Should these even exist? Wouldn't multiclassing be more effective in pathfinder if you weren't penalized for leaving your class?
DISCUSS.
it is a resource assumed to be part of the system. and at the same time, it's a bonus meant to reward people for not doing the crazy amount of dipping that was assumed to be happening in 3.5. in reality, the crazy amount of PRC dipping was rather rare compared to how amplified it was online.
Multiclassing has its own flaws outside of this perceived penalty. But ignoring that, I don't see an issue with favored classes at all. In fact, I love the concept of them!
At their core they allow a character to shore up a potential weakness in her build: skill points or HP. Everyone gets this, and so it's a very level playing field.
Expanding past that we get into the concept that certain races are simply better at certain classes, or have a unique spin on the class. This has been a staple of D&D since way back when certain races were classes. This is a brilliant addition to the system and encourages stereotypes in your gameworld without technically penalizing characters who play against the norm. Sure, a human sorcerer knows 30-40% more spells than an elven one, but the elf is sturdier or more skilled.
Additionally, this "penalty" to multiclassing is only experienced in two ways: people who sincerely multiclass and take a significant amount of levels in multiple classes or people who pursue prestige classes. For the first you're left with the Half-Elf, whose racial ability to have two favored classes was arguably useless (amounting to no more than 10 HP or 10 skills lost) until the "fancy" favored class bonuses came around. For the latter, it's easy to see the opinions of prestige classes by the system itself. Prestige classes tend to be designed to be weaker than the base class(s) they build from, and as such aren't often pursued. The system appears to be pulling away from them.
In the end, I see favored class bonuses as an excellent addition to the system and a great way to add racial flavor without unbalancing the whole system.
I like them. Low skill-point classes like fighter can make themselves more useful outside of combat, while high skill-point classes like the rogue can add a hit point per level to make themselves better in combat.
I REALLY like the alternate bonuses from the APG. It adds importance to a character's race, which tends to decline in importance as a character gains levels.
I don't like to see someone dip into a dozen different classes, so offering incentive to stay focused on one path is a good thing (in my opinion).
You are not penalized for leaving your class, your are rewarded for sticking with one class, which is very different.
I personally love how PF handled multiclassing, or rather how it made it mostly unnecessary. In 3.5, multiclassing was punishing (xp penalities and such, something so unfair and annoying that pretty much everyone ignored that rule) and prone to minmaxing abuse. In PF they don't punish you, they just make the choice pale in comparison to the option of not multiclassing. They also give you already hybrid classes (magus, inquisitor...) and loads of archetype (want to multiclass because you like a specific thing another class has? There probably is a right archetype for you).
This way, you can create mechanically pretty much every character you want, whitout resorting to multiclassing.
I forget these exist, and have eliminated penalties for multiclassing. Never saw much of a point to the penalty in 3.5 and continue to not see the point now. As for the favored class benefit, do we really need something else in this game to give us another number to think about?
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I forget these exist, and have eliminated penalties for multiclassing. Never saw much of a point to the penalty in 3.5 and continue to not see the point now.
Er... are you aware that there are no multiclassing penalties in PF like there were in 3.5?
I forget these exist, and have eliminated penalties for multiclassing. Never saw much of a point to the penalty in 3.5 and continue to not see the point now.Er... are you aware that there are no multiclassing penalties in PF like there were in 3.5?
Even better! Means I was doing it right by ignoring it. :D
I like them, but some of the racial stereotypes seem a bit unbalanced. Hopefully you can juggle them around a bit.
I love the +1 hp or Skill point. I absoultuely think they should stay.
However, like many others, I forget all about the favored class stuff. I multiclass so rarely, that the +1 is really just what I associate with leveling up.
Which is how I would prefer it. In 3.0 they wanted the Elves to be wizards and the Dwarves to fighters... but in Pathfinder there IS no true 'favored class' for races... Anyone can have ANY class as a favored... so it's kind of pointless to even have that mechanic in there.
Just one more thing to keep track of.
My personal preference would be something like the following:
-Increase all classes to a minimum of 4 + Int skill ranks per level.
well I agree with this one and have done it for the past 11 years :)
Likewise, but to compensate I gave everyone a +2 Skill Points per level, so Rogue's would get 10 instead of 8, and Fighters and all low end skill classes would get 4 instead of 2, and so on and so forth.
I just love skills too much to allow them to be neglected in the corner because the classes just can't afford the ranks.
I never understood the need to bump up skill points for those that had 4 or more just to bump up those that had 2.