Prestige Class Feats

[LostSoul]

Would it be unbalancing to change Prestige Class abilities into Feats (or Feat chains)?

An example, using Arcane Archer:

Enchant Arrow
Pre-reqs: BAB +7, elf or 1/2 elf, Weapon Focus (bow), Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, ability to case 1st-level arcane spells.
Benefit: Every nonmagical arrow you nock and let fly becomes enchanted, gaining a +1 enhancement bonus. (blah blah blah)
This feat can be taken multiple times. Each time, the arrow gains +1 greater potency, while the BAB pre-req increases by +2.

Imbue Arrow
Pre-reqs: Enchant Arrow
Benefit: You gain a spell-like ability, allowing you to place an area spell upon an arrow. (blah blah blah)

Seeker Arrow
Pre-reqs: Imbue Arrow
Benefit: You can launch an arrow, once per day, at a target within range. The arrow will travel around corners and obstacles. (blah blah blah)


I don't know if all Prestige Class feats could be done up this way, but I'm sure you could get a whole bunch. What do you think?

 

[hong]

There's nothing stopping you, per se, from turning PrC abilities into feats. After all, a common complaint about PrCs is that many of them are little more than feat chains.

A few things to keep in mind:
- If someone does take the arcane archer PrC in your campaign, they'll probably feel miffed if any random guy could take their abilities as feats. But you would of course have thought of that.

- Ideally, a PrC should be more than just a feat chain. You want some sort of backstory that explains how a character came about their funky abilities: joining a dojo, a magic academy, a secret society, or whatever. Feats, by contrast, can usually be taken any time someone meets the prereqs, without any further RP involved.

- Not all classes have feats to burn. Turning abilities into feats works best when it's a fighter PrC, since feats are the fighter's schtick. It won't work so well for a spellcasting PrC, especially if it's a sorcerer or cleric character. And even a fighter won't have that many feats if 10 of them are to be devoted to recreating a PrC.

- If all the PrC abilities have themselves as prereqs, then you've just recreated the original PrC. You might as well have stuck with it.

So yes, you can do it, especially if you've disallowed the PrC in question from your campaign. You'll still have to do quite a bit of balancing and tweaking, though.

 

[gpetruc]

I wanted to do this too, expecially because I disallow PrC in my campaing.

I also changed the feat progression: instead of getting feats al lvl 1 / 3 / 6 / 9 / 12 / 15 / 18 you get then am 1 / 3 / 6 / 9 / 11 / 13 / 15 / 17 / 19 / 20.
In this way when your character becomes a bit more powerful (aroung 10th level) and would usually take levels in prestige classes, now he gets a few more feats and so he can use them to tweak his basic class a bit.
I also allowed many feats from various souces (FRCS, NetBook of Feats, DoF, ...), but always under the DM's approval.

Still I've not tried this rules, and so I don't know if they will work.

 

[LostSoul]

So yes, you can do it, especially if you've disallowed the PrC in question from your campaign. You'll still have to do quite a bit of balancing and tweaking, though.

Hmm... those are some good points. I'll have to think about it.