First of all, forgive my long post. I don’t know how to make things disappear behind clicky boxes as I’ve never posted at EN World before, but rycanada’s E6 idea drew me out.
It’s a fantastic idea, and I wanted to add my own contribution for those interested.
Building off of shdwrnr’s idea of prestige feats, I went through the 3.5 DMG prestige classes and converted them into feat chains. I had to avoid the archmage and hierophant due to their power levels. I made a few changes from shdwrnr’s feats and ideas, however. Like those feats, each feat chain begins with a “NameofPrestigeClass Training” feat. For each of these, the prerequisites are character level 6, whatever prerequisites exist in the DMG (where possible, see below) and no other prestige feats from another prestige feat chain.
I was forced to change some prestige class requirements to allow them to work at level six or for greater flexibility. The short overview: Arcane Archer’s BAB was changed to +3 to accommodate the multiclassing requirement (spellcaster and fighting class of some stripe), Arcane Trickster’s spellcasting requirement was changed to casting 2nd level spells to accommodate the necessary multiclassing (rogue levels for sneak attacks), Duelist’s BAB was changed to +4 to accommodate rogue duelists, Dwarven Defender’s BAB requirement was changed to +6 for obvious reasons, Eldrich Knight’s spellcasting requirement was changed to casting 2nd level spells to allow for gishes, Loremaster’s skill requirements were changed to Knowledge (any two) 9 to prevent the necessity of skill feats to qualify on top of the other feat requirements, Shadowdancer’s Hide skill requirement was changed to Hide 9 to avoid the necessity of skill feats on top of the other feat requirements and Thaumaturgist’s “ability to cast lesser planar ally” was changed to the Augment Summoning feat because 4th level spells aren’t available in E6, and the Thaumaturgist will gain lesser plannar ally as an ability with the Thaumaturgist Training feat).
The way feat chain progession works is similar to prestige class advancement. The first feat begins the chain, then the second feat requires the first, the third requires the second, and so on. This allows the characters abilities to grow as if they were taking levels in the class.
For the feat chains themselves, I tried to include prestige class abilities up to 3rd level and occasionally level 4. Hopefully this will keep the power level in the 6-10 quartile as mentioned by rycanada. I occasionally added abilities from further into the prestige class, but usually only when it was a prestige class meant to encourage multiclassing, if it was a weak prestige class (your mileage may vary), or if it seemed to be the “Signature” ability of the prestige class (and losing it would lose the point of taking the feat chain).
Without further ado, here’s the list (as a list of feats instead of pasting the entire document – the feats are essentially giving the benefit of the class ability, so you get the idea):
Arcane Archer Feat Chain
1 Arcane Archer Training (enhance arrow +1)
2 Imbue Arrow
3 Enhance Arrow +2
4 Seeking Arrow
5 Enhance Arrow +3
6 Phase Arrow
Arcane Trickster Feat Chain
1 Arcane Trickster Training (Ranged Legerdemain 1/day)
2 Expanded Casting
3 Sneak Attack +1d6
4 Expanded Casting
5 Sneak Attack +1d6
6 Impromptu Sneak Attack
Assassin Feat Chain
1 Assassin Training (sneak attack +1d6)
2 Poison Use
3 Uncanny Dodge
4 Sneak Attack +1d6
5 Spells (as per shdwrnr’s feat)
6 Death Attack
Blackguard Feat Chain
1 Blackguard Training (fallen from grace, aura of evil, detect good)
2 Smite Good
3 Spells (as per shdwrnr’s feat)
4 Dark Blessing / Aura of Despair (both as one feat)
5 Command Undead
6 Fiendish Servant
Dragon Disciple Feat Chain
