Prestigous Woes...

[Klaus]

I wonder how the Soulknife mixes with the Invisible Blade PrClass from Complete Warrior...

 

[tec-9-7]

Here's a solution - no prestige classes, period! Presto! End of whining!

 

[firenice]

A very good point tec. I have several characters and NONE of them have any prestige classes. Not even my Epic level Barbarian. Just straight class, nothing more or less. I realize that the Prestige classes do add things to the game and the characters, but the array of classes and the game design itself means that no campaign should suffer because their paladin is not the Avatar of Hieroneous (sp?), or anything else you want to set up on the character.

 

[RangerWickett]

I compiled a list of about 20 nifty names for prestige classes I'd love to make for my campaign. I even thought of what abilities they'd grant. Reading this thread, I looked over the list again and saw that everything was geared toward fighters, rogues, and wizard/sorcerers. I don't even like clerics.

This is one reason I think the inevitable D&D 4th edition will have 3 or 4 base classes (fighter, expert, mage, 'race'), with sample class builds for things like barbarians, druids, monks, and paladins.

 

[Psion]

It is once you get the feats you want (almost certain by 12th level).

For you, perhaps. I can easily think of feat chains I would want that take me well beyond that.

If building the character you want takes you to other classes, I'm not exactly seeing a problem with that.

 

[Psion]

Here's a solution - no prestige classes, period! Presto! End of whining!

Nevermind that you might be denying players the opportunity to play a character they want to play.

Some GMs flex their muscles forgetting they aren't the only one that need to enjoy the game. A shame, really.

 

[PJ-Mason]

This is one reason I think the inevitable D&D 4th edition will have 3 or 4 base classes (fighter, expert, mage, 'race'), with sample class builds for things like barbarians, druids, monks, and paladins.

The Generic Class rules in UA is the first big and beautiful step towards this new and greater D&D collective. Prestige Classes are irrelevent. You will comply. Resistance is futile.

 

[Orryn Emrys]

I have a tendency to simply design prestige classes the PCs will encounter opportunities for during the course of the campaign that reflect the interests of the PCs. My players tend to pore over the books, and often drool over the PrCs, but they know that only a handful of them would even vaguely be an option in any given setting. However, when they let me know what their interests are, I'll take the idea, twist it a bit, bounce it around, and create some NPC or NPC organization or whatever to introduce the idea to the character in-game.

Granted, this doesn't necessarily mean that the PrC will behave perfectly in sync with the character's current abilities, but at least I can make the trade-off worthwhile. Furthermore, without the players seeking such an opportunity, all I put together are PrCs appropriate for my NPCs, etcetera.

 

[terrainmonkey]

Psion-- DMs flex their muscles because they can. It's allowed. the DM is the guy who understands game balance, (well most do anyway) and it is he who decides whether or not a prestige class will work in his game. Me, i don't allow them, thinking that characters are better off staying with a class and not adding levels to a character in different classes. i have a lot more respect for a player when i see this on his character sheet: fighter 17, than when i see ftr 3/sor 2/hexblade 4/rogue 4/assassin 2/kensai 2. You create a mish mash of various classes that don't have any sense being together, and the character becomes unable to do even anything useful. I;ll give you an example of something in my game. one of my players started a fighter, went up in that for a few levels, then switched to sorcerer. he took four leels in sorcerer, and then asked if he could prestige into kensai. I looked it over and said, sure, no problem. He used a halberd as his main weapon. He gained a few speceial abilities, thought he was cool, but his character was 2nd rate at best. He took the spinning halberd feat, something he had been wanting since he saw it, and it was useless against the monsters i was throwing at them. his final PC looked like this: FTR 3/sor3/Kensai4. He was so below par in everything, he was useless to the party, and he died when he tried to storm the courtyard of a hobgoblin stronghold. He was butchered by 4 raging hobgoblin barbarians. He would have lasted a lot longer if he was just a 10th level fighter. After that, i decided to just take prestige classes out of my game, and if someone wants to be called a kensai, or flame mage, or templar of the order of Bahamut, i just go ahead and let them use the title but they remain fighter, wizard, or cleric.
The classes in the core book are balanced, fair, and are perfect for the game. Imagination makes for prestige classes with what is there, noto some underbalanced set of new abilities, feats, and other stupid nonsense. If you don't have enough imagination to make your character cool in one class, go back to video games and leave D&D to people who can actually think and have imagination.
flame away, 'cuz i know it's coming.

 

[Klaus]

Terrainmonkey -> Well, the character in your example wasn't subpar because of the PrClass. He was subpar because he wasted 3 levels as sorceror and then didn't follow through as a "fighting spellcaster" (as a ftr/sor woul suggest). The Kensai brings nothing to this build, and the 3 levels of sorceror become a waste. And how come Spinning Halberd was useless? It is simply Two-Weapon Fighting with a halberd and its shaft (akin to dual-wielding an axe and a club).

The character would make much more sense (and be much more effective) if he were Ftr5/Monk1/Kensai 4 (and even then, Monk is just to fulfill the skill requirements). Even better, he could be Paladin 5/Kensai 5.