Talk:Prestige Edition 3.5 Wiki

The History and Purpose of Prestige Edition 3.5
My brother and I saved up our money and somehow found our way to Toys R Us. We walked with a purpose and knew exactly where we were going. We paid no heed to the bikes, the bats, or the board games. We walked straight to a rack of text book sized boxes and stood for a few moments just looking. I lifted one of the red boxes from the shelf and held it up with a smile for my brother to inspect. This was the beginning of my long love of RPGs and their systems.

I have played every incarnation of D&D since then. I was proud when I thought I was finally 'good enough' to move from the basic to the advanced rules. I complained along with everyone else and for the same reasons when second edition was released, but I grudgingly shelled out the cash for all the new books. The increased customizability was worth it, but just barely. When third edition came out I initially saw it as yet another shady money making venture, but I was curious. I went to Gen Con for the primary purpose of buying a third edition PHB and DMG, they were the only purchases I made.

I thought 3.0 was extremely well made. Complex enough to not get boring but simple enough to not devolve into a book keeping nightmare. Sturdy with lots of room for expansion and customization. It became my favorite RPG system of all time.

Meanwhile, I had the debate between role-playing and roll-playing rattling around in the back of my head. I found the arguments of the hardcore role-players to be naive and revisionist. Min-maxing has always been a part of D&D and the general attitude towards the practice was childish at best. I understood the spirit of the argument though, that playing only stats and not the personality and world was missing one of the most rewarding aspects of the game. I also understood that playing only the personality and world while ignoring the game mechanics missed an equally rewarding aspect of the game. So how do you get a hardcore roll-player to role-play and vice versa? Condescending insults didn't seem to be doing the trick so I decided to try a different approach from the hardcore role-players. I tried to apply some very rudimentary understanding of game theory to the problem.

The primary purpose Of Prestige Edition 3.5 is to link mechanical benefits to proper role-playing. What motivates the behavior of a min-maxer more than mechanical benefits? This is accomplished by the changes in the way prestige classes work. I have had success with just this change alone and it's the reason I've named this homebrew Prestige Edition. I have yet to figure out how to get a hardcore role-player interested in the joys of mechanics.

Most of the other changes address things I see as imbalances, increasing mechanical customization, adding to the richness of the mechanics, and personal preference. In most cases I'll lay out my reasons and reasoning in the discussion section.

--Klatoo 12:19, December 3, 2009 (UTC)