moro wrote:

Artificer

Beguiler

And these are base classes, not prestige classes.

Ahh yes, so they are. Those are the first two class titles that popped into my head when I saw the topic.

I need to add Dervish to the list. That was a prestige class, correct?

[My PFS Lavode De'Morcaine]

Kolokotroni wrote:

None, if I want to use a 3.5 prc I use it.

I sometimes find that if I allow any 3.5 stuff, then I get a bunch of complaining, "If he get's to use X then why can't I use the Y+Z+R+S combination? It's not really as broken as everyone says. I just really want to use it cause it matches my concept so perfectly and is lots of fun and ..."

[blahpers]

+1 alienist. I mean, what could be more Golarion?

[Gnomezrule]

My 3.5 groups never lasted long enough to mess with prestige classes most of the time. The few times I made it into a class were fun.

I played a 3.0 gnome artificer who was a blast pardon the pun.
I only played like two sessions of my Dancer of Sharess. Later reworked as the Celebrant of Sharess but Dancer was better.

Classes I always wanted to play, but never got the chance from the 3.x era;
1-Bear Warrior- Particularly halfling bear warrior. I thought would have rocked.
2-Scarlet Squirrel- it was a contest winner's class that was posted on Wizard's site, I thought it would be really fun to play.

[KenderKin]

I miss the swift-blade....

I guess I am the only one! ;(

[jpomzz]

Animation wrote:

Ultimate Magus

A close second would be Master of Many Forms or Shifter. I also like the Arcane Hierophant.

As for a base class I miss: Warlock.

Warlock is actually an easy conversion. up the health to d8, increase eldritch blast to 1d6 every other level, DR /cold iron every level you don't get blast damage, and make it get one invocation per level. It won't quite be on par with magus or alchemist, but it works. It you wanna make it more pathfindered increase the fiendish resilience, the energy substitution, and throw it some bonus feats.

[Animation]

Jpomzz,

Our group only used PF official stuff. Otherwise I would follow your suggestion. :)

[Sylvanite]

Abjurant Champion.....ahhhh those were the days. Of course, it was good but not AS good without using Wraithstrike as a spell. That spell was so fun with the 3.5 Power Attack.

War Weaver: The best buffer character ever. You were the ultimate enabler of your group, and it was amazing.

Suel Arcanamach: ASF reduction, cool spells, cool abilities, awesome flavor.

Spellsword: Why are there no classes that give permanent, flat reductions to ASF in Pathfinder?

I agree with Knight of the Raven and Swiftblade, which were already mentioned.

Two little known gems:

Jaunter: a 5 level PrC from an obscure source that gave really cool teleportation based powers. So cool.

Knight Phantom was basically a re-skinned Eldritch Knight with much cooler powers and much cooler flavor. So awesome.

[CptTylorX]

Give to me, my mindbender back from Greyhawk!
Let the real Sin of WeeJas loose once again!
GIVES. TO. MEH.
MINDBENNNDER

[Thomas Long 175]

Wow I didn't expect this to take off.

And to those of you who say, "I use it", I understand you can except for in PFS, which is where I play. So I missed the old stuff a bit :(

[hogarth]

Another vote for Master of Many Forms. It's what I think a good prestige class should be -- it's got great flavour, it allows you to do something that no base class can do, the abilities are mostly level-appropriate, and there are no (or almost no) dead levels.

There were some cool psionic prestige classes in Hyperconscious too, but those don't really fit in with "core" Pathfinder.