Veilan wrote:I still believe that faction and race specific PrCs limit, narrow and filtre down story and roleplay instead of giving the creative freedom to pursue a unique and individual story.
Knight Protector, not Knight Protector of Silverymoon.
Shadow Thief, not Shadow Thief of Amn.
Defender, not Dwarven Defender.
The list goes on. This is especially important in a PW setting where we cannot reasonably count on every of the gazillion super-specialised PrCs to be implemented. Thus, we ought to cover the broadest base possible with the PrCs we do have in mechanically.
PrCs already narrow down characters to "builds" in order to fulfill the mechanical requirements, which makes obtainees less diverse than I'd find desirable. Now to narrow the story down too, by having every Shadow Thief come from the same guild is just... ugh. It just seems unnecessarily limiting.
Cheers,
This.
We don't need to have the 3.5 story requierements for the mechanics. Think of it the other way around, what must you be to get the mechanical abilities offered by prcs (the few of the hundreds of 3.5 prcs we have in nwn2):
- Do you have to be a sworn part of the organization of Red Wizards in order to get extra spell oomph in a chosen magic school?
- Do you have to be a member of the society of Dwarven Defenders to get extra good at martial defense?
- Do you have to be a Harper to get more skills for a caster (plus some curiosity abilities)?
- Do you have to be a Elven Bladesinger to be a decent defensive gish?
etc
Removing the forced link between mechanical abilities and the characters story relieves the pressure of having to go through the hoops of the story to keep the build of the character. That way the stories can get told on their own right, or left untold, not due to wanting to get to a prc at level N. Or in other words, PCs in a PrC faction have a unique story, do they really need more and unique mechanical powah than same-level PCs who didn't get the chance for that story?
As for this...
Ith wrote:Regardless, there is simply no basis to automatically assume that a DM working with a PC's pursuit of a PrC means that DM cannot DM other PCs/include others in that quest in a way that is quite fun and satisfying to everyone, or that such a plot is more demanding on the DM just because it's about a PrC.
Not everyone in ALFA is 'me me me' and many if not most would very much enjoy being part of a group oriented plot that has as it's culmination (or one of the climatic points) being someone getting a PrC.
This point will be made when in player RP initiatives (such as PC bio submittals) we see more initiatives to join and relate to factions that read in the setting lore and actually exist in modules, than initiatives to be part of prc factions that have minimal or zero backing in the module (or setting). My gut feeling is that the latter outnumber the former by maybe four to one currently, so there's still good ways to go.
Of course almost everyone will be happy to be part of interesting stories, prc or not. The point is what kind of stories you are actively contributing to the table, whether wittingly or not, and what's in it for everyone around that table. "Being part of" is nigh irrelevant. "Proactively help create" is what counts. Nothing has been said to counter the fact that virtually by definition PrC stories are far more self-centered than the average story. Most PrC factions are by design rare, obscure, even secretive. In a "group oriented" initiative PCs are equal by definition, otherwise it's a "my prc quest with a handful of spectators". If my rogue PC can either talk to that NPC Anna Sasin right there to seek to join the local underground with these two PCs by my side, or abstractly tell the DM I aim for shadowdancer (love dat hips), which one brings forward the flow of the story and the DMage more naturally? Because currently the latter is by far the more common an RP initiative.
That's why we need to do away with prc quest demands, and let the players focus on PCs initiating more ICly likely RP that involve entities right under their noses. If there's a synergy with a canon prc faction, great, but do away with the need to force it in order to get cool mechanical ability X.
Of course doing away with prcs altogether does achieve that result too, only narrows the kind of PC progression stories we can have (If you started an undeground wizard, you'd be seriously gimping yourself to go rogue unless AT is there).
