Classes

MULTICLASSING

Prestige classes get poached. It's a fact of life in Dungeons & Dragons. There will always be power-gamers who pick up 1 or 2 levels of a prestige class, take the virtual-feats or special abilities that caught their eye, and move on. It's not just inevitable; it happens all the time. Now while a conscientious dungeon master will put a stop to it, having their characters role-play rituals or rites-of-passage before entering a prestige class, many do not. And so the wholesale abuse of prestige classes continues unabated.

  Now before I continue, let me state that I have no grudge against power-gamers in particular. A well-rounded player is equal parts power-gamer and role-player in my opinion. But the kind of prestige class poaching that I'm talking about has become rampant. Prestige classes are henpecked and discarded, robbed of any "prestige" they once had. One solution has been to redesign certain prestige classes to make them less "front-loaded" with abilities, but while this band-aid approach offers a short term solution, it actually creates a long term problem.

  Take the duelist for example and their "canny defense" ability. Originally, a 1st level duelist who gained this ability added their entire Intelligence bonus to AC (when not wearing armor or using a shield). The current build of canny defense restricts this ability so that only 1 point of Intelligence bonus may be added to AC per level of duelist. While this minimizes the advantage of poaching the duelist for 1 level to gain canny defense, it neuters the ability completely. Essentially, it makes wearing light armor infinitely more preferable during the first four levels of this prestige class (as armor protects a character even while flat-footed). And upon finally reaching 5th level, a duelist would need an Intelligence of 20 to benefit from a higher AC bonus than a chain shirt. In the end, its the devoted duelist who suffers because of this revised change.

  The real problem is not front-loading prestige classes. The real problem is that there are no penalties to discourage players from hopping from one prestige class to another. So I propose an XP penalty. Such a penalty, while similar to normal multiclassing penalties, cannot work the exact same way, but it can work independantly from them. As I said earlier, I have nothing against power-gaming ... to a point. The current multiclassing free-for-all has crossed that line, motivating me to submit these additions to the rules.

—Kolja Raven Liquette

XP FOR MULTICLASS PRESTIGE CLASS CHARACTERS

Developing and maintaining skills and abilities in more than one prestige class is an equally demanding process as maintaining skills and abilities in more than one core character class, but with slightly less restriction. Depending on a character's class levels and race, an XP penalty might or might not be taken.
  Even Levels: If your multiclass character's prestige classes are nearly the same level (all within one prestige class level of each other) then the needs of the multiple prestige classes can be balanced without penalty (as per normal multiclass characters).
  Uneven Levels: If any two of your multiclass character's prestige classes are two of more levels apart, the strain of developing and maintaining different skills at different levels takes its toll. Your multiclass character takes a –20% penalty to XP for each prestige class that is not within one level of their highest-level prestige class. These penalties apply from the moment the character adds a prestige class or raises a prestige class's level too high (as per normal multiclass characters).
  Maxing Out a Prestige Class: If a character earns every standard level of a prestige class (not counting epic levels), they are considered to have mastered the skills and abilities of that prestige class. A prestige class that has been maxed out does not count against the character for the purposes of the –20% penalty to XP. In such cases, calculate the XP penalty as if the character did not have that prestige class. For instance, a 5th-level rogue/4th-level shadowdancer/3rd-level assassin gets no penalty, but if that character raises their shadowdancer level to 5th, then the –20% penalty is taken from that point on until their prestige class levels are nearly even again. If that character continued raising their shadowdancer level to 10th, maxing out the standard levels of that prestige class, the –20% penalty is removed.
  Races and Multiclass XP: If the prerequisite of a prestige class requires that the candidate be of a certain race or sub-race (see the individual prestige class entries in their respective sources), and the character meets that prerequisite, then that prestige class is considered a favored prestige class, and does not count against the character for the purposes of the –20% penalty to XP. In such cases, calculate the XP penalty as if the character did not have that prestige class (as per normal mutliclass characters with favored classes). For instance, an elf who was a 6th-level sorcerer/5th-level rogue/3rd-level arcane trickster/1st-level arcane archer gets no penalty, but if that character adds one level of duelist, then the –20% penalty is taken from that point on until their arcane trickster and duelist prestige class levels are nearly even again.
  A human's highest-level prestige class is always considered their favored prestige class.

Copyright © Kolja Raven Liquette 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008.
(Email: sonofapreacherman@wakinglands.com)

Reference to copyrighted material in no way constitutes a challenge to the respective copyright holders of that material.