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Hey guys, I was browsing through the suggestions section and honestly didn't see anything in relation to this. I've been playing a Pale Master for the last week or so and on paper it is amazing, however the actual implementation of the PRC seems to be somewhat lacking.
Since the Pale Master gets only 1/2 the spell progression of a normal wizard the whole point, from what I can see, of the PRC is based around the special abilities it gains as it levels up. Most prominently, this would be the summons that it gains.
As I said before, everything looks awesome on paper... but once it actually opens up, it's incredibly laughable. What I mean is this:
At level 2 the Pale Master is given access to Animate Dead once per day. At low level this is a Bog Zombie that, while slow, has high DR, amazing damage and a slow health regen. This is amazing. Once you gain a few levels - around 5-ish IIRC - this Zombie is upgraded to a level 9 Skeleton which also kicks serious backside. This skeleton, however is the ONLY one of the summons that is even remotely worthwhile.
Once the Pale Master gains the Pale Master Only "Summon Undead" ability - which is at PRC level 4 / total level 9 - one realizes just how gimped the summons are. The problem is with the difference between character level and summon level. The undead this ability can summon are between level 3 (at level 9) and 10 (at level 14) but even the level 10 Mummy Lord is lackluster. It has 1 attack per round, has a +13AB, deals little damage, has a DC16 Mummy Rot and a DC20 Fear Aura. This is at character level 15.
While the Mummy Lord is alright, though seemingly underpowered compared to the mobs and players of similar level, the PRC level 9 (character level 14) "Create Greater Undead" is not worth using. At Pale Master 9 / Character level 14, the player can summon a level 5 Vampire with 1 attack per round, a +11AB, 1-6+6 +1 Bludgeoning damage attack with a DC11 level drain. Everything at your character level has saves around +10 - +20 so this is completely useless. To top it off, even the it has a high regeneration, it has a whopping 32HP unbuffed. Even from mobs of your level, that's about 2 hits.
Compare the Vampire (PRC level 9) to the Bog Zombie/Skeleton (PRC level 2 / 5-ish) and they aren't even on a compareable level. Add in the Mummy Lord (PRC level 8+) and the level 2 Animate Dead still wins out by a huge margin. Another issue, of course, is that the Skeleton doesn't scale any further. It will remain at level 9 from the point you get it until you finish levelling.
Because of this, by the time you hit level 20 you will be a gimped wizard, because of the 1/2 spell progression from the Pale Master PRC, and have summons, even buffed, that will provide only a momentary distraction due to poor level scaling.
Essentially what I'm getting at here is that the Pale Master is a fun PRC for Roleplay purposes but when it comes to the class-specific abilities, it really fails to shine. The non-summon related feats are amazing and require no changes at all. The only thing I feel requires a looking at are the summons and the scaling based on the PRC level they are obtained and the overall character level required to obtain them.
Thank you for your time. Please leave any feedback, questions or comments here in the thread and I'll try and answer them to the best of my ability. And don't get me wrong, I'm loving the PRC... it just seems kind of silly for the summon gained at character level 7 to be leaps and bounds stronger than the summon gained at character level 14.
Since the Pale Master gets only 1/2 the spell progression of a normal wizard the whole point, from what I can see, of the PRC is based around the special abilities it gains as it levels up. Most prominently, this would be the summons that it gains.
As I said before, everything looks awesome on paper... but once it actually opens up, it's incredibly laughable. What I mean is this:
At level 2 the Pale Master is given access to Animate Dead once per day. At low level this is a Bog Zombie that, while slow, has high DR, amazing damage and a slow health regen. This is amazing. Once you gain a few levels - around 5-ish IIRC - this Zombie is upgraded to a level 9 Skeleton which also kicks serious backside. This skeleton, however is the ONLY one of the summons that is even remotely worthwhile.
Once the Pale Master gains the Pale Master Only "Summon Undead" ability - which is at PRC level 4 / total level 9 - one realizes just how gimped the summons are. The problem is with the difference between character level and summon level. The undead this ability can summon are between level 3 (at level 9) and 10 (at level 14) but even the level 10 Mummy Lord is lackluster. It has 1 attack per round, has a +13AB, deals little damage, has a DC16 Mummy Rot and a DC20 Fear Aura. This is at character level 15.
While the Mummy Lord is alright, though seemingly underpowered compared to the mobs and players of similar level, the PRC level 9 (character level 14) "Create Greater Undead" is not worth using. At Pale Master 9 / Character level 14, the player can summon a level 5 Vampire with 1 attack per round, a +11AB, 1-6+6 +1 Bludgeoning damage attack with a DC11 level drain. Everything at your character level has saves around +10 - +20 so this is completely useless. To top it off, even the it has a high regeneration, it has a whopping 32HP unbuffed. Even from mobs of your level, that's about 2 hits.
Compare the Vampire (PRC level 9) to the Bog Zombie/Skeleton (PRC level 2 / 5-ish) and they aren't even on a compareable level. Add in the Mummy Lord (PRC level 8+) and the level 2 Animate Dead still wins out by a huge margin. Another issue, of course, is that the Skeleton doesn't scale any further. It will remain at level 9 from the point you get it until you finish levelling.
Because of this, by the time you hit level 20 you will be a gimped wizard, because of the 1/2 spell progression from the Pale Master PRC, and have summons, even buffed, that will provide only a momentary distraction due to poor level scaling.
Essentially what I'm getting at here is that the Pale Master is a fun PRC for Roleplay purposes but when it comes to the class-specific abilities, it really fails to shine. The non-summon related feats are amazing and require no changes at all. The only thing I feel requires a looking at are the summons and the scaling based on the PRC level they are obtained and the overall character level required to obtain them.
Thank you for your time. Please leave any feedback, questions or comments here in the thread and I'll try and answer them to the best of my ability. And don't get me wrong, I'm loving the PRC... it just seems kind of silly for the summon gained at character level 7 to be leaps and bounds stronger than the summon gained at character level 14.