Prestige Classes with Wild Caveats

[Thealtruistorc]

I was thinking recently about D&D 3.5's Cataclysm Mage and the hilariously over-the-top addition which effectively prohibits the class' use in-game:


Dragonmark Secret (Ex): When you reach 10th level, your study of the Age of Dragons and arcane magic has yielded great knowledge at a terrible risk. At the beginning of each day, you can choose to manifest one least, lesser, or greater dragonmark and for an entire day. You gain the use of the spell-like ability associated with the mark you manifest. If you already have a dragonmark, you do not gain the ability to manifest two dragonmarks at once; instead, you gain the ability to change your dragonmark at the beginning of each day.

As powerful as this ability is, it carries with it great risk. Many dragons already resent that the dragon marks appear on lesser races, yet take solace in the fact that they alone (as far as they are concerned) can interpret the infinitely complex meanings of these marks and their impact on the great Prophecy. The dragons put great store in the number and location of every individual dragonmark. A cataclysm mage who masters the dragonmark secret can throw their many-faceted calculations into chaos at the slightest whim. To protect both the Prophecy and the fabric of fate itself, the dragons decree that those who carry the dragonmark secret must die swiftly and with no hope of resurrection.

This got me thinking about what other classes have these sorts of drastic effects which aren't necessarily a part of gameplay but somehow orient the world against you, with Risen Martyr being another example.


Final Ascension: When a 10th-level risen martyr has earned enough experience points to gain his next level, his perfected, spiritual body is taken whole into the upper planes.

Are there any other prestige classes which add these sorts of campaign-reshaping and potentially lethal "Caveats" to their abilities? I'm curious to know more about this space and where it might have come from.

[Inevitability]

Thrall of Eltab from Champions of Ruin:


Demoncyst Jump (Sp): Once per day, a 6th-level thrall of Eltab can produce an effect identical to that of a teleport spell cast by a 10th-level caster. This ability can be employed only within a demoncyst, and the target must lie within another demoncyst. Off-target results arrive in the desired demoncyst, but not at the desired location. Similar area results lead to a randomly chosen demoncyst, somewhere in eastern Faerûn. Mishaps deposit the thrall of Eltab on the 248th layer of the Abyss.

What's the 248th layer of the Abyss like? Well, y'know, category 5 hurricanes, armies of warring demons, and a jungle infested with plant monsters - totally worth using the class feature when it only happens a few percent of the time, right?

[Condé]

Who could forget the 20th level of Mountebank?


Aspect of the Damned: At 20th level the mountebank's soul comes due to her master. She gains the half-fiend template unless already one. Her alignment shifts to evil unless already evil. In any case, she becomes her master's willing thrall. She transports to the Outer Planes and becomes an NPC under the DM's control.

Only a quest to break her pact with her demonic or infernal overlord can free the mountebank from this fate. The exact nature of this quest is left to the DM, but it usually requires a mountebank to defeat her patron or his most powerful minions, render him a great service, or trick him into releasing her from their contract.

It is not enough that you specifically become an NPC, it's up to the DM to figure out how your party is going to have to help you.

Oh and let's not talk about the fact that there is nothing telling you get the control of your character back. They just gonna be free. But I guess it is assumed.

[ShurikVch]

Shadow Sun Ninja - Balance of Light and Dark?

Alienist - Timeless Body?

An alienist is stolen away by horrible entities when her time is up, and she is never seen again.

Waker of the Beast (Dragon #296)?

Locate the Sleeper (Su): A 1st-level waker of the beast begins having visions about the tarrasque. These visions (or nightmares) take place only when the waker of the beast is asleep. Through these dreams, the waker of the beast learns the current location of the tarrasque. These visions also give the waker an understanding of how to awaken the slumbering tarrasque. Once a waker is within 1 mile of the location of the tarrasque, he can begin chanting to call the tarrasque from its sleep. The waker of the beast can try to awaken the tarrasque once per month, with a percent chance equal to his class level. Multiple wakers can attempt the chant together by joining hands, combining their class levels for the total percentage. Upon waking, the tarrasque begins its reign of terror on the landscape. The waker of the beast in no way controls the tarrasque.

[Baroncognito]

Waker of the Beast (Dragon #296)?

This one sounds like it's a class intended for a DM PC or an NPC.

[Zanos]

I wouldn't say it orients the world against you, but Eunuch Warlock has some pretty steep entry requirements that aren't exactly mechanical...

[RexDart]

This one sounds like it's a class intended for a DM PC or an NPC.

If I understand it correctly, wasn't the original intent of Prestige Classes in general for them to be mostly NPC-oriented? Basically a way to give boss NPCs more variety in stuff they could do without violating the idea that every creature in the game is built under the same rules as the PCs?

[Darg]

If I understand it correctly, wasn't the original intent of Prestige Classes in general for them to be mostly NPC-oriented? Basically a way to give boss NPCs more variety in stuff they could do without violating the idea that every creature in the game is built under the same rules as the PCs?

Sort of. PrCs were always at the purview of the DM.


Prestige classes allow DMs to create campaign-specific, exclusive roles and positions as classes. These special roles offer abilities and powers otherwise inaccessible to PCs and focus them in specific, interesting directions. A character with a prestige class is more specialized yet perhaps slightly better than one without one.

A newly crated, 1st-level character cannot be a member of a prestige class. Abilities granted by prestige classes are inappropriate for 1st-level characters. Prestige classes are acquired only by meeting the requirements specific to each example. This almost always requires--in effect--that a character be at least mid-level (say, around 5th or 6th level). Additionally, the character must meet nonrule-related requirements in-game, such as group membership fees, special training excercises, quests, and so forth.

Allowing PCs access to prestige classes is purely optional and always under the purview of the DM. Even though a few examples can be found below, prestige classes are idiosyncratic to each campaign, and DMs may choose to not allow them or to use them only for NPCs.

Dungeon Masters should use prestige classes as a tool for world-building as well as a reward for achieving high level. They set characters in the milieu and put them in the context of the world.

I think the the intent is probably character agnostic and more about creating a more varied world.

Edit: Honestly, the way they cut the text giving context to the rules in the update to 3.5 really makes me feel like the 3.5 rules are lacking a lot. Even the 3.0 glossary is a lot more in depth and would have solved so many RAW disputes.

[Prime32]

Blessed by Tem Et-NuSand is a feat with strange, extremely niche benefits, and

If you ever lose favor with Tem-Et-Nu, or change your patron deity to another deity, you lose all benefits of this feat and take damage as if you were bitten by a hippopotamus.

[Rebel7284]

Ur Priests are seen as abominations by clerics
Binders have some flavor text about fear and distrust due to the whole getting power from possession by extraplanar entities thing
Many classes that specialize in undead are not welcomed in "polite society"

[Chronos]

Hippø bites can be very nasti. A hippø bit my sister, once.

[Remuko]

Hippø bites can be very nasti. A hippø bit my sister, once.

i understood this reference

[Bohandas]

Thrall of Eltab from Champions of Ruin:

"Demoncyst Jump (Sp): Once per day, a 6th-level thrall of Eltab can produce an effect identical to that of a teleport spell cast by a 10th-level caster. This ability can be employed only within a demoncyst, and the target must lie within another demoncyst. Off-target results arrive in the desired demoncyst, but not at the desired location. Similar area results lead to a randomly chosen demoncyst, somewhere in eastern Faerûn. Mishaps deposit the thrall of Eltab on the 248th layer of the Abyss."

So it's basically like that movie Event Horizon

[RNightstalker]

Spellfire can have your character being relentlessly hunted by the Red Wizards and other nefarious types like them.