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If one player doesn't want to use Free Archetype because they're overwhelmed by the rules and aren't confident in being able to handle it,
If one player doesn't want to use Free Archetype for personal preference reasons,
A possible third reasonable option that I have at least heard of is that they want their character to be dedicated to their one simple concept. Like a Cleric that is only a Cleric. Not a Cleric/Bard, a Cleric/Captivator, or even a Cleric/Blessed One.
My solution for that is (instead of double class feats) is to bend the rules and let them take their own class's archetype in their free archetype slots. So they could be a Cleric/Cleric. For some multiclass archetypes, I might also give them a second class feat slot at level 2 if the class's dedication feat is redundant with what they already have.
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Yes this always make think why not instead of FA just give class feats every level?
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Yes this always make think why not instead of FA just give class feats every level?
Doubling the number of high level class feats that a character has is probably more power than Free Archetype gives.
With Free Archetype you can get the high level class feats of your primary class and the low level class feats from both your primary class and your multiclass archetype.
But as far as a different alternative build houserule to run the entire party with instead of Free Archetype, that works quite well.
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I would let the other players use Free Archetype and let the uncomfortable player get some experience under their belt before choosing their Free Archetype. They can pick a Free Archetype later on. Free Archetype isn't much of a power up and you can add it on later when the player gets an idea they might like to add on.
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The obvious solution to me would be letting the player pick a second class feat of half their levels. That way, the player is indeed "dedicated" to their class fantasy, and it doesn't have the power imbalance of them being able to pick two max level class feat, in effect it would be as if they took dedication in their own class.
Since first level feat exist, it would mean taking a second and first level class feat on level 2, a level 4 or less and 2 or less on level 4, etc. Flavor is conserved with no balance issue that I've noticed, and it doesn't have the weirdness of "taking their own class archetype" (which for some class come with the dedication granting you stuff you already have, like the fighter dedication).
Yes this always make think why not instead of FA just give class feats every level?Doubling the number of high level class feats that a character has is probably more power than Free Archetype gives.
With Free Archetype you can get the high level class feats of your primary class and the low level class feats from both your primary class and your multiclass archetype.
But as far as a different alternative build houserule to run the entire party with instead of Free Archetype, that works quite well.
The idea was more to be able to satisfy those who explicitly don't want to pick up an archetype.
The main problem of the FA for me is this obligation. Because, for example, you're playing a druid, and you don't exactly want to be forced into a strange archetype in your character. You would like to make a pure druid only. But the game is with FA so you are forced to choose an archetype.
It's this kind of obligatory situation that exists in FA that I'd like to avoid, also because most archetypes have some prerequisite, whether stats in the case of multiclasses, or skills or feats in the case of many other archetypes.
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Speaking from experience and concerns about the power of free archetype, most on the forum were right: it's not much of a power increase. It is barely noticeable between normal classes and free archetype added on. Mainly it increases versatility and not power.
I would not allow a second class feat as that would be more like dual class which does increase power. Not hugely, but enough it would be noticeable, especially high level feats in the 14 to 20 range. Some of those feats are quite potent and meant to be class defining feats. It would be a noticeable increase in power to allow a player to choose two of them.
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I really don't like FA, but I'd never ask a game to play without it if I'm the only who dislikes it. But I obviously have the system mastery to handle FA, so it's only a matter of personal preferences.
Now, with beginners, I think FA is clearly breaking the game assumption that system mastery doesn't bring much power. Without FA, a beginner can play his beloved character without much forethought and end up fine in terms of power level. A lot of feat lines are pretty straightforward and work as expected so even a beginner should be able to master them. With FA, on the other hand, the content you have access to explodes (as there are just so many archetypes and archetypes have their own rules that impose harsh conditions on character building). For a beginner (or a player who doesn't care strongly about character building), I can clearly understand why it pushes them away from the game.
I would not allow a second class feat as that would be more like dual class which does increase power. Not hugely, but enough it would be noticeable, especially high level feats in the 14 to 20 range. Some of those feats are quite potent and meant to be class defining feats. It would be a noticeable increase in power to allow a player to choose two of them.
It isn't that bad. Many feats even from 14 to 20 are non-cumulative. For example mostly fighter feats are activities or requires that you are using some specific kind of weapon or shield or having a free-hand. This usually is true for majority of classes and feats and isn't like many of these things are no possible with non-mc archetypes once they usually gives access to many class feats of same class just 2 levels higher (archer archetype for example).
