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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mkill" data-source="post: 5098267" data-attributes="member: 55985">@babinro:It's a bit too early for a definite analysis of what makes a popular PP.From what I've seen, the top picks have the following in common:- A concept that can be explained in one sentence. "Mark like a fighter", "get lots of damage resistance", "heal when your mark triggers", or, predictable for  upcoming polls, "crit on 18-20 with a dagger" and "damage every time you teleport".This is related to...- A single powerful, straightforward, always useful feature. An ability like +1 to all attack rolls, or +Wis damage to all attacks, or +1 AC is hard to argue with -- it's good in every combat, every round. Compare that to something like +5 to attacks against zombies: Sure, that's awesome if today's session is a reenactment of Dawn of the Dead, but you can go entire campaigns without ever using the feature if your DM thinks zombies are stupid.- Easy entry, which works with a many different character concepts. It's no wonder a PP with "Swordmage, Shaman spirit and region Arkanul" as prerequisites is not popular. Who's ever going to play that except for the writer himself, during the initial playtest?Compare that to a PP like Dreadnought, which can be slapped on pretty much any Str-based weapon user. Fighter, Paladin, Cleric, Ranger, Warden, Barbarian, even Assault Swordmage and Brutal Scoundrel works.PHB1 just happens to have many PPs like that. Next to the big three, contributing factors are:- Useful daily, encounter and utility power, although I've seen people take a PP with powers that are useless to their character if they really wanted that 11th level feature.- Combo potential: How well the different features of the path mesh together.- Action point feature: I consider this one icing on the cake. There are good ones (Justiciar), there are lame ones (Truthseeker), there are a few broken ones, but so far I've seen only one that makes a PP worth taking (that Winter Eladrin PP from current dragon)- Cool fluff: However, it's pretty easy to completely reskin a rules skeleton and fit it into the character that you want to play, but it's difficult to rewrite rules to fit the image you want. I consider it a blessing that the devs removed the tie between prestige classes and in-world organizations from the previous edition.Cool fluff can get you interested in a PP, but whether you really take it or not depends on the crunch.</blockquote>

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