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Unchained has hit things off very well in our group. The new rules and ways to make tweaks to the game are very eye-opening, almost making it feel brand new again. In light of this, our heads got to spinning as to where else may have things gone, had Paizo had more pages to spare in this book
One player decided to go out on a branch and attempt to, essentially, make the classic prestige classes (Arcane Archer, Shadowdancer, etc) into a Variant Multiclassing option. The basis for his decision to try this is that Prestige Classes are slightly lackluster (at least in our group), and a handful of them require you to "burn" feats just to enter them anyway. So why not VMC?
If he gets somewhere with this, I may make a separate thread elsewhere sparing some details. What would be some concerns or issues on going about this?
The magus can already feel a bit like a prestige class anyway, in my opinion. Like an arcane archer that you start off playing as, instead of starting as something else. With magus VMC, it almost feels like taking a variant of arcane archer for your caster. In fact the flavor of VMC is almost how I feel prestige classes should be, now that I think about it.
I know! It kind of makes sense, in that you no longer
-Give up your Capstone Ability
-Lose out on Favored Class Bonus
-Stock up on "pointless" feats
-Lose Caster Levels, if any
I'll be surprised if he decides to tackle "Paths of Prestige" book.
I'd say update us with a link to his documents here so we can check them out. If he goes about it the right way, you may even be able to rule that there are no prestige classes, just more VMC options.
Can you ask what kind of particulars he's looking at?
I like spoilers.
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Given the nature of most prestige classes, I feel certain requirements would still have to be met. For example, either Arcane Trickster or Mystic Theurge would make much sense for non-casters... especially the latter.
Unless we were to consider having two parts of the prestige class that can be taken mattering class. For example, if a rogue were to take Arcane Trickster it could give magical abilities while if a wizard or sorcerer took it they would gain roguish abilities.
All in all, it would be much more complex then what could be found in Pathfinder Unchained and I would advise just making the PrCs archetypes over VMC. That is, unless your player is considering something different then what I am.
I'd say update us with a link to his documents here so we can check them out. If he goes about it the right way, you may even be able to rule that there are no prestige classes, just more VMC options.
Can you ask what kind of particulars he's looking at?
I like spoilers.
We're going to try and discuss some of the classics later today. Jury Duty, ugh.
Yeah, alot of them aren't going to make sense off the bat like Mystic Theurge, or Arcane Trickster. I'm almost positive Eldritch Knight might not even be touched or thought of. Heck, some of them might be better off as a new base class or Archetype altogether, like how Mr. Wilder stared.
I still feel really good about this idea however.
Stay tuned!
Variant Prestige Classing. Works like Variant Multiclassing but gives you a decent piece of a prestige class; instead of using feats 3, 7, 11, 15, and 19, it uses feats 5, 9, 13, and 17, with feat 5 being used for something related to qualifying for the actual prestige class.
I agree with reworking some prestige classes into archetypes or feat chains/VMC equivalents, but not all of them, and would even do the reverse in a couple of cases.
As generic advanced classes that anybody can get into with the right independently-developed entry requirements, prestige classes usually don't make much sense, but hybrid prestige classes are an obvious exception (for instance, Mystic Theurge and Rage Prophet, although these need some serious bug fixes). Non-hybrid generic/non-philosophical/non-organizational prestige classes are obvious candidates for archetypes, feat chains, or some kind of Variant Prestige Classing.
As advanced classes tied to an organization, philosophy, or religion, prestige classes actually make a lot of sense. Isn't that what the "prestige" part was originally supposed to mean? Unfortunately, this seems to have been quickly forgotten even back in D&D 3.x. Hellknight (the martial type, not the Signifer) is a great example, although I have been toying with ideas of converting this myself. (Hellknight Signifer is also not a bad idea, but needs some bug fixes to work properly with 6/9 spellcasters and with any arcane spellcaster that already has an ability to cast in armor without Arcane Armor Training, which is normally a lousy feat.)
Paladin/Antipaladin and Inquisitor are currently base classes, but should be prestige classes. Don't get me wrong, I love their mechanics, but you'd think a religion wouldn't let just any random initiate off the street become an elite holy warrior or a behind-the-scenes enforcer that has license to bypass the normal rules of the faith -- they would want some proof of ability, loyalty, and steadfastness. These should be prestige classes, as D&D 3.5 Unearthed Arcana and Kirthfinder did with the Paladin (but for the Holy Warrior, provide an entry route that doesn't require spellcasting, and retain a tweaked Inquisitor chassis to use as the new Cleric, and bump existing Cleric to a d6 1/2 BAB class like a tweaked version of the Priest example from Adamant Entertainment).