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Message: <blockquote data-quote="genshou" data-source="post: 2716618" data-attributes="member: 13164">It's nice to have a variant class sometimes...But I've played a ninja as a straight monk before, I've played a Knight of the Chalice without a single level in the prestige class of the same name, and I've had a Thief-Acrobat who described himself as "just a thief".  The presence or absence of a prestige class isn't the only thing that determines a role in society (there was an Order of the Stick comic that dealt with this).  A high-level rogue makes for a fairly sneaky ninja and may even be able to gain membership in an organization like the Ninja of the Crescent Moon, but probably wouldn't do so well trying to emulate the weird skills of the Shadowdancers.  There's a place for prestige classes, and it's as a niche for powerful PC class members, not a place for ordinary, low-level characters to fulfill their roles.Also, prestige classes aren't both permanent and initial.  What if the game ends up moving in a different direction than a player expected?  Now their character will be left behind in the dust, just because of a choice in variant class...</blockquote>