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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hong" data-source="post: 1851924" data-attributes="member: 537">Those are two objectives of PrCs, yes. But you've left out one that may be just as important, at least from a player PoV.A prestige class is a way of _individualising_ a character. Consider someone who wants to be a "weapon master". Now in 3.5E, the standard method of doing this (to the extent that any method could be considered standard) would be to get lots of fighter levels and pick up Weapon Focus, Spec, Improved Focus and Improved Spec. In mechanical terms, you are thus a master of that particular weapon, having a total +2 attack and +4 damage with it, which is pretty substantial.From a strictly game mechanical point of view, this is fine; if you were just looking to get the most advantage out of a build, it might be perfectly adequate. But just having a bunch of feats is pretty bland and impersonal. For many people, there's a certain cachet to being able to write "weapon master" on their character sheet, and to have that label be meaningful in terms of game mechanics.This is the reason why you have PrCs like the weapon master, the exotic weapon master (CW), the archmage, the frenzied berserker, and other PrCs that are distinguished by basically being pumped-up versions of a base class. They're there to provide that extra bit of personalisation, so that you can say that you're more than just another fighter, or wizard, or whatnot. (Whether or not you still ARE just another fighter or wizard is not the issue. The issue is what you _perceive_ yourself to be.)You might object: but where's the personalisation, if anybody can become a weapon master or archmage? The personalisation is in the context of each individual campaign, and each individual group of PCs in particular: it doesn't really matter if anybody can become an archmage, as long as in _my_ party, _I'm_ the only archmage around. My schtick is secure, because what goes on in your campaign has no bearing on what goes on in mine. Problems only arise if another player in my group also wants to become an archmage, in which case it's fireballs at dawn.The same also applies for PrCs that are supposed to represent membership of organisations. I can always say that my character is a member of the Harkwood Rangers or the League of Arcane Knights, and have that reflected by purely RP benefits: I have a bunch of allies, ditto enemies, maybe access to some funky new spells or items, and so forth. But it's a lot more flavoursome, and more conducive to capturing the imagination, to have that membership be reflected in the rules themselves. Yes, you can do this with a feat, but again that's pretty bland.Personally, I think using PrCs like this is a good thing. Anything that helps to get players more involved in the game is a plus for me.</blockquote>

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