Every adventuring Wizard and Sorcerer worth his salt has a Fireball or Lightning Bolt and a couple Magic Missiles spell up his sleeve in case a fight breaks out, and spells like Bull’s Strength and Cure Serious Wounds have an obvious appeal when out dungeoncrawling or dragon-slaying. This post isn’t about those no-brainers, but rather the more subtle, multi-use spells you may have been forgetting.
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For years now, I’ve struggled with the existence of prestige classes in the d20 RPG system. I understand the desire to have them; they provide an underlying rule set to accompany a significant variation on the core character archetypes that are normal classes. They are “prestigious” in that there are necessary prerequisites to gaining entry into them. They are “classes” because progression in a PrC takes the place of the normal progression through a normal class.

Since the 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook was released in 2000, Wizards of the Coast has been on a fairly-steady schedule of monthly releases, putting out additional skills, feats, spells, classes, and prestige classes that can help mold their rule set to whatever setting you may wish to run it in. They’ve re-released the Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk, as well as Eberron and a number of environment-type-based settings (Frostburn etc.).

All told, there are currently 652 prestige classes published by Wizards of the Coast for the d20 system. This doesn’t count the plethora of prestige classes present in OGL products like the Iron Kingdoms, Midnight, or Warcraft. Granted, many of these 652 PrCs are repeats (Archmage, Incantrix, and Wayfarer Guide are some that show up in two books), but this is a truly-obscene preponderance of customized character rules, and likely indicative of either a fundamental flaw in the system’s underlying mechanics or something far more insidious in their marketing department.

Ok, so Fighters in D&D have traditionally been pretty lousy at a wide variety of things, excelling only in pumelling, piercing, or hacking opponents into pulp. The d20 system did a lot to make the Fighter a more appealing character class, largely through the customization allowed by the class’s feat progression. This allows them to closely match the archery or two-weaponed fighting skills of a Ranger, the mounted combat skills of a Cavalier, the brutal attacking power of the Barbarian, or any suitable blend of the above. Alas, the d20 core rules don’t give them a viable means of beating the living snot out of their opponents with their bare hands.

For ease of reference, here are the d20 Modern unarmed combat feats, grouped by “feat tree.” They provide three separate ways that a Fighter could progress in unarmed combat prowess, and while they don’t make a Fighter the equal of a Monk for this purpose, it gives them some room to grow. Consider using them in your fantasy campaign.

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