I do not believe AT ALL that it is inherent in the idea of a Prestige Class that it should be "more powerful" than a non-Prestige character class.
Rather the idea is to enable the choice of a turning of the abilities, either in a different direction away from the norm of the base class, or else specialization in a narrow subset of the base class.
It's possible that the de facto situation in D&D 3rd Edition and/or 3rd Edition Revised is as the article currently claims (april 2011), but it is N Ot inherent in the idea of the prestige class. The idea is, instead, equal but *different*.
I do not believe AT ALL that it is inherent in the idea of a Prestige Class that it should be "more powerful" than a non-Prestige character class.
Rather the idea is to enable the choice of a turning of the abilities, either in a different direction away from the norm of the base class, or else specialization in a narrow subset of the base class.
It's possible that the de facto situation in D&D 3rd Edition and/or 3rd Edition Revised is as the article currently claims (april 2011), but it is N Ot inherent in the idea of the prestige class. The idea is, instead, equal but *different*.