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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ccooke" data-source="post: 6347757" data-attributes="member: 6695890">Yes, I'm reaching back into the dim and distant past of this thread. But then, it's still alive and I was on holiday when the above was posted <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile    :-)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" />I just wanted to make a point that Prestige Classes and new 5e Subclasses are about equal in their applicability to existing characters, and while new Backgrounds are less so, they still provide things that an existing character can obtain. Let's compare...Prestige Classes have a set of pre-requisites - usually some mix of class features, skill ranks and feats you must have in order to take the PrC. If you have an existing character and read about a new PrC that perfectly fits your ideal for your character, then you're going to fall into one of a few camps:If you haven't taken a Prestige Class yet:1) You can meet the prerequisites in 0-2 levels. Congratulations, the PrC is useful to you right now.2) You can't meet the prerequisites for at least 4-5 levels. You might need to gain three more feats, or several levels worth of skill points, or you would need 2nd level spells in a different class. This PrC is probably useless to you right now, and it may be too late in your campaign to be able to take it.If you already have a Prestige Class, you have all of the above with the additional issues that the two PrCs may not synergise well at all, or that by taking on another PrC you won't gain enough levels to get to the iconic features of the first PrCs you took.In 5e, a subclass is at least as likely to be useful. In that case, the only prerequisite is if you already have a subclass in the relevant class and if you have the multiclass prerequisites to meet it. Because of the way that 5e multiclassing works, taking on a new class doesn't make your character weaker (there's no loss of accuracy, nor skill use, nor spell power. There are trade-offs, but they're very much a give-and-take issue (As an aside, I really need to roll up a character that takes one level of each class up to level 12, just to see what it looks like. Have to wait for the PHB for that, though)).Effectively, I'd say that you have at least as much chance of being able to use a new subclass in 5e as you would a PrC in 3e. As to backgrounds, they provide proficiencies, languages and a trait. You can already customise your background to get any skill, tool or language combination you want, so new backgrounds won't make much difference on that score. If they provide a really interesting thematic trait, well, that's explicitly something that can be gained in play as a reward from the GM or as a downtime option.(I am definitely planning to use traits as a reward. Knighthood, for instance, or the Folk Hero's Rustic Hospitality if you've just saved a lot of lives in a city or town)</blockquote>

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