| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Is there already a Prestige Class Guide? I've looked a bit but I can't find any.
There are certainly guides for optimizing each individual PC, but I can't find anything to help browse the classes to see if it's good.
I'm thinking of making one and I've already started some, but if you guys tell me it already exists it would really save me time.
My guide is here.
Don't think there's anything like this yet. Like the idea. Separate lists for full/near full caster progression and full BAB classes would be nice. Lastly I disagree with the ratings for Assassin(overrated), Duelist(underrated), and EK(underrated).
Don't think there's anything like this yet. Like the idea. Separate lists for full/near full caster progression and full BAB classes would be nice. Lastly I disagree with the ratings for Assassin(overrated), Duelist(underrated), and EK(underrated).
Thank you, I appreciate feedback on these classes since I've not had a chance to play them myself.
I'm scoring classes that bring something unique to the table higher.
I can see Duelist being underrated because it's combat focused and not very flashy, but I don't understand EK. What's so great about it?
It's the "purest" form of fighter-mage--arms, armor, and all the fun of using the full wizard spell list at the same time. I still prefer it to the magus, but mostly because magi seem like one-trick ponies to me (though they're really good at that trick).
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Over time, some content has be released to improve prestige classes:
The Accomplished Sneak Attacker feat means you need less levels of a class with sneak attack for entry (arcane trickster etc.).
Further, the feats Favored Prestige Class and Prestigious Spellcaster help to improve casting prestige classes (arcane archer, eldritch knight etc.).
I guess you can pull a whirlwind of death with duelist, using the Ascetic Style chain and flurry of blows. Int to AC should pay off on the long run, too.
Eldritch knight makes an excellent ray caster, among other things - from what I heard. Didn't have the chance to play one yet (sigh).
Finally, you can do some crazy stuff by combining prestige classes. Start with fighter + rogue + wizard, add eldritch knight + arcane trickster and you get a jack of all trades with 5th level casting, weapon training, 5d6 sneak attack and balanced saves. That's Core material only - Accomplished Sneak Attacker, Prestigious Spellcaster, Magical Knack etc. get you further.
Eldritch knight doesn't require much to qualify, so if your plan requires a few feats you're not necessarily starved. It's bland enough that you can mix it in to other prestige classes even - arcane archer doesn't have much of note past 2nd level, so something like fighter 1 / wizard 6 / EK 2 / arcane archer 2 / EK +8 may be better at magic and archery than taking all 10 levels of arcane archer. (replace fighter 1 / wizard 6 with paladin 2 / sorcerer 6 if desired).
Over time, some content has be released to improve prestige classes:
The Accomplished Sneak Attacker feat means you need less levels of a class with sneak attack for entry (arcane trickster etc.).
Further, the feats Favored Prestige Class and Prestigious Spellcaster help to improve casting prestige classes (arcane archer, eldritch knight etc.).
I guess you can pull a whirlwind of death with duelist, using the Ascetic Style chain and flurry of blows. Int to AC should pay off on the long run, too.
Eldritch knight makes an excellent ray caster, among other things - from what I heard. Didn't have the chance to play one yet (sigh).
Finally, you can do some crazy stuff by combining prestige classes. Start with fighter + rogue + wizard, add eldritch knight + arcane trickster and you get a jack of all trades with 5th level casting, weapon training, 5d6 sneak attack and balanced saves. That's Core material only - Accomplished Sneak Attacker, Prestigious Spellcaster, Magical Knack etc. get you further.
Well, my jaw just dropped. I didn't know there was even this much support for prestige classes.
I knew about Magical Knack - which lets you keep up your CL progression. But I didn't know about:
Accomplished Sneak Attacker - lets you continue sneak attack progression.
Favored Prestige Class - kinda sucks you have to take a feat to get a benefit that regular classes have automatically, but really its just a prerequisite for:
Prestigious Spellcaster - nullify the power dip of a prestige classes that don't give + 1 spell progression at first level.
Are there any other awesome feats like this that I missed?
