Prestige Class or Pain in the (Cl)ass?

[Daeinar]

Aaargh! Flashbacks to the dusk argument!

Ahem, anyways, short take:

Yes, some prestige classes blow chunks.
Yes, there are entirely too many of them.

No, making you take some less than optimum feats and skills is not a bad thing. TANSTAAFL. You weasels.

Well that's basically it.

BTW, now that 9 out of 10 Prestige Classes are definitely more powerful than any core class, I don't get the point of the complaint.

After all, you cannot expect to have a distinguishable character, if you always need Spellcasting Prodigy, Weapon Finesse or Evasion to qualify for a certain PrC.

At least I guess that a Dwarven Defender, who supposedly wastes feats to actually become one, is somehow better of than an ordinary fighter.