Last month we finished taking a look at the basic building blocks of a prestige class. With a solid foundation of terms, we can now proceed with the actual design of a prestige class. This month we’re starting off with the most important part of prestige class design and balance: step zero.

Step Zero Basics

Step zero can really be broken down into two questions, one you ask yourself at the very beginning and one you ask yourself throughout the design process. Simply put, you need to ask yourself: “Do I really need this prestige class?” While it might seem silly to devote an entire column on designing prestige classes to why not to design one, it’s really a very important question to ask.

Do I Really Need To Do This?

Before you even sit down and start working out mechanics, and prerequisites, and everything else like that, ask yourself “Can this prestige class be accomplished with current mechanics and roleplaying?” If you can even partially answer yes, it’s a good sign that you need to step back and reevaluate why you’re making this class.

It is very important that you be brutally honest with yourself during this process, even to the point of asking everyone else the same question. Lay out the basic idea to the rest of your group or some friends, and go “can I do this another way with what’s already out there?” Get second opinions, search deep within yourself, and answer honestly. It may be that you don’t need to put in all the effort of designing a prestige class, as the works already done for you.

The reason we’re asking ourselves this question is to keep the most important part of a prestige class alive – prestige. A prestige class is something special, a collection of abilities that simply can’t be duplicated in any other manner, abilities that are common enough to a certain type of character that they deserve mechanical backing and support. Designing a class simply because you want a collection of cool abilities isn’t just enough – you need to have a theme and a solid reason as to why this class exists in a game world.

This may seem like a very obvious thing to state, and for some of you, it is. This is something that people just know instinctively, but it is so important that it deserves a lot of recognition. The more classes you make, the less special it makes every other prestige class. You begin designing sets of abilities and loose sight of the fact that a prestige class is about doing or belonging to something special, not getting an extra 1d6 points of damage on your attacks.

Examples

The best way to explain this concept is through a few of examples of where you wouldn’t actually need a prestige class. Sometimes this takes us in a different design direction, calling for new spells, feats, or even organizations or magic items.

1. One of my players, Bob, expresses a wish to play a stout dwarven warrior with a minor bit of spellcasting and lots of defensive capabilities. He states “I want to be a dwarven defender, but I want to cast spells too.” He wants a new prestige class that trades a few of the dwarven defender abilities for spellcasting. Now, while I could certainly modify the prestige class a bit, I point out that he could easily achieve what he wants by using cleric or paladin to qualify for dwarven defender instead of fighter, as he had planned. Bob seems pleased with the idea, and simply qualifies for Dwarven Defender by using Cleric instead of fighter.

2. Another player, Jane, really wanted a spellcasting class that changes how all of her spells look, giving her a “spellcaster of flowers” theme. She doesn’t want to take too many levels of it, she mostly just wants things to look really cool. Now, it would be easy to write out a three level class that does this, but at the heart this is simply a cosmetic change. I instead inform Jane that I’ll just let her say what her spells look like, and that the Spell Thematics feat would be a great option for her to back this up mechanically. Jane walks away happy and the lady of flowers can continue on with nothing more than levels in Wizard (and a few ranks in Craft [Flower Arranging]).

3. Fred, who’s playing a devout cleric of Pelor, would really like a prestige class that grants him greater abilities the more he tithes to his church and helps out around the temple. Now, he’s got four or five really nifty abilities, and even an entire organization developed for the class. It seems pretty ideal, but he’s having trouble with prerequisites beyond tithing money and doing community service. After a long discussion, it seems that he really just wants to develop a new arm of the church. Looking over the new rules for organizations, I decide that perhaps a new organization, with some unique benefits for membership is a lot better fit. Fred continues on just taking cleric, and with his new organization written up he has a few little special abilities.

These are just three very limited examples, but should show that your first instinct doesn’t need to be a new prestige class. Whenever possible, try to take the simplest route. If you want a hierarchy of additions, from simplest to hardest, this is a good general guide: cosmetic change, roleplaying change, a new feat, a new organization (or similar group), substitution levels for an existing base class, a new prestige class, a new base class.

Generally, if all a player wants or needs are one or two special quirks, it can be accomplished with a feat or a substitution level. If all they want is some prestige and roleplay consideration, don’t even bother with rules – just roleplay it out. It’s only when you’re looking at a handful of unique traits shared among a group or faction that you should start looking at prestige classes.

Design Step Zero

While this next concern doesn’t directly relate to the question of why even design a prestige class, it is thematically similar and present throughout the entire design process. At every single step of the process, you need to sit down and ask yourself honestly “Why would I not take this prestige class?” Prestige classes are all about give and take, and if you can’t come up with a few compelling reasons as to why you shouldn’t take the class you’re designing, it’s probably not balanced or simply flat out too good.

This is actually a really hard step, as it requires you to divest yourself of your interest in the class and look at it in cold, hard terms. When you enter a prestige class, you should always be giving up something of equal value. A prestige class is never about gaining more power – it’s about focusing your power in one narrow field, where you will excel, but you will lack behind in other areas.

Think of base classes as the “jack of all trades” of that class. They can do a bit of everything that the class should be able to perform, but they don’t perform any one task with exceptional ability – that’s the province of prestige classes. A prestige class sacrifices one aspect of a base class to enhance another aspect.

That’s the heart and soul of design step zero. For every aspect of the class, you should have a compelling reason not to take the class. For example, if a fighter class gets really good at thrown weapons, you should be giving up being exceptional at melee weapons as well. If the class is just as good at melee weapons as the standard fighter, and then completely exceptional with thrown weapons, you need to take a look at what you’re requiring and what the class gets and tone it down.

As in step zero, it’s perfectly fine to ask your friends and other players for advice. Having outside opinions is very helpful (message boards are great for this!) and can prevent a lot of headaches down the road. Remember, you’re effectively releasing this prestige class without any play testing, so hammering out the big problems can save you hours of heartbreak and misery.

Conclusion

This is undoubtedly the hardest part about designing a prestige class, but it is one you will have to master in order to produce quality material. Learning about step zero and taking it to heart will ensure that the classes you do produce truly are prestigious. Don’t worry if this is tough at the start – designing prestige classes is as much art as it is science, this step more so than any other.

If you wish an exercise in this process, look at the already published prestige classes and try to figure out how to duplicate the class with a combination of feats, roleplaying, and other non-class answers. This will help you spot what makes a successful prestige class and what is simply a collection of special abilities.

Join me next month, where we’ll start talking some of the actual design process by looking at prestige class requirements and how they set the tone for a class. In addition, I’ll be answering a few reader questions. Until next month, happy gaming!