One thing I've only recently noticed was that none of the prestige classes within the Core Rulebook have their own spell progression. Either spells were removed (as in the case of the Assassin), or all spells were "+1 level of existing class."
I was wondering if this was an intentional design choice--is it likely that we'll never see a PrC with it's own spell lists and progressions? Personally, I think that's an excellent idea, as minor class spell lists rarely get new spells added to the list.
This came up as I was looking at the Red Mantis Assassin prestige class from the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP. They have their own spell progression, their own spell lists, and I realized at that point that it felt weird after looking at the core PrCs.
So, I guess as a followup question--if this is a design choice (or for those who don't know this answer, if you assume it as such), what sort of things would you give to previously existing PrC's to make up for removing their individual spell lists? Would you just give a '+1 to existing spells, if any', or try to give minor boosts to the powers of that class?
In my case, I did some minor tweaks to the RMA; their Red Shroud ability is now a rounds/day (like rage/bardic performance) and the dodge bonus increases according to level; I made the prayer attack get quicker to start/maintain as they gain levels, and gave extra uses of the call mantis ability. However, at lower levels of the class, it seems like the entire change amounts to 'remove the spells'.
What say all of you?
I think it's a design choice; having to maintain separate spell lists for prestige classes (and non-core base classes) is a pain.