Last week I showed how I might convert a Pathfinder base class (cavalier) to an expert path. I’m pretty happy with how it looks, even if it doesn’t quite conform to what I expect paths to look like (i.e. it doesn’t have an exceptionally shiny high-level power). For a first draft, though, before I’d articulated my expectations, it turned out pretty well.
However, I’m going to need more than one path, and I realized I have a library of them on tap.
In the Echelon Reference Series, I capture and present class information… including archetypes. Looking at my repository, it appears I have over 1,000 archetypes to work with:
- 1,022 in the ‘PRD+PZO’ file (PRD plus non-PRD Paizo content)
- 1,126 in the ‘3pp+PRD’ file (PRD plus third-party publisher content)
- 1,669 in the ‘all’ file (everything I’ve captured so far)
And I’m not even done capturing class information. I rather expect that by the time I am, even if only half are usable for my purposes here, I’ll still have over a thousand archetypes that can become path fodder.
Guess it’s time to get back to work…
The main problem with a plethora of classes is the tendency of writers to want to have the new ultimate class that does all my favourite things that all these existing classes do but better. This leads to 99.999% of all classes being not worth playing. You need a meta-system like the GURPS or Champions character design that can be used to build new Classes or to ensure that some are not so overpowered that they become the ONE TRUE CLASS.
I can’t say I haven’t considered it. I consider Hero System to be one of the greatest tools in my design toolbox, even though I haven’t played it in a very long time indeed.