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Never took any FCB but the hit points. I was never interested in 1/5th of something or similar, mostly played humans and mostly martials at that. So I pretty much ignored them as undesirable.
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Yeah, pretty much anything(*) that gets you less than 1/4 of something per level is useless, especially when you can't even start getting it until you have some of that class feature anyway. This can really hose you in PFS or the Council of Thieves AP -- for instance, if you are a Halfling Magus, the FCB is get 1/6 of an Arcana, but you can't start until you have an Arcana at 3rd level (assuming that you didn't take an archetype that traces out the Magus Arcana at 3rd level), which means that you won't get your extra Magus Arcana until 9th level, which is is most of the way through your PFS or Council of Thieves career -- you spend more levels with effectively no FCB than levels with the benefit of it -- and also means that you can't possibly get another one.
(*)I am willing to make an exception for some of the FCBs that give you 1/5 of a 5 foot increment in distance or area, provided that you aren't forced to delay their start, even though I hate the idea that no distance smaller than 5 feet matters, because some of them are good. The example that comes to mind is the Half-Elf FCB for Paladin -- add +1 foot to the size of all the Paladin’s aura class features -- because you can take it starting at 1st level, and the aura sizes are measured in radius, and the affected area goes up with the square of the radius.
I don't know how FCB may be. It appears that with the race based feat ideas that in some ways, the synergy between certain races and classes may actually be increased. Even if it isn't a FCB it could be that the inherent abilities that one gains by their race give certain races HUGE bonuses with certain classes vs. other race and class combinations.
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I don't dislike the alternate FCB options, but see no reason to keep the favored class portion of it. I don't think the game really needs to try to reward single-classing in any way - but I very much DO like the idea of ancestry<->class affinities.
It would have to be a design fundamental, however, to ensure that all ancestry/class combinations are represented. The current alternate FCB roster is horribly chaotic.
Yeah, pretty much anything(*) that gets you less than 1/4 of something per level is useless, especially when you can't even start getting it until you have some of that class feature anyway. This can really hose you in PFS or the Council of Thieves AP -- for instance, if you are a Halfling Magus, the FCB is get 1/6 of an Arcana, but you can't start until you have an Arcana at 3rd level (assuming that you didn't take an archetype that traces out the Magus Arcana at 3rd level), which means that you won't get your extra Magus Arcana until 9th level, which is is most of the way through your PFS or Council of Thieves career -- you spend more levels with effectively no FCB than levels with the benefit of it -- and also means that you can't possibly get another one.Never took any FCB but the hit points. I was never interested in 1/5th of something or similar, mostly played humans and mostly martials at that. So I pretty much ignored them as undesirable.
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I must say, I have absolutely NEVER heard an interpretation that stated that you couldn't take the alternate fcb if you don't already have the class feature it adds to. The alternate fcb's are all designed such that you will never actually get the full bonus until you've gotten the base ability anyway.
I must say, I have absolutely NEVER heard an interpretation that stated that you couldn't take the alternate fcb if you don't already have the class feature it adds to. The alternate fcb's are all designed such that you will never actually get the full bonus until you've gotten the base ability anyway.Yeah, pretty much anything(*) that gets you less than 1/4 of something per level is useless, especially when you can't even start getting it until you have some of that class feature anyway. This can really hose you in PFS or the Council of Thieves AP -- for instance, if you are a Halfling Magus, the FCB is get 1/6 of an Arcana, but you can't start until you have an Arcana at 3rd level (assuming that you didn't take an archetype that traces out the Magus Arcana at 3rd level), which means that you won't get your extra Magus Arcana until 9th level, which is is most of the way through your PFS or Council of Thieves career -- you spend more levels with effectively no FCB than levels with the benefit of it -- and also means that you can't possibly get another one.Never took any FCB but the hit points. I was never interested in 1/5th of something or similar, mostly played humans and mostly martials at that. So I pretty much ignored them as undesirable.
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I've seen it in an FAQ somewhere on here, although I can't remember just where in the massive Paizo FAQ sections.
This makes a huge difference for things that only give you a small fraction of a class feature -- in a slightly modified version of the above example, if you took a Magus archetype that traded out the Magus Arcana gained at 3rd level for something else but kept the one gained at 6th level, you would still be getting the extra Magus Arcana at the same time as your first regular one if you could bypass the FAQ about FCB eligibility, and at the same time as if you didn't take such an archetype. The FCB eligibility FAQ means that you have to go through 5 levels without being able to take this FCB if you take such an archetype.
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To be clear, I'm fine with mechanical dipping. I just think if you go 10/10, that is as worthy of a dedication reward as going all 20.
That actually exists in PF1:
1) Be a half-elf and keep the multi-talented racial trait.
2) Be a human (or something that counts as a human), pick up the Eclectic feat.
Now both ways come at a cost, especially the second one is expensive in comparison to Toughness and Cunning. Still, they exist.
I hope multiclassing will still be a real option in PF2. It's one of the things that sets D&D really apart from those boring generic RPGs (pick a class, refine your choice at level 20, refine again at level 40 - YAWN).
Well if spells dc's are based on character level instead of caster level. we might even see worthy multi-class rules that work for caster/martial combos even.
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What I dislike about FCB :
Encourages metagaming
Curtails player's choices because some options are so much better than others. To the point that it becomes a choice between being flavorful and being relevant
Forces designers to create FCB en masse whenever they create a new class or a new race. Which does not help the flavor/balance aspect
What I like in FCB : more ways to overspecialize my character and win the powergame
I'd rather they disappear in PF2
I've been thinking about this, and what I like about FCBs is that they provide an incentive to stay in a single class, but what I really dislike about them is how they make humans better sorcerers than gnomes, when "sorcerer" should be the class for gnomes.
I've been thinking about this, and what I like about FCBs is that they provide an incentive to stay in a single class, but what I really dislike about them is how they make humans better sorcerers than gnomes, when "sorcerer" should be the class for gnomes.
For me, human actually makes more sense as they seem to mate with ANYTHING. it seems more appropriate for them to have a benefit when it comes to power in the blood. Now creatures like gnomes, tieflings, aasimar ect could be 'stronger' in terms of the type of magic already in their blood [fey, fiendish, celestial].