Shouldn't Prestige Classes be done differently?

[Abstraction]

Who's with me on this? We can start lobbying for the change when 4E eventually comes out. What really bothers me is that I often want to have a group organization share a prestige class. The problem? Prestige classes are way too narrow. I certainly can't find a prestige class in any of my books that is open to any class and at least a passable choice for any class. Why should my order of the bow organization be so cookie cutter? Are there no wizards or clerics specially trained in the organization? What say you?

 

[Sammael]

Er... the whole point of prestige classes is that they specialize in one area over another. After all, you don't see very many nuclear physicists who are also professional athletes and master historians.

Why would the Order of the Bow train wizards, when wizards rarely, if ever, engage in archery, and it's certainly not their primary preoccupation?

 

[Abstraction]

But why is everyone in every organization the exact same? Why does my assassins guild not have wizards, then?

 

[EricNoah]

So you'd like some other kind of organization-related game mechanic, eh? Actually that sounds kind of interesting. I don't know that I'd do it with a class per se. Maybe with exclusive feats or something...

 

[Sammael]

Why doesn't it? After all, a wizard with disintegrate is just as dangerous (or even more dangerous) as a person who has levels in the assassin prestige class. I don't see why every member of the organization needs to have levels in the prestige class.

 

[Crothian]

But why is everyone in every organization the exact same? Why does my assassins guild not have wizards, then?

becasue a wizard assassin and a rogue assassin are going to be two different classes. There is not reason not to have them in the same guild,

 

[Crothian]

Why doesn't it? After all, a wizard with disintegrate is just as dangerous (or even more dangerous) as a person who has levels in the assassin prestige class. I don't see why every member of the organization needs to have levels in the prestige class.

They don't and there is really no reason to think that they all would. I thinks it is a bad assumption by the post starter to assume that all assassins have that prestige class.

 

[Macbeth]

The problem here is the idea that every member of an organization must have levels in the associated PrC. Sure, some memebers of the assassin's guild have levels in that class, but a Rogue, Wizard, Sorcerer, Ranger, or nay nother class could just as easily join if they have the right focus. Any wizard who kills enemies with a single, powerful strike and uses stealth could easily be an assassin.

Just as not all member's of a church need to be clerics, not all assassins need to be Assassins. A priest who preaches to a crowd every sunday and is a representitive of his church in the community is arguably better played as a particularly devout bard, not a cleric. IN the same way, an assassin need not have levels in the class that bears the same name.

 

[philreed]

Take a look at Bastion Press' Guildcraft sourcebook. It has guidelines for designing your own guilds and would handle the idea very well.

It's in PDF at RPGNow.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=3678&SRC=EnWorld

 

[Sammael]

Never mind.