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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 1848297" data-attributes="member: 2205">OK, I know a lot of people complain about the glut of PrCs in the market in various imprints all over the d20 landscape.  Psion said something in another thread, which I'm going to paraphrase, that struck me as particularly insightful though; good prestige classes are much more than simply mechanics, they are character concepts, and that's something that's worthwhile.My first reaction was to type up some variety of "Hear, hear!" in reply to that, but it was a bit off-topic for that thread, and the more I thought about it, the more I thought that I'm still dissatisfied with the implementation of the concept anyway.The theory of prestige classes allows, I think, for two specific meta-game concepts to be realized: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Belonging to an organization that grants special class-related benefits (i.e., the Harpers, Red Wizards of Thay, etc.); or, </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Narrowing in on a concept that is too specific to really be a core class</li> </ul>The problem is, the more I've thought about it, the more I think PrCs are suboptimal at both of those tasks, for the most part.  For the first task, I think it stretches credibility to envision too many organizations to which membership opens up all these "secret techniques."  Granted, there's still room for some of that, but I think that there are better mechanics to invoke membership in some of these organizations for which PrCs is a bit much.  The Iron Kingdoms book for example, has a number of membership feats which grant you a few minor, often roleplaying related benefits.  Want to join the Iron Workers Union (or whatever the exact name of that organization was?)  You take the feat, not a PrC.And the problem with narrowing in on a concept that is not served by the core classes is, that you want to play that concept from the moment you envison the character; you don't want to "graduate" finally into the concept after levels and levels of play.  Granted, you can still roleplay the concept, but if the mechanics don't support you, then that's an unsatisfying experience.  If you want to play, for example, a swashbuckler (and we'll assume that you don't have Complete Warrior) you can multiclass fighter and rogue, getting a generally crappy character build that isn't really fighter, rogue or swashbuckler, until you finally qualify for the duelist prestige class, or you can work with your DM to modify either the fighter or the rogue class to make it work for the concept right from the get-go.  To me, the latter option is so vastly superior that I'd never consider the former; if the DM wouldn't work with me, I'd either look for another DM, or look for another character concept.Granted, I guess I'm not disagreeing with Psion too much; really good PrCs still fill a valuable niche in the marketplace, IMO, but that niche is smaller and smaller every time I look at it, and much of what PrCs do, I'd rather have some other mechanic do instead.</blockquote>

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