One thing that pains me in 3e/3.5e was the class level dependent abilities , probably the most obvious case is spell casting but there are many others. Now prestige classes somewhat get around some of these issues but it just gets all a bit messy taking 3 level of this 1 of this 8 of this etc etc before you know it your pseudo powergamming your character when all you wanted to do was add some flavor. (I say pseudo because you need to maximize it to simply have it come close to a single class equivalent)
Say I wanted to make a brawly character who could turn into a bear at will , fly into a rage as a bear, and when really angry breathe a fireball into a battle. Thats it that all the special powers I need for him I have a backstory and know how I want to play it, so now I go about building it.
Okay brawler, so fighter, no wait barb better option for rage, ok, need shapeshifting hrmm ok take druid, but I'll need 5 levels of that before I can be a bear, how about polymorphing , mmm I'll need 8-9 caster levels for that , well you need at least 6 for a fireball, true but it dosent last very long, true
So how does this sound
Barbarian 1/ Druid 5/ Sorcerer 6
Yep you can now play that character once you reach level 12, will be too weak to stand in a fight, your bear form will seem like a a rodent, you fireballs will mostly do sweet bugger all damage and that when they arnt being magically resisted. Not to mention you'll have a dozen or more spell that you had no intention of ever using.
So instead you'd spend a week making a new base class or prestige class and jump on line to find your post is one of many making their own custom classes.
Enter the Talents
Far from the perfect solution but might get us closer t our goal with less hassle.
Ok Brawler again Barbarian, take the basic Rage from the "Inhuman strength tree" at 1st level. Ok cool now we need to be a bear take Druid at second level "Animal Shapeshifting Tree" take "Large sized animal"....wait it has a prereq "Medium sized animal" ok maybe we can be a youth/adolecent bear , level 3 and 4 take druid second druid talent taking large animal , ok now I can be a big bear. Right now fireball ok Sorcerer "Evocation Spell Tree" Fireball wait it also has a prereq "Burning Hands" what that? looks like a 15ft fire cone does 1 d 4/char level. that pretty close ok take that we can just assume flame comes from my mouth not my hand ok ? sure why not .
Barb1/Druid3/Sorc1 (I have my RP char medium bear a level 2 (large at lv4) and flame breathe at level 5)
Now I doubt it would be as clean as that but you get the idea it gives flexibility without being overpowering and would scale up with your charcter
Say I wanted to make a brawly character who could turn into a bear at will , fly into a rage as a bear, and when really angry breathe a fireball into a battle. Thats it that all the special powers I need for him I have a backstory and know how I want to play it, so now I go about building it.
Okay brawler, so fighter, no wait barb better option for rage, ok, need shapeshifting hrmm ok take druid, but I'll need 5 levels of that before I can be a bear, how about polymorphing , mmm I'll need 8-9 caster levels for that , well you need at least 6 for a fireball, true but it dosent last very long, true
So how does this sound
Barbarian 1/ Druid 5/ Sorcerer 6
Yep you can now play that character once you reach level 12, will be too weak to stand in a fight, your bear form will seem like a a rodent, you fireballs will mostly do sweet bugger all damage and that when they arnt being magically resisted. Not to mention you'll have a dozen or more spell that you had no intention of ever using.
So instead you'd spend a week making a new base class or prestige class and jump on line to find your post is one of many making their own custom classes.
Enter the Talents
Far from the perfect solution but might get us closer t our goal with less hassle.
Ok Brawler again Barbarian, take the basic Rage from the "Inhuman strength tree" at 1st level. Ok cool now we need to be a bear take Druid at second level "Animal Shapeshifting Tree" take "Large sized animal"....wait it has a prereq "Medium sized animal" ok maybe we can be a youth/adolecent bear , level 3 and 4 take druid second druid talent taking large animal , ok now I can be a big bear. Right now fireball ok Sorcerer "Evocation Spell Tree" Fireball wait it also has a prereq "Burning Hands" what that? looks like a 15ft fire cone does 1 d 4/char level. that pretty close ok take that we can just assume flame comes from my mouth not my hand ok ? sure why not .
Barb1/Druid3/Sorc1 (I have my RP char medium bear a level 2 (large at lv4) and flame breathe at level 5)
Now I doubt it would be as clean as that but you get the idea it gives flexibility without being overpowering and would scale up with your charcter
