Kojiro
2011-07-14, 03:36 AM
Exactly what the topic says; I'm helping someone put together a DnD campaign for mostly-new people (as in, completely new, not new in the generally inexperienced way I am), and I need help figuring out various prestige classes to use; while almost entirely without experience with tabletop RPGs, pretty much everyone there is an experienced roleplayer and will probably mostly be making characters based more on character concept than mechanics, although of course myself and a few others will be helping keep them from making entirely useless characters. Some prestige classes are listed as really powerful, or conversely almost useless, and in many cases I can't figure out why. Using this (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=5198.0) for general reference; not including anything in the -2 range because a prestige class shouldn't make you worse, and regarding the +2 ones with caution, while picking among the various other lists.
Now, some of these, I can see easily. Duelist, as explained to me in one of my first topics here, is basically a worse Swashbuckler and whatnot; on the flip side, Initiates of the Sevenfold Veil manifest various parts of Prismatic Walls in some fashion, among other things, and are thus pretty obviously very powerful. Planar Shepard, likewise, is covered in a recently-active topic here. Others, however, perplex me a bit; Dweomerkeeper, for example. Apart from that some people say that you could, for example, use Wishes freely, no exp cost, which isn't specifically addressed admittedly, and that you can save a crapload of money on material components, it doesn't seem too bad. If you houseruled in/made clear that it still had exp costs for spells that normally had them, would it not be so broken?
And, on the flip side, for prestige classes that are weak or broken in the other way, what makes them so terrible? What alterations could make them better? Mystic Theurge (not terrible but not great) has been extended to a fifteen level class here, for example, and I'm looking at some proposed ideas for making Shadowdancer less weak too, like loosening the limits on its power to shadow jump.
While not necessary, meanwhile, possible interesting NPCs with prestige classes would be neat. Already have ideas for villain Ur-priests and Hulking Hurlers, both classes the PCs wouldn't have, for example.
So, yeah. Basically, both for the general amusement of everyone here and my benefit as a new DM, this is a topic about prestige classes, in general but more specifically about whether or not they're broken, in either fashion, and if so why. Also, any suggestions for interesting prestige classes to use would be appreciated; psionics aren't being used and this is a non-Greyhawk setting so some those with setting-specific flavor may be altered, but apart from that and the stuff listed above anything is fine. General DM advice (already read a few threads here, including this one (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76474), but more is always appreciated) would be nice too. Thank you in advance.
Now, some of these, I can see easily. Duelist, as explained to me in one of my first topics here, is basically a worse Swashbuckler and whatnot; on the flip side, Initiates of the Sevenfold Veil manifest various parts of Prismatic Walls in some fashion, among other things, and are thus pretty obviously very powerful. Planar Shepard, likewise, is covered in a recently-active topic here. Others, however, perplex me a bit; Dweomerkeeper, for example. Apart from that some people say that you could, for example, use Wishes freely, no exp cost, which isn't specifically addressed admittedly, and that you can save a crapload of money on material components, it doesn't seem too bad. If you houseruled in/made clear that it still had exp costs for spells that normally had them, would it not be so broken?
And, on the flip side, for prestige classes that are weak or broken in the other way, what makes them so terrible? What alterations could make them better? Mystic Theurge (not terrible but not great) has been extended to a fifteen level class here, for example, and I'm looking at some proposed ideas for making Shadowdancer less weak too, like loosening the limits on its power to shadow jump.
While not necessary, meanwhile, possible interesting NPCs with prestige classes would be neat. Already have ideas for villain Ur-priests and Hulking Hurlers, both classes the PCs wouldn't have, for example.
So, yeah. Basically, both for the general amusement of everyone here and my benefit as a new DM, this is a topic about prestige classes, in general but more specifically about whether or not they're broken, in either fashion, and if so why. Also, any suggestions for interesting prestige classes to use would be appreciated; psionics aren't being used and this is a non-Greyhawk setting so some those with setting-specific flavor may be altered, but apart from that and the stuff listed above anything is fine. General DM advice (already read a few threads here, including this one (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76474), but more is always appreciated) would be nice too. Thank you in advance.