Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Prestige Classes
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="ForceUser" data-source="post: 388591" data-attributes="member: 2785"><p>You've got to give us a lot more information than that. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>Some prestige classes are balanced better for some games than for others. Some are too weak or too powerful regardless of the campaign. </p><p></p><p>As a general rule of thumb, a prestige class should not be inherently more powerful than a base class when compared side-by-side - only different. The more outlandish or powerful the advantage gained, the more narrow-focused or limited the prestige class should be in other areas. </p><p></p><p>Let me give you an example of a broken prestige class: The Radiant Servant of Pelor from Dragon Magazine. Compared to a Cleric of the same level, the Radiant Servant gains Radiance (double the radius of all spells with the "light" descriptor), Extra Greater Turning (3+ Cha modifier), Martial Weapon Proficiency, a third domain, Aura of Warding (+2 Will saves for all within 10 feet), Positive Energy Burst (d8 per prestige class level damage verses undead), Empower all healing spells, Maximize all healing spells, and +1 caster level every level to boot. In contrast, the Radiant Servant loses an average of 10 hit points over the lifetime of the character (d6 HD, down from the cleric's d8). </p><p></p><p>Broken. In our campaign, my DM got rid of Aura of Warding and the Martial Weapon proficiency. I suggested he also remove a couple spell levels, but he declined.</p><p></p><p>That's just one example. You've got to be careful with prestige classes. Yeah, they are cool, and yeah, they make great ways to create a unique feel for your world, but they should never be more powerful than a base class. Just different.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ForceUser, post: 388591, member: 2785"] You've got to give us a lot more information than that. :) Some prestige classes are balanced better for some games than for others. Some are too weak or too powerful regardless of the campaign. As a general rule of thumb, a prestige class should not be inherently more powerful than a base class when compared side-by-side - only different. The more outlandish or powerful the advantage gained, the more narrow-focused or limited the prestige class should be in other areas. Let me give you an example of a broken prestige class: The Radiant Servant of Pelor from Dragon Magazine. Compared to a Cleric of the same level, the Radiant Servant gains Radiance (double the radius of all spells with the "light" descriptor), Extra Greater Turning (3+ Cha modifier), Martial Weapon Proficiency, a third domain, Aura of Warding (+2 Will saves for all within 10 feet), Positive Energy Burst (d8 per prestige class level damage verses undead), Empower all healing spells, Maximize all healing spells, and +1 caster level every level to boot. In contrast, the Radiant Servant loses an average of 10 hit points over the lifetime of the character (d6 HD, down from the cleric's d8). Broken. In our campaign, my DM got rid of Aura of Warding and the Martial Weapon proficiency. I suggested he also remove a couple spell levels, but he declined. That's just one example. You've got to be careful with prestige classes. Yeah, they are cool, and yeah, they make great ways to create a unique feel for your world, but they should never be more powerful than a base class. Just different. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Prestige Classes
Top