Core Four + Prestige

[Siberys]

If you're going "core four" I'd suggest replacing wizard with sorcerer, unless your group really likes wizards, of course. Mostly personal preference, but I find them to be more elegant and simpler to build than wizards.

 

[Jack Simth]

Instead of using cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard as the "basic" classes, it might make more sense to start with something like the generic classes from Unearthed Arcana. That way, you wouldn't be "stuck" (as much) with vestigial abilities from your first 5 character levels. For example, a Druid wouldn't necessarily have to have Turn Undead.

The trick to that is to find a reason for it to get "consumed" to power a new ability - your focus on nature changes your channeling, for instance, so you lose the ability to spontaneously Cure/Inflict (and Turn/Rebuke) at the same time you gain the ability to spontaneously Summon, for instance.

One important modification you'd have to make for it to really work well would be to offer an alternative to armor and shield profociencies. Otherwise they'd just be wasted on many builds. Weapon Groups would be nice, too, for further customization.

Jack's Druid is great. I'd hesitate to require both the Animal and Plant Domains, though... any of the elemental Domains seem equally appropriate. (A few custom Domains would probably fit, too--- things to do with seasons, weather, renewal or rebirth, or even something like vermin.)

A couple of reasons for the choice...

1) The pairing is pretty exclusive to nature dieties; the elemental domains, not so much.
2) I wanted to maximize the amount of overlap with the domain lists and the Druid spell list, and through that, minimize the "extras" that domains bring to a build; everything on those two domains is also on the Druid list already.
3) Both domains are Core. There are, what, two dieties in the PHB that have both domains?
4) They provide Knoweledge(Nature) as a class skill - which is pretty much required for any Druid PrC.

Monk would work well as a full BAB PrC entered from Fighter/Warrior. It'd be a way to make the suboptimal choice of unarmed combat pay off, and it wouldn't really hurt to delay the "mystical" stuff to 5th level or higher.

Yeah - focused fighter, no problem.

 

[Dagredhel]

A couple of reasons for the choice...

1) The pairing is pretty exclusive to nature dieties; the elemental domains, not so much.
2) I wanted to maximize the amount of overlap with the domain lists and the Druid spell list, and through that, minimize the "extras" that domains bring to a build; everything on those two domains is also on the Druid list already.
3) Both domains are Core. There are, what, two dieties in the PHB that have both domains?
4) They provide Knoweledge(Nature) as a class skill - which is pretty much required for any Druid PrC.

Makes sense, thanks.

 

[Phlebas]

If you're going "core four" I'd suggest replacing wizard with sorcerer, unless your group really likes wizards, of course. Mostly personal preference, but I find them to be more elegant and simpler to build than wizards.

would work in that you start off as a 'natural' and then learn the complicated way to cast more / bigger spells......

 

[Set]

As an alternative to the PrC approach, the class abilities of non-core-four classes could instead be taking as Feats / Feat Chains or Alternate Class Features.

The 'Barbarian' could just be a Fighter who has followed a chain of Feats that give him Rage and any other Barbarian Class features he's interested in, while the Ranger is a Fighter who has picked up Wild Empathy and Archery and Favored Enemy Feats.

This allows for maximum versatility, as the Fighter might choose to take a single feat to get the very basic level of Rage, as well as the Barbarian's Fast Movement, but then move over and take the Ranger's Favored Enemy and prehaps even a Scouts Skirmish ability. By 6th level, this Fighter could be fast moving, able to Rage, does extra damage against one particular foe and has the basic level of Skirmish, all without taking levels in 4 different classes. If he wants to improve to Mighty Rage or get extra Skirmish dice or improve his Favored Enemy abilities, that will cost more Feats down the road.

 

[joela]

ty

Great responses so far. Thanks, everyone, especially Jack Smith. That druid PrC's lookin' great.

RE: basic classes and feat chains. The major reason I didn't consider the "basic" classes is KISS: keep it simple, silly. It's a lot easier, IMO, to create the PrC that determine what abilities are feats and chaining them. Don't get me wrong: I love the basic classes. Also, I don't have to worry too much when using classed NPCs or monsters in a published module. Yeah, a druid turning undead sounds weird, but I find it a lot easier to either give a campaign reason for it (e.g., that's what the nature gawds want) or, as several folks suggested, change it once the PC enters the PrC.

 

[joela]

sorcerer to wizard

would work in that you start off as a 'natural' and then learn the complicated way to cast more / bigger spells......

I like that. A wizard PrC, while giving extra feats, would give a sorcerer the ability to expand their spell capability.

It also reflects many wizards in fiction, who display innate ability to work magic first.

 

[joela]

On second thought....

Instead of using cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard as the "basic" classes, it might make more sense to start with something like the generic classes from Unearthed Arcana.

I looked over the basic classes of UA and several of the prestige classes from my various books and am rethinking your suggestion, Dagredhe. Thanks!

 

[Li Shenron]

I am unconvinced by the Druid, but every other class would work as a PrCl.

The Druid doesn't convince me because it's really not a "prestige cleric". It's a different religion.

 

[Jack Simth]

I am unconvinced by the Druid, but every other class would work as a PrCl.

The Druid doesn't convince me because it's really not a "prestige cleric". It's a different religion.

Nor is the Bard a Fighter/Rogue/Sorcerer multiclass character.
The Bard gets more Spells Known at a new spell level than the Sorcerer does.
The Bard gets fewer spells per day at all spell levels than the Sorcerer does.
The Bard gets up to 6th level spells (which would require a minimum Sorcerer caster level of 12) but it also gets 3/4th's BAB - which, at 20th, would require a Fighter-10/Sorcerer-10 to replicate.
It also gets six base skill points per level - and with the Rogue only getting eight base, and the other two options only getting two base, by 20th, that requires that no more than about seven or eight levels be non-Rogue.
And so on.

If the Cleric in question is of a nature diety to begin with, it's not a different religion so much as a different practice.