Shaping Focus - Druid Wildshape progression
Boon Companion - familiar/animal companion progression
Phantom Ally - Spirtualist's phantom progression
On a side note, I've always liked the eldrich heritage feats, since you can pick up abilities you want without having to spend levels in another class. Some options can even allow you to meet the pre-reqs for prestige classes using an "unconventional" path. For example using it to take the arcane bloodline allows any character to have a familiar.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'll mention my thoughts on a few of those PRC's:
Arcane Trickster
Due to the existence of Accomplished Sneak Attacker (which has already been mentioned) you should never take more than one level in your non-spellcaster class. One level of Rogue or Vivisectionist is fully sufficient now, and you should be maximizing your casting to make best use of this PRC. Arcane Trickster is heavily outclassed on the martial side compared with options like the Eldritch Scoundrel Rogue or Sandman Bard, and thus should only be used as part of a spellcasting-heavy build anyways.
Assassin
Agreed with the others; this is a very subpar prestige class. The Death Attack is very powerful when it works, but low DC combined with its unreliable setup time makes it questionable. The other class features are all situational, and you're getting far fewer class features than you should on a chassis with 3/4 BAB, no casting, and only 1 strong save.
Eldritch Knight
Time to get up on my soapbox again: the Eldritch Knight plays completely differently from the Magus. They make different equipment choices, different feat choices, different spell selections, different combat tactics, and have very different strengths and weaknesses. The things that the Magus excels at (burst damage and action economy) are areas of weakness for the Eldritch Knight, while the Eldritch Knight's defining strengths (full access to any arcane spell list, flexibility to use any weapon style effectively) are areas the Magus falls short in.
The arrival of the Prestigious Spellcaster feat, however, has been a real gamechanger for the EK. It might seem small, but it basically puts the entire build one level ahead of where it otherwise would have been. Since access to higher-level spell options is one of the defining advantages of the EK over the Magus, this really improved the viability of a lot of builds.
Overall, I'd say EK is now one of the most interesting prestige classes out there.
Loremaster
Wizard is the only class that should even consider the Loremaster, and even then you need to have a certain level of disdain for your arcane school class features. It's just not very good compared to the kinds of class features casters normally get.
Mystic Theurge
While it is great at higher levels, this class is unadulterated masochism at lower levels. The complete pain to qualify just makes it utterly punishing to play through. It's pretty decent if you start play (or retrain) at level 10 or higher, but before then... avoid it like the plague.
Holy Vindicator
Although it's very feat-intensive, with Prestigious Spellcaster being a thing now this prestige class has become very attractive. All you lose out on are progression on your domain power, and it's otherwise a gravy train with higher BAB and its own slew of class features to complement full casting progression. To be honest, I think this is a really stellar build option that is being slept on because it's been borderline unviable for so long.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'll mention my thoughts on a few of those PRC's:
Arcane Trickster
Due to the existence of Accomplished Sneak Attacker (which has already been mentioned) you should never take more than one level in your non-spellcaster class. One level of Rogue or Vivisectionist is fully sufficient now, and you should be maximizing your casting to make best use of this PRC. Arcane Trickster is heavily outclassed on the martial side compared with options like the Eldritch Scoundrel Rogue or Sandman Bard, and thus should only be used as part of a spellcasting-heavy build anyways.
Snakebite striker brawler gets +1 BAB and 1d6 Sneak Attack at 1st level, which prevents the arcane trickster from having a worse BAB than a normal sorcerer/wizard. A decent progression is elf or half-elf (Ancestral Arms/longbow or short bow proficiency) brawler (snakebite striker) 1/wizard (Evocation/Admixture school) 4 (take Accomplished Sneak Attacker at brawler 1/wizard 4)/arcane trickster 6/arcane archer 2/arcane trickster +4/arcane archer +2/wizard +1; this allows the character to gain Sneak Attack on both an arrow and an area spell (with Imbue Arrow and Surprise Spells) with a single standard action at 17th character level (probably after a Quickened true strike).
Assassin
Agreed with the others; this is a very subpar prestige class. The Death Attack is very powerful when it works, but low DC combined with its unreliable setup time makes it questionable. The other class features are all situational, and you're getting far fewer class features than you should on a chassis with 3/4 BAB, no casting, and only 1 strong save.
The removal of spellcasting from 3.x to Pathfinder really hurt the viability of this PrC. The Red Mantis assassin, on the other hand is pretty decent.
