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Should Prestige Classes be more powerful than Base Classes?
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<blockquote data-quote="Dykstrav" data-source="post: 3168554" data-attributes="member: 40522"><p>In the 3E DMG, it specifically states that prestige classes should be more powerful than base classes. The reasoning being that characters are making a sacrifice by taking levels in them, so the benefits should be good enough to motivate you to delay your basic class. I haven't seen anything specifically saying this in the 3.5 DMG but the design philosophy seems to hold true.</p><p></p><p>That being said, it's been my experience that prestige classes are of limited use (especially the core prestige classes found in the DMG). They seem to only be a viable option for combat-oriented characters. Even those playing fighters think twice about giving up their bonus feats. Spellcasters rarely take prestige classes in the campaigns I've seen. Delaying your caster level is rarely worth it.</p><p></p><p>I once played in a group lacking both a cleric and a magic-user. Being the sap that I am, I decided a mystic theurge would be in order. Fills both the missing party roles, right? That experience was a real eye-opener for me. The character didn't have the hit points that a cleric did (and I couldn't wear armor because of my arcane spellcasting), so I was screwed bad when I tried to move up and heal the front-line fighter. Trying to fill two roles meant having to choose each round whether to heal my allies or blast the critters with offensive spells. My starting gold was split between buying wands of offensive spells and healing spells (with the idea of not trying to blow all my clerical spells on healing every day), so I didn't really have all that great of gear for a character of my level. And to add insult to injury, I didn't have spells approaching the power of a cleric or wizard of my level. That character died horribly that first session.</p><p></p><p>At first I thought I'd just designed the character poorly. But since then I've seen other characters follow the same general trend. I've seen a warpriest, an enlightened fist, an incantatrix, and an eldritch knight (played by others) underperform significantly because they just can't do the things a character of their base class can do. I've been sticking with the base classes since then (and not even multiclassing) and those characters are always alot more effective. Maybe it's the way we're playing the game, but I think it says something for the utility of prestige classes.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dykstrav, post: 3168554, member: 40522"] In the 3E DMG, it specifically states that prestige classes should be more powerful than base classes. The reasoning being that characters are making a sacrifice by taking levels in them, so the benefits should be good enough to motivate you to delay your basic class. I haven't seen anything specifically saying this in the 3.5 DMG but the design philosophy seems to hold true. That being said, it's been my experience that prestige classes are of limited use (especially the core prestige classes found in the DMG). They seem to only be a viable option for combat-oriented characters. Even those playing fighters think twice about giving up their bonus feats. Spellcasters rarely take prestige classes in the campaigns I've seen. Delaying your caster level is rarely worth it. I once played in a group lacking both a cleric and a magic-user. Being the sap that I am, I decided a mystic theurge would be in order. Fills both the missing party roles, right? That experience was a real eye-opener for me. The character didn't have the hit points that a cleric did (and I couldn't wear armor because of my arcane spellcasting), so I was screwed bad when I tried to move up and heal the front-line fighter. Trying to fill two roles meant having to choose each round whether to heal my allies or blast the critters with offensive spells. My starting gold was split between buying wands of offensive spells and healing spells (with the idea of not trying to blow all my clerical spells on healing every day), so I didn't really have all that great of gear for a character of my level. And to add insult to injury, I didn't have spells approaching the power of a cleric or wizard of my level. That character died horribly that first session. At first I thought I'd just designed the character poorly. But since then I've seen other characters follow the same general trend. I've seen a warpriest, an enlightened fist, an incantatrix, and an eldritch knight (played by others) underperform significantly because they just can't do the things a character of their base class can do. I've been sticking with the base classes since then (and not even multiclassing) and those characters are always alot more effective. Maybe it's the way we're playing the game, but I think it says something for the utility of prestige classes. [/QUOTE]
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Should Prestige Classes be more powerful than Base Classes?
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