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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steampunkette" data-source="post: 9715962" data-attributes="member: 6796468">The Bard Prestige Class. They were literally the -origin- of the term Prestige Class.In AD&D 1e to be a bard you had to hit at -least- 5th level as a fighter, and swap to Rogue before 8th level (so you could be a Fighter 5/Thief 1, or a Fighter 7/Thief 1 but not a Fighter 8/Thief 1). Then you had to get a Druid level before 9th. So you could be a Fighter 7/Thief 1/Druid 1. Or a Fighter 5/Thief 3/Druid 1.THEN you would become the bard with Druid spells, get limited in weapon proficiencies, gain your poetry, sing to negate sonic attacks, etc.Also you had to be a Human or Half-Elf with a 15 Str, Dex, Wis, -and- Cha. With at least a 12 Int and 10 Con.And then in AD&D 2e it was just a whole class. Just like it was in Basic D&D.So for these classes you -literally- had choices to make for every level after 5th that really had an impact on what your progression was going to be. Then they shifted that away, and sort of brought it back in 3e but you were picking Feats and Multiclassing in a more holistic manner.It was an improvement on material that had come before, but not a whole cloth invention of something wholly new no one could ever have dreamed of before that point. (And also the Prestige Classes got revamped, too, but still focused on 'you must be a 3rd level x 5th level Y' as a structure)Sure. Point is that it happened and 3e went with one version of what came before, not all of them.Character Points.Introduced in Skills and Powers you would gain Character Points every time you gained a level (number determined by your class) which you could use to gain new Weapon Proficiencies for 3-5 points and Nonweapon Proficiencies (skills) for 2 to 5 points.Could also improve your Proficiency Score itself by a permanent +1 bonus for a single character point.Points can also be used to gain Racial Traits like an Elf's Infravision for 5-10 points. Or new Class Abilities such as a Paladin's "Lay on Hands" which generally cost 10 points. You could also save some of your racial character points for weapon and nonweapon proficiencies. (Humans got 10 extra character points for Weapon/Nonweapon 'cause they didn't get racial traits)Priests and Wizards could buy extra spells. Anyone could spend points on extra HP. And could even use Character Points during gameplay to buy extra attempts at picking locks, reroll failed attacks or saves, new proficiency checks, or even reroll damage.That's right: Character Points also functioned like 5e's Inspiration mechanic.So... I'll say it, again: 3e was building on what came before it. Refining earlier ideas. Including the idea of making meaningful choices as you gained levels.</blockquote>

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