Eldritch Knight
Time to get up on my soapbox again: the Eldritch Knight plays completely differently from the Magus. They make different equipment choices, different feat choices, different spell selections, different combat tactics, and have very different strengths and weaknesses. The things that the Magus excels at (burst damage and action economy) are areas of weakness for the Eldritch Knight, while the Eldritch Knight's defining strengths (full access to any arcane spell list, flexibility to use any weapon style effectively) are areas the Magus falls short in.The arrival of the Prestigious Spellcaster feat, however, has been a real gamechanger for the EK. It might seem small, but it basically puts the entire build one level ahead of where it otherwise would have been. Since access to higher-level spell options is one of the defining advantages of the EK over the Magus, this really improved the viability of a lot of builds.
Overall, I'd say EK is now one of the most interesting prestige classes out there.
With the right spellcaster, you can do fairly well at burst damage, as well: swashbuckler (inspired blade) 1/arcanist (blade adept) 6/eldritch knight be a pretty good combatant (Fencing Grace for Dex-to-damage at 1st level, Spellstrike and Extra Arcanist Exploit (Eldritch Blade) at arcanist 5 and arcanist 6); the magus still gets to full attack and cast in the same round with Spell Combat, but the eldritch knight will end up with a higher BAB, a better spell list, and more/higher level spells. Another possibility is swashbuckler (mysterious avenger) 1/arcanist (blade adept; choosing a whip as the "one-handed piercing or slashing melee weapon" for Sword Bond) 6/eldritch knight with Weapon Focus (Whip) and Whip Mastery to focus on Spellstrike with reach. Also, there's [fighter or ranger or swashbuckler] 1/wizard (sword binder) 8/eldritch knight; it's not as good as a pure combatant, but can use use Hand of the Mage to deliver touch spells at wizard 5 (in addition to weapon damage at wizard 8).
As mentioned, [fighter or ranger] 1/wizard 6/eldritch knight 2/arcane archer 3/eldritch knight +8 is very strong at higher levels: +17 BAB and spell progression as a 17th level wizard.
Loremaster
Wizard is the only class that should even consider the Loremaster, and even then you need to have a certain level of disdain for your arcane school class features. It's just not very good compared to the kinds of class features casters normally get.
Like the assassin, this is another PrC that lost a bit during the switch from 3.x to Pathfinder, not so much because of the PrC itself got weaker, but because the base class features got stronger.
Mystic Theurge
While it is great at higher levels, this class is unadulterated masochism at lower levels. The complete pain to qualify just makes it utterly punishing to play through. It's pretty decent if you start play (or retrain) at level 10 or higher, but before then... avoid it like the plague.
There are some "nonstandard" (i.e., other than cleric/sorcerer, cleric/wizard, druid/sorcerer, etc.) combinations that can work fairly well at lower levels, as well as higher levels: magus 5/cleric (negative energy) 1/magus +1 (select Broad Study)/cleric +2/mystic theurge (with one more level of magus for medium armor) can use the better buff spells from the cleric spell list to mitigate the lower BAB and spontaneously convert cleric spell slots into inflict spells for more staying power with Spellstrike/Spell Combat; paladin 8/skald ( spell warrior) 4/mystic theurge 8 is another decent progression that ends up with +15 BAB and 4th-level spells with both paladin and skald spell slots.
Probably should have put it here, instead of as comments in the guide itself.
For the Arcane Archer, the guide says that magic arrows are the selling point of the class. However, they don't stack with a magic bow. I suppose you could use them to save money, but it really doesn't seem worthwhile to me. I think that the strongest feature of the Arcane Archer is the Imbue Arrow ability they get at level two, which lets them drop Antimagic Fields and other low range spells (and spells normally centered on the caster) from a thousand feet away.
After level two, I probably wouldn't stick around in the class. (Wouldn't want to lose more spell levels, and it doesn't really give much.) I'd probably class into Eldritch Knight at that point.
On other possibly useful PrCs -
Pretty much anything in Paths of the Righteous is possible. Some of them only marginally so, but there's enough truly bad PrCs that this is notable.
Chevalier is not quite a paladin dip without the paladin code, but close enough for some.
Cyphermage is for wizards who love scrolls. As a 10/10 casting PrC they don't sacrifice anything much other than the two bonus feats they'd get over those 10 levels if they stayed in the Wizard class. Any other class sacrifices more.
Envoy of Balance is OK if you love channeling.
Some people like Lantern Bearer. Full BAB and some SLAs are the main draw, but it does get hide in plain sight at 7th level.
Mammoth Rider is the main way to get a huge animal companion. Some people really want that.
