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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 7477331" data-attributes="member: 37579">A class with limited scope, that isn't level 1-20, and lacks subclasses.That is literally the definition of a Prestige Class. My point was that 5e is designed with story in mind. So the Prestige Classes would be story based and narrow enough to fill the voids that do not make for good subclasses. They would be the "classes" that do not work as level 1 options. Like the archmage or elite knight. But while said Prestige Classes might not have mechanical prerequisites, that type of class would almost certainly have story requirements. What you're asking for sounds like Prestige Classes divorced from story. New mini-classes that exist solely to provide new options and mechanics. New options for the sake of options. Which isn't how the design team is adding options to the game. Adding new options just for mechanical benefits doesn't improve gameplay at the table. The opposite really. More options are fun... away from the table. Between games. But that fun typically comes at the expense of fun during the game. The catch is perfect balance is impossible, so when you add new options, some are going to be better than the baseline and some are going to be worse. If you add a dozen new options, there will be three that are just outright better. Option creep = power creep. So if you add a bunch of new mechanical Prestige Classes that's just outright increasing the power of characters, destabilising the balance at the table and negatively impacting play. That's exactly why feats are easily the most disruptive part of the game's balance: they're a list of a couple dozen modular options people can use to maximise their effectiveness, where you can pick the very best ones and ignore the weak choices. Each decision point in classes is a point of variance in terms of power level. A place where a character can be above or below the norm, And when you can have not one but a dozen points of variance in a single class, that creates a wide gulf of power levels between characters. That's when expected power level and encounter design falls apart. That's what breaks games. Ask yourself this: would the prestige class options be as fun if the class options were entirely out-of-combat bonuses? Exploration features and ribbons? Theoretically they should be as fun: it's more options, right?Probably not. Because it's not just about more options: it's about picking the best option from the options. Which means it's inherently about breaking the game's balance.</blockquote>

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