It would be good to see an example of how this works out as a character progresses (since a GM will need to know a bit about it to make believable NPCs). For example, I need an NPC that knows how to Craft Shrine Realm. This requires a chain of four feats and seven tails, eg. a level 4 Kitsune with prestige 22 (2 +1 at level 4 +4 more tails due to prestige). Based on the NPCs I see in chapter 6, I'd say such a high prestige would be more appropriate for a level 15 character. But then again with a high CHA score, the Kitsune would already start with a Prestige of 14. Let me try and make a table with estimated prestige scores per number of tricks. Assuming she gets a +1 for all her tricks (victim looses half or more of the challenges), on average, I would expect the following progression:
1 14.55 11 20.87
2 15.11 12 21.59
3 15.69 13 22.33
4 16.28 14 23.09
5 16.89 15 23.86
6 17.51 16 24.66
7 18.15 17 25.48
8 18.80 18 26.31
9 19.47 19 27.17
10 20.16 20 28.05
Thus, a prestige of 24 should be possible after 13 tricks -- on average. That doesn't sound too difficult, and quite plausible for a level 4 NPC. Since the NPCs in the book don't have prestige ratings over 30, I'm wondering whether I got the formula right...
Instead of using a formula, I tried the same thing with a simulation. This is again based on an initial prestige score of 14 and based on 100 repetitions per number of tricks. I guess this shows that the formula I used above is faulty. The d20 system introduces some interesting effects due to rounding.
1 14.57 11 18.76 21 21.98
2 14.96 12 19.01 22 22.34
3 15.47 13 19.43 23 22.69
4 15.98 14 19.82 24 22.77
5 16.46 15 20.43 25 23.07
6 16.65 16 20.66 26 23.45
7 17.08 17 20.77 27 23.86
8 17.81 18 21.23 28 23.99
9 18.23 19 21.44 29 23.94
10 18.34 20 21.50 30 24.49
The table above is based on number of tricks with a +1 modifier – not based on level, obviously. If my level 4 Kitsune pulled off 21 tricks with a +1 modifier, a prestige score of 22 would be perfectly ok.
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