Putting it all together?

[JoeGKushner]

So now that we've got about three books on every subject available, how do you put it all together?

Spells, magic items, feats and other little bits are fairly easy as they dont' get a whole lot of use.

PrCs on the other hand... well, to me, these have to be built into the campaign at least a little or the explosion of them is too much. You can only explain so many as, "Your inexperienced and havent' heard of them." type of deal.

Right now I'm trying to integrate material from Necromancy, Beyond the Grave, Undead, Necromancer's Legacy, and some other goodies.

Freeport is where I've set the Secret College. I've tinkered with the idea that the Necro from Legacy is the same one as Secret College. Haven't gone much further though.

Been working on a necromancer stronghold. One that's battled the players a time or two in the past. Populating that keep with all sorts of little beasts from Necromantic Lore (FFG!) and other sources.

How about others? How do you mix and blend it all?

 

[Wicht]

What I do is just use one or two new ideas at a time if I need them. And as I read new books I just kind of catalog in the back of my mind interesting concepts that might be yoinked later.

 

[Fenes 2]

I don't have much of a problem integrating prestige classes, since my PCs do not know "classes" but only NPCs. So while I usually go for flavor instead of numbers, when Prestige Classes are concerned I just add numbers (the PrC) to existing flavor (the NPC).
That NPC-general might turn out, when I stat him, to be a warlord, and his aide-de-champ might turn out to be a devoted defender - but neither will refer to himself as such. That rogue may have an affinity for shadows, and the stats of a shadowdancer, but he will consider himself a disciple of the Mistress of the Night, not a shadowdancer.

As you can see I usually implement generic Prestige Classes, not organization-specific, and if I have organisation-specific PrCs I use existing organisations, even those the PCs have encountered before - not every member, for example, may have a PrC.

 

[Sagan Darkside]

How about others? How do you mix and blend it all?

I have been pillaging other resources for sometime- and I handle it the same way now. I have my central concept, and if I like the feel of something- then I will either slide it in.. or hammer it in.

If they don't seem to fit in- oh well.

Life does not always make sense- so neither does my worlds.

SD
Edit: On PrC's- I come up with a list and make organizations around them. I also ask the players to tell me which ones they are interested in- so I can be sure to slip them into the world.

 

[haiiro]

As I have begun building up material for my next campaign, this is something I'm interested in as well.

My current plan is to sift through all of my PrC resources and make a list of ones that I want to include from the get-go. These will have an established role and place in the game, and many of them will probably be encountered by the PCs fairly early on. I intend to include a variety of PrCs -- classes players often seem to like, some I think are too cool to pass up, some that mesh perfectly with the setting and the plotlines of the campaign, etc.

Since the Realms is a vast and diverse setting, however, there will likely be many other PrCs that aren't on this list that would logically be out there somewhere -- including at least a few that I'm sure players will ask about. I have no problem adding in classes after the game is underway, and I think asking about them in advance is a great way to do this in a more organic fashion -- thank you for the suggestion.

 

[ichabod]

Prestige Classes in my game are mostly player driven. If a player wants to do something pretigey with their character, I either find a PrC that fits what they want, modify one so it fits what they want, or failing that design something totally new to fit their desire.

IMC, I have one player who wants to be a duelist (that's easy). One wants a PrC to fit his job as an Inquisitor (church inquisitor with slight modifications). One wants to be a half-dragon, but doesn't want to give up so much in the way of magic (created a new PrC to fit that). One wants to be a stealth monk, so I'll either modify ninja of the crescent moon or make my own ninja-style PrC.