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I think PFS works well and I’m quite happy with it ending at level 12. However, characters do not have capstone abilities, the way they would if they went to level 20. A similar sense of completion might be achieved if you could find the right prestige class. However, there are only 10 prestige classes that can be completed by level 12.
The Additional Resources lists five of them as available for PFS: Balanced Scale of Abadar, Halfling Opportunist, Inheritor’s Crusader, Pathfinder Savant and Steel Falcon.
The unavailable five are: Brightness Seeker, Chevalier, Justicar, Pain Taster and Sphere Walker. I suspect many, if not all, are disallowed because they were meant for 3.5 games.
There is a new book on prestige classes due soon. A quick peek at the first announcement of the book gave me the impression that these would be your usual 10-level classes.
Would Paizo ever be inclined to do more “short” Prestige Classes? I appreciate that making such classes takes as much thought and effort as making regular PRCs.
Conversely, future Archetypes could aim for pseudo-capstones at levels 10 or 11. For example, my in-progress Cad 1 Guide 11 will get Inspired Moment at level 12. To me, that has the feel of a capstone.
I apologize in advance for any errors, omissions or misapprehensions.
thanks,
Kodger
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You are forgeting some classes. Low Templar, Bloatmage, Cyphermage, Hellknight, every class from the CR, every class from the APG, and every class from Ultimate Combat are legitimate options for PrCs. I feel that I am one of the only people who actually like PrCs, it is such a shame that I never actually get high enough level to get to them...
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@WKNolen I know that you can advance beyond 12th level. I don’t want to, primarily, because I feel the best part of Pathfinder is the middle levels.
@Tirq Anything can be started but how many can be finished by 12th level? I’m even considering a low templar character but I’m disinclined to go beyond 12th level.
thanks,
Kodger
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Based on what I've read and seen from Paizo. Aside from the upcoming prestige book which even they stated was a surprise (lol). I still don't expect a lot of love to the generic mechanic prestige class such as those in the CRB. They've said that their prestige classes will always be something that is flavored just for Golarion. So, unless a 5 level prestige class fits the flavor of Golarion, I wouldn't expect to see it.
You may have to simply wait for Paths of Prestige in August.
I think James Jacobs has said that he's not a fan of prestige classes that are less than 10 levels, so I wouldn't hold my breath thinking there would be many of them in the new book.
Yeah, back when the Hellknight PrC was revised into an official 10 level class, Paizo officials replied to questions about any future short PrC's by saying that they were only going to do 10 level PrC's as they fit the rules better and that they did not like the oddball length ones to begin with. When I have more time later I will hunt for those posts, unless someone beats me to it.
Edit:
Alright, this is what I came up with before having to go to work.
This post from James seems to explain their current design philosophy regarding prestige classes:
The basic thought was that once you go to 15 levels in a prestige class... why NOT just go to the full 20 levels?
So we ramped it back to 10. The basic philosophy these days is if you have enough ideas for 20 levels, it's a base class. If you have only enough for 3 or 4 levels, it's an archetype. If your idea falls somewhere in-between, it's a prestige class (10 levels).
Note that just because it's down to 10 levels doesn't mean that when and if we do a post 20th-level book that you'll be STUCK at 10 levels for prestige classes...
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In my personal opinion, I'm kind of on the same page as Jiggy.
I think that the capstone abilities are great, but, I am in my PRC (Living Monolith) for mostly RP reasons. There are some things that I wanted, and when the levels opened up beyond 12th, I decided to play again.
I think that generally I like staying in the mid-levels (6 to 10) but once I get beyond that, I don't see why I wouldn't go higher. To me, if I am going to 12, I might as well go to 14 or 15. I'll get to finish the class, and literally be immortal.
I like the comparison of an Archetype to a five-level concept. It fits my concept of things.
...What's wrong with not "completing" a prestige class?
It seems pretty clear from his original post: he gets a "sense of completion" from finishing out a class. Just because you (and I, for another example) don't, doesn't mean there's some secret reason he's not mentioning.
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Gotcha. I don't particularly care if I finish off a prestige class, although I'm philosophically opposed to 10 level prestige classes that are padded out with mostly-useless abilities, instead of having 5 level prestige classes that are "all killer, no filler".