Favored classes

[Thespianus]

Most games seem to ignore the limitations imposed by the Favored class rules.

I like the idea that various races have a Favored class, but I don't like the way it is implemented in 3.5. What would be a good way to represent a Favored class without limiting multi classing?

I've been toying with the idea to award extra skill points, 1 or 2, if you take levels in the Favored class of your race. Would that be reasonable ? Or would some other way be better ?

Any ideas on this would be most welcome.

[Bayonet Priest]

Pathfinder does something like this, you choose a bonus hit point or skill point with each level of a favored class instead of getting XP penalties when you multiclass out.

[Thespianus]

Pathfinder does something like this, you choose a bonus hit point or skill point with each level of a favored class instead of getting XP penalties when you multiclass out.

Ah , ok. Well, that was easy .:-)

thanks

[RndmNumGen]

Pathfinder also has some really nice alternate favored class bonuses as well. Psionic characters can gain an extra PP. Rogues can get an extra Talent every couple levels. Best part is you chose your favored class at character creation, so it's not race-dependent(Though there are race-dependent options, such as Half-Orcs being able to use their Favored Class bonus to gain an extra round of Rage if they're Barbarians).

The idea behind Pathfinder is that while it doesn't penalize multiclassing, it tries to encourage you to stay in one class with minor bonuses.

[Thespianus]

I did read (parts of) the Pathfinder SRD now, the secton on Favored Class Alternatives , etc. There's a lot of good stuff there.

Some of it ought to be possible to backport into "my" 3.5 houserule set

[GreyMantle]

Pathfinder's favored class rules are stupid. All they do is add minor but possibly significant amounts of vertical advancement. They also penalize warriors to a much greater extent than they penalize casters, since casters never multiclass and warriors almost inevitably do.

A better (but still sort of incomplete one) is to allow characters who take levels in their race's favored class to have access to any racial substitution level. So, for example, a dwarf (favored class Fighter) could totally choose to take the Kobold Fighter racial substitution levels from Races of the Dragon.

This doesn't just make you flatout better like what Pathfinder stupidly does, and it's not pointless, like 3.5. Rather, it just gives races extra options when pursuing classes at which they are naturally proficient. The only flaw is that some classes don't have a lot of RSLs.

[BlueInc]

Pathfinder's favored class rules are stupid. All they do is add minor but possibly significant amounts of vertical advancement. They also penalize warriors to a much greater extent than they penalize casters, since casters never multiclass and warriors almost inevitably do.

A better (but still sort of incomplete one) is to allow characters who take levels in their race's favored class to have access to any racial substitution level. So, for example, a dwarf (favored class Fighter) could totally choose to take the Kobold Fighter racial substitution levels from Races of the Dragon.

This doesn't just make you flatout better like what Pathfinder stupidly does, and it's not pointless, like 3.5. Rather, it just gives races extra options when pursuing classes at which they are naturally proficient. The only flaw is that some classes don't have a lot of RSLs.

You're forgetting that base classes (especially with archetypes) are much, much strong than multiclassing or prestige classing in Pathfinder 99% of the time. Barbarian 20, Rogue 20, Paladin 20, Magus 20, and Ranger 20 are all viable builds in Pathfinder; heck, even Fighter 20 and Monk 20 are viable with good archetypes like Martial Artist.

[RndmNumGen]

Pathfinder's favored class rules are stupid. All they do is add minor but possibly significant amounts of vertical advancement. They also penalize warriors to a much greater extent than they penalize casters, since casters never multiclass and warriors almost inevitably do.

What's wrong with vertical advancement? It helps differentiate the classes, and makes one character more unique than the other - unlike in 3.5, where almost any melee build could benefit from a level of Barbarian or two of Fighter, regardless of what the actual build was trying to achieve.

Also, I disagree with the statement that warriors almost inevitably multiclass, because in Pathfinder all the melee classes actually get class features - every single level. Prestige Classes aren't as important as they were in 3.5 either. With most melee builds in Pathfinder I would take two or three dips at most because they hurt my class feature progression.

EDIT: Ninja'ed by BlueInc.

[Gavinfoxx]

I would also say an option is 'If you are taking a level of your race's favored class, you can choose any alternative class feature tied to race that you want'.

[BlueInc]

Woot swordsage'd!

Which brings me to another good point: ToB works really well in Pathfinder. Just give the initiator classes Auto-Hypnosis (refluffed as "Martial Focus") instead of Concentration as a class skill and you're most of the way there.

[Coidzor]

Woot swordsage'd!

Which brings me to another good point: ToB works really well in Pathfinder. Just give the initiator classes Auto-Hypnosis (refluffed as "Martial Focus") instead of Concentration as a class skill and you're most of the way there.

Too bad Paizo hates the book, eh?

[BlueInc]

Too bad Paizo hates the book, eh?

Between Paizo, Psionics Unleashed, and ToB, I can pretty much make a viable character for anything my players want and flavorful, crunchy NPCs for anything I'm going to throw at them.

For everything else, there's homebrew :P