Elminster and Epic Level Fighters

[Count Arioch the 28th]

but from the character's point of view it'd be entirely reasonable to start focusing on some undead- or mage-hunting PrC, instead of keeping on going for that PrC that focuses around punching dudes in the throat or some shit.

That's so incredibly myopic that it verges on retarded. I seriously cannot believe that you'd say something like that.

Why? Nothing he said implies that it's the only real option. In DnD terms though the player never has that choice. He can't just take a couple levels in Undead Fighting 101 because he won't be any better at fighting undead in all likelihood and he'll be a lot worse at evertyhing than someone who just went for his normal progression.

That's actually a valid criticism of 3e in my opinion. If you aren't focused, you are useless when a fight breaks out. One can blah blah blah about D&D not being combat, but the fact remains that getting killed will pretty much put a damper on any sort of character development.

I feel that environment really kills any incentive to do things from a story/character perspective.

Then again, in real life people that focus really hard on things and don't do real-life character development tend to be successful, while people that wander and do things because it was a good idea at the time tend to be poor and worthless more often than not, so perhaps it's functioning as intended.