#2: Prestige Class Design Basics, Part Two

[RPGnet Columns]

http://www.rpg.net/columns/designingprestigeclasses/designingprestigeclasses2.phtml

Summary:

The nuts and bolts of prestige class mechanics.

Go to the column (http://www.rpg.net/columns/designingprestigeclasses/designingprestigeclasses2.phtml) for more information.

[committed hero]

There are some "Soft" requirements that might require a high level character: the example cites killing rats, but change it to killing a dragon. Another cool prereq I've seen include being reduced to negative hit points. The point is that both the player and DM has more control over when they might be met (to use the dragon/rat example, the GM decides when such an encounter occurs). Personally I think soft requirements are a great way to ensure that players focus on the roleplaying side of character development.

Good article.

[Jess Heinig]

Some common misapprehensions here.

First off, it's not inconceivable that a feat or campaign element could allow a skill/BAB combination that provides early entry into a prestige class. Back in the day, the ol' feat Cosmopolitan turned a cross-class skill into a class skill. In the RPGA's Xen'drik Expeditions campaign, members of the Crimson Codex gain additional Knowledge skills as class skills. Little end-runs like these can make it so that it is, in fact, possible to arrive at otherwise unexpected combinations of skill ranks - and designers should be very careful about those, because it's those sorts of loopholes that will be exploited by players looking to dip into a class early for a big benefit.

Secondly, there's no reason that most prestige classes should be unattainable until after 5th level. In fact, several classes in the Eberron campaign setting - such as the Dragonmark Heir and the Master Inquisitive - are easily enterable before that. The church inquisitor in Complete Divine and master of shrouds in Libris Mortis likewise can be entered at an earlier level. The key remains to scale the abilities of a prestige class with regard to the stringency of its entry requirements. The more egregious the requirements, the more that the class can justify superior capabilities.

Also noteworthy is that spellcasting progression is not as simple as just deciding whether to knock off levels of advancement. Some prestige classes only advance a specific type of casting, such as "divine caster level" or "bard spellcasting." These are obviously only useful in a narrower niche. A class that requires a certain level of casting of a specific type also has a more narrowed focus; there's less reason to take a full caster advancement class if it requires 2nd-level divine spellcasting and your character's an arcane caster, since it would require going out of the way to grab divine spells somehow and then shoehorn the caster advancement over (which means, most likely, losing some of that arcane power).

[Save-vs-DM]

Good points Jess, but the one thing I must have failed to communicate with hard caps:

Your max skill ranks cannot be higher than 3 + level. Ever. No way around it. It's hard coded into the system. While it's quite true you can get certain skills as class skills easily, it still doesn't let you in earlier than somone who multiclassed.

if I don't want someone to obtain the requires for a prestige class before level 6, 9 ranks in a skill ensures that. There's just no way to get 9 ranks in a skill before 6th level.

The spellcasting is also a great point, but that'll be covered in it's own entire article. I've just found that there's way too much stuff to communicate here, and so I've got a lot of articles on very specific topics.

Cheers,
Save vs DM