Arcane PRCs

[Kitsunestume]

Heyas all,

I was brousing through the wiki, trying to figure how to progress a character in my vault, when I came to the conclusion that there's no purely arcane prestige-class for neutral casters. The three we have are Hand of Mundus, Red Wizard of Thay, and Palemaster. Two are restricted to only their respective factions, and the last is basically for evil necromantic dissidents. Admittedly, those are the triad of political power covered, and I'm aware that there is (or was, I presume it still exists) staff pressure for people being in factions rather than freelance.

I'm not sure what I'ld offer as suggestion, but figured the observation worth sharing.

On revision, I realize that EK is technically available, though it still strikes me as a fighter/wizard hybrid than pure caster.

Comments, observations,discussion?
Cheers,
Kit

[thaelis]

Pure Wizard up to 20 isn't all that bad actually. The only benefit is 2 extra feats (Wiz15, Wiz20) but at the same time you don't have to take all the crazy prereq's that Hands and Red Wizards do.

Sure, I die a lot...but I think that's more a symptom of low server population than my class itself ><

[Handsomeman]

It would make sense from a RP standpoint that you would need to join factions to get access to better better spell casting feats. I mean they've been gathering knowlegde for spell casting for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. Learning from them should be more beneficial than independent study alone, and they most probably would not want to share their secrets with outsiders. It's kinda like how fighters need to join factions to get access to better equipment. Wizards need to join factions to get access to better spell casting feats.

[sonuvalich]

It would make sense from a RP standpoint that you would need to join factions to get access to better better spell casting feats. I mean they've been gathering knowlegde for spell casting for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. Learning from them should be more beneficial than independent study alone, and they most probably would not want to share their secrets with outsiders. It's kinda like how fighters need to join factions to get access to better equipment. Wizards need to join factions to get access to better spell casting feats.

I have to disagree. A better analogy would be that unique and powerful spells should be tied to factions OR fighters could only learn certain fighting feats from a faction. Comparing class feats and abilities with equipment just seems a bit apples and oranges. On the other hand, I think it would be pretty cool if melees could only learn certain feats in each faction, though it may make the character a bit more cookiecutter. But, as you said, from an RP perspective it would make more sense that some schools of martial arts focus on knocking down and pinning, while others aim for striking vulnerable spots to disable or kill.

On Kit's OP, it is sad that we can't have archmagi, because I think they are the coolest pure caster prestige class AND because they can fit any alignment, but I imagine trying to implement their abilities in the game would be a nightmare. Maybe 20 pure wizard could get a capstone feat similar to the pure fighter?

[greypawn]

I honestly prefer prestige classes to be aligned with factions. It encourages people to join them and you have less odd neutral parties walking around with no real stance in the world besides 'I do what I want.' I know a lot of people disagree with this stance, preferring to role play classes how they want. ei. dwarven defender... wish it at least was made an exigo class for blackwood and whurest. Eh, whatev. Been thinking of rolling up a classic type of wizard myself. Or maybe a sorc.

[Fuzziebunny]

Not all prestige classes are faction aligned. There are several of the "religious" PRC's that are evil or good, but they don't really have a faction. You could be in a handfull of factions with any of them and still have a firm grounding on lore.

[ManUtd4Ever]

I know a lot of people disagree with this stance, preferring to role play classes how they want. ei. dwarven defender... wish it at least was made an exigo class for blackwood and whurest.

Dwarven Defender (DD) was a race specific PrC. Typically, most DD affiliated themselves with Exigo and its subfactions - Blackwood Company and Whurest.

Stalwart Defender replaced DD so as to enable any character regardless of race to level in the PrC, so long as they are lawful and have the requisite feats.

Like DD, Stalwart Defender is a PrC that serves as a defender for [insert RP reason] albeit race, faction, or town etc. Accordingly, a Stalwart Defender should be able to affiliate with any faction or race.

Cheers!

[Kitsunestume]

A bit of context:
I was actually considering the future progression of my Sorc/ASOCK/theoretical Spellwarp-Sniper. She managed to get one class level in before being barred from any further progression in her chosen PRC when the changes to the class hit the server; and in contrast to HandsomMan's point, Sorcerers are treated as being innately good at something rather than trained. Even if a faction had boundless access to knowledge, lorewise a Sorc would be able to gain only a marginal benefit at best, if anything.

While I understand that while wizards certainly have reason to gather together in cabals, sorcerers certainly don't, as well as receiving less feats and skill-points, but seem to be more limited in potential growth options as well. Both Red Wizard and Hand of Mundus require wizard levels, leaving a sorcerer with a rather diminutive selection.

[Elusa]

Excessively tying class advancement to factions is really not the best idea. Factions have enough incentives already. Salaries, better equipment, prestigious RP positions, more attention from DMs, etc. Throw the faction-less mages a bone.