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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 6278350" data-attributes="member: 58197">There are three big reasons why prestige classes never lived up to their original conception of ties to the world:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Most PrCs were generic. The Assassin prestige class was not tied to a particular assassins' guild. It had no built-in story elements. The DM had to add that and make sure to remind the players of it.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">PrCs had stringent requirements that required advance planning. This was the biggest mistake IMO. If you have to build your character from 1st level to meet the Assassin requirements, then you can't just become an assassin as part of the story.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Because PrCs came at the cost of your existing class levels, and offered a substantial power boost, you were effectively penalized for not grabbing one as soon as you could. I'm actually okay with prestige classes granting a noticeable increase in power, but you shouldn't suffer for coming to it late.</li> </ul>My suggestion would be to avoid presenting a list of generic out-of-the-box PrCs, and instead provide a toolkit for DMs to build their own, plus a few examples with strong story elements. Instead of an Assassin PrC, have a Yellow Rose Assassin PrC, with lots of details about the customs and induction rituals of the House of Yellow Roses. DMs could use the Yellow Rose Assassin class as written, or use it as inspiration and build custom assassin PrCs for their own worlds.Furthermore, to avoid the third problem above, when you join the PrC, you should be able to replace your existing class levels either gradually or immediately. Or just make the PrC into an "add-on" package which augments your existing class instead of replacing it.</blockquote>

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