My main problem with FA has always been decision paralysis and the obligation to choose an archetype. Decision paralysis is something that affects a lot of my players on a regular basis. Several times I had to insist that they complete the list of spells or choose a feat when they leveled up, but they kept dragging their feet for days and several times after leveling up they had to play with missing spells or with open talent slots because they didn't want to or didn't have time to pore over the available options or simply haven't been able to make up their minds yet.
That's why I only adopt the FA if everyone at the table wants it. Otherwise, I prefer to go without it. However, as an alternative, I give this option to gain extra class talents as an alternative to lessen the impacts (but normally, most tables chose to simply dismiss the FA, only 1 played like this).
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Personally, I would not use free archetype. However, when all of my players are vets, I'm also inclined to start them at level 2 instead of 1, which effectively provides the choice of "take an archetype" at the cost of a feat.
I think my main issue with free archetype, is you're giving a free level 2 feat to a level 1 character. You probably need to offer the choice of, everyone gets one free level 2 feat, which can be an archetype dedication in order to properly balance things.
I think you are misunderstanding Free Archetype. You don't get it at level 1.
...the character receives an extra class feat at 2nd level and every even level thereafter...
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I think the biggest related issue I've come across is "what if the player want an archetype, but the archetype they have their heart set on isn't available at level 2". If you want to be an eldritch archer, there are archetypes which have 3 feats available before level 6 so you can get out of it in time by spending a skill feat on an archetype feat (e.g. Medic can do this).
But one of the "Strength of Thousands" characters we've discussed is someone who is world class at rituals but can't manage to cast during the stress of combat, which would naturally be modeled with the ritualist archetype on a rogue or investigator chassis. The problem is that the Ritualist dedication isn't available until level 4.
So how do you handle this character who is granted archetype feats from the Free Archetype Variant at levels where they do not want to use them? Buying another archetype would delay Ritualist progress, so is this character just "one feat down" compared to everyone else?
Are you running free archetype on top of the free archetypes you get in strength of thousands? Because that game is specific that you need to pick Wizard or Druid as your archetype
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I'm looking over this thread and wondering why the GM can't just let the player have fun their own way.
Don't build a new subsystem, don't try to force them to use the free archetype. Simply allow them to play their PC how they want.
Creating a custom upgrade path for one player increases the risk of breaking game balance and disrupting table harmony. It also seems like a lot of extra work for the GM, which might not be fair to them.
If the player decides they want to add a free archetype later on, make it part of the narrative.
This is what I would do. It's not like losing the free archetype on one PC is going to drastically unbalance encounters anyway.
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Without knowing why a player doesn't want to use free archetype I can only offer some broad suggestions.
If they're new the game or just don't want to deal with that many options, just have them play a regular character. While they'll lack in the power that comes from a wider tool-kit, the math all mostly works the same. The power from free archetype is mostly horizontal, so vertical progression stays the same.
If they just don't know what they want to play, I'd sit down with them as a GM to go over ideas and options.
If they feel like their concept doesn't vibe with an archetype, I'd probably point them to whatever the nearest thing that just does what they do. Mauler Barbarian, Blessed One Cleric, Wizard Witch, etc.
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Personally, I'm not a big fan of the 'second class feat' option because to me, the whole point of the free archetype rule is to have characters branch out a bit in directions that may not be completely optimal. I feel that more often than not, a second class feat would compel players to pick from their own class at certain levels with very strong options. For players that really want to home in on their base class, I feel that most (if not all) classes have archetypes that are close enough in flavor to still allow this.
I also recognize the problem in combining free archetypes with the lockout conditions and the issue of archetypes not having a feat at every even level, but also being a bit wary about just taking dips into a large number of archetypes, I am using the following house rule for my home games: At any point, a character may have two dedication feats that are still 'locked' (rather than just one).
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I really don't like FA, but I'd never ask a game to play without it if I'm the only who dislikes it. But I obviously have the system mastery to handle FA, so it's only a matter of personal preferences.
Now, with beginners, I think FA is clearly breaking the game assumption that system mastery doesn't bring much power. Without FA, a beginner can play his beloved character without much forethought and end up fine in terms of power level. A lot of feat lines are pretty straightforward and work as expected so even a beginner should be able to master them. With FA, on the other hand, the content you have access to explodes (as there are just so many archetypes and archetypes have their own rules that impose harsh conditions on character building). For a beginner (or a player who doesn't care strongly about character building), I can clearly understand why it pushes them away from the game.