One of my favorite Prestige classes is Pathfinder Savant. The big feature from this class is that you get to add spells to your spell list from other classes. While this is pretty marginal for wizards, for other classes this is really nice.
It's other abilities, while not as flashy are also good,
->Spontaneous dispel magic
->Using scrolls at personal CL instead of the scroll's CL
->Can take 10 on UMD except when activating blindly
->Doesn't Auto-fail on a 1 on UMD when activating blindly
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Snakebite striker brawler gets +1 BAB and 1d6 Sneak Attack at 1st level, which prevents the arcane trickster from having a worse BAB than a normal sorcerer/wizard. A decent progression is elf or half-elf (Ancestral Arms/longbow or short bow proficiency) brawler (snakebite striker) 1/wizard (Evocation/Admixture school) 4 (take Accomplished Sneak Attacker at brawler 1/wizard 4)/arcane trickster 6/arcane archer 2/arcane trickster +4/arcane archer +2/wizard +1; this allows the character to gain Sneak Attack on both an arrow and an area spell (with Imbue Arrow and Surprise Spells) with a single standard action at 17th character level (probably after a Quickened true strike).
Snakebite Striker is another option. I didn't mean to imply Rogue and Vivisectionist were the only options, just the ones that usually come up.
With that said, I don't think the build you mention has enough feats to work. To qualify for these prestige classes, you'd need to pick up a total of four feats (accomplished sneak attacker, point blank shot, precise shot, and weapon focus). However, evocation is an extremely feat-hungry path to begin with, with most builds requiring a minimum of seven feats (spell focus, spell specialization, intensified spell, empowered spell, quickened spell, dazing spell, and spell perfection), and with Greater Spell Focus and the Spell Penetration lines coming highly recommended. There definitely won't be any room to improve your archery abilities, or to pick of prestigious spellcaster to buy back the lost casting level to Arcane Archer. So I'm very hesitant about this combo.
With the right spellcaster, you can do fairly well at burst damage, as well: swashbuckler (inspired blade) 1/arcanist (blade adept) 6/eldritch knight be a pretty good combatant (Fencing Grace for Dex-to-damage at 1st level, Spellstrike and Extra Arcanist Exploit (Eldritch Blade) at arcanist 5 and arcanist 6); the magus still gets to full attack and cast in the same round with Spell Combat, but the eldritch knight will end up with a higher BAB, a better spell list, and more/higher level spells.
While I love the Eldritch Knight, it isn't even in the same league as the Magus for burst damage. A 10th level Magus will deal around 50 damage with an Intensified Empowered Shocking Grasp, which can be combined as part of a spellstrike and spell combat routine and can also potentially crit. A well-built EK can manage good damage output, but a well-built Magus will field overwhelming damage output.
In terms of BAB, the EK and Magus are about equal, averaging parity over the course of their careers. You can cherry-pick specific levels to make the EK look good or bad (14th and 8th, respectively) but if you compare the progressions across the entire careers they're almost exactly on par with each other.
There are some "nonstandard" (i.e., other than cleric/sorcerer, cleric/wizard, druid/sorcerer, etc.) combinations that can work fairly well at lower levels, as well as higher levels: magus 5/cleric (negative energy) 1/magus +1 (select Broad Study)/cleric +2/mystic theurge (with one more level of magus for medium armor) can use the better buff spells from the cleric spell list to mitigate the lower BAB and spontaneously convert cleric spell slots into inflict spells for more staying power with Spellstrike/Spell Combat; paladin 8/skald ( spell warrior) 4/mystic theurge 8 is another decent progression that ends up with +15 BAB and 4th-level spells with both paladin and skald spell slots.
I've seen these builds mentioned before, but when I actually tried building them they just don't function. They don't have the BAB, they've lost copious amounts of class features, they have valleys of suck that are far more severe than traditional theurges, and even at the high levels when they should have their payoff they're heavily outclassed by their single-class counterparts. The spellcasting they get access to just doesn't fix the problem.
Starting with the Magus/Cleric, for instance, the Inflict spell line never actually surpasses the damage of intensified shocking grasp. The build you mention caps at 4d8+13 damage (avg 31) whereas Intensified Shocking Grasp caps at 10d6 (avg 35). It's not until Harm that you get a truly powerful option, but when you need to wait for the end of your career just to get something that beats out what a single-class Magus can do with 1st level spell slots that's not very good. Since it's a 1st level spell (with magical lineage) Intensified Shocking Grasp can be recharged with pearls of power, letting you stockpile on a large number of daily uses. Now, there are some very useful buff spells on the Cleric list, but they can't compensate for the reduced BAB, lost arcane pool, and lost caster level (and if you take Magical Knack, you trade off Magical Lineage which hurts just as bad as lost caster levels). Overall this is a very interesting build on paper that is completely unworkable in practice.
