D&D General Which 3.0/3.5 Prestige classes would make good 5e subclasses? (+)
- Thread starter Corinnguard
- Start date
Remathilis
Legend
Dragon Samurai/Knight. A martial version of the draconic sorcerer.
Corinnguard
Hero
PF1 had a Fighter archetype called the Dragonheir Scion.
Dragonheir Scion – d20PFSRD
www.d20pfsrd.com
Dragonheir scions are the martially inclined humanoid descendants of those influenced by draconic power. Unlike their sorcerous brethren, dragonheir scions manifest their heritage in ways more suited to strength of arms and skill with steel than arcane energies. Those who follow this path are often the children of mighty dragon-blooded sorcerers and others who drew energy from their dragon blood, though they themselves might not exhibit spellcasting ability.
Corinnguard
Hero
Dragon Magazine #319 -the Shen Prestige class
Through the cultivation of martial skill and meditation, monks transcend the limits of flesh, finding mental and physical perfection as creatures of spirit that stand outside the natural order. Their journey is rigorous, insular, and ultimately, lonely.
In windswept mountain temples, fortresses buried in the heart of forests, and training halls hidden in city alleyways, small sects of martial artists follow a different road. They embrace the natural world, using combat techniques inspired by the movement and fighting spirit of one of seven animals: crane, dragon, mantis, monkey, panther, snake, or tiger. Known as shen, or "spirits," their training goes far beyond imitation; they master deadly skills and can transform into humanoid versions of their chosen animal.
Most shen begin adventuring as monks or druids, but barbarians, rangers, and rogues sometimes find themselves drawn to the way of the animal fist. On rare occasions bard, clerics, sorcerers, and wizards become shen. Few paladins or fighters willingly give up their heavy weapons and armor long enough to learn the shen's fighting secrets.
They could be Monks who lean toward the Druid class.
Through the cultivation of martial skill and meditation, monks transcend the limits of flesh, finding mental and physical perfection as creatures of spirit that stand outside the natural order. Their journey is rigorous, insular, and ultimately, lonely.
In windswept mountain temples, fortresses buried in the heart of forests, and training halls hidden in city alleyways, small sects of martial artists follow a different road. They embrace the natural world, using combat techniques inspired by the movement and fighting spirit of one of seven animals: crane, dragon, mantis, monkey, panther, snake, or tiger. Known as shen, or "spirits," their training goes far beyond imitation; they master deadly skills and can transform into humanoid versions of their chosen animal.
Most shen begin adventuring as monks or druids, but barbarians, rangers, and rogues sometimes find themselves drawn to the way of the animal fist. On rare occasions bard, clerics, sorcerers, and wizards become shen. Few paladins or fighters willingly give up their heavy weapons and armor long enough to learn the shen's fighting secrets.
They could be Monks who lean toward the Druid class.
Vael
Legend
Master of Many Forms (Complete Adventurer): Druid that gains the ability to wildshape into Oozes, Plants, Fey and Dragons. TBH, I'd mine a couple of subclasses out of this. Maybe a "Circle of Decay" that gains Ooze, Vermin and Plant forms, another Circle for Fey and another for Dragons.
... There's also a bunch of prestige classes that stack with the Animal Companion class feature of the 3.5 Druid ... because Druids were OP in 3.5 and had both wildshaping and an animal companion ... and it does also suggest a subclass or two that offer an upgraded wild companion option for the Druid.
Daggerspell Mage/Shaper (Complete Adventurer): Prestige class for Rogue and either Mage/Druid multiclass builds. So these would be Wizard and Druid subclasses that offer some Rogue abilities to their class. IOW, Daggerspell would be to the Arcane Trickster what the Bladesinger is to the Eldritch Knight.
Chameleon (Races of Destiny): Able to simulate any class. Probably a Rogue subclass, possibly with the Factotum, it's own class.
