DMs: Do you use PrC's and Templates?

[Hand of Evil]

PrCs define my campaign helping to build my world myth and ideas.

Templates allow me to deversify my monsters and keep my players concerned, they also define part of my world myth.

 

[Benben]

Often to both.

My players still flinch when I bring up the Shadowed, Psionic, Paragon Commoner I had them fight.

 

[Thanee]

Voted often for PrC and rarely for Templates.

That - of course - assumes a higher level, since PrC are not really available at lower levels.

Templates are just too much hassle, as I rarely write down character stats for NPCs (only for really major ones).

Bye
Thanee

 

[jgbrowning]

Anyone else wanna vote? Even if the options are a bit, um... unclear?

joe b.

 

[Graf]

I can't really imagine not using lots of both.

Templates are a great way to create something memorable and well as work up a theme for monsters. (Shadow monsters in the ruined keep of a shade, etc). By distilling a cool concept down into something easily applied to other creatures you can do some great stuff.

PrCs: Are key. Even if they're not totally balanced you can look at a good PrC and imagine somebody like that. Viola, instant NPC, even if you wind up throwing out mechanics the character idea is worth it.

Not much else to say.

 

[Piratecat]

Fixed, gang. And remember, use "report a post"!

I use class levels with monsters, but PrCs are often a pain to apply quickly. I use templates quite a bit, though.

 

[NewJeffCT]

How much do you use PrC's and Templates as a Dungeon Master?

joe b.

edit: dammit it should be PRC, then template, then PrC, then template, etc... my mistake. ah well.

Don't use many prestige classes at all - for NPCs or PCs.

 

[Joshua Randall]

[...] PrCs are often a pain to apply quickly.

It's for this reason alone that I will strongly consider purchasing the full version of PCGen for 3.5 D&D... assuming it's ever done. Supposedly you will be able to purchase add-ons which contain the feats, PrCs, etc. from the WotC "splatbooks" -- i.e., non-OGL material. Anyway, it should make applying PrCs quite a bit easier than doing it by hand.

Side note -- if you visit Crystal Keep and download the prestige class document, it shows you the minimum single-classed level necessary to enter each PrC. That's handy to have.

 

[Arnwyn]

I rarely use PrCs. NPCs are time-consuming enough to make, and adding a PrC just slows the process down even more. I'll consider them when they are wholly suitable, though.

I sometimes (neither "often" nor "rarely") use templates. Too many templates just gets weird, and is inappropriate for my campaign.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

I use a fair amount of templates. My homebrew world has a strong connection to the elemental planes so the air/fire/earth/water element templates out of the MotP get a lot of use. I also write PrCs for fun (blatent plug, check my sig) so I use some of them for NPCs.