pming
Legend
Hiya!
Y'see, now that's the kind of thinking that the designers at WotC need to have. They need to stop trying to rely on "what 3.x/PF/4e did" and more on "what do we want it to do now". I could get behind a "5-level-max" for PrC's, and needing to complete them in their entirety before jumping out...sort of like a "buy in" mechanic.
I could also see it work in a 'staggered' type of thing...requiring a level in Class A, then a Level in PrC, then back to Class A, then back to PrC, etc., up until you got your 5th level in that PrC. Then you were free to do whatever you wanted again. This could even open up the door for "Advanced Prestige Classes" that would be available to someone who advanced to level 5 in a particular PrC. I'm kind of thinking of 1e Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay's "Basic Career" and "Advanced Career" system (In short, you started in a basic career...like "Outlaw", then, once completed, you could move on to "Outlaw Chief"; in 5e it'd be "Death Warrior PrC" and then, once all 5 levels in it were attained, you could move on to "Death Dealer PrC").
Not the best solution (I'm an old grognard and much prefer the 1e/2e 'concurrent leveling' of multiclassed characters), but it's one that might help enforce how much of a serious undertaking a PrC is...they shouldn't be 'just like other classes, but with more requirements to enter'. That always felt like a cop out and one that favored the min/maxers over the roleplayers.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
I can agree with you on the +1 PrC leveling of 3e. My least favorite part of the flavor of prestige classes was all of the single-level mechanical dips, resulting in huge amounts of character classes. I realize why, but it threw away any flavor and specialness of the PrC'S.
Maybe new 5e prestige classes were 5 levels or so only, and you had to achieve all 5 levels before multi-classing to keep any special feature class benefits. Coming back to the class later, to finish it, could reinstate those benefits again until the quota is met.
Y'see, now that's the kind of thinking that the designers at WotC need to have. They need to stop trying to rely on "what 3.x/PF/4e did" and more on "what do we want it to do now". I could get behind a "5-level-max" for PrC's, and needing to complete them in their entirety before jumping out...sort of like a "buy in" mechanic.
I could also see it work in a 'staggered' type of thing...requiring a level in Class A, then a Level in PrC, then back to Class A, then back to PrC, etc., up until you got your 5th level in that PrC. Then you were free to do whatever you wanted again. This could even open up the door for "Advanced Prestige Classes" that would be available to someone who advanced to level 5 in a particular PrC. I'm kind of thinking of 1e Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay's "Basic Career" and "Advanced Career" system (In short, you started in a basic career...like "Outlaw", then, once completed, you could move on to "Outlaw Chief"; in 5e it'd be "Death Warrior PrC" and then, once all 5 levels in it were attained, you could move on to "Death Dealer PrC").
Not the best solution (I'm an old grognard and much prefer the 1e/2e 'concurrent leveling' of multiclassed characters), but it's one that might help enforce how much of a serious undertaking a PrC is...they shouldn't be 'just like other classes, but with more requirements to enter'. That always felt like a cop out and one that favored the min/maxers over the roleplayers.
^_^
Paul L. Ming