Don’t bother thinking creatively, just take a PrC! Need a set of specific abilities for some NPC foes?
So, I'm to take it that to look at a PrC concept (and let's be up front: a large subset of prestige classes are all about the shtick) and find it to be a good fit for what you were looking for or inspire you to good ideas you hadn't thought of is a bad thing?
I disagree.
Further, I find that many of my players don't like pulling together special sets of feats and skills and would just as soon "subscribe" to a concept.
As for me GMing making NPCs... sometimes I find it relatively easy to pull together a unique concept using existing tools, other times a prestige class is just what I need. No need to throw away one tool just because another one is useful in other situations.
Finally, improvising unique concepts is much easier for the with prestige classes. I could pull together a bunch of unique feats from different sources that realize my concept and to improvise an NPC... and flip back and forth in the book. Or I can put a bookmark in the PrC and be done with it.
Well they’ll have to be at least sixth level, but there’s a PrC for that! Playing in a game above fifth level? Better take a PrC, or everyone will laugh and call you NEWB!
Nice sarcasm, but my experience differs. If this happens to you, the problem isn't prestige classes. The problem is your group.
The first word of the term ‘prestige class’ doesn’t even apply to most games;
So some are, some are just specialized concepts. It's just semantics. Get past it.
No prestigious organizations, just pointless prereqs that force players to plan out their stat minutiae from level 1. God forbid that all those cool special abilities should be available to single classed characters as alternate class features, feats and spells! Or even as base classes!
God forbid we ask players to build their characters to resemble the sort of person who would develop these abilities or become part of these organizations!
Some PrCs are simply means to circumvent artificial restrictions in core. Example: blackguard and holy liberator, which exist solely to bypass the paladin’s needlessly restrictive alignment requirement. That’s downright moronic. God forbid these character concepts should be available from level 1!
Sure. If that's the way you feel. Get this:
EN World PDF Store - Green Ronin - Holy Warrior's Handbook
I would agree these particular PrCs are dumb.
But for some folks, the most compelling idea about paladinhood is the fall; thus the blackguard. Nonetheless, I think the holy liberator is dumb no matter how you slice it.
And then there’s the combo-concept PrCs. How many gish PrCs came out before someone in R&D finally said “Hey, why don’t we just make this a base class? We’ll call it the duskblade!”? Five? Six? Seventeen? All of those combo-concept PrCs would be better off as base classes; mystic theurge & co., arcane trickster, I’m sure there are others.
Wholly and completely disagree. The duskblade, spellfilch, and savant were all woefully inflexible in concept and ability to build the concept through history, to make a character who starts out as one type and moving towards the others. With a duskblade, for example, you are stuck with the spells and fighting style they give you. It makes much more sense to plug into the much more broadly supported base classes.
There are PrCs that exist to compensate for the suckitude of the game mechanics; Tempest and that TWF PrC from Bo9S comes immediately to mind.
If the point is "two handed fighting is too good under 3.5 because the 3.5 designers decided math is hard", I can only agree. But again, the root problem here is not PrCs, but a) a poor design decision (two handed weapon and power attack damage) and b) poor post-hoc methods of correcting that.
There are PrCs that exist solely as magnifications of base classes; I’m looking at you, Radiant Servant of Pelor and Frenzied Berserker!
Again, don't disagree. But again, bad apples, not the bunch.