I agree that you should start the game without Free Archetype.
It is just simpler and less choices. It is easier to get going.Any survey on this or any other forum is going to be biased in favour of people who like more details and enjoy working through the mechanics of character building.
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In my games, FA feats can also be used to take class feats from your own class at half level. This is to cover situations where the archetype the player is interested in kicks in at later levels (for example, Eldritch Archer), archetypes that have holes at certain level (such as Sentinel and bastion), as well as for players who don't want to archetype.
One of my players didn't want an archetype, so he just kept taking extra sorc feats and ended up being able to pick up a bunch of extra metamagic feats and other stuff and it worked out well.
One of the main complaints about FA is that it does make characters more complicated, so it's a nice solution for everyone
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I really don’t understand why someone wouldn’t want FA, but if it is that big an issue for a player the answer is to just not take it. Simple and done.
A GM can adjudicate however he or she wants and if a player doesn’t want to use FA if being offered, that player isn’t owed a substitution. Maybe the GM is willing and does provide an alternative, but to expect or demand one likely means that player will cause other issues in play. That type of attitude generally falls under an entitled mentality that will become a poison in any game.
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Some of my players when we switched to PF2 didn't want Free Archetype because they weren't really sure how it all worked together. Now that they are familiar with the system, the always want Free Archetype. Once the player gets up to speed, they will likely want Free Archetype.
That's why I recommended let the players familiar with the system use it and the other player can add it when they feel more comfortable with the system.
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Why? Fighter is a remarkably easy class to fit archetypes into under standard rules, since the class chassis does so much heavy lifting.
It’s more so about cool themes and such. Fighters don’t have “subclasses” like sorcerers or champions or thaumaturge.
Instead of having themed abilities like thaumaturge or different rogue rackets that do different things, the base class feats is just hitting things. To compare to D&D, dnd has stuff like psi warrior fighter who has telekinetic abilities for use out and in combat, and rune knight who can place runes on stuff
Often times, with my characters in any ttrpg, they have a set theme or “feel” to them, and as such I want an archetype to add more flavor to fighter
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Owen KC Stephen put this out there, which might be relevant to this discussion:
Simplified version, maybe let a player who isn’t otherwise interested in an Archetype to simply take the multiclass Archetype for their primary class. They’ll get a little less out of the Dedication, and then get a few extra class feats, each coming online a bit later than they otherwise would.
It's an interesting solution but have many excessive restrictions and some dangerous feats.
The dedication feat prerequires no MC feat and don't have Special line to prevent take a new dedication just after it. IMO there's no need for such prerequirements except instead would put a Free Archetype into prerequirements to just make it clear and add normal special line to prevent to take another archetype just after it.
Basic Paragon Training is redundant with Dedication. IMO dedication has to be restricted a lvl 1 feat or will become only a repeated tax feat.
Advanced Paragon Training with half-level feat feels too much to a non-mc archetype. MC archetypes usually have such restriction because they are more flexible and can be inderectly obtained (via heritage, ancestry feats or other class feats). IMO the normal feat lvl-2 from non-MC archetypes are better here.
Skill Mastery is a generic rogue like specific feat. Doesn't make senses for most classes.
I think that some of Class Paragon Mastery options a bit danger and need more work to prevent to be too good, too bad or too ugly. I probably didn't allow it.
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Owen KC Stephen put this out there, which might be relevant to this discussion:
Simplified version, maybe let a player who isn’t otherwise interested in an Archetype to simply take the multiclass Archetype for their primary class. They’ll get a little less out of the Dedication, and then get a few extra class feats, each coming online a bit later than they otherwise would.
Looks good.
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In my games, FA feats can also be used to take class feats from your own class at half level. This is to cover situations where the archetype the player is interested in kicks in at later levels (for example, Eldritch Archer), archetypes that have holes at certain level (such as Sentinel and bastion), as well as for players who don't want to archetype.
Yes. I think this is probably the best solution to all of Free Archetype's problems. It fixes pretty much everything.
* Archetypes that are too sparse to fill the 2nd, 4th, and 6th slots.
* Archetypes that start at level 4 or level 6
* Players that don't want archetypes for their character.
And it doesn't have the strange effects of taking the class's own dedication feat - which could give practically nothing (Fighter - they get one skill), or could give you something that doesn't make sense (Summoner - they get a second Eidolon? That can't use Tandem actions?).