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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SlyDoubt" data-source="post: 5442223" data-attributes="member: 6667337">I just stumbled upon the download this morning while checking which issues of Dragon I was missing. Very cool.I think Paizo is doing an awesome job letting people take a look and test for them, it keeps us engaged and it allows them to release a product they know has a good deal of support already. It's really a genius idea (not a new one) and shows they have balls (compared to wotc...)The alternate class idea I think is to cut those options out. You cannot be a gunslinger/fighter or a ninja/rogue. I think that's probably the most important note here and what will keep PF from bloating into a terrible mess down the line. Alternate classes are really a great idea because they isolate some issues that might arise and conflicts with class direction/function being unique. Really everything should follow this format from here on out. The alternate class abilities were great to give classes other than sorcerer, cleric, wizard, etc more variety in style. That should be done now though, I really do not want to see more of that, there's already a ridiculous amount of material to go through. I think Paizo struck gold with alternate classes. the anti-paladin seemed lame and sort of meh thrown in the book when I first read it. Now seeing that alternate classes will be a specific trend/mechanic I'm pretty excited. Extremely basic and obvious idea that immediately reduces bloat drastically and keeps class themes firmly in place. It's much like the essentials 4e builds which I also thought were an excellent way of doing things. The alternate classes are alternate class sets. It would be the same as being called a Rogue and looking at the 'Ninja' subsection and choosing abilities from that instead of the standard rogue stuff. The difference is it forces someone to make a choice immediately. Rogue or ninja, you can't have both. That's huge.They all look fun and interesting. I really don't care how much bleed over there is between core class and alternate. Honestly. You can look at both core and alternate and decide which fits better. They're different just not drastically so because they're meant to fill the same kind of function just go about it a bit differently. This is a good thing. Classes should each live in their own design space but they need flexibility within that to be interesting. I wouldn't be surprised to see an alternate class for every class currently available. The important thing will be to make them different but also gain use from similar feat choices/magic items. In this case each relies on a point pool to use abilities as opposed to having x rounds per day. This changes things considerably and when you add feats I think we'll find they're quite different. This is also the first playtest.Edit: Come on, gunslinger/inquisitor sounds awesome. How can anyone dislike that.</blockquote>

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