Classes and Archetypes I: Core Rulebook

For the heckuvit, I went through the PRD (the SRD for Pathfinder 1.0) and made a list of every class, prestige class and class archetype that I could find.  I didn't want to take a million years making sure I didn't miss anything, but it wasn't a difficult exercise.  Mostly copying and pasting the names and brief descriptions of each into a Google Sheet.  Of course, since I don't play Pathfinder and my tastes have wandered almost certainly for good in a different direction, one may wonder what in the world I'd do with this.  My thought was that I'd look over every archetype and class and see if it fit into my world and my game; not as a game class, but as a concept that one could build a character around, at least.  Or is the concept too rooted in the specifics of D&D that it can't translate into a different type of fantasy?  Even FANTASY HACK isn't so D&D that it can accommodate every type of D&D-style character, after all.

A few things stuck out at me.  There are a lot of archetypes.  I think archetypes as rules for varying the classes is a much better approach than creating new classes or prestige classes.  But still; I'm surprised how many there were.  Some of them were really quite specific.  Moreso than is probably useful generally, I'd wager.

Also; there weren't a lot of prestige classes.  My impression from 3e and 3.5 is that it is completely awash with prestige classes.  There are way too many to get your arms around.  But if Paizo did the same thing, they didn't add them to the PRD at least, because the only ones I saw were in the core rulebook, and they were basically the same ones that were in the SRD (modified and updated to be compatible with Pathfinder, of course.)

Anyway, there's way too many to do in a single post, so I've created a tag, ARCHETYPES, for me to use as I go through this series.  Keep in mind as I go through this that FANTASY HACK has a very different magical system than D&D; no Vancian fire and forget and major distinctions between different types of spellcasters, and a split between divine and arcane and psionic magic.  I have Lovecraftian magic, and you don't pick a class to use it; you just pursue spells and learn them.  Many of the specific magic-using archetypes that they have will be essentially indistinguishable in FANTASY HACK from each other.  In fact, in general, I'd say that my system is more "typical" fantasy than "D&D fantasy" in some ways, so I imagine that I won't have much to say about some of these concepts other than that the concept is based on a mechanical, rather than setting specific distinction that simply doesn't exist in my game.  But those caveats aside, let's do this!

Core Rulebook
Regular classes

• Barbarian: The barbarian is a brutal berserker from beyond the edge of civilized lands. — Sure, we've got barbarians.  The idea of the Rage ability is too narrow, though.  I prefer the idea of barbarian not as a class archetype with specific mechanics and more as a cultural archetype that cuts across classes.
• Bard: The bard uses skill and spell alike to bolster his allies, confound his enemies, and build upon his fame. — I admit, I don't understand the concept of bard.  Or rather, I don't understand why anyone would ever want to play one.  A singer or lute player who can cast a few spells?  Huh?  I understand that from a mechanics perspective, the bard cuts across several classes as a kind of hybrid, but the concept is just way too specific, and frankly, way too weird.  But if you really wanted to do one... I'd make the character in FANTASY HACK either be an Expert or a Rogue, teach him a few spells, and... I dunno; just carry around and instrument and use it as part of your roleplaying or something.
• Cleric: A devout follower of a deity, the cleric can heal wounds, raise the dead, and call down the wrath of the gods. — This is another one where I kind of understand that archetype, but the mechanics have always done a poor job of mimicking them, focusing instead on a tactical need (the paladin actually better exemplifies the archetype that the cleric class is supposed to mimic.  Or even just a fighter who happens to be religious.)  With mechanics focused as they are on divine magic and healing (two concepts that I don't really utilize) it would be hard to create an analog to the cleric class, although the broader archetype of a religious warrior, is of course, very easy to do with roleplaying.
• Druid: The druid is a worshiper of all things natural—a spellcaster, a friend to animals, and a skilled shapechanger. — I don't really have anything much like a druid, but if I did, they'd be villains anyway.
• Fighter: Brave and stalwart, the fighter is a master of all manner of arms and armor. — Naturally, I have a fighter class.  It's not really an archetype, though, so much as it is a grab-bag of loosely related archetypes.  The class can be used to mimic many archetypes... but it does need some imagination to do so.
• Monk: A student of martial arts, the monk trains his body to be his greatest weapon and defense. — The monk class is an import, and the vector for it is probably Hong Kong theatre, the old TV show Kung Fu, and Street Fighter style video games.  I really don't see it as compatible with fantasy based on Western civilization, so I'm not really very interested in it.
• Paladin: The paladin is the knight in shining armor, a devoted follower of law and good. — The paladin class is basically just a fighter tricked out with the Arthurian Romance stuff.  The "holiness" and mystical, magical aspects were played up (in the mechanics, at least).  But again; any fighter can be a knight in shining armor in my game, and any fighter can pick up a few spells.  I'm not so sure that the mechanics are very integral to the concept, though.
• Ranger: A tracker and hunter, the ranger is a creature of the wild and of tracking down his favored foes. — My favorite archetype, and one that I'm always tweaking, because I have different ideas on how to express it mechanically.  Given that I expect my games to really focus more on the wilderness rather than the dungeon, I've made this an integral part of my game, and one of only a few "core" classes that I have.  But there are ways to tweak and customize it even so if you read my Appendix II.
• Rogue: The rogue is a thief and a scout, an opportunist capable of delivering brutal strikes against unwary foes. — I'm not sure if that back-stabbing ambush fighting rogue really fits the archetypes of the fantasy rogue or not, but it's certainly very ingrained in the D&D milieu.  If you don't want that, an expert can actually probably be a better thief than the rogue.
• Sorcerer: The spellcasting sorcerer is born with an innate knack for magic and has strange, eldritch powers. — The sorcerer class has come under a lot of criticism from traditionalist gamers ever since it debuted in 3e back in 2000 for being a comic book character; the X-men version of a magic-user, as opposed to the more traditional wizard.  The distinction is purely mechanical, though, and since my magic system uses different mechanics, there isn't any meaningful difference between a sorcerer and a wizard in FANTASY HACK.
• Wizard: The wizard masters magic through constant study that gives him incredible magical power. — see sorcerer above.

