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After 40+ years of playing Pathfinder and its antecedents, and 12+ reading various internet forums about classes, a common complaint, especially about new classes, often with new mechanics, is that they are"broken", or at least overpowered. I've heard complaints about the ToB classes, the Witch, the Magus, the APG Summoner, Kinetisist, etc.
Now this thread isn't about what's OP, but what class do you compare it to to determine that it is OP. What class do you consider the best balanced? Or do you have a more nuanced view, judging a class on what roll it plays in a party.
These boards are gaga about the Occultist.
I'd generally but forward the Bard if you need a Core Class.
For Martials, the Vigilante is the best in my opinion. Very modular and customizable. Good in and out of combat.
I like Bard and Inquistor for making characters who can contributed to any pillar of the game and have lots of interesting options and choices both in creation and gameplay. All without being too weak or too powerful. They would be my baseline.
Other 6th level casters like Alchemist and Hunter also fit.
If I understand the question:
I divide characters into 4 catagories
Warrior (Fighter)
Arcane (Wizard)
Divine (Cleric)
Skill (Rogue)
I rate each class on each category. For example a paladin is high on warrior, low on Divine, nil on Arcane, and med on skill
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I think the 6-level caster classes form a pretty good baseline. They can do combat and support roles, function outside combat, but don't typically have access to the world-breaking powers that come with spell levels 7-9.
Alchemist is probably edging outside of this baseline. Both bomber and melee alchemists can do a huge amount of damage in combat, and have the flexibility to be more than just combat beasts. Still, no alchemist is going to be creating demiplanes or granting wishes.
I actually like the 9-level casters though. I grew up on AD&D so they've always been part of the game for me, and define the game to some extent.
When it comes to 9th level casters I imagine druid would be a good baseline. They can be both good casters and melee builds and their spell list is good, but doesn't break the game (as far as I know). They also have decent number of skill points and have a fairly good skill list.
I guess I have more of a nuanced view.
I don't give much credence to the terms overpowered and broken because they are subjective in most cases. Unless something causes problems at most tables I dont see it as broken, and I don't count builds, because a build is not a class.
As for classes that I think that have the ability to do several things well, I like the bard, inquisitor, ranger, slayer. The last two are DPR specialist, with other options, while the first two are more generalized in nature.
edit: I using the term "broken" in the same sense as overpowered for this comment. I do think something can be broken in other ways.
I'd like put in a word for the Jester, which first appeared in Dragon Magazine #3 (Aug 1976), and which was revised five or six years later in issue #60.
But seriously, I will go way back and say that my base line character class (not necessarily in its Pathfinder implementation, mind) is the cleric, as an exemplar of the spiritual, magical, scholarly, and martial arts. As servants of higher powers and (the way I play 'em, anyway) of their communities, they seem the most heroic of all the classes to me.
My answer also reflects my biases, naturally. I always want to play the character that has the most background to read up on, and the designers of RPG worlds can usually be counted on to provide a lot more detail about religions and deities than they do about schools of swordplay or, really, even "lore" driven material about how magic works. (Exceptions abound, of course.)