while the fireball-happy wizard is a D&D cliche with a long and glorious tradition, this prestige class still made me happy. the class trades most of its spellcaster progression for a suite of equally effective fire-based special abilities. it is very clearly for arcanists who like fire more than arcana, are looking for more specialization than just through spell selection, and seems well-balanced on the whole.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: fire, and lots of it.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: the writing could have used another round of editing. though the intent of the special abilities is consistently clear, some of the examples seem wrong. some of the prerequisites seem to be uselessly redundant.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>