... Going through the index of Prestige classes, the vast majority of them seem to be designed to make certain multiclass combinations more functional, lol. Or transformative ones, like the Green Star Adept, which is all about turning into a green construct.
... There's also a bunch of prestige classes that stack with the Animal Companion class feature of the 3.5 Druid ... because Druids were OP in 3.5 and had both wildshaping and an animal companion ... and it does also suggest a subclass or two that offer an upgraded wild companion option for the Druid.
Daggerspell Mage/Shaper (Complete Adventurer): Prestige class for Rogue and either Mage/Druid multiclass builds. So these would be Wizard and Druid subclasses that offer some Rogue abilities to their class. IOW, Daggerspell would be to the Arcane Trickster what the Bladesinger is to the Eldritch Knight.
Chameleon (Races of Destiny): Able to simulate any class. Probably a Rogue subclass, possibly with the Factotum, it's own class.
... Going through the index of Prestige classes, the vast majority of them seem to be designed to make certain multiclass combinations more functional, lol. Or transformative ones, like the Green Star Adept, which is all about turning into a green construct.
EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
PrCs were a wonderful idea executed almost maximally poorly.
You know how 5e allows you to take levels of Sorcerer and then Warlock and then Bard or whatever, if you meet the requirements? Well, in 3e there weren't requirements for mixing regular classes--but there were "Prestige Classes" that did have requirements. Often lots of them--skill ranks (you had to spend skill "points" to improve your skills), class features, physiological features, knowing certain kinds of spells, having certain feats, all sorts of things.
The idea with Prestige Classes was that they were not strictly better than regular classes, and instead were more specialized, or allowed you to mix together things that normally wouldn't mix, or unlocked options that normally weren't available at the cost of losing some other option. The Eldritch Knight, in 3rd edition, was a Prestige Class: by taking a couple levels of Fighter and a few more of Wizard, you could start taking levels of EK that would continue improving your basic combat ability and count as Wizard levels too, but with no other features because "a Fighter without feats" and "a full Wizard minus one level" was intended to be a pretty complete package.
Further, again the idea of Prestige Classes was that you should organically grow into them, and many should be associated with an actual institution or organization, which could thus create both hooks and leverage. Membership would connect the character to the world, build relationships with NPCs, and possibly create divided loyalties or other similar RP opportunities.
Unfortunately, in practice...everything that could go wrong, did. The "organic growth" thing went out the window almost instantaneously, because in order to have requirements with any teeth, they needed to cost multiple levels' worth of resources...which meant instead of "growing" into them, you almost always needed to meticulously plan 5, 10, even all 20 levels just to be absolutely sure you'd qualify. Most prestige classes could be cleanly categorized as either MUCH worse than their component parts (the vast majority of so-called "dual-progression" PrC, for example, like the Mystic Theurge, which blended arcane and divine spellcasting but ended up being kinda bad at both)...or much, MUCH better than their component parts, such as the Planar Shepherd, one of the few PrCs in the entire game that was actually better than pure Druid, which was EXTREMELY broken in 3rd edition.
I love, genuinely truly love, the concept of PrCs. But I understand why folks today are intensely, viscerally opposed to even the notion of them. They were one of the most obvious and emblematic demonstrations of many of 3rd edition's weakest, worst, most broken, most badly-designed elements.
Last edited:
Zardnaar
Legend
I suspect theoretically allowing more than 1 was a mistake. At least before completing them.
Revised version I would allow people to dip into one but no second one allowed until first one was complete.
Theoretically you could use them in 5E. Treat as multiclass.
The concepts great but design was poor. I suspect they were rushed out to fill page count much like feats in 3E and 4E.
Also suspect most didn't get used outside theory crafting and due to lack of high level play then and now most would have been a few levels vs theory craft builds.
It's something I do miss conceptually from 3E at least the other being the FR books which fluff wise are a lot better than 5E imho.
Like speciality priest in 2E I miss them. I don't miss AD&D engine much although we are using it Thursday.
Similar Threads
