A Triple Casting Prestige Class

[Nunkuruji]

Assuming that as per the OP, the PrC is only going to be fed by Cleric/Druid/Sorcerer, and no Ur/SC/etc

Divine spellcasting classes are behind by 2
Arcane is essentially behind by 3, by virtue of sorcerer.

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Anecdote on Theurge

I have a current player using one of my builds, 10th level so far
Tiger Totem Druid 3 / Abj Jaunt Wizard 1 / MT 4 / Arcane Heirophant 10 / MT 2
Alt Spell Source, Natural Bond, Practiced Spellcaster, Enspell Familiar

Divine behind by 1
Arcane behind by 3


The build doesn't posses as much offensive power as the usual straight arcane spellcasters, as expected without the usual specialization tricks & gimmicks. For the most part, the character is very defensive, with a large number of spell slots dedicated to shared buffs, battlefield control or bfc-blasts, and general adventuring utility. The Tiger is a fairly strong melee, mage-slayer & grappler specialist, a decent off-tank to the party MoMF. The Tiger makes up a lot of the progression delay weakness in the early levels, so it's still been fun & effective, whereas a standard MT build would probably be disappointing early. I expect once the Tiger starts to seem to fall behind a bit, he'll start to use polymorph to turn it into superior forms, but it's still been useful so far. I have managed to kill him once, in a very magic-unfriendly BBEG encounter, and due to him dumping Con at his own peril (Shadowdale: Scouring of the Land).


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The advantage the triple-caster would have is access to Turning/DMM. However, even buffed direct combat seems dangerous with the very weak hp/saves. The AH has a personal beatstick to stand in for him. In both cases, summoned beatsticks will suck, being behind in levels. 1 divine & 1 arcane list is good enough, IMO. Making it div/arc/psi would at least be more interesting. I wouldn't touch the triple-caster class unless the game started at roughly 15th. They can both certainly fill a Batman role, but I doubt either would want to go one-on-one with an Incantatrix or Red Wizard.

[Sunic_Flames]

Let's take a hypothetical prestige class, whose entrance requirement can only be met with a Cleric 1/Druid 1/Sorcerer 1. Assume the class lasts for 17 levels, and advances all three classes' spellcasting ability. However, it has no other features, poor BAB, d4 HD, and all bad saves. Would it be a tempting choice for characters? If not, what features would be required to make the class tempting.

Compared to what?

As noted, the Mystic Theurge requires six levels taken else where and provides ten levels of dual advancement. You traded the craptastic +4 to will saves on a wisdom heavy character for a granted three levels earlier triple progression. In that regard, yeah powerful.

Good question. The build is a triple caster, so it makes sense to compare it to the Mystic Theurge and other double caster builds. However, the main reason the Mystic Theurge is considered underpowered is due to a comparison with single caster builds.

Given that this build is the combination of two tier one classes, and one tier two, it makes sense to compare it to other things of that power level, including other potential prestige class choices.

When I floated the class, to be honest, I didn't think people would find it this overpowering. I realise it gets lots of spells per day, but it's massively far behind a single caster until everyone's on 9th level spells. I really think any optimised build involving a single Druid, Cleric, or even Sorcerer, would be more powerful than this build, as well as comparatively flexible.

Using the MT as your baseline for balance is only marginally less retarded than using the Fighter as a baseline for balance. If it outclasses things that don't work you should take that as a potentially encouraging sign that what you're doing does work.

[McPoyo]

Assuming that as per the OP, the PrC is only going to be fed by Cleric/Druid/Sorcerer, and no Ur/SC/etc

Divine spellcasting classes are behind by 2
Arcane is essentially behind by 3, by virtue of sorcerer.

