In lieu of prestige classes...

[Stalker0]

You know, almost every high level character I've ever come across has some sort of "weird thing" they acquired during their adventuring career. "Oh yea, my character has the ability to summon an imp once per day - don't ask, it's a long story." That kind of stuff. I'm really in favor of those kinds of things. I think it can add a lot to the development of a character. More so than prestige classes can.

I totally agree with this. One thing that I really hate about prcs, is now players are shifting through pages of abilities to try to make there players cool instead of working with the dm. We had a character in a game I played who had "obscure knowledge of vietnamese battle tactics". It was just a fun thing he got because he worked through his character concept with the dm. You see that less and less, people instead of using their imagination are relying on the books to make their characters special.

Back on topic, I think the idea is a fine one. Small personal benefits make a player feel special which is always a good thing.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Remember kits?

Kits started the customization kick in D&D, which was reborn in D20 as the PrCl.

Howevermuch I liked kits, I preferred the Players Option books even more- which I feel was 2Ed's precursor to Feats, in a sense- but Feats aren't as flexible as PO was. At least, not in the same way.

Personally, I'm all in favor of flexibility and flavor- so I dig the "Prestige Feats" Maggot mentioned...

But I'd much prefer a 3Ed version of PO...An almost classless system (perhaps similar to D20 Modern) in which players pick and choose abilities from a universal menu, and get more build points as they go up in level. You could have the barbarian mage, the spellcasting rogue, the holy but stealthy fighter, the cleric who casts Fireball...

In such a system, you only need set the standards a PC must meet to satisfy the organization's membership requirments. Everything else is left up to role-play.

 

[philreed]

Sorry, Psion, I seem to have confused you. I'm not suggesting these as starting occupations, but rather as the benefit of joining an organization during the course of the campaign instead of prestige classes.

Take a look at Bastion's Guildcraft for this very thing.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=3678&SRC=EnWorld

 

[philreed]

I like the idea of "Prestige Feats". Basically, a feat that has all the requirements of a Prestige Class (including roleplaying requirements), and gives out benefits like a prestige class but for only one feats worth of power instead of a whole level worth of power. You could even make a chain of these: "apprentice of the seven towers", "mage of the seven towers", "archmage of the seven towers".

The test-based PrCs and feats from Unearthed Arcana would also work very well with this.

 

[cmanos]

More and More my view on PrC's is they are there to be used as guidelines to create your own. If there were a certain subset of PrC's that were the only ones people would ever use, then there wouldn't be so much on the market. I'm learning now that everyone has a certain idea about how they want theyir character to be. Wizards seems to be showing them a glimmer of what they COULD do. The one thing they neglect to tell us is how to create a balanced custom PrC. I think it is every player's complaint that there isn't a PrC that fits what they want to do with their character. I say, work with your DM and make your own! So you're playing a Cleric of Kord and want something along the lines of a Shining Blade of Hextor.....but...not exactly.....make it up! Change it! Some DM's will be resistant, but some will love it and work with you to make it fit.

 

[The Shaman]

Great feedback - thank you very much!

 

[HellHound]

More and More my view on PrC's is they are there to be used as guidelines to create your own. If there were a certain subset of PrC's that were the only ones people would ever use, then there wouldn't be so much on the market. I'm learning now that everyone has a certain idea about how they want theyir character to be. Wizards seems to be showing them a glimmer of what they COULD do. The one thing they neglect to tell us is how to create a balanced custom PrC. I think it is every player's complaint that there isn't a PrC that fits what they want to do with their character. I say, work with your DM and make your own! So you're playing a Cleric of Kord and want something along the lines of a Shining Blade of Hextor.....but...not exactly.....make it up! Change it! Some DM's will be resistant, but some will love it and work with you to make it fit.

BINGO!

That's exactlyhow about half of the Prestige Classes in Librum Equitis 1 & 2 came into existance. Customizing PrCs to be suited to particular characters, organizations and so on.

I heartily recommend that none of the 'organizational' PrCs be included as is in a campaign. My house campaign has a document that includes renamed versions of all the WotC PrCs as well as the changes that each has in their new role.

So look at the PrC CLOSE to what you want, and sit downa dn make it what you want with the DM. It works really well to enhance a game world, and for some players it gives them that extra feel for their character, because they are even more actively involved int he character advancement process than ever before.

 

[Mark Causey]

What if normal feats were still regulated to taking them on the particular levels (1, 3, 6, etc.) but prestige feats could be taken at any level so long as the requirements were met.

 

[GlassJaw]

More and more, I prefer systems that don't need PrC's. The two systems that immediately come to mind are Grim Tales and Arcana Unearthed, each of which are on opposite ends of the magic scale.

Grim Tales is the closest thing to a generic class system you'll find: 6 classes with no multiclass restrictions. Create your character any way you want to model your concept.

Arcana Unearthed is anything but generic but each class is so customizable that you almost don't need more options. Even multiclassing is that necessary.

The more I play the d20 system and the more books I read, the more I want my players to have everything they need to create their characters in a single book.

 

[dungeon blaster]

I believe your idea of prestige feats is in many ways more in line with the original intent of 3ed D&D's base classes. I remember when WoTC was first describing the "new" classes as being extremely customizable, that you could create any kind of character using the base classes alone. Unfortunately, you only need one book of base classes and WoTC needed something to fill its accessory books...hence the PrC explosion. Prestige feats sound like an interesting idea.