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NOTE: Some rudimentary knowledge
of the HERO
System rules is necessary to understand
this conversion document. |
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D&D 3e introduced the idea of "Prestige
Classes" (pClasses), mini-classes with
niche abilities that were only accessible
to Characters that had some level of progression
in one or more of the base Classes and met
certain prerequistes. |
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In general its a good idea, helping to overcome
the cookie-cutter limitations of a Class
and Level system. However in practice there
was a huge glut of Prestige Classes quickly
introduced in supplements, third party publishers,
and fans (I made dozens of them myself,
for instance). However, there was no real
quality control, playtesting, or internal
balancing to speak of applied.
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Thus in short order, pClasses became one
of the leading contributers to game inbalance.
Characters with the right pClass or combination
of pClass were just flat out better than
other Characters, with abilities that gelled
together to form combos that granted huge
power ups. |
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Also, as the sheer number of pClasses available
grew, it soon escalated into a situation
that only a GM with ridiculous amounts of
time and resources could even hope to keep
abreast of them all, much less consider
all the different ways the abilities of
a particular pClass might interact with
every other ability of every other Class
and pClass and Spell and creature in the
game.
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In the end many GM's reverted to a hardline
stance of only pClasses in the core rule
books, or kept a list of pClasses they had
reviewed and approved for play. Of course
this introduced other problems, such as
using material that featured NPC's that
had levels in pClasses the GM didn't allow,
but it was still far more manageable of
a situation. |
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GET ON WITH IT ALREADY |
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All that aside, the question you know doubt
are wondering is, how does this conversion
resource help me to convert Characters that
have levels in Prestige Classes? |
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Well, unfortunately, there is no practical
way for this conversion resource to offer
conversions of every single pClass published,
or even a majority of them. In the end after
starting to do the work it was decided that
it just wasn't worth the time and effort
to bother with. |
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For starters Prestige Classes, while a good
idea for a hide bound class & level
system like D&D, are absolutely meaningless
in a buy whatever you can afford point system
like HERO. |
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Furthermore the idea of "prerequisites"
doesn't exist in the HERO System; the points
involved in purchasing new abilities forms
sufficient entry bar, and any cultural,
organizational, or societal entry obstacles
are better handled via roleplaying. |
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At their root a "Prestige Classes"
is just another Profession Package Deal
in the HERO System, and basically any of
the hundreds of
Profession Packages presented on
this site can be used as such. A player
can just pick a Profession Package that
has abilities they want, find someone to
teach them anything in it they can't pick
up on their own, and proceed to spend Experience
Points on the abilities in that Package. |
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EMAIL IT TO KILLER SHRIKE FOR CONVERSION |
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When dealing with Characters that you are
converting into the HERO System that already
have Prestige Class levels, its a relatively
simple process to determine HERO System
equivalents to the abilities of the pClass.
However, if you are experiencing difficulties
with a particular pClass simply send an
eMail to
Killer Shrike including all the
information about the pClass and he will
provide a conversion of it for you. |