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Classless systems are wonderful. My favorite system is actually Hero system. But that isn't Pathfinder. Or D&D.
It is just a different breed, and those who want that, have systems to choose from.
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And yet the Boards and G+ and Reddit locations where classless RPGs are the main topic of discussion see far less discussion on how broken the balance is than the equivalents for PF/D&D. Only wargaming boards match up in that respect to PF/D&D.
This may have more to do with Pathfinder and D&D being much more tactical war games than most non-Class based games are than anything else.
I mean, D&D descended very directly from war games and few others still have quite the same percentage of war game DNA it and Pathfinder do.
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Classless systems sound good in theory but end up being a nightmare to develop, let alone balance. They end up being either very simplistic, easily breakable by cherry-picking the best options from all over the system, or so full of restrictions that they might as well divvy up abilities between classes anyways.And yet the Boards and G+ and Reddit locations where classless RPGs are the main topic of discussion see far less discussion on how broken the balance is than the equivalents for PF/D&D. Only wargaming boards match up in that respect to PF/D&D.
And yet you see the same advantages and disadvantages chosen time and time again. It's simply accepted that you choose at your own risk in classless systems, whereas class-based systems take on more of a hand-holding role, so they are expected to hand-hold competently. (Please note, I prefer class-based, so I am not attempting to use "hand-holding" as a pejorative.)
That wouldn't really work when you have 4/9, 6/9 and 9/9 Spellcasting; and that further subdivided into Spontaneous (with Spells Known), Prepared (with Spellbooks) and Prepared (but without spellbooks) . Obviously they're not all worth the same as each other and trying to find the balance would be madness.A classless system could work in a perfectly modular system design, but the nature of Spell casting in the D20 subsystems make this pretty challenging for the kind of high-fantasy game that is Pathfinder. You could do classless based upon everything being feats and then provide the obvious class templates that people are looking for, but it is very hard to make feats balanced if one is: you get +2 to two skills, and another is: you gain access to an entire level of spells.The solution is not to make everything just feats with equal weight.
For example you can give players a number of constructiom points and make a level of spellcasting more expensive than say power attack.
Why not? First of all these models of spellcasting progressions would be obsolete. Instead you can just not take a spellcasting level every character level.
Secondly, if you really want to hold on to it, give different costs to each progression respectively.
As others have said, if it didn't have classes (and some other mechanics) it wouldn't feel like D&D and lose some of its attraction.
Though what I think they could do (with a lot of effort probably best released in a supplement) is make "class building" rules. Then "designer/custom classes" would basically allow for classless characters to exist beside characters using the predefined classes.
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I am not a fan of games without specificity. There are very few creative endeavours in the world that benefit with no restrictions. Creating to a purpose often makes the creative process easier. Thinking of a personality for a whole new fictional person is hard enough. But making an elf rogue, or gnome Paladin creates an immediate mental image, and make sure the shared fiction functional.
I mean if you’re going classless, why not make an ancestry and background builder? Suddenly though, the world is unrecognisable as pulp fantasy, those Tolkienisms are a franca lingua for fantasy tabletop players.
It may be too late, but should there even be classes?
If there is going to be a redesign, how about opening the system to allow people's imaginations to really run?
The class system still boxes people into roles. It seems like systems have danced around it some, but What if there were skill strands based on attributes from which people could learn?
Just like you only have so much time to learn so much, you can be great at one or two skills or mediocre at a few?
Maybe characters could get investment points for particular strands based on primary attributes - intelligence is your primary attribute - you get points for intelligence based skills, same for str, wisdom, dexterity, etc.
I've always believed that things would work better with Adept, Expert, and Warrior determining your base chassis (hit points, skills, and so on), then allowing you to choose sets of class features to build what you want. But Pathfinder got its success by aiming at people who wanted things to stay the way they were, so I never really expected them to do anything even remotely like that.
I think something like Legend's system might work alright for a game like Pathfinder, though. They had a decent sized list of classes, but each class's features were divided into three "tracks" of themed abilities. You could multiclass by simply replacing one of your class's tracks with any one track from another class, and there was one class that had a track that was literally "choose a track from another class".
Shadow of the Demon Lord uses a path system similar to what you describe. Players start with an ancestry and at level 1 they pick a novice class (priest, warrior, magician, rogue). Then at two more points they select an expert and master path which can allow further specialization or open up new options.
With additional source books, there's something like 60 expert paths and 120 master paths available. Very flexible, but not sure if it's a good fit for something that should be the second iteration of Pathfinder.
I would like to see Pathfinder 2 step out of the shadow of D&D and become its own distinctive game. I'm of two minds as to whether going classless is the right way to do that.
I generally prefer classless systems with gurps 4e being my overall favourite, however since there are already plenty of good classless systems out there I don't feel like Pathfinder would be breaking new ground by going in that direction. When I see some of the suggestions here for Pathfinder 2 like: dumping alignment, armour as DR, Dex to hit with melee weapons and strength for determining hit points, it looks to me like we are suggesting recreating a high fantasy version of gurps. I don't want that, I want something new.
On the other hand I find classes annoyingly restrictive. It is difficult for example to recreate a character from fiction without ending up with a bunch of abilities the original doesn't have while simultaneously not being able to recreate abilities the character actually did have.
Maybe the solution is to turn the concept of class on its head. Instead of choosing a class first and then selecting from a list of class abilities, maybe there could be a system where abilities are defined first and then class becomes an emergent property based on the type of abilities selected. Once class is defined there is some fine tuning of abilities, you select equipment and then you are done. I don't know, maybe that is a dumb idea, at any rate I am sure the folks at Paizo will deliver something really special.