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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Andor" data-source="post: 5866909" data-attributes="member: 1879">My take on it.Kits seem to be the closest thing to the themes. I like kits, they provide both crunchy customization and cultural tie-ins in a single package. More importantly they show where you are from, who you are at the start of your career. A peasant hero, samurai, and a retired cavalry officer may all be fighters who like long swords but they are much more distinct with kits/themes to portray their origins and training.Prestige classes were brilliant but suffered from mission creep and poor design. They tried to do too many things. They were cultural or organizational tie-ins. They were hyper-specializations of, divergent paths from or mixes of bases classes. They were classes too powerful to be taken at first level. They were ways to mix newly released power systems (shadow magic, incarnum) into existing classes.It's too much for any one system to accomplish. It also suffered from some terrible design ideas like sub-par feat taxes as a cost of entry to a powerful class.Paragon paths were a fix to many of these problems but had their own issues as others have noted.But I think themes are not a replacement for prestige classes/paragon paths. Themes/kits are where you came from, prestige classes are where you are going. But I think prestige classes need to be split into two separate systems. One is 3e style prestige classes. These represent alternate class paths, they can be hyper-specializations, they can be new systems. They should not be a base class turned up to eleven. They should not fill in system gaps that would better be done with a new base class. Entry requirements should not require 6 levels of preplanning, or self-gimping. The other should be a faction membership system. Ways of tracking favor with a cause or organization with minor mechanical benefits. I seem to recall such a system from 3e, but not where it was from. PHB 2? At any rate these should NOT have generic instances. They can be mentioned in the PHB. The DMG should not provide examples (unless there is a default setting and then they should be strongly tied to that setting) but instead a 'how to build one' guide. They are instead packaged with setting books and adventures.Just my 2 cents.</blockquote>

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