Chernasardo Warden (Ironfang Invasion) and Evangelist (Inner Sea Gods)

[Zachary Budd 122]

The Chernasardo Warden prestige class was recently brought to my attention as another class with the Aligned Class feature first seen by the Evangelist, which allows the character to advance a previously taken class's features (bloodlines, spells, sneak attack, etc).

My question is this: is it legal for a player to take both prestige classes and use one to advance the other with the same feature, and then the second class to advance the character's base class?

For example: Ted takes 5 levels of Brawler and enters the Chernasardo Warden PrC at level 6. At level 7, he enters the Evangelist PrC, and at level 8, Aligned Class triggers for the first time. He chooses Cher. Warden as his aligned class and advances it, which brings Cher. Warden to its second level features, which includes Aligned Class. Ted then chooses Brawler as the aligned class of the Warden and advances its class features.

[Serisan]

I believe there is a semantic difference between "class" and "prestige class" when it comes to abilities like this. I would not consider a prestige class to be a valid choice for Aligned Class.

[Sebastian Hirsch]

A: When asking a question like this, it really helps to provide the relevant rules in some sort of spoiler, so others don't have to go the additional resources page and look in which AP volume the class is.

B: There was already a discussion of the Aligned Class feature of the Evangelist can advance a prestige class, as far as I am aware that issue has not been resolved one way or the other.

So I really would not touch the combination, until you get some sort of clarification.

EDIT:After reading the new prestige class... yeah, I can absolutely see that this question will become quite relevant.

[Zachary Budd 122]

Sebastian Hirsch wrote:

A: When asking a question like this, it really helps to provide the relevant rules in some sort of spoiler, so others don't have to go the additional resources page and look in which AP volume the class is.

B: There was already a discussion of the Aligned Class feature of the Evangelist can advance a prestige class, as far as I am aware that issue has not been resolved one way or the other.

So I really would not touch the combination, until you get some sort of clarification.

Duly noted on both accounts; thank you!

[Belafon]

This post first appeared in the PFS forums but is really a general rules question so I'm flagging it for movement there.

I point that out because of what I'm about to say is particularly PFS relevant. Having played an Evangelist I'm confident in saying that Evangelist is not a big power boost until Evangelist 9. Some deities have decent 2nd boons but for most it's just "meh, good flavor." Now, the third boon and 10th level power are almost always very good, but you won't get those until character level 14/15.

So what happens if you add in the Chernasado Warden? You get the Warden abilities (one level later) and get the Evangelist powers (one level later). In your example an 11th level character would effectively count as a Brawler 7/Chernasado Warden 5/Evangelist 5. Which isn't that great. Granted, if you get up to character level 16, you'll have the capstones of both Prestige Classes as well as being a 10th level Brawler. But that's at 16.

That's a long-winded way of saying there is no "rules correct" answer yet but I'm of the opinion that in normal (1-11) PFS play it isn't an overpowering option.

[Zachary Budd 122]

Kevin Willis wrote:

This post first appeared in the PFS forums but is really a general rules question so I'm flagging it for movement there.

I point that out because of what I'm about to say is particularly PFS relevant. Having played an Evangelist I'm confident in saying that Evangelist is not a big power boost until Evangelist 9. Some deities have decent 2nd boons but for most it's just "meh, good flavor." Now, the third boon and 10th level power are almost always very good, but you won't get those until character level 14/15.

So what happens if you add in the Chernasado Warden? You get the Warden abilities (one level later) and get the Evangelist powers (one level later). In your example an 11th level character would effectively count as a Brawler 7/Chernasado Warden 5/Evangelist 5. Which isn't that great. Granted, if you get up to character level 16, you'll have the capstones of both Prestige Classes as well as being a 10th level Brawler. But that's at 16.

That's a long-winded way of saying there is no "rules correct" answer yet but I'm of the opinion that in normal (1-11) PFS play it isn't an overpowering option.

Yeah, this isn't me trying to cheese or powergame, but more like I want to make a really silly build. It's quite unoptimized; I'm not casting spells, I'm not constantly sneak attacking, at worst I'm doing combat maneuvers with bigger hands (Lead Blades SLA)