Alternate classes and Fav class bonus

[Brakiri]

Hi all,

to be honest i'm a little bit unsure about the Alternate Classes thingie.
I read a lot about it but most of it is opinion and interpretation, even the official people contradict one another from time to time.

To make things short:

According to my DM i'm allowed to take levels of unchained rogue and levels of ninja.

I'm not sure if the ninja is also an alternate class of the unchained rogue, but my question is this: If alternate classes/their base class can be mixed, would they "count" as the same class for the purpose of favored class bonis?

If i take UnRo as favored class, would i still be entitled to a fav class bonus for my levels of ninja?

Thank you!

Best regards

Brakiri

[DM_Blake]

I would disagree with the initial premise. I don't think you can take levels in Rogue and Unchained Rogue. And since Ninja is just an alternate rogue, that means you cannot take levels in Ninja and Unchained Rogue. Based on that, you can't even take the levels so there is no question about the Favored Class Bonus.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe some dev somewhere said you can do this. If so, then they are NOT alternate classes of each other. Which means they're not the same class, alternate or not, so Favored Class Bonus would only apply to your original class (Unchained Rogue), not to Ninja.

Or another way to look at it - if they are the same enough to apply the Favored Class Bonus, then they are too much the same to take levels in both. If they are different enough to take levels in both, then they are too different to apply the Favored Class Bonus.

But why ask us? Why not ask your GM? Did he already say no but now you want to "win" the argument with online proof? That's a bad way to build a trusting gamer relationship with your GM. And if that's not the case, then just ask him and accept his answer.

[Brakiri]

I'm sorry, this is a misunderstanding:

The GM allowed that i mix unchained rogue and ninja.
I'm not sure if this is RAW, because as i said, ninja is an alternate class of the normal rogue so i have no idea if the same is true for the Unchained Rogue.

I suppose my question is totally theoretical in nature.
Mixing of alternate classes is not allowed so the question of fav bonus carrying over to the alternate/base class never comes up ;)

Sorry to bother you, i will ask the GM.

[DM_Blake]

It wasn't a bother. I was just pointing out that you're really just asking the people on the messageboards to second-guess your GM's answer - it's probably more efficient to go straight to the source.

You're always welcome to come and ask questions; don't take it too personally if the answer turns you back around to your GM.

[Chess Pwn]

So your GM allowed it, cool. It's very much not RAW though.
Also, we're not sure WHAT alternate classes can and can't do right now.
here is a thread that is trying to get this FAQ'd and has links to the various statements on the issue of alternate classes.

Under the assumption that the ninja normally can take rogue FCB then when you mix them their FCB would be like if they were all the same class.

[Markov Spiked Chain]

Is your GM letting you multiclass between them, or just adding the Unchained Rogue upgrades to Ninja/trading out the same abilities for ninja abiliites? A real Unchained Ninja would be cool, and simplify the FCB issue.

[Brakiri]

Hi,

i played a Ninja and tried to qualify for the "Slashing Grace" feat.
After the third errata i was just sick of it because i already sunk in two feats to get SG and now they prevent it from working with two-weapon-fighting.
Then i saw the Unchained rogue, saw that he gets the thing i wanted for FREE and then i asked my GM if i can rebuild my char.
I'm Level 5 now, with 4 levels of Unchained Rogue and one level Ninja, AND my GM agreed on leeting me take Ki Pool as Rogue Talent (Ninja Trick) despite the fact that this is not on the list of the Unchained Rogue (If this was intended or just an oversight ist afaik still unkown).

Now i have a smaller KI Pool but i'm better at combat and saved two feats. On Level 6 (4UnR/2Ninja) i will retrain two talents and a feat to get Shield as ability and the normal Ninja-Ki Pool.

All in all, the new build is vastly more gratifying and more fun to play.
Small anecdote: Last session we ran into Wererats with DR10/silver. No one had a silver weapon so we had to rely on our Alchemist's bombs and brute strength to get some damage through. My ninja was totally useless because even with sneak attack i couldn't do enough damage to really hurt them. In the whole combat i caused 7 points of damage.
After the rebuild, i would have been vastly more helpful.