----

Anecdote on Theurge

I have a current player using one of my builds, 10th level so far
Tiger Totem Druid 3 / Abj Jaunt Wizard 1 / MT 4 / Arcane Heirophant 10 / MT 2
Alt Spell Source, Natural Bond, Practiced Spellcaster, Enspell Familiar

Divine behind by 1
Arcane behind by 3


The build doesn't posses as much offensive power as the usual straight arcane spellcasters, as expected without the usual specialization tricks & gimmicks. For the most part, the character is very defensive, with a large number of spell slots dedicated to shared buffs, battlefield control or bfc-blasts, and general adventuring utility. The Tiger is a fairly strong melee, mage-slayer & grappler specialist, a decent off-tank to the party MoMF. The Tiger makes up a lot of the progression delay weakness in the early levels, so it's still been fun & effective, whereas a standard MT build would probably be disappointing early. I expect once the Tiger starts to seem to fall behind a bit, he'll start to use polymorph to turn it into superior forms, but it's still been useful so far. I have managed to kill him once, in a very magic-unfriendly BBEG encounter, and due to him dumping Con at his own peril (Shadowdale: Scouring of the Land).


----

The advantage the triple-caster would have is access to Turning/DMM. However, even buffed direct combat seems dangerous with the very weak hp/saves. The AH has a personal beatstick to stand in for him. In both cases, summoned beatsticks will suck, being behind in levels. 1 divine & 1 arcane list is good enough, IMO. Making it div/arc/psi would at least be more interesting. I wouldn't touch the triple-caster class unless the game started at roughly 15th. They can both certainly fill a Batman role, but I doubt either would want to go one-on-one with an Incantatrix or Red Wizard.

Unless it's taken by a Kobold, in which case arcane is only behind by 2 again.

[SorO_Lost]

Let's take a hypothetical prestige class, whose entrance requirement can only be met with a Cleric 1/Druid 1/Sorcerer 1. Assume the class lasts for 17 levels, and advances all three classes' spellcasting ability. However, it has no other features, poor BAB, d4 HD, and all bad saves. Would it be a tempting choice for characters? If not, what features would be required to make the class tempting.

Compared to what?

As noted, the Mystic Theurge requires six levels taken else where and provides ten levels of dual advancement. You traded the craptastic +4 to will saves on a wisdom heavy character for a granted three levels earlier triple progression. In that regard, yeah powerful.

Good question. The build is a triple caster, so it makes sense to compare it to the Mystic Theurge and other double caster builds. However, the main reason the Mystic Theurge is considered underpowered is due to a comparison with single caster builds.

Given that this build is the combination of two tier one classes, and one tier two, it makes sense to compare it to other things of that power level, including other potential prestige class choices.

When I floated the class, to be honest, I didn't think people would find it this overpowering. I realise it gets lots of spells per day, but it's massively far behind a single caster until everyone's on 9th level spells. I really think any optimised build involving a single Druid, Cleric, or even Sorcerer, would be more powerful than this build, as well as comparatively flexible.

Using the MT as your baseline for balance is only marginally less retarded than using the Fighter as a baseline for balance. If it outclasses things that don't work you should take that as a potentially encouraging sign that what you're doing does work.

Then go with the Ultimate Magus. Optimally you give up two levels of wizard casting for eight levels of sorcerer right? This is two levels off for twenty eight else where. So you give up a little caster level unlike the UM, you pick up Turning which is a heck of a lot better deal. And instead of a couple free quicken spells powering your main side, you have an entire class side devoted to using Quicken Spell. While still have the other two free for what ever and of course your two 'secondary' sides also obtain 9th level spells.

[Akalsaris]

I'd say the only time where I would seriously play this class is if I was starting from epic levels.  Because having 3 full spell-casting classes from 20+ is pretty awesome. 

Otherwise though, I think it would be a little boring.  Slow access to cool spells and 0 special abilities doesn't sound very fun to me.  From an optimization standpoint, it's probably weaker than a single-class cleric or druid and maybe on par with a single class sorcerer.  But you're losing out on PrC power boosts as well.

[SorO_Lost]

Slow access to cool spells and 0 special abilities doesn't sound very fun to me.  From an optimization standpoint, it's probably weaker than a single-class cleric or druid and maybe on par with a single class sorcerer.  But you're losing out on PrC power boosts as well.

Legacy Champion & Ruathar come to mind, both advancing the triple progression while giving class abilities. As noted, almost every sorcerer based gish runs the same spell rate as the given triple example, they do well enough thousands of players use them without complaint. In fact we have a handbook for them.