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Message: <blockquote data-quote="w_earle_wheeler" data-source="post: 3788912" data-attributes="member: 35955">Let's say there are around 300 prestige classes in the Complete, Races of..., Sequel and other non-setting specific 3.5 splatbooks. With a designers guidebook (I assume 4e will have something similar to the "how to design prestige classes" chapter in the 3e DMGs) and the mostly completed 4e PHB it should take at most two hours to convert a 3.5 prestige class to a 4e prestige class. That's 600 hours of work, or fifteen 40-hour work weeks (or about 4 months) for one full-time nerd. Would each prestige class be fully playtested? No, but they would all be converted and redesigned in one lump based on the core guidelines set up by the core 4e books, and would be designed/converted by the same individual designers or group of designers. This would highly preferable to the way it was done in 3.5 -- multiple designers working independently of each other and sometimes seemingly in the dark about current or future class options.The only other rules-based element that would need a 4e conversion are the feats. Like prestige classes, I certainly hope that the 4e designers have read over all the 3.5 feats in total, so that they know what worked and what didn't. Some feats would obviously be thrown out because of redundancy (for example, the +2/+2 skill feats might be obsolete in 4e), but there's no reason for a 3.5 feat to be unrepresented in 4e.One conversion hardcover could do the trick, and it would encourage more 3.5 diehards to make the switch to 4e. Why spread those conversions over the course of 4 years through a pay distribution model only to have the next edition looming around the corner at that point? If you don't believe this can be done, watch enworld in the first few weeks after 4e is released. If you were around the site when 3e came out, you saw how fast the community was able to convert almost every 1e/2e class, kit, spell and adventure.Just imagine how much faster (and more consistently) it could be done with a small group of designers hired by WotC today!</blockquote>

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