The most useless prestige class ability ?

[Ziggy]

My wizard just reached 2nd level as an arcane devotee (FRCS), and thus got the alignment focus special ability. You choose one component of you deity's alignment, and cast spells of that alignment at +1 caster level.

Being a follower of Pelor (we are not playing in FR) I choose Good - and discovered that it affects a grand total of 2 spells These are Protection from Evil and Magic Circle against Evil, and the only thing affected by level is the duration. It's the same thing with the other alignments, except if you are Evil and playing FR, then it'll affect a few undead summoning spells as well, but none of these use level in any way except for duration.

Thus the ability is practically useless, and I really wonder why the designers included it ? It is equally hard to get any roleplaying out of it, as the ability is very tied into the system and has no visual effects. There are a few cleric spells that are affected in a useful way, but clerics will (usually) not become Arcane Devotees.

BTW the class is not underpowered per se, it has full spell progression and a couple of neat powers, so I'm not complaining about that....

.Ziggy

 

[Dingleberry]

Don't forget the summon monster spells, which are [Good] spells if you use them to summon good creatures. An extra round of duration (and maybe an extra 5' range) can be pretty handy.

 

[Fade]

Theres a more useless ability. When the Cavalier from S&F charges, instead of attacking once, they get to attack, um, once.

 

[Ziggy]

Don't forget the summon monster spells, which are [Good] spells if you use them to summon good creatures. An extra round of duration (and maybe an extra 5' range) can be pretty handy.

Interesting, didn't notice this - it's definitely useful with the short duration of the Summoning spell. Thanks for the tip !

.Ziggy

 

[RogueJK]

When the Cavalier from S&F charges, instead of attacking once, they get to attack, um, once.

Nope... the Cavalier was blessed with an even more useless ability. Check out the "Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty)" ability.

'The Cavalier gains this skill automatically at 1st level without having to purchase it with skill points.'

Which is useless enough on its own, but even worse when you consider that one of the prerequisites for the PrC is "Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty): 4 ranks"

Kinda makes you wonder...

(And for a better version of the Mounted Attack abililty, check out the Kishi Charger from Oriental Adventures. That version of the ability makes a lot more sense, and I use it for both the Charger and the Cavalier.)

 

[Chun-tzu]

Nope... the Cavalier was blessed with an even more useless ability. Check out the "Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty)" ability.

'The Cavalier gains this skill automatically at 1st level without having to purchase it with skill points.'

Which is useless enough on its own, but even worse when you consider that one of the prerequisites for the PrC is "Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty): 4 ranks"

Kinda makes you wonder...

This was changed in the Sword & Fist Errata. Cavaliers now gain +2 ranks (yes, ranks) in Knowledge: Nobility and Royalty automatically at 1st level. So at least it's not totally useless.

 

[Red Baron]

...And for a better version of the Mounted Attack abililty, check out the Kishi Charger from Oriental Adventures. That version of the ability makes a lot more sense, and I use it for both the Charger and the Cavalier...

What does it do...??

 

[RogueJK]

This was changed in the Sword & Fist Errata. Cavaliers now gain +2 ranks (yes, ranks) in Knowledge: Nobility and Royalty automatically at 1st level. So at least it's not totally useless.

That's not what my version of the errata says...

"p. 13, Cavalier prestige class: Change the Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) Class Feature to
read:
The cavalier gains a +2 bonus on all checks using this skill."

And yeah, I admit that the ability I described is pre-errata, but I just found it funny. When I first got S&F, I saw that and the text immediately reminded me of the Nonweapon Proficiencies from 2nd Edition.

Just when you thought they were finished switching over to 3rd Edition, the author goes back into 2nd Edition Mode. I guess it happens to us all, once in a while.

 

[RogueJK]

What does it do...??

Full Mounted Attack (Ex): At 6th level, a Kishi Charger (or a Cavalier) gains the ability to make a full attack from horseback, even if his mount has moved more than 5 feet in the round.

 

[Red Baron]

Thanks RougeKJ...