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2024-02-27, 01:46 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2014
Prestige Classes with Wild Caveats
I was thinking recently about D&D 3.5's Cataclysm Mage and the hilariously over-the-top addition which effectively prohibits the class' use in-game:
Dragonmark Secret (Ex): When you reach 10th level, your study of the Age of Dragons and arcane magic has yielded great knowledge at a terrible risk. At the beginning of each day, you can choose to manifest one least, lesser, or greater dragonmark and for an entire day. You gain the use of the spell-like ability associated with the mark you manifest. If you already have a dragonmark, you do not gain the ability to manifest two dragonmarks at once; instead, you gain the ability to change your dragonmark at the beginning of each day.
As powerful as this ability is, it carries with it great risk. Many dragons already resent that the dragon marks appear on lesser races, yet take solace in the fact that they alone (as far as they are concerned) can interpret the infinitely complex meanings of these marks and their impact on the great Prophecy. The dragons put great store in the number and location of every individual dragonmark. A cataclysm mage who masters the dragonmark secret can throw their many-faceted calculations into chaos at the slightest whim. To protect both the Prophecy and the fabric of fate itself, the dragons decree that those who carry the dragonmark secret must die swiftly and with no hope of resurrection.
Final Ascension: When a 10th-level risen martyr has earned enough experience points to gain his next level, his perfected, spiritual body is taken whole into the upper planes.
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2024-02-27, 02:37 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2014
- Location
- Arcadia
- Gender
Re: Prestige Classes with Wild Caveats
Thrall of Eltab from Champions of Ruin:
Demoncyst Jump (Sp): Once per day, a 6th-level thrall of Eltab can produce an effect identical to that of a teleport spell cast by a 10th-level caster. This ability can be employed only within a demoncyst, and the target must lie within another demoncyst. Off-target results arrive in the desired demoncyst, but not at the desired location. Similar area results lead to a randomly chosen demoncyst, somewhere in eastern Faerűn. Mishaps deposit the thrall of Eltab on the 248th layer of the Abyss.Creator of the LA-assignment thread.
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2024-02-27, 04:10 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2020
Re: Prestige Classes with Wild Caveats
Who could forget the 20th level of Mountebank?
Aspect of the Damned: At 20th level the mountebank's soul comes due to her master. She gains the half-fiend template unless already one. Her alignment shifts to evil unless already evil. In any case, she becomes her master's willing thrall. She transports to the Outer Planes and becomes an NPC under the DM's control.
Only a quest to break her pact with her demonic or infernal overlord can free the mountebank from this fate. The exact nature of this quest is left to the DM, but it usually requires a mountebank to defeat her patron or his most powerful minions, render him a great service, or trick him into releasing her from their contract.
Oh and let's not talk about the fact that there is nothing telling you get the control of your character back. They just gonna be free. But I guess it is assumed.
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2024-02-27, 05:38 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2011
- Location
- Tula, Russia
- Gender
Re: Prestige Classes with Wild Caveats
Shadow Sun Ninja - Balance of Light and Dark?
Alienist - Timeless Body?
An alienist is stolen away by horrible entities when her time is up, and she is never seen again.
Locate the Sleeper (Su): A 1st-level waker of the beast begins having visions about the tarrasque. These visions (or nightmares) take place only when the waker of the beast is asleep. Through these dreams, the waker of the beast learns the current location of the tarrasque. These visions also give the waker an understanding of how to awaken the slumbering tarrasque. Once a waker is within 1 mile of the location of the tarrasque, he can begin chanting to call the tarrasque from its sleep. The waker of the beast can try to awaken the tarrasque once per month, with a percent chance equal to his class level. Multiple wakers can attempt the chant together by joining hands, combining their class levels for the total percentage. Upon waking, the tarrasque begins its reign of terror on the landscape. The waker of the beast in no way controls the tarrasque.
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2024-02-27, 07:06 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2011
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2024-02-27, 07:08 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2013
- Gender
Re: Prestige Classes with Wild Caveats
I wouldn't say it orients the world against you, but Eunuch Warlock has some pretty steep entry requirements that aren't exactly mechanical...
Last edited by Zanos; 2024-02-27 at 07:08 PM.
If any idiot ever tells you that life would be meaningless without death, Hyperion recommends killing them!
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2024-02-27, 07:29 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2020
Re: Prestige Classes with Wild Caveats
If I understand it correctly, wasn't the original intent of Prestige Classes in general for them to be mostly NPC-oriented? Basically a way to give boss NPCs more variety in stuff they could do without violating the idea that every creature in the game is built under the same rules as the PCs?
Last edited by RexDart; 2024-02-27 at 07:31 PM.
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2024-02-27, 09:09 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2019
Re: Prestige Classes with Wild Caveats
Sort of. PrCs were always at the purview of the DM.
Originally Posted by DMG 3.0
Edit: Honestly, the way they cut the text giving context to the rules in the update to 3.5 really makes me feel like the 3.5 rules are lacking a lot. Even the 3.0 glossary is a lot more in depth and would have solved so many RAW disputes.Last edited by Darg; 2024-02-27 at 09:14 PM.
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2024-02-28, 07:14 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2008
- Location
- Ireland
- Gender
Re: Prestige Classes with Wild Caveats
Blessed by Tem Et-NuSand is a feat with strange, extremely niche benefits, and
If you ever lose favor with Tem-Et-Nu, or change your patron deity to another deity, you lose all benefits of this feat and take damage as if you were bitten by a hippopotamus.
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2024-02-29, 01:01 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2010
Re: Prestige Classes with Wild Caveats
Ur Priests are seen as abominations by clerics
Binders have some flavor text about fear and distrust due to the whole getting power from possession by extraplanar entities thing
Many classes that specialize in undead are not welcomed in "polite society"Last edited by Rebel7284; 2024-02-29 at 01:02 AM.
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2024-02-29, 04:38 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
- Location
- The Land of Cleves
- Gender
Re: Prestige Classes with Wild Caveats
Hippř bites can be very nasti. A hippř bit my sister, once.
Time travels in divers paces with divers persons.
—As You Like It, III:ii:328
Chronos's Unalliterative Skillmonkey Guide
Current Homebrew: 5th edition psionics
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2024-03-01, 04:57 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2016
- Location
- New York
- Gender
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2024-03-02, 04:26 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2016
Re: Prestige Classes with Wild Caveats
"If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins
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2024-03-03, 12:49 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2018
Re: Prestige Classes with Wild Caveats
Spellfire can have your character being relentlessly hunted by the Red Wizards and other nefarious types like them.