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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2699696" data-attributes="member: 172">Prestige classes, all the way.Initially, I liked them, because they gave you a tool to craft your character that AD&D lacked.But as time went on, I grew less and less fond of them.As some of you may know, I am not to fond of GURPS style disads (to incluade UA flaws). At first it seemed neat, but as time went on, the notion of balancing a benefit with a negative proved more and more problematic. Kits gave additional abilities that it tried to balance with a disadvantage. Sometimes a meaningless disadvange. (And then, it would ignore efforts to balance as it piled on the proficiencies. In essence, a character with a kit was clearly more powerful than one without.)Kits were very inconsistent with their implementation. They were made by freelancers who didn't use consistent methodologies. (Not that the same doesn't apply to some third party product PrCs, but even those seem more consistent in their implementation. Perhaps that's due to the internet era where no PrC escapes scrutiny and criticism, but I think that the quality and consistency of PrCs has improved markedly since the first takes.)Many of those who profess to like kits and would refute my statement about disadvantages often point to later kits like those in the Bards and Paladins book, that trade out abilities of the existing character class. I can't fault those folks too much as I consider these later kits to be a portent of what was to come with prestige classes. Trading out levels of one class for levels of another is trading benefit for benefit. That matches those later kits. Too bad that not all kits were made like that.Finally, this relates to my dislike for a flurry of core classes: if a class or kit is going to have a special or unique feel, I really prefer the feel of "growing into it". One does not start out a master of unique weapons, or of strange arcane arts. That you can't start out as a prestige class helps convey this feel.Edit:One more thing: You can mix and match PrCs and your character can take a PrC that wasn't published before you started the character. (Yes, Gothmog. Most PrCs these days have backed off on the "power for difficult entry requirements" philosophy, which gives us both more balanced PrCs and makes it possible to enter a PrC you didn't specifically design your character to enter.)</blockquote>

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