The Paladin/Skald/Mystic Theurge is another build I've seen before that seems to be an utter train wreck. You end up with the same BAB as a single-class Skald, but your Skald spell level and caster level has suffered drastically. While some of the spells on the Paladin list are nice, your total number of spell slots actually nets out lower and the loss of higher-level Skald slots completely negates the advantage offered by the Paladin spell slots. Furthermore, the Paladin and Skald class features stopped progressing in the mid-levels so they're very weak, leaving you with vastly inferior class features than if you'd stuck single-class. This is a textbook "jack of all trades, master of none" character, and compared with the more conventional 2-level Paladin dip is completely senseless.
I would love it if these builds actually worked, but they really don't. If Mystic Theurge had actual class features, 3/4 BAB, or less odious prerequisites then it might be feasible to do something with this. But as it stands, the PRC really only works for pure caster approaches.
Pretty much anything in Paths of the Righteous is possible.
Paths of the Righteous was definitely a welcome surprise in that it had so many viable prestige classes. Nothing stands out as completely unusable, and plenty of options there look very appealing. It's also the book that introduced Prestigious Spellcaster, as it happens, so in many ways it sparked a prestige class renaissance in Pathfinder.
It seems I've got the basic template down. If anyone has a prestige class that they'd like to inform me about I'll check back here and add those comments to the guide.
Why do people think assassins are so weak? I get that they have lower dpr and whatnot, but whenever I play an assassin I can kill anyone I want without getting in a fight. It's hard to cast hold person with six inches of steel in your throat. I should also add that my fist and longest running character was an assassin so I might be a little biased.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
well, I never forgave Paizo from stripping the 3e assassin of its spellcasting. Those spells were truly a boon.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Why do people think assassins are so weak? I get that they have lower dpr and whatnot, but whenever I play an assassin I can kill anyone I want without getting in a fight. It's hard to cast hold person with six inches of steel in your throat.
The reason the Assassin is weak is because he's bad at those very things that are supposedly his strengths, and other classes fill those roles better.
First and foremost, the DC of the death attack is pretty low. The exact numbers will vary based on your build and the level we're looking at, but typically you'll be seeing somewhere around a 70% chance to save when fighting a CR-appropriate foe. That's a pretty big chance to have your signature ability just fizzle. The low DC might be fine for an ability you could just throw out on a moment's notice, but death attack requires 3 rounds of careful examination to use. This restricts it to once per battle, and only on a surprise round, and only if you have the luxury of initiating combat at the time of your own discretion. That's a whole lot of restrictions on an ability that has a fairly iffy chance of even working.
Now, even with all that this prestige class might still be salvageable; death attack is a usable ability even in spite of these problems. However, since the DC is tied to Assassin level you can't dip this PRC so we need to look at the class in its entirety. And it is bad. Do I even need to beat this dead horse? May as well. Poison is underpowered and overpriced, Uncanny Dodge is a niche ability, Hidden Weapons is useless since the bonus doesn't apply to checks made to draw hidden weapons (90% of the time, this is the only check that matters anyways), and True Death can be negated with a 3rd level spell with no material component costs with an absolutely trivial caster level check with no retry limits. This means you aren't getting anything particularly relevant other than Sneak Attack and Death Attack until 6th level, and that's remarkably little for five levels of investment.
Quiet Death has all the same reliability issues with Death Attack in general, compounded by the fact that it comes late so it's competing with higher-level magic effects. It automatically fails if the target succeeds on the DC of your death attack, and since it's not actually a stealth check to hide you're still breaking stealth as part of your death attack so you'll still be automatically spotted (it's just your attack that will go unnoticed). If your character is an obvious intruder or enemy, your jig is still up. A good sniping build (which Assassins cannot be since death attack is melee-only) does this way, way better. If Quiet Death came earlier I'd be a lot more generous, but compared to the magical effects coming online at 11th it's just lackluster.
Hide in Plain Sight is legitimately awesome, and I'm even willing to overlook how late the Assassin gets it. Definitely a redeeming point.
