The Rule of Concept
Before we delve into the parts of a prestige class, we first need to discuss the golden rule of concept. The golden rule of concept states: “Thou shalt not create a prestige class that can be easily duplicated through roleplaying or the application of other mechanical means.” What this basically means is that you shouldn’t create a class that can easily be duplicated through another prestige class, a mix of feats and multiclassing, or simple roleplaying. Before you even begin, take a hard look inside and ask yourself “is this class really necessary? Can I get the same result with something that already exists or by simply roleplaying a character differently?” If you can honestly answer no to both questions, you’ve got a valid concept on your hands.
Introductory Paragraph
We learned last week that the introductory paragraph serves as a hook for the reader, as well as an encapsulating idea for the prestige class. What we didn’t learn is that it’s also an excellent place to start your class design. When you begin designing a new class, take some time to jot down some notes and important aspects of the prestige class. Try to be as specific as you can, because you’ll be drawing from this paragraph or two when you get down to designing class abilities.
Some designers like to start with a bullet list or outline of important class features and concepts, while others take a more free form method and just write via a stream of consciousness method. Just make sure that you have a solid paragraph or two that you can refer back to throughout the design process. If it’s not incredibly polished or punchy yet, don’t worry: you’ll always have time to revise it later.
Entry Requirements
The entry requirements of the class are the method the designer uses to prevent a character from entering the prestige class too early or too late. Some of the prestige class requirements may be roleplay in nature, while others are purely mechanical. There are two types or requirements: soft requirements and hard requirements.
Soft requirements are requirements that are not entirely dependant upon the level of a class. They include feats without prerequisites (and some with prerequisites), roleplaying stipulations (such as you must have slain ten rats), and membership in various organizations. They are called soft requirements because there are various ways to qualify for such things at first level, and are therefore wholly unsuited to be the only source of entry requirement.
Hard requirements are class features and mechanical aspects that cannot be gained before a specific level. Base attack bonus, spellcasting level, and skill ranks are all examples of hard requirements. They are called hard requirements because there is no way to gain the required number before a set class level. For example, you cannot have 8 ranks in a skill before 5th level, no matter how much you multiclass.
Note that sometimes the amount of a hard requirement may change depending upon the target class and multiple requirements. For example, a class that requires both 8 ranks of Use Magic Device and a +5 base attack bonus cannot be entered before 6th level: there is no class that has both Use Magic Device as a class skill and a full base attack bonus. Keep in mind your target class and your hard requirements when creating a prestige class.
In general, no prestige class should be attainable before you’ve gained five class levels. The better the abilities a class offers, the longer it should take you to obtain the requirements to enter the class. In addition, the fewer levels a prestige class offers, the fewer prerequisites it should require.
In addition, any skill required to enter a prestige class should be a class skill for the prestige class (with very, very few exceptions). Basically, if a class requires anything, it should continue to progress the requirement at a reasonable level. If your class requires a high base attack bonus, it should have a full base attack bonus. If it requires spellcasting, it should continue to progress your spellcasting.
Class Table
The class table is the only place where the base attack bonus and saving throw progression appears in a prestige class. This is also where you can list your class skills, though some older design methods list the skills elsewhere.
There are three base attack progressions: full (equal to class level), moderate (3/4 class level), and poor (1/2 class level). Any class that is aimed at warriors and fighter-types should have a full attack progression. The moderate attack progression is generally used for highly skilled classes, divine spellcasting classes, and anything that has a lot of special abilities but no spellcasting or heavy focus on combat. The poor progression is exclusively reserved for most arcane spellcasting classes.
As a general rule, a full attack bonus is worth the loss of 1-4 divine spellcasting levels, and the loss of 1-5 arcane spellcasting levels. A full base attack bonus is a potent class feature in itself, especially if the class also offers a spellcasting progression.
Saving throws come in two progressions: good (class level/2 +2) and poor (class level/3). Prestige classes generally have similar saving throw progressions as the classes most commonly used to qualify for the class. A full base attack bonus is usually paired with a good Fortitude save and poor Reflex and Will saves. Spellcasting classes almost always have a good Will save, and most highly skilled classes generally have a good Reflex save.
Skill points come in four amounts: 2, 4, 6, and 8 skill points per level. Classes almost never deviate from this set amount of skill points, so try to stick with the common amounts. As a general rule of thumb, you should have at least 2 to 3 class skills to every skill point the class offers. If your class has 6 skill points a level, it should have at least 10 to 14 class skills offered (treat craft and profession skills as one skill for this purpose).
Figuring out just what attack bonus, saving throw progression, and class skills is a difficult process that takes years to master. We’ll be going over this entire process in more detail in future columns.
Class Features
The class features are the bread and butter of the entire prestige class. This is generally the reason people take a prestige class in the first place. Unfortunately, there is no magic formula for creating perfectly balanced and useful class features. This is really something that must be learned through trial and error, and some people seem to be naturally better at creating class features than others.
Fortunately, the best way to learn about creating class features and special abilities is by example. In many future columns we’ll be creating prestige classes from the ground up, and the more you see how a class feature is created, the better you’ll get at it yourself. For now, we’re just going to stick to the general types of class features.
Armor and weapon proficiencies are the first class feature listed. The current design trend is to grant prestige classes no new proficiencies in any weapons or armor, but exceptions always exist. If you have a class that is designed around making a rogue more combat capable, it would make sense to give them martial weapon proficiency. In general, though, you can mostly cut and paste the “gains no new proficiency in any weapons or armor” line from a previous prestige class.
Spellcasting is another common class feature. A lot of prestige classes advance a previous spellcasting class for all or some of the prestige class levels. In general, no prestige class gives a full spellcasting progression, unless the requirements are particularly onerous or hard to obtain.
The largest number of special features are generally extraordinary. Extraordinary abilities can be used any time, even in an antimagic zone. An extraordinary class feature is generally one that isn’t inherently magical or clearly outside the realm of human skill. For example, the ability to tumble as a swift action is probably an extraordinary class feature. In general, if it makes sense for the feature to be used all the time, it’s extraordinary.
Supernatural abilities are ones that don’t perfectly mimic a spell, but are generally exceptional in some way. Supernatural abilities are probably the least used among the three types. It’s a fine line between supernatural, extraordinary, and spell-like. Generally, if you can see the ability as being clearly something out of the ordinary that wouldn’t function in an antimagic zone, but that doesn’t directly duplicate a spell, it’s supernatural.
Spell-like abilities let you duplicate a spell effect. If a class can use a spell as an innate class feature, add it as a spell-like ability. Ironically, spell-like abilities are the easiest to design, as you have the spell already created for you.
The process of designing a class feature can be incredibly daunting, but by looking at other classes and your concept, you can generally come up with a handful of good abilities in no time. Now that we’ve learned the basics, we’ll be able to cover creating class features in much greater detail in future columns.
Conclusion
As you can see, there is a lot that goes into the mechanical side of a prestige class. Yet no class would be complete without some great background information and fluff material to go with the mechanical bits. Hopefully this overview has given everyone a common platform to help you in design. Next month we’ll be looking at creating the background information for a prestige class. Until next month, good gaming!
