Here Come The PRESTIGE CLASSES! Plus Rune Magic!

Mike Mearls' latest Unearthed Arcana column presents the first ever 5E prestige class: the Rune Scribe! "Prestige classes build on the game’s broad range of basic options to represent specialized options and unique training. The first of those specialized options for fifth edition D&D is the rune scribe—a character who masters ancient sigils that embody the fundamental magic of creation."

It's a 5-level class, and also contains the basic information on how prestige classes work and how to join them - including ability, skill, level, and task-based prerequisites. Find it here.

 

[Rejuvenator]

Stein, kalt... So the ancient giants who named the runes spoke in German?

Or is it Old Norse?

 

[Edwin Suijkerbuijk]

Something new I would like to see when it comes to prestige class mechanics are prestige classes that are more spaced out.

Meaning each level of the prestige class would have a minimum character level to take it.
So a prestige class could have levels you could take at level 6,9,12,15 and 18 this way you could have a prestige class that adds a wider range of power levels from low to high level.
Especialy if such a class is designed to mix with one other specific class.

 

[TwoSix]

Sarcasm?

In the sense that I was speaking the exact opposite of my actual belief to make a rhetorical point, yes.

I mean, it's a nice gesture, but as soon as the designers open up the idea of non-20 level classes, the floodgates will open, as 3e demonstrated. It's too compelling of a niche not to fill with homebrew.

 

[Hussar]

I'm pretty ambivalent here. PrC's made such little splash in our games that they might as well have not existed. Almost no one took them other than maybe a dabble here or there. Color me pretty much meh.

And, to be honest, I have to say that I don't like the idea that players have to wait X levels to actually play something they want to play. For example, if Warlord becomes a PrC, with a minimum level of 6 (say), that means I have to spend about four or five months of games before I get to play what I want. I'd much, much rather that they stick with subclasses, rather than muddle about with PrC's. What's the difference between a PrC and a Subclass anyway? I need to specialise my specialisation? Really?

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[DEFCON 1]

In the sense that I was speaking the exact opposite of my actual belief to make a rhetorical point, yes.

I mean, it's a nice gesture, but as soon as the designers open up the idea of non-20 level classes, the floodgates will open, as 3e demonstrated. It's too compelling of a niche not to fill with homebrew.

I dunno... it's not as though we've been flooded with unbalanced sub-classes being released even though that's a "new thing" that could be easily homebrewed. What, four or five special abilities? If WotC, their third-party partners, or anyone else out there wanted to make them, they can easily. And yet I don't see a huge influx of them appearing all over the place with unbalanced abilities to the point where the general D&D populace is having issues with it.

All a prestige class is (from a mechanical creation standpoint), is a series of four or five abilities that all come together one after the other... as opposed to sub-classes which come out at certain level points with two to four level gaps in between. So their existence would only be an issue if they were designed poorly. But I fail to see why prestige classes would be the one that brought about poor game design whereas the sub-class concept did not.

 

[martinlochsen]

Stein, kalt... So the ancient giants who named the runes spoke in German?

Or is it Old Norse?

Seems like modern Norwegian, actually. Only kalt should be kaldt.

 

[Pauper]

Like the concept. Don't like that Rune magic chops off Higher Level spells in return for it's features.

Except it doesn't -- if you read the description of Rune Magic, you treat the PrC as a 'full caster' for purposes of determining your spell slots when multiclassing, so a Wiz5/RuneCaster5 has the same spell slots as a Wiz10. Apparently the dedicated slots for the PrC are solely in the event of a non-spellcasting class gaining proficiency with Arcana in order to enter this class.

And yeah, I can see most DMs hand-waving the 'you must encounter a Rune Mage to tutor you, and you can't rise above your tutor's level'; it's an interesting concept (with roots back to the old d20 Star Wars game's treatment of Jedi classes -- until you got to level 7, you're a padawan and need a master of that level or higher to train you in order for you to go up a level), but it's one that's not going to survive contact with most powergamers.

--
Pauper

 

[Galendril]

In the sense that I was speaking the exact opposite of my actual belief to make a rhetorical point, yes.

I mean, it's a nice gesture, but as soon as the designers open up the idea of non-20 level classes, the floodgates will open, as 3e demonstrated. It's too compelling of a niche not to fill with homebrew.

So that's a yes on sarcasm. Good to know.

I think you miss my point which is, if I choose as a DM to not allow prestige classes or only certain ones, I can easily do so by not having anyone in the world to train the PC.

Right now, the current multi-classing rules don't sit well with me. A character can level up an arctic wilderness with not a single soul for thousands of miles around, but suddenly they learn the basics of another class *poof*.

At least with prestige classes, it's baked into the rules that the characters need to find someone to train them.

 

[TwoSix]

I dunno... it's not as though we've been flooded with unbalanced sub-classes being released even though that's a "new thing" that could be easily homebrewed. What, four or five special abilities? If WotC, their third-party partners, or anyone else out there wanted to make them, they can easily. And yet I don't see a huge influx of them appearing all over the place with unbalanced abilities to the point where the general D&D populace is having issues with it.

All a prestige class is (from a mechanical creation standpoint), is a series of four or five abilities that all come together one after the other... as opposed to sub-classes which come out at certain level points with two to four level gaps in between. So their existence would only be an issue if they were designed poorly. But I fail to see why prestige classes would be the one that brought about poor game design whereas the sub-class concept did not.

Oh, I'm not worried about the balance. Not that I think it won't be an issue, I simply don't care. My point was twofold:

1) Prestige classes are going to end up designed around mechanical benefits, with no gating via lore or flavor. It's inevitable.

2) Once the official designers open up a new design platform, it will get filled with homebrew. We have lots of homebrew subclasses and lots of homebrew feats, because the designers gave us plenty of examples of how they work. Now that there's a new offical design template, people will use it. Again, it's inevitable.

I'm not concerned with making a point about the quality of the future design, merely that it WILL come and it WILL be mechanically focused.