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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Planesdragon" data-source="post: 1438316" data-attributes="member: 11133">(Did you mean "instead", as in "rather than having a new class" or "in stead", aka "as the game goes on?"  Oh, well.)  Prestige classes are a formalization of a concept that predates AD&D, and a modestly good one.  There is a certain expection of "better classes" that can only be taken after some advancement in the game: OD&D had Paladins, AD&D 1e had Druids, and even 2nd edition still had Knights of Solamnia.  But you are right.  PrCs are far too often seen not for what they represent, but for what they can do.  Luckilly, the answer for this is the same as for any other bit of dry numbers-based gaming: made actual role-playing a requirement of each PrC, don't allow PrCs that don't fit a niche in your game--and make every member of an organization that has a PrC have at least one level in that PrC.  IMC there are (so far) three groups that have PrCs, and aside from a basic competency that's better served by base classes, there aren't any more requirements than "be a member of X group."  (I also feel free to toss out "balance" with some of these PrCs.  As far as I care, someone who gets into a PrC shouldn't have a major reason to NOT complete the class.)  It is the very proliferation of feats and classes which almost forces people to min/max and approach the game from a very mechanic/mechanistic, ruleslayerish and CRPG-like way where you build your PC not through roleplaying, but throught 'engineering' the 'correct' or 'appropriate' PrC's, feats etc. into your PC to get the 'feel' you want.  'Bullocks' is my gut-reaction to this. The correct feel of the PC comes about by roleplaying in a certain way. If the focus of the whole group is to play the game for fun and by adhering to 'Character', then I do not need some feat to try to behead a monster. I can simply state what I try to do to the DM, and if I hit by a nice margin, the DM can adjudicate that I accomplished what I tried.  The whole trend of putting numbers and rules onto everything reduces the role of the DM. Indeed, with everything cast into rules that can be programmed, the whole game begins to look like a CRPG. It is the way the game is evolving itself that threatens to destroy the very creativity that it used to demand of players and DM's alike in the old editions. THAT is the very problem of the lack of 'soul' in the new editions.  Am I the only one who thinks so? Am I missing something here, and do I see things the wrong way?  An 'old-school' DM who still swears by only needing the DMG1, MM1 and PHB1 to have the most fun with (A)DnD</blockquote>[/QUOTE]

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