In Unearthed Arcana, we were introduced to the prestige bard, paladin, and ranger classes. If that's possible, would it be possible to base a campaign just on the "core four" classes: cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard, and design everything else, from barbarian to monk to ninja to warblade, as a prestige class? If so, how?
Core Four + Prestige
- Thread starter joela
- Start date
Jack Simth
First Post
Possible? Yes. On an individual class basis, it's pretty easy, even.
Basically, you just take the class you want to put a "prestige" gloss on, give it some appropriate requirements (that can be met at 5th level), and compress the benefits into a shorter span of levels. 4 level casters (such as the Paladin or Ranger) get 8/15 caster advancement, 6 level casters (such as the Bard) get 11/15 caster advancement, and full casters (such as the Druid) get 15/15 advancement.
E.g., Suppose, for instance, I want to make the Druid a PrC.
Requirements: Knoweledge(Nature) 8 ranks, Ability to cast 3rd level Divine Spells, Plant and Animal domains (need both), alignment within one step of neutral.
HD: d8
Skill Points: 4 + Int per level
Class Skills: As standard Druid
Saves: Good Fort, Will; poor Reflex
Benefits:
1st: Nature Casting, Druid's Oath, Animal Companion, Wild Empathy
2nd: Woodland Stride, Trackless Step, Resist Nature's Lure
3rd: Wild Shape 2/day, Spontaneous Summoning
4th: Wild Shape 3/day, Large Wild Shape
5th: Venom Immunity, Wild Shape 4/day
6th+: As Druid class features of five levels higher - e.g., Wild Shape Tiny (Druid-11) at PrC Druid 6, A Thousand Faces (Druid-13) at PrC Druid-8, and so on.
Nature Casting: The Druid spell list is added to your Cleric spell list.
Druid's Oath: the standard Druidic requirements
Spontaneous Summoning: Can convert prepared spells into Summon Nature's Ally Spells of the same level
Others: Exactly as listed in the Druid list, except you add your Cleric and Druid levels together to determine your effective Druid level for whatever it is.
At the end, all that's really changed from a standard Druid is that the Prestige Druid is missing out on 16 skill points, has an extra domain spell slot, has a few weak turning/rebuking attempts, and can spontaneously cast Inflict or Cure spells. If you like, you can even have one feature "turn off" another - e.g., when you gain Spontaneous Summoning, you lose Spontaneous Cure/Inflict spells.
You end up with a slightly different power curve (it'll generally be slightly higher - you have all the features of the "Druid" class, and the first five levels of features of the Cleric class) but you've got essentially the same one.
Basically, you just take the class you want to put a "prestige" gloss on, give it some appropriate requirements (that can be met at 5th level), and compress the benefits into a shorter span of levels. 4 level casters (such as the Paladin or Ranger) get 8/15 caster advancement, 6 level casters (such as the Bard) get 11/15 caster advancement, and full casters (such as the Druid) get 15/15 advancement.
E.g., Suppose, for instance, I want to make the Druid a PrC.
Requirements: Knoweledge(Nature) 8 ranks, Ability to cast 3rd level Divine Spells, Plant and Animal domains (need both), alignment within one step of neutral.
HD: d8
Skill Points: 4 + Int per level
Class Skills: As standard Druid
Saves: Good Fort, Will; poor Reflex
Benefits:
1st: Nature Casting, Druid's Oath, Animal Companion, Wild Empathy
2nd: Woodland Stride, Trackless Step, Resist Nature's Lure
3rd: Wild Shape 2/day, Spontaneous Summoning
4th: Wild Shape 3/day, Large Wild Shape
5th: Venom Immunity, Wild Shape 4/day
6th+: As Druid class features of five levels higher - e.g., Wild Shape Tiny (Druid-11) at PrC Druid 6, A Thousand Faces (Druid-13) at PrC Druid-8, and so on.
Nature Casting: The Druid spell list is added to your Cleric spell list.
Druid's Oath: the standard Druidic requirements
Spontaneous Summoning: Can convert prepared spells into Summon Nature's Ally Spells of the same level
Others: Exactly as listed in the Druid list, except you add your Cleric and Druid levels together to determine your effective Druid level for whatever it is.
At the end, all that's really changed from a standard Druid is that the Prestige Druid is missing out on 16 skill points, has an extra domain spell slot, has a few weak turning/rebuking attempts, and can spontaneously cast Inflict or Cure spells. If you like, you can even have one feature "turn off" another - e.g., when you gain Spontaneous Summoning, you lose Spontaneous Cure/Inflict spells.
You end up with a slightly different power curve (it'll generally be slightly higher - you have all the features of the "Druid" class, and the first five levels of features of the Cleric class) but you've got essentially the same one.
Quartz
Hero
A druid is a cleric with the Plant and Animal domains. A ranger is a fighter with the Track feat and the TWF or archery feat tree, perhaps a few levels of rogue. A bard is a wizard / rogue. You can't really do all the special powers of a monk but a brawler would be a fighter with the TWF tree who specialised in unarmed attacks and add in Ki feats for flavour. Barbarian and knight are just fighters with flavour.
Jack Simth
First Post
I don't particularly mind you stealing the crunch, no - that was a quick five-minute run. I basically just tossed a few requirements in, put the first and second level Druid class features in PrC Druid-1, 3rd and 4th Druid class features into PrC Druid-2, 5th and 6th Druid Class Features into PrC Druid-3, and so on, up to Druid-10 (PrC Druid-5) at which point, level and Druid features balanced, and proceed with Druid as normal; spellcasting runs as listed for the generic conversions. You could do that with any class, really.joela said:
Masquerade
First Post
I politely disagree.Quartz said:
Jack Simth
First Post
Okay, the Sorcerer (and, by extension, the Bard) would be a lot harder to do - you've got more spells per day and spontaneous casting. It'd be rather hard to add spells known to a Wizard and remove the spellbook without breaking it. Perhaps something along the lines of the Sublime Chord, which has it's own progression?
Dagredhel
Explorer
Instead of using cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard as the "basic" classes, it might make more sense to start with something like the generic classes from Unearthed Arcana. That way, you wouldn't be "stuck" (as much) with vestigial abilities from your first 5 character levels. For example, a Druid wouldn't necessarily have to have Turn Undead. One important modification you'd have to make for it to really work well would be to offer an alternative to armor and shield profociencies. Otherwise they'd just be wasted on many builds. Weapon Groups would be nice, too, for further customization.
Jack's Druid is great. I'd hesitate to require both the Animal and Plant Domains, though... any of the elemental Domains seem equally appropriate. (A few custom Domains would probably fit, too--- things to do with seasons, weather, renewal or rebirth, or even something like vermin.)
Monk would work well as a full BAB PrC entered from Fighter/Warrior. It'd be a way to make the suboptimal choice of unarmed combat pay off, and it wouldn't really hurt to delay the "mystical" stuff to 5th level or higher.
Jack's Druid is great. I'd hesitate to require both the Animal and Plant Domains, though... any of the elemental Domains seem equally appropriate. (A few custom Domains would probably fit, too--- things to do with seasons, weather, renewal or rebirth, or even something like vermin.)
Monk would work well as a full BAB PrC entered from Fighter/Warrior. It'd be a way to make the suboptimal choice of unarmed combat pay off, and it wouldn't really hurt to delay the "mystical" stuff to 5th level or higher.
