For the first time I’m extremely disappointed with one of Paizo's rulebooks. I was expecting a good mix of innovative base and prestige classes, and most of all, a comprehensive guide to designing these classes. But I found this book sloppy technically and uninspired.
The classes are nothing new and most of them already exist in one form or another in ... Paizo’s previous books. They could be easily replicated as archetypes, as well as prestige classes like in the core rulebook. I see no interest whatsoever in adding new classes if they don’t bring anything new to the game.
Now the part I was expecting the most and I’m the most disappointed with is the last chapter “Designing Classes”. This short chapter gives only rough guidelines to create classes, but there is nothing really helpful. All experienced d20 game masters could have written something similar. By comparison, the Advanced Race Guide did a much better job on the topic it was covering with an excellent Race Builder. But here, no mechanics are provided to actually build the classes in a balanced way, in other words there is no "Class Builder" in the Advanced Class Guide.
To add insult to injury, even though the new base classes in the book are described as hybrid classes built on top of 2 core classes, no explanation is actually provided concerning the creation of gestalt classes. This would have been the very minimum and it would have been much more helpful for GMs than the 10 examples provided.
I had been so far positively impressed by the quality of Paizo work and I’m truly gutted with this book.