Swift Death would be better if it weren't once-per-day, but by the time you're getting access to this ability save-or-die effects are no longer special. A Wizard PC of similar level can also throw around save-or-lose abilities that don't require surprise or setup, have higher DC's, can affect multiple targets over multiple turns, can be used more than once per day, don't require an attack roll, and have actual range. The Assassin is simply outclassed at his own specialization at this point, and getting to lift some of his restrictions once per day isn't going to solve that problem.
Finally, Angel of Death goes obsolete almost as soon as you get it. It's appearing just prior to the arrival of 9th level spells, which both trump it (True Resurrection) and outclass it (Soul Bind).
Bottom line, the Assassin just isn't good. It's not that he's a niche option, it's that he's not even effective in his supposed niche. He's hyperspecialized due to his poor chassis and lack of class features, and isn't even particularly good at that one area of specialization. It's actually a pretty decent option for one-dimensional throw-away NPC's, but those are not words I would use to describe a viable option for player characters.
well, I never forgave Paizo from stripping the 3e assassin of its spellcasting. Those spells were truly a boon.
Hmm, there is Paizo's Red Mantis assassin - maybe it's closer to the 3e version.
This is a great thread!
well, I never forgave Paizo from stripping the 3e assassin of its spellcasting. Those spells were truly a boon.Hmm, there is Paizo's Red Mantis assassin - maybe it's closer to the 3e version.
Looks like it, I think I'll have to get that adventurer's guide...
Guess I'll give some more feedback on the APG prestige classes:
Battle Herald
This prestige class is a bit clunky in practice due to requiring you to play as a Cavalier or Samurai to qualify, but then not progressing the mount. And a Cavalier without a mount is a sad, sad character. It only really shines, as you mention, in large-scale battles. If you're not commanding a dozen NPC's then it's not really worth your time, and that consigns it to being more NPC material itself. I'd rate it orange for a PC.
Holy Vindicator
Yes, Paladins can qualify for this prestige class. So can any class or archetype that gets an ability that works like the cleric's channel, notably including Antipaladins and Life Oracles. However, Paladins are always better off dipping Oracle prior to qualifing for Holy Vindicator anyways. You lose out on very little but gain much stronger casting for the PrC to progress. In any case, I'd rate this one blue thanks to how well it synergizes with prestigious spellcaster.
Horizon Walker
As others have pointed out, it gets a lot of cool options. The one caveat that I would put here is that it requires a lot of attention to your build since it's very easy to build a cool character who isn't actually that strong. Still blue, though.
Master Chymist
This prestige class has lost a lot of its edge over the years due to better options for single-class alchemists giving it a run for its money. I wouldn't put it any higher than green these days.
Master Spy
The late qualification of this prestige class really kills it. Especially with all the viable caster/rogue hybrid options that exist today, the Master Spy's only niche is in situations where magic cannot be used. If magic is usable, it's just entirely outclassed while also being extraordinarily weak in combat. I'd put it in orange.
Nature Warden
This is a very weak prestige class that has only become viable with the arrival of prestigious spellcaster. Rangers simply cannot abide by 1/2 BAB progression, and Oracles and Druids need to focus heavily on spellcasting (meaning taking prestigious spellcaster is non-optional) to make it effective. I'd put it in orange. It's just not very impressive.
Rage Prophet
This prestige class has been largely obsoleted by the Mad Magic feat. It's still usable, but when most of its class features are duplicated by a single feat there's not really much point. I'd put it in orange.
Stalwart Defender
It was a cool "anti-barbarian" when it first arrived, but received zero support afterwards so that list of powers looks shockingly minimal by today's standards. It also suffers the problem of the fact that Pathfinder lacks an aggro mechanic. So overall I'd put it in green due to these problems.
I noticed under "Evangelist" you've got: "Skill Ranks per Level: 6. Middle of the road, but an upgrade for some." - Middle of the road?
Pathfinder comes with some assumptions.
