Skill Requirements foPrestige Classes

[Lord Rahvin]

> I like your idea. I would center on less skill requirements, but those less should have more ranks. At least I would enhance "sense motive" and "diplomacy", but I would drop "decipher script" and "gather information".

You know, skill requirements almost never make sense. I like the idea, but
in application they always seem artificial, because the skills are so
specific and relatively one-dimensional. Furthermore, it`s difficult to say
why you`d need one skill and not another, so usually the skills are just
chosen for their themes and flavors than for their specific value to the
character or the character`s role.

So what I`m thinking is that maybe instead of having a requirement of "X
ranks in this skill" there should be a requirement of "X ranks in this type
of skill" for prestige classes. Since skills are already divided by their
relavent ability scores this works pretty well.

I mean, really, thematically there isn`t that much different between
needing, say 5 ranks in Diplomacy and Gather Information vs needing 5 ranks
in at least two Charisma skills.

Instead of, say 5 ranks in Sense Motive, what if you just had 5 ranks in a
Wisdom-related skill? Thematically, I don`t think there`s anything wrong
with requireing Spot and Listen instead of Sense Motive, but Wilderness Lore
could be somewhat of a problem.

I would suggest grouping the skills into particular themes to fit the common
requirements for prestige classes, but the problem is that there`d be as
many themes as there are prestige classes themselves. I`ll have to think
about it a bit more.

-Lord Rahvin

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[irdeggman]

Originally posted by Lord Rahvin





> I like your idea. I would center on less skill requirements, but those less should have more ranks. At least I would enhance "sense motive" and "diplomacy", but I would drop "decipher script" and "gather information".

You know, skill requirements almost never make sense. I like the idea, but
in application they always seem artificial, because the skills are so
specific and relatively one-dimensional. Furthermore, it`s difficult to say
why you`d need one skill and not another, so usually the skills are just
chosen for their themes and flavors than for their specific value to the
character or the character`s role.

So what I`m thinking is that maybe instead of having a requirement of "X
ranks in this skill" there should be a requirement of "X ranks in this type
of skill" for prestige classes. Since skills are already divided by their
relavent ability scores this works pretty well.

I mean, really, thematically there isn`t that much different between
needing, say 5 ranks in Diplomacy and Gather Information vs needing 5 ranks
in at least two Charisma skills.

Instead of, say 5 ranks in Sense Motive, what if you just had 5 ranks in a
Wisdom-related skill? Thematically, I don`t think there`s anything wrong
with requireing Spot and Listen instead of Sense Motive, but Wilderness Lore
could be somewhat of a problem.

I would suggest grouping the skills into particular themes to fit the common
requirements for prestige classes, but the problem is that there`d be as
many themes as there are prestige classes themselves. I`ll have to think
about it a bit more.

-Lord Rahvin

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Actually being specific is the idea behind having a prestige class in the first place. They are supposed to be focused on something (their theme). There isn't and shouldn't be a general wizard type of prestige class - that is what the "regular" classes are about.

3.5 should have some better details on how to create a prestige class - it was one of the posted things to be included.

But I agree using skill ranks as the main prerequisite is a little "forced" and gives the appearance of insufficient fore thought as to what it really means to be that prestige class and what a character has to go through in order to get there. A good blance of feats (sometimes hard to find ones that really fit), skill ranks, saving throws (even more forced appearing than are skill ranks), BAB (good for warrior themed prestige classes but bad for the rest) and spell selection (this one is very good for spellcaster prestige classes but bad for warrior themed ones). :)