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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6104594" data-attributes="member: 4937">This has been my approach since I first saw Prestige Classes.   Personally, I feel that PrCs were the worst feature of 3e, and my first house rule was 'none of these'.  Pretty much every PrC that people actually take is one of two things - a base class variant that gains more 'bonus feats' than the original base class (usually in the form of a fixed progression of class powers) or else a kludge to allow a base class to multiclass more effectively with a spellcasting class (something the otherwise awesome multiclass rules don't really encourage).   (There is a third important class of PrC and that's a PrC that is required because of the poor design of a base class.  An example would be something like the Blackgaurd, necessitated by the fact that you have a Paladin base class and not a design for a more generic 'Champion' class that works regardless of the alignment or concept being championed.)The multiclassing problem has a completely different fix which I don't need to go into here but basically works the same (you can make it a feat tree).The former suggests one or both of two things.  Either you don't think that classes get enough feats to customize them, in which case you need to give lower tier base classes more bonus feats especially at higher levels and/or go to a 1:2 progression, and/or you need to think about bumping up the power level of feats especially those that are down more lengthy feat chains and have other heavy requirements to make feats competitive with spells and spell slots as resources.  This last change in particular is welcome because it addresses something that PrC's got kludged into addressing as 3.X matured, and that was the disparity of tier in core between full spellcasters and martial classes due to the very generous design of spells (1e spells with few restrictions) and the very tentative design and linear design of feats where even the third or fourth feat in a chain doesn't really bring the awesome but just another singular minor benefit.  There are many more balance issues between high level spellcasters and martial classes than that, but that's a peice of it.As airwalkr noticed, most PrC's fixed progression of class powers can just be turned into a feat tree by reworking them a little.  Often the class power or most iconic group of powers can just be directly turned into a feat with the same prerequisites as the PrC.  Other PrC class powers aren't worth a feat in themselves, but can be bundled into a single feat often with a structure similar to a 'tactical' feat - three little bonuses.Anyway, my point in all of this is that feats are not little bonuses you tack on to your build.  Feats are also customizable class powers that extend the flexibility of the class system to let you make the class of your choosing without needing to have hundreds of classes in the system.  The feat as a concept is vastly more powerful and flexible than a PrC.  With a well designed set of base classes and feats, there really should be little need for a PrC and most of the desire for PrC's was rooted in an unhealthy desire to break the balance or else fix the balance by making everything broken.  With PrC dipping the only way to really break balance in a game dependent on core is go full spellcaster.  But with a healthy reappraisal of spells focusing on the spells that tend to be I win buttons for a scenario, even that can be largely brought under control IMO.</blockquote>

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