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Every week or so, a question bubbles up on the forums about whether alternative classes qualify as the class they are based on. Usually, this is for taking archetypes, etc. I haven't seen any really satisfactory conclusion of this debate in those threads. Perhaps I just missed the ones that proved it one way or the other.
Regardless, after a bit of searching, I found the following posts that explain alternative classes. I highly doubt I'm the first to have found them with regard to this topic, but I figure having a thread on the topic will be helpful.
Hey there folks,
A few quick notes.
1. The line between an archtype and an alternate class is a razor thin one in our book. It primarily refers to whether or not the class gets a full treatment as well as how much of it was replaced. It is a definition that is still in refinement. Try not to get too bogged down on the concept.
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The rest is cut off, as it isn't relevant. Emphasis mine. "Try not to get bogged down on the concept" in particular is relevant, because that's precisely what's happening in these discussions.
Hi there all,
James does a pretty good job explaining the point behind alternate classes here, but I want to further explain a few points.
- Alternate classes are really just expanded archtypes. The distinction is that for an alternate class, we represent all of the rules needed to run the class. It is similar to its base, but has a significant number of swaps. There are certainly some archtypes that could have received this treatment, but we chose to leave them as more abbreviated write ups.
- Alternate classes live in the same design niche as their base class. This is the most important part. Although the ninja and the rogue, for example, have a number of differences, they have a number of conceptual and rules niches in common. We did not want to have to invent another version of sneak attack, for example, when the current one works fine for both. Had we invented another, it would have been similar but undoubtedly different in power to sneak attack, which is a bad place to be.
The end result being that alternative classes are archetypes, and thus things available to the base class are available to the alternative class as well.
So, for example, the Ninja can take the Burglar and Scout archetypes.
Alternate classes like the antipaladin, ninja, and samurai ARE essentially archetypes. They're just archetypes for which we went through and gave you the full level advancement chart for. And artwork too! So as long as they didn't give up a class feature that is a requirement for a feat or whatever... yup... they still can take that feat/trait/thing.
Unrelated note: It's a mess to make a quote's "title" a URL.
Also, UC says the classes are exactly like the old ones.