[AU] Wow, no prestige classes

[Felon]

The core classes in the book are refreshing and gain enough interesting abilities to want to continue progressing indefinitely in each. Not one of them feels like just a stepping stone or prereq to a prestige class. Anyone else get this same feeling?

Yes, I do.

 

[Felon]

Wizards are in the same boat as clerics, except they don't have combat effectiveness to give up. So the only way to narrow the focus is to restrict spellcasting in some way. Ban schools of spells, reduce caster level, don't give out spellcasting at every level - something must be done to make a proper wizard prc, else a wizard only misses a couple bonus feats and some familiar progression for leaving Wizard.

I'm all for giving Wizards and Sorcerers d6 hit points, then having PrC's with only d4's.

 

[woodelf]

Not really. MIght just be my vast library, but they reminded me of other classes. Ufettered is similiar to the Swashbuckler from AEG's Swashbuckling Adventures hardcover in terms of character concept. Warmain is a fighter with less feats and more built in special abilities. I could go on but I think what you're feeling is that these are really PrCs in and of themselves, especially in comparission to standard D&D classes.

Depends which D&D3E classes. Paladins are more specialized than anything in AU, and i'd say the barbarian, druid, monk, & ranger are at least as specialized. I could easily see all of them being moved over to prestige classes. Similarly, bard, cleric, & rogue are all significantly narrowed and/or twisted from the basic archetype they are nominally built upon, and really should be replaced by more-generic base classes (whether they also remain base classes, or become low-entrance-requirement prestige classes).