d20 Cthulhu & My Unusual Prestige Classes

[Steampunk]

I know that Prestige Classes don't fit in Call of Cthulhu, but my games aren't much like the normal Call of Cthulhu Games.

(Investigators hear of strange happenings. Investigators travel to Place of Strange happenings. Investigators interact with strange locals. Investigators investigate. Investigators begin to uncover the awful truth. Investigators confront soul wrenching, sanity blasting monster. Investigators dead/go insane/ locked up by authorities after killing Anthony D. Nickleby the horrible sorcerer who was going to open the gate of incredible infernal terrible evil that reaches into the blackness of all that is wrong with the universe.)

I just run horror games with it, and I like the sanity rules, but my players wouldn't enjoy going insane after one game or having to make 7 characters each to continue a ongoing campaign. They prefer a little more heroics, despite the madness, so I've decided that I'd like to create some prestige classes for them to aspire to so that they may have a little more chance to confont and survive the Mythos. Some of them are very Un-Cthulhuish, but still fit in, in my opinion. I don't even have the actual classes made yet, just some basic ideas. I'm looking for anymore classes, ideas on how some of them should work, and stuff along those lines. I'll also do some more normal Prestige Classes, like a character that excels with machines, a gunner style character, and stuff like that though.
Well anyway here's the basic ideas for them.

 

[Prest0]

It looks like you have a mixed bag, there. I like the idea of parapsychologists and occultists. Some of what you suggest are very similar and may mostly differ in how they are roleplayed. For instance, Occultists and Sorcerers are identical except for how much they risk their sanity. I can't really see "Cultist" as a player prestige class.

Other folks have done some work on Psychics. Our very own Ed Wetterman created a great set of Psychic abilites for the Savage Worlds system. You might be able to adapt some of that for your use. It was published in the first issue of the Savage Worlds fanzine PDF found at www.peginc.com. Also, if I'm not mistaken Ronin Arts published a short PDF on Psychics.

Do you own d20 Modern? You might look at that for mining ideas as well. While you're at it, check out our own site (in the sig) for lots of free stuff for your horror campaign.

 

[Nisarg]

Dear sir,

I'm quite interested in your Call of Cthulhu prestige classes. However, I think that they do not accurately reflect the power level of the Cthulhu game, nor the power level that investigators can expect to reach by the time they're high-level enough to take a PrC.

Thus, I have a new list of prestige classes for Cthulhu D20:

Pile of Goo PrC
Long-since dead guy PrC
Gibbering idiot madman PrC
Tentacles are coming out of my mouth! PrC
I Can't Believe its Not Hastur! PrC
Cripple PrC (req: lots of permanently drained ability scores)
Saw Nyarlathotep and now wants to make love to fire PrC

There. I think most Cthulhu players will agree, these PrCs are a more accurate representation of where the typical party is at after five or six sessions, if not fewer.

Love,
Nisarg

 

[Piratecat]

Saw Nyarlathotep and now wants to make love to fire PrC

Hey, I've played that before!

Pile of Goo PrC
Gibbering idiot madman PrC
Tentacles are coming out of my mouth! PrC
Cripple PrC (req: lots of permanently drained ability scores)

And that one... and that! And that, and that!

Wow. Considering how many of these I've used, I'm suspecting that I may have munchkin tendencies. After all, I once combined the Gibbering Idiot Madman and the Cripple all on one character.

 

[Gomez]

I would really like to see a:

It sucked the insides out of my body to only leave my skin which it put on like a suit and then married my girlfriend from high school PRC.

That would be cool to play!

 

[Steampunk]

As a note...

As a note... my players are not like most Call of Cthulhu Players, considering the campaign setting, it ranges from 15,000 B.C. to 4996 A.D., so it has quite a range. I do have some of my PC's go Insane and some do die, but frankly I do have a fair amount of PC's survive. Afterall my players wouldn't want to play if I began the game and they died within the 1st 30 minutes.
I was hoping for possible useful ideas, and I'll post some of the PRC's when they're finished. As a note there are some PRC's that can be accessed of low level, thought they're not many. I'm rescaling these down to be more like Core Classes from D&D than acutal Prestige Classes. Anyway if anyone truly wishes to help, besides sarcasm, here's a list of the times that my campaign will be going through, though the PRC's listed in the document above are mostly for the 1900's up to Modern Day. Note not all of the games are linked by the PC's, some are linked from an Item, a Tome, rumors, or a Mythos Being itself. The attempt at a Miko PRC for CoC d20 is just something I'm interested in, its mainly for the games (When Gods Walk The Earth and One Dream To Many). Anyway thanks for those that really want to help.
Though I didn't really appreciate the sarcasm, I have to say that I thought the (Saw Nyarlathotep and now wants to make love to fire PrC) was kinda funny in name.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

Lighten Up.

Well, I don't think the writers would have the same view as you do considering they have reprinted the Space Gamer comics in the newest version of CoC (Call of Cthulhu is the only game where...

Characters would rather jump on a live grenade than try a new magic item
Half the party is dead and the only treasure you get makes you insane
The longest surviving characters are those with the fastest movement rates
The characters summon a dimensional shambler without realizing it takes a
separate spell to dismiss it
etc.)

But your campaigns are interesting. I have written a low powered version of Masque of the Red Death and I made sure that the prestige classes had lower saves, skill points, and hit dice than the core classes, they had abilities on par with Modern Advanced Classes. You might want to look into adapting Modern and Future AdCs.