Neo School Hack: Prestige Classes and Templates

Okay, so I was reading through the next section of the Shackled City adventure path from Paizo which I am running for my group.  This particular chapter is about visiting a layer of the Abyss, going through some lame-ish "tests", and someone finally (maybe) becoming ruler of that layer.  It's clear to me now that this chapter is very heavy on backstory but not much fun to play.  This includes the "winner" who becomes ruler of the small plane being given (stuck with) a template which is almost pretty useless if you're not an evil spellcaster.

So that got me thinking about how to do a similar template for my Neo School Hack (NSH) rules (also applicable to the original Old School Hack), and that made me think about how I could extend that idea to make D&D 3rd Edition style prestige classes.  I was also drawn to the idea because I often think up a class concept but only can come up with three or four really good talents I'm excited about before I have to start forcing mediocre ideas just to fill in the last two or three.

In NSH, classes have six talents and races have three.  So a template or prestige class should have less than six talents and probably four maximum.  For a template I figure you could do three "levels" of template, minor, normal, and major:

• Minor Template: one talent
• Normal Template: two talents
• Major Template: three talents

Prestige classes can also be Minor or Major:

• Minor: two talents
• Major: four talents