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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Felon" data-source="post: 3109364" data-attributes="member: 8158">Regarding the "change of direction" as to what the designers want prestige classes to be, prestige classes were still a new concept even to them when the DMG came out. I've seen various ENWorld posts over the years which outright lambast WotC for "forgetting" or "violating" the original purpose of PrC's, but the simple truth is we're talking about a concept that's evolved. If I find an effective new way to use a tool, should I be reprimanded for using it inappropriately, or should the guys who make the tool take a few notes and expand the tool's stated purpose?A lot of folks advocate feat chains as an alternative to prestige classes. First and foremost, this is impractical because you won't reach a high degree of specialization with the number of feats available to a character. You can get an Exotic Weapon Proficiency, Combat Expertise, Weapon Focus, and Improved Trip, but you're already six levels deep (or nine levels for a non-human) and your whip attack still has some serious defects. On the other hand, setting up a prestige class allows for those who really want to be a master in a certain area to get truly powerful abilities--stuff that's every bit as good spellcasting or sneak attack--with the trade-off being that they actually have to stop doing whatever is they were doing and focus on this role. Why would all lasthers be the same if they weren't part of the same organization? Because that's the nature of D&D's class-based system. You could say the same about all druids, all rogues, all favored souls, all scouts, all sorcerers, all warlocks, all barbarians, you name it.</blockquote>

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