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.

 

[mellored]

Looks pretty cool, but can someone give a short summary of how rune magic actually works. Thanks.

You attune to a rune in place of a magic item. So max 4, +1 free at 5th level.
Full caster spell slots. But you get spells come from the runes.
1 rune per level, you can find others (rare magic item).
The simple/complex thing is only if you get disarmed. You can't be disarmed if it's a rune you gained from your level. Though you still need to attune to it to use it.

Runes can give you anything, but so far it's roughly...
*2 cantrips, (ice armor that blocks 1 hit, fly 20', ignite/extinguish fire, ect..)
*a passive defense (resist cold/fire, immune to petrify, ect..)
*Modify a weapon (fire makes you deal fire damage), with the option to add "magic weapon" if you spend slots, no concentration.
*1 attack spell, that takes spell slots (2d8+push, 2d8+immobilize, ect...)
*1/short rest spell (meld with stone, levitate).

 

[DEFCON 1]

So, if Unearthed Arcana is just a way for WoTC to spitball ideas, why do the prestige classes make me concerned? Because it is added cruft. Now that it has a presence in print, from WoTC, it gives license for "a thousand prestige classes to bloom." For some people, this is a good, no, a great thing. For me, it is a sign that the goal of simplicity is being abandoned.

You are more than allowed to feel concern. If you don't want them for the fear of lost simplicity, that's more than your right. The only real question you have to ask yourself though, is whether or not it matters to you that a lot of other people disagree with you? Because you will get disagreed with. A lot. Any time some new thing that moves the game away from simplicity gets released, you obviously will be concerned or saddened by it. But others will find it a welcomed sight and be happy about it. So what are you going to do about that?

The game was never going to stay just the three main books. We all knew that. New material would eventually get released (it was just a lot slower than many folks wanted, which actually means you got what you wanted for a lot longer than you probably ever had before. LOL!) So what do you figure you'll do? Not allowing anything other than the three core in your own game is the obvious first step, and the easiest to do and maintain for yourself. But what about past that point? You're going to have to figure it out, because the change is coming whether you want it to or not.

 

[Barantor]

Prestige classes seem irrelevant to me? Why not make another wizard archetype?

I would rather the class be linked more than it being so much of a small offshoot idea.

I'm honestly more impressed with more powers being given to backgrounds like Thule 5E has done with their "narratives" than for this type of thing you get sometime in the future via RP. I'm hoping that this doesn't lead to a ton of book bloat in the future, which is something that they were shying away from this edition.

 

[Roger]

I mostly like this. Seems like an okay way to handle The Last Airbender, and also characters who are pretty normal folk until they discover The Sword of Greyskull or whatever.

Also someone can (and almost surely will) give us the old AD&D bard, which I can't complain about.

As a minor quibble, I'm not sure I'm happy about this 'but you can only do this one specific thing during that short rest' idea. Easy as pie to ignore, but I'm not sure why it's there in the first place.

If we do end up with full Master of Pokemon support, I think this is the way I'd prefer to see it done.

 

[TerraDave]

You attune to a rune in place of a magic item. So max 4, +1 free at 5th level.
Full caster spell slots. But you get spells come from the runes.
1 rune per level, you can find others (rare magic item).
The simple/complex thing is only if you get disarmed. You can't be disarmed if it's a rune you gained from your level. Though you still need to attune to it to use it.

Runes can give you anything, but so far it's roughly...
*2 cantrips, (ice armor that blocks 1 hit, fly 20', ignite/extinguish fire, ect..)
*a passive defense (resist cold/fire, immune to petrify, ect..)
*Modify a weapon (fire makes you deal fire damage), with the option to add "magic weapon" if you spend slots, no concentration.
*1 attack spell, that takes spell slots (2d8+push, 2d8+immobilize, ect...)
*1/short rest spell (meld with stone, levitate).

Ok thanks. Fairly involved...and with a strong link into the campaign world (find the rune...). So good for some, probably not for all, as I would expect.

 

[TwoSix]

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

It will help parse about 90% of my posts, I agree.

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.

True, but that assumption was baked into the rules for Prestige Classes in 3e as well. The fact that the roleplaying requirement is explicitly present in the "requirements" section is a good start, but I doubt it will carry over into further prestige classes over the next few years.

 

[DEFCON 1]

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.

Maybe. But if it does, I can't say I'll be all that concerned about it. I mean, everything in the game is designed mechanically... and all story, flavor, and fluff can and will be ignored in certain cases. So why would a bunch of five-level prestige class mechanics be any different or worse than five-level sub-class mechanics or 20-level class mechanics? They're all just mechanics to play the game with fluff layered on top of them. So if I'm not concerned with someone ignoring the fluff of making a pact with a powerful entity as a warlock, why would I be concerned with someone writing a prestige class that didn't have the fluff of gaining access to that class? They're one and the same as far as I'm concerned. You use the mechanics as-is, or you use the mechanics with fluff laid on top of it (and making the fluff up yourself if you feel you need it.)

 

[Nellisir]

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.

To be fair, I think you do lose out higher-level spells. You just don't lose out on higher-level spell SLOTS. Personally, I don't have an issue with it.

And the roots go back to AD&D training rules, if not even earlier.

 

[TwoSix]

Maybe. But if it does, I can't say I'll be all that concerned about it. I mean, everything in the game is designed mechanically... and all story, flavor, and fluff can and will be ignored in certain cases. So why would a bunch of five-level prestige class mechanics be any different or worse than five-level sub-class mechanics or 20-level class mechanics? They're all just mechanics to play the game with fluff layered on top of them. So if I'm not concerned with someone ignoring the fluff of making a pact with a powerful entity as a warlock, why would I be concerned with someone writing a prestige class that didn't have the fluff of gaining access to that class? They're one and the same as far as I'm concerned. You use the mechanics as-is, or you use the mechanics with fluff laid on top of it (and making the fluff up yourself if you feel you need it.)

I'm not concerned either. Like, seriously, at all. I'm excited to see some new mechanics, actually. I'm simply making observations. It's a nice gesture on WotC's part (including flavor requirements, that is) for those that care about things like proliferation of PrCs, but it won't affect the future development of PrCs.

 

[mellored]

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.

Slots stack. Spells known do not. Same as anyother multi-class.

It even specifically says a rune 4/wizard 6 would know have slots of a 10th level caster, but only know spells of a 6th level wizard.

So yea, overall it's a bit weak for the same reason a bard 4/wizard 6 is weak. What you gain doesn't make up for the loss of high level spells. Not completely bad though. I could see some dipping for some of the passive features though.

Water breathing / feather fall / levitate are good exploration options.
Icy mantle can help keep concentration.
A fire sorcerer could make use of rerolling fire damage.
Or indomitable stand and crushing brand for a defensive fighter.

Don't see much reason to take 5 levels though. The effects don't mix well. Though there's always the possibility of more runes.