Standard and Prestige class variants at one board

[Xerlith]

I was playing around with some builds and it made me curious - Would you, being the DM, allow your players to build, say, a Paladin6/Prestige Ranger4? Or Paladin2/Cleric4/PrC Ranger X?
Yes, I know that mechanic-wise there's nothing saying that any of these is a strong choice. I'm just... Curious.

[holywhippet]

The latter is the only legal option of the two, barely. Prestige rangers require the character to be able to cast calm animals as a divine spell. Paladins don't get that spell and clerics can only get it as a domain spell.

I'd possibly allow it if I thought it matched the character design. If the player clearly hasn't been working towards being a ranger aside from taking the prerequisites I'd not allow it.

[Pluto!]

Sure.

Leaving aside any possible text in UA that may discourage that sort of thing, the only reasons I can imagine a person even blinking at the idea are the notions that PrCs and base classes should be distinct from one another conceptually and/or mechanically.

The problem with either of those is that there are rulebooks filled with thousands of pages contradicting those ideas, with dozens of Barbarian and Paladin lookalikes, base class samurais beside prestige class samurais, dragon disciples beside dragon shamans and dragonfire adepts and so forth.

I don't think the conceptual redundancy of a Paladin/Prestige Paladin is any worse than it is of a Paladin of Freedom/Holy Liberator, and I don't think the mechanical disparity of a Fighter/Cleric/Prestige Paladin in the same party as a Paladin is any worse than the disparity of a Psion/Anarchic Initiate in the same party as a Wilder.

It probably undermines the design intent of the PrCs to use them with base classes interchangeably, but it's walking the same ground that's been tread and retread in dozens of rulebooks, so I really wouldn't argue against it in a game.

[Xerlith]

The latter is the only legal option of the two, barely. Prestige rangers require the character to be able to cast calm animals as a divine spell. Paladins don't get that spell and clerics can only get it as a domain spell.


There are ways of obtaining it, as well as the other way round. :smalltongue:

The main focus here is the mix of prestige/base versions.