BAB:
+1 per level = good
+1/3 per level = medium
+1/2 per level = bad
HP:
+1d10 per level = good
+1d8 per level = medium
+1d6 per level = bad
SKILLS:
+6 (+INT) per level = good
+4 (+INT) per level = medium
+2 (+INT) per level = bad
SAVES:
+1/2 per level = good
+1/3 per level = bad
ALSO SAVES
2 good saves = good
1 good save = bad
Some extra Info:
HP and BAB are linked:
Good BAB classes will get good HP
Medium BAB classes will get medium HP
Bad BAB classes will get bad HP
Some classes will get higher than these numbers, eg:
Barbarians get +1d12HP per level
Rogues get +8 (+INT) skill ranks per level
Some classes get more good saves, eg:
Monk gets all 3 saves at good progression.
I'm sure there's more, but that's a lot of the base assumptions of the game.
Here are a few things I haven't seen mentioned so far in this thread (I have yet to read the guide itself -- have to do that later):
Pathfinder Unchained Variant Multiclassing (SRD sub-page, guide #1, and guide #2; unfortunately not allowed in PFS). For example, you could use VMC Rogue and Accomplished Sneak Attacker to get late single-class entry into Arcane Trickster, and if you add retraining of an initial Sneak Attack class (to another level in your spellcasting class) on top of that, your entry into Arcane Trickster doesn't have to be so late. As another pair of examples, Bard VMC Cavalier gets you single-class entry into Battle Herald without delay, while Cavalier VMC Bard gets you later but eventually more powerful single-class entry into Battle Herald (no loss of BAB or hit points, and no investment in stunted spellcasting progression).
If you use Pathfinder Unchained Fractional Base Bonuses (which conveniently also makes computerized computation of BAB and Saves easier; unfortunately not allowed in PFS), multiclassing in different fractional BAB classes doesn't hurt as much, although in exchange, you often can't pump your Saves as high.
With only very rare exceptions, you don't want to take a prestige class that progresses spellcasting on a spellcasting class that has less than 9/9 spellcasting progression, because the prestige class will progress the spellcasting progression no faster (and often slower) than it was progressing before entry, while still (with only very rare exceptions) not progressing the class features that 6/9 and 4/9 casters depend upon. Evangelist is an obvious exception (Aligned Class for the win), and the old Inheritor's Crusader is a not-so-obvious exception (the huge area boost to Paladin auras makes up for the slow spellcasting progression), while Wizard-Focused Mystic Theurge with Faith Magic boost of entry from Living Grimoire Inquisitor is a build-specific exception (as long as you don't have good Arcane School abilities that depend strongly upon your Wizard level, you get Intelligence-based 6/9 Inquisitor spellcasting for the price of only 1 feat and 1 lost level of Wizard spellcasting progression).
For Arcane Archer, unless you're worried about losing progression of your Arcane School abilities or the opportunity cost of not progressing another prestige class, you might as well dip 4 levels if you're going to dip 2, because the next lost level of spellcasting progression is at Arcane Archer 5, and you get better BAB and HP, and while the 3rd and 4th level Arcane Archer class features aren't great, they aren't absolutely terrible either. However, if you're willing to worship Erastil . . .
Hinterlander is a better Arcane Archer than Arcane Archer. Except that you don't even have to be arcane -- it has the potential to be brokenly overpowered with entry as a Cleric, and only loses 1 caster level at the beginning, and gives you 3 bonus archery feats faster than a Ranger would get them. See this build(*), except substitute Clustered Shots for the 9th level flex feat.
(*)"Upgraded" web site new(?) bug: For some wierd reason, the updated Paizo search engine won't find it even when trying a variety of search terms, starting with "Hinterlander" -- I had to use Google on paizo.com to find my own post.
Both varieties of Hellknight are not bad for entry from some Core or APG classes, although they haven't been updated to work well with most newer classes (including Magus), and apparently the recently released Path of the Hellknight fell short in that regard.
The Winter Witch prestige class is a natural follow-on to the Winter Witch archetype if you want to boost offensive capability, especially now that Favored Prestige Class and Prestigious Spellcaster exist. If you are taking the Winter Witch archetype for mainly defensive purposes (like for party survivability in Reign of Winter, where most of your offensive abilities aren't going to do much most of the time), then you could take or leave this prestige class.
If you're going to go into Battle Herald and want a mount, any variety of Cavalier that doesn't trade out Expert Trainer qualifies for Horse Master (caution: the Archives of Nethys PFS-compatibility note contradicts itself) at 4th level. This is like Boon Companion, but specific to Mounts, and having no limit other than your total hit dice to the boost to your Mount, meaning that you get a fully leveled Mount even if you have only 4 levels in Cavalier, no matter how high your total level.