Prestige Classes

In the Grand Citadel, a sect of paladins of the Avataric Faith called the Knights of the Holy Chalice guard the relic cup used by Jesstra to heal the twelve avatars.  To the Southeast, an arcane college devoted to evocation called the Seekers of Eternal Flame lies nestled in the Fire Peaks where its members attune themselves daily to the sacred flames of courage, creativity, and faith.  Far to the Northeast, on the Isle of Teneir, the city of Marodin supports a famous bardic college.  It's members seek to attain the ranks of the Solar Bards.  In the distant reaches of the Brazenwood Forest, rangers and wizards train in secret to become Arcane Archers.

Prestige classes are unique multi-class possibilities for higher level characters.  Learning a prestige class can be better than stumbling on a treasure hoard!  These original paths help to flesh out character concepts in depth and do not incur the normal experience point penalty for multi-classing.  The purpose of prestige classes is to create campaign-specific, exclusive roles as classes, allowing characters to grow and branch out into many interesting directions.  To master the initial level of any prestige class a character must find training and meet the core requirements for elgibility in addition to role-playing criteria such as guild fees, visionquests, unique training excersizes, original experiences, etc.  According to the DMG, prestige classes are used to establish the following campaign themes: Racial Distinctions, Cultural Distinctions, Religious Orders, Guild or Group Memberships.  In the World of Thandoria the list is expanded to include the follwing.