1 Dragon Disciple Training (Natural Armor +1)
2 Claws and Bite
3 Natural Armor +1
4 Breath Weapon 2d8
5 Natural Armor +1
6 Breath Weapon 4d8
Duelist Feat Chain
1 Duelist Training (+1 Canny Defense and Improved Reaction +2)
2 Enhanced Mobiity
3 +1 Canny Defense
4 Grace
5 +1 Canny Defense
6 Precise Strike +1d6
Dwarven Defender Feat Chain
1 Dwarven Defender Training (Defensive Stance 1/day)
2 Uncanny Dodge
3 Defensive Stance 2/day
4 Trap Sense +1
5 Defensive Stance 3/day
6 Damage Reduction 2/-
Eldrich Knight Feat Chain
1 Eldrich Knight Training (Fighter Bonus Feat, Expanded Casting)
2 Weapon Specialization
3 Expanded Casting
4 Greater Weapon Focus
5 Expanded Casting
6 Second Attack at +0 BAB
Horizon Walker Feat Chain
1 Horizon Walker Training (Terrain Mastery)
2 Terrain Mastery
3 Terrain Mastery
4 Terrain Mastery
5 Terrain Mastery
6 Planar Terrain Mastery
Loremaster Feat Chain
1 Loremaster Training (Secret)
2 Lore
3 Secret
4 Bonus Language
5 Secret
6 Greater Lore
Mystic Theurge Feat Chain
1 Mystic Theurge Training (Expanded Knowledge Arcane / Expanded Knowledge Divine)
2 Expanded Casting Arcane / Expanded Casting Divine
3 Expanded Knowledge Arcane / Expanded Knowledge Divine
4 Expanded Casting Arcane / Expanded Casting Divine
5 Expanded Knowledge Arcane / Expanded Knowledge Divine
6 Expanded Casting Arcane / Expanded Casting Divine &
Expanded Knowledge Arcane / Expanded Knowledge Divine (3rd level)
Shadowdancer Feat Chain
1 Shadowdancer Training (Hide in Plain Sight)
2 Evasion
3 Uncanny Dodge
4 Darkvision
5 Summon Shadow
6 Shadow Jump 40 feet
Thaumaturgist Feat Chain
1 Thaumaturgist Training (Expanded Casting [Lesser Planar Ally])
2 Improved Ally
3 Expanded Casting
4 Extend Summoning
5 Expanded Casting
6 Planar Cohort
Some notes / questions / concerns:
1) The various training feats give the class skills listed in the prestige class descriptions as class skills to the character. They also give an additional ability from the prestige class.
2) For classes that gave spellcasting class levels, I instead gave “Expanded Casting” to give additional spell slots. I’m not sure if this is a fair tradeoff (or a choice befitting the flavor of the prestige class). I’m open to other ideas.
For specific prestige classes, some clarification:
The Blackguard’s Fallen From Grace ability gives the abilities listed in the Blackguard Prestige Class for swapping out Paladin levels (since they’re losing paladin abilities, it seems fair).
For the capstone ability of Eldrich Knight, I included a second attack (since to get into the Prestige Class feat chain you’d only have a BAB of +3) at +0. Not sure if this would work, but I wanted to do something to reflect the greater fighting ability of the original prestige class.
For the Mystic Theurge, at each feat in the feat chain I gave two feats: expanded casting for each area (one divine, one arcane) or expanded knowledge for each area (one divine, one arcane). At the capstone feat, I gave all four, but allowing one third level slot for each (divine, arcane) and one spell known for each, but with the caveat that no additional feats could add additional third level slots or third level spells known. I’m not sure if this is too powerful or not, but I’m not sure how else to allow Mystic Theurge to work (otherwise, just multiclass and take the Expanded Casting / Knowledge feats – why bother with a pretige class feat chain?).
For Thaumaturgist, at first level they gain the ability to cast one fourth level spell (lesser plannar cohort), but with the limitation that they can never take feats to add additional fourth level slots or spells known. I’m not sure if their planar cohort will be possible with the restrictions as per the prestige class ability.
I’d love some feedback. Let me know what you think.
