Prestige Classes in P2?

[larsenex]

Greetings folks,

My friend was discussing new things in P2 and he asked if P2 has or will have Prestige classes as they were in P1. He knows about Archetypes but says they are not the same thing.

He is currently playing a P1 game and had a multi class Sorc/Druid which is at his 10th lvl of prestige class. He mentioned something about casting 3 spells in a round. I said that sounds broke as hell and hope that crap is fixed.

Anyway, 'asking for a friend' did they remove Prestige Classes and if so why?

[Alyran]

If they introduce prestige classes, it will almost certainly be through archetypes with a requirement (which may be coming very soon indeed). The system doesn't really support level by level multiclassing anymore.

[Phntm888]

Prestige classes will likely be feat-based archetypes similar to the way multiclassing now works, not separate classes you meet prerequisites for and then level up instead of your starting class. Everything in PF2 is designed to work off of your base class for proficiencies, skill feats, and the like.

[tqomins]

There's no need for "prestige" as a special term, and so it was dropped.

The "prestige class" concept will be covered via archetypes with more restrictive prerequisites for entry.

(Which is all PF1 prestige classes are anyway—multiclass with barriers to entry.)

See, e.g.,

Mark Seifter wrote:

Yes, the prestige term is gone, not the idea of having higher-level "prestige-ish" archetypes.

[Anguish]

I don't think the design-space really exists for prestige classes as they used to be. In the past, you'd take a level of a prestige class instead of your base class to get some of what the base class got, plus something unique to a theme.

Thing is, with PF2 that's just not necessary. At all. A class doesn't give you very much on its own. Mostly a class is a list of levels at which your various proficiencies (saves, weapons, armor, casting) increase, as well as occasional "okay, now you get a bit of bonus damage" type abilities.

Almost everything about a class is derived from its feats. I exaggerate slightly, but aside from specific numbers, you could almost take the wizard class and say "you're allowed to pick fighter feats" and end up with a fighter exactly the same as if you'd used that class instead.

This isn't a bad thing. I'm just explaining how it works though.

Point is that a "prestige class" would really just be a bundle of feats for an existing class. Want to be a Red Mantis Assassin? Fine. Here are four Fighter feats. If you use them instead of the ones in Core, you're a Red Mantis Assassin. Done. Give those feats a "prestige" trait and you're done.