What's actually prestigious in your campaign?

[Tonguez]

IMC the two Prestige Classes are Totem Champion (Paladin) and Whale Rider
both of which require major Roleplaying encounters

Totem Champion is a Paladin variant only available to those who have lead a troops into battle and who are then 'chosen' by one of the Beast Spirits (who are all hungry and deadly War gods)

Whale Rider are the few people who bond with Cetaceans and learn to ride/swim with them. This requires a prior 'encounter' with a Cetacean in the water, and a few other traits

I have also modified the Aristocrat class to introduce an Influence mechanic (Ari level + cha mod) that determines character wealth (as per Modern) and 'connections/influence'.
Influence also determines a characters 'mana' which includes their ability to weild magic items. Thus only those of requisite influence can use certain magic items making them a source of prestige (Besides this having no magic shops means that access to Magic Items is controlled (and all such items are boons from the gods/spirits or 'artifacts' with specific histories) - thus increasing their prestige)

 

[Christopher Lambert]

IMO having two or three PrCs that do the same thing (eg 3 different kinds of fighter/mages "with one for elves!" or 2 archer PrCs) is a bad idea. Have one for your campaign, toss the others.

Also, the ronin PrC. Yuck.

 

[jmucchiello]

I always took Prestige Class means Specialized Class.

If only they'd been called Advanced Classes as they were in d20 Modern....

A poorly designed PrC does one of two things: overspecializes you at the cost of your "core" position on the team (for example, a rogue based PrC that skimps on skill points or a wizard based class that stunts spellcasting like Dragon Disciple)

I don't see that as poor design. It just means that the PrC is for someone wants something less like the normal progression. Some specializations can take you far away from your core discipline. (And Dragon Disciple is a fighter PrC that requires a bit of sorcerer to jump start it.)

 

[Voadam]

In our campaign it happens on a case by case basis.

Some modeled past history (like harper mage when my PC converted to 3e) some fit the character concept without further training or organization (Eldritch Knight) others require a church structure and quest (such as our homebrew chained templar of cuthbert) or ongoing organization and initial training (like witch hunter from Oriental Adventures or the rune type mages from Complete Book of Eldritch Might).

 

[The Shaman]

For my 3.0 game, when I was first introduced to the idea of prestige classes, I added dozens of prestige classes, 95% of which were associated with some specific organization or individual mentor and included some (often rigorous) roleplaying requirements for entry - the rest were simple specialized classes with just the mechanical requirements.

For my 3.5 game, I have all but eliminated PrCs and added a number of additional base classes from Unearthed Arcana and the Complete... books - I will encourage the players to use class combos rather than prestige classes to build their character concepts. (I think this is the influence of d20 Modern sneaking into my D&D game - in Modern every character is expected to multi-class.)