Prc Technical Difficulties ???

The Mindbender from the the Complete Acrane:
"Skill Boost (EX): A mindbender is a consumate student of manipulation, be it magical or mundane. Begining at 2nd level, he can add 1/2 his class level as a competence bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive."

Do they mean Total Class Level, or just Mindbender Class Levels?
Does a Beguiler 5/ Mindbender 4 get a +4 or +2 ???

Also, I can't cite the source but I was under the assumption that in order to prestige there was a rule of thumb that the MINIMUM class level before prestiging was 5 levels. Then you could start a prestige class reguardless of the fact that you coule meet the qualifications at earlier levels. I have always used it this way and all Dm's I've played with used it this way as well. I can not find anywhere in a book where it states this as a rule or fact. This is only due to the fact that all my books are on my laptop and my laptop crashed last night. I wouldn't even question it if it wasn't for the fact that I noticed an enworld post where a group was playing in a game and the characters were listed. I noticed that there were characters with 3 levels in a base class and then 8 levels in a prestige class.
So is this a rule of thumb or an actuall rule. Or am I wrong, or maybe it was an old 3.0 rule? Somebody help me . . . . .

Class Level always means level in a particular class (in this case, Mindbender)

Character Level indicates total character level

So, +2 (4/2)

and rules of Thumb are not hard and fast rules, just general rules..some things can break them.

To the best of my knowledge...

When a PrC mentions Class Levels, it is refering only to the PrC. So, in your example... +2.

There is no rule regarding the minimum level for a PrC, but most are structured so you can't enter until you get your sixth level. Some (such as Complete Mage's Master Specialist) are made to deliberately allow early entry; others are designed to require five levels before entry, but material from other sources allows early entry.

Nikroecyst said:

Also, I can't cite the source but I was under the assumption that in order to prestige there was a rule of thumb that the MINIMUM class level before prestiging was 5 levels.

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Not that I am aware of. Many prestige classes have a minimum starting level higher than that, and a few lower.

Then you could start a prestige class reguardless of the fact that you coule meet the qualifications at earlier levels. I have always used it this way and all Dm's I've played with used it this way as well. I can not find anywhere in a book where it states this as a rule or fact. This is only due to the fact that all my books are on my laptop and my laptop crashed last night. I wouldn't even question it if it wasn't for the fact that I noticed an enworld post where a group was playing in a game and the characters were listed. I noticed that there were characters with 3 levels in a base class and then 8 levels in a prestige class.
So is this a rule of thumb or an actuall rule. Or am I wrong, or maybe it was an old 3.0 rule? Somebody help me . . . . .

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It was neither a 3.0 nor 3.5 rule. There is no rule at all about level 5 being special in any way with regard to prestige classes. A lot of prestige classes can be entered after 5 levels of something else, but it isn't a rule. You may enter a prestige class after you meet the prerequistes and receive DM approval.

Excellent, thank you all.

I believe that it was Monte Cook (the primary DMG author) who identified that as a core PrC design principle. But it's not a rule of the game ...

Christian said:

I believe that it was Monte Cook (the primary DMG author) who identified that as a core PrC design principle. But it's not a rule of the game ...

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Yeah there are several articles on the making of the game, and design factors, and even advice for designing your own prestige class, that may use the "level 5" criteria. But as you said, it's not a rule.