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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gus L" data-source="post: 9604132" data-attributes="member: 7045072">I do like the way that BECMI (Specifically "C" I think?) has various "prestige classes" and think it's a good way to manage things longer campaigns. The BECMI ones however strike me as fairly mechanically uninteresting.  There's a lot of nice flavor there, but it's also pretty darn generic - which I love less. I personally like prestige classes or alternate classes that do a few interesting things with a good solid mechanical effect - E.G. a berserker that can swap AC in the next round for ATK bonus in this round or gain temporary HP that have to be paid back with exhaustion.  Things that make the core element of the class different - and can also be applied to a variety of conception of the archetype.  So for this berserker one might give them a cleave (attack again if they kill an enemy), temporary HP, and a AC for ATK bonus swap,  but counter these with the need to make a Save vs. Paralysis to stop fighting if they haven't killed anything in melee (also to run away).  Because these don't have a lot of fluff attached one can build a bunch of different "Berserkers" off this: mushroom brew mad barbarians, sorcerously compelled gladiators, religious fanatics, or maybe just badger folk... Now of course one could also go the other way with equal success - very specific classes that tie deeply into the setting. Either I think is great, but that sort of middle ground of unacknowledged and undiscussed generic fantasy built up by things like knightly vows frustrates me ... because that's not something I could use without a lot of changes and it's not something giving me a complete and unique setting to work with. Generally this is one of the things that has left me cold about the "CMI" part of BECMI since the late 1980's - especially because these sets are for high level PCs.  By the time your campaign is in the Champion set even, you've got dozens of adventures with the PC and the world ... If it's a good campaign things have gotten weird. Your PC isn't becoming a bland shiny armor on a white horse sort of paladin, but rather join an esoteric order that rides axe beaks and worships an ancient lava spirit or some other absolute nonsense that only makes sense in the context of the specific campaign. These rules seem like they would just become a burden at the point when the referee and players are invested in the setting to a huge degree</blockquote>

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