-
The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
why not take prestige class
- Thread starter dububbles1834
- Start date
Chun-tzu said:
*blush* A few ideas along those lines: Improved Metamagic. Not an ungodly-powerful ability in and of itself, right? Well ... let Wizards take it every five levels; put it on the Wizard Bonus Feat list, such that it can ONLY be taken (pre-epic levels) by Wizards, and ONLY as their Wizard bonus feat. That makes Wizards more likely to make large use of metamagics, right htere: the opportunity cost for them goes down in terms of spell-slot usage ... which IMO nicely balances with the Sorcerors' spontaneous use of them.
For sorcerors ... that's a bit tougher. First off, their skill list needs to be altered; they shouldn't JUST be spellcraft-and-concentration guys. Throw in the social skills, and some of the intuitive skills (sense motive, etc). Specify a few knowledges beyond "arcana" that are in-class (i.e. "knowledge: dragon lore").
Maybe rules for "specialist sorcerors" ... people with a narrower talent than the generalists. Definitely a seperate spell list (sorcerors and wizards are the ONLY two classes to SHARE a spell list between them). Different familiars and benefits from same would also be nice (maybe it's easier for sorcerors to get pseudodragons, but harder for (e.g.) them to get a homunculous familiar ...).
Li Shenron
Legend
A few more thoughts...
The Loremaster PrCl is a fairly good example of how to properly write a PrCl, although I think it is not perfect, in the sense that it could have more specials linked to spellcasting instead of other, but that's off-topic. The several spells and skills requirements (although the Wizard can reach them more easily) implies that your character is already focused on what the PrCl is supposed to improve much more than the progression in the core class. This is very good by itself, and I agree that only the Wiz/Sor that are really interested in that will be take this PrCl. Anyway, given the sheer amount of PrCls around, I have NEVER seen a single Wiz/Sor not aiming to a PrCl which fit her interests, and none thougth of going to be simply a Wiz/Sor for all her 20 levels.
I really wish there was something more than the Familiar in the 2 core classes to make the choice of staying coreclass a valid choice, and not a loss. I don't think that the +1 spellcasting given by PrCl is the problem, it is instead what makes the choice of a PrCl very viable since reducing spellcasting progression may hurt much more than the special PrCl features are worth. I hope I make myself understandable: I want BOTH the choices of taking a PrCl and of staying core class to be possible good choices; in the case of Sorcerer and slightly lesser Wizard, they are uneven. I am not very fond of bonus feats, but more of them could have been the easiest way to improve them while keeping them generalists.
Meantime, I think many of the FRCS PrCl are poorly designed. I don't own the book myself, so I apologies if what I remember may be very wrong... I don't like 5-levels PrCl, because they don't motivate a charater to consider herself a real member of that PrCl, and instead tend to represent a brief deviation from the PC's general progression, just as taking a couple of levels in a second (or third...) core class for few boosts in proficiencies, abilities, etc. Furthermore, with so few levels, they tend to be a bunch of scattered abilities with limited progression. All the various Arcane Devotee, Divine Disciple, Harper Mage... (I really don't remember them each, I just try to recall my impressions when reading FRCS!) seemed to me to grant possibly 1 or 2 unique abilities, the rest being bonus feats or anyway bonuses which don't distinguish them from other chars and could be achieved with feats, skills, or core classes abilities. Archmage and Hierophant were different: they really ARE a very horizontal-progressed deviation from the PC's advancement, so that you clearly take a single level of them and get one single special ability otherwise unavailable, and it makes sense that you can get a level in it sometimes (the 5 levels have no differences with each other IIRC, and they could be 10 or 20, "5" works just a general limit to how many special ability a PC can get in her life).
The Loremaster PrCl is a fairly good example of how to properly write a PrCl, although I think it is not perfect, in the sense that it could have more specials linked to spellcasting instead of other, but that's off-topic. The several spells and skills requirements (although the Wizard can reach them more easily) implies that your character is already focused on what the PrCl is supposed to improve much more than the progression in the core class. This is very good by itself, and I agree that only the Wiz/Sor that are really interested in that will be take this PrCl. Anyway, given the sheer amount of PrCls around, I have NEVER seen a single Wiz/Sor not aiming to a PrCl which fit her interests, and none thougth of going to be simply a Wiz/Sor for all her 20 levels.
I really wish there was something more than the Familiar in the 2 core classes to make the choice of staying coreclass a valid choice, and not a loss. I don't think that the +1 spellcasting given by PrCl is the problem, it is instead what makes the choice of a PrCl very viable since reducing spellcasting progression may hurt much more than the special PrCl features are worth. I hope I make myself understandable: I want BOTH the choices of taking a PrCl and of staying core class to be possible good choices; in the case of Sorcerer and slightly lesser Wizard, they are uneven. I am not very fond of bonus feats, but more of them could have been the easiest way to improve them while keeping them generalists.
Meantime, I think many of the FRCS PrCl are poorly designed. I don't own the book myself, so I apologies if what I remember may be very wrong... I don't like 5-levels PrCl, because they don't motivate a charater to consider herself a real member of that PrCl, and instead tend to represent a brief deviation from the PC's general progression, just as taking a couple of levels in a second (or third...) core class for few boosts in proficiencies, abilities, etc. Furthermore, with so few levels, they tend to be a bunch of scattered abilities with limited progression. All the various Arcane Devotee, Divine Disciple, Harper Mage... (I really don't remember them each, I just try to recall my impressions when reading FRCS!) seemed to me to grant possibly 1 or 2 unique abilities, the rest being bonus feats or anyway bonuses which don't distinguish them from other chars and could be achieved with feats, skills, or core classes abilities. Archmage and Hierophant were different: they really ARE a very horizontal-progressed deviation from the PC's advancement, so that you clearly take a single level of them and get one single special ability otherwise unavailable, and it makes sense that you can get a level in it sometimes (the 5 levels have no differences with each other IIRC, and they could be 10 or 20, "5" works just a general limit to how many special ability a PC can get in her life).
Kurtz Tote
First Post
specialists
I'm not a rules expert, but if you are a specialist wizard and gain a level in a prestige class, do you gain the bonus spell level as a specialist wizard? You are no longer a specialist wizard - right - but some other prestige class. This could be a reason not to take a prestige class and miss out on the bonus spells that you get as a specialist.
I'm not a rules expert, but if you are a specialist wizard and gain a level in a prestige class, do you gain the bonus spell level as a specialist wizard? You are no longer a specialist wizard - right - but some other prestige class. This could be a reason not to take a prestige class and miss out on the bonus spells that you get as a specialist.
Re: specialists
Multiclassing doesn't mean that you leave your first class entirely (well, except for monks and paladins). It just means you are now following multiple career paths at once. You are still a specialist wizard after you take a level in a prestige class, so logically, yes you would still get all the perks and flaws of being a specialist.
Kurtz Tote said:
Multiclassing doesn't mean that you leave your first class entirely (well, except for monks and paladins). It just means you are now following multiple career paths at once. You are still a specialist wizard after you take a level in a prestige class, so logically, yes you would still get all the perks and flaws of being a specialist.