Prestige classes

• Arcane Archer: An arcane spellcaster who draws upon ancient elven traditions to infuse his arrows with potent magical power.  — I doubt that this would be an archetype in my game, but one could be more or less approximated by making an archery focused character who also knew a few spells that enhanced his archery, and making him an elf, I suppose.
• Arcane Trickster: A troublemaker and a scoundrel who uses arcane magic to enhance her thievery and trickery. — I actually really kind of like this concept.  The Gray Mouser was a dabbler in magic, if you recall, himself.  My system, if anything works better than using a prestige class, because anyone can dabble in magic if they want, and learn a few spells here and there.
• Assassin: A remorseless murderer who kills for money and the sheer thrill of death-dealing. — Arguably, the Rogue class already exemplifies this archetype without needing another class.
• Dragon Disciple: An arcane spellcaster who has embraced his latent draconic heritage and, over the course of training and devotion, undergoes a partial transformation into a dragon. — This is too D&D specific.  There isn't any draconic heritage for any character in FANTASY HACK.  I'm not even sure what I'd do with dragons at all, quite honestly, even though I have them in my monster list.  You kinda hafta, even if you don't really know what to do with them, someone will want one.
• Duelist: A swashbuckling swordfighter who relies upon grace, poise, and acrobatics to win the day. — Absolutely yes.  The lightly armored, swashbuckling fighter is more my thing than the heavily armored tank type fighter.  Although the duelist is an original prestige class, quite frankly, not being able to have this archetype represented at level one was a major miss in the system, and it's been better defined through a whole slew of alternate base classes over the years.
• Eldritch Knight: An arcane spellcaster who augments his magical skills with combat to create a deadly combination of weapons and magic. — just a fighter with some spells, in concept anyway.  Yeah, you can totally do that in FANTASY HACK.
• Loremaster: A spellcaster who devotes his life to research and rumination upon the mysteries of the world. — Sigh.  A wizard who has a lot of knowledge.  This is a character concept, not a class.
• Mystic Theurge: Equally devoted to divine and arcane magic, the mystic theurge combines both magical traditions into one incredibly diverse class. — This is specific to D&D where there's a major split between arcane and divine magic.  I have no such split, so the concept is meaningless outside of D&D and D&D derivative games.
• Pathfinder Chronicler: An explorer at heart, the Pathfinder chronicler travels to distant, exotic lands to expand her knowledge of the world.  — Although very specific to the Pathfinder setting, the idea of an explorer was, of course, borrowed from the real world, so it hardly needs to be something alien and unique.
• Shadowdancer: A mysterious adventurer who walks the boundaries between the real world and the realm of shadows, and who can command shadows to do her bidding. — This concept is best utilized in the Shadow Sword class from my game in Appendix II.  It's not exactly the same thing as the prestige class, but it still kinda gets to the heart of the same basic concept in setting terms.