Pathfinder Class Numeric Breakdown

Good morning fellow adventurers. Today I have an odd and incomplete gem to share with you. Several months back my party and I sat down with an odd goal in mind. We knew that Paizo had taken the existing d&d 3.5e classes and generally improved them, but our question was how. What formula did they use to accomplish this. They must have had some form of standard measuring stick as even though all classes received a boost, some got more than others. We figured this had to be more than "it feels like" math and began grinding it out.

The base premise was that it seemed most classes had about 3 major mechanics working within their 20 level bounds. Things like every other level powers, every 4th level powers, and the odd quirk set which made them flavorful but also useful in their field. We began by finding classes that received similar abilities at the same level progressions and counted them as an equal numeric value. Then we broke down the value of each sub-ability based on how many appeared to fill out the set. Below is what we discovered.



Paizo class building notes:

step 1, equivalencies:

arcanist pool + talents = ~ rage + talents

rogue talents = alchemist talents = ranger talents = slayer talents = arcanist talents = ~druid wildshape = ~fighter bonus combat feats = ~wizard school+arcane bond/sorc bloodline

animal companion = ~1.5 domains

animal companion -4 = uncanny dodge + improved uncanny dodge

bloodline spells =~ bonus feat

4 level divine casting = ~ <4 arcane="" casting="" levels="" of="" p="">
sneak attack = ~sacred weapon = ~monk damage increase = ~6th level arcane casting =~ talents

(2 domains+spontaneous) = ~ (uncanny dodge/improved, evasion/improved, trap sense, trap finding) =~ (arcane pool, spell combat/imp/greater, spell strike, knowledge pool, spell recall/greater, medium/heavy armor, counter strike) = ~ wizard bond, wizard school


divine casting is roughly .1 per spell level
arcane casting is roughly .15 per spell level (as arcane classes have fewer powers than divine)


* so all classes seem to break into 3 sets of abilities, 1 or 2 of which scale and 2 of which provide selectable options.


Wizard = (~3.0)
9th level arcane casting (1.5) + full arcane list (.1)
4 bonus feats (.4)
arcane bond + school (1)

Sorcerer = (~3.0)
9th level restricted arcane casting full list + 9 bloodline spells (1.6)
3 bloodline feats (.3)
5 bloodline powers(~1)
Eschew materials (.1)

Rogue = (~3.0)
10 sneak attack (1)
rogue 10 talents (1)
5 rogue class abilities (1)

magus = (~3.1)
6th level limited (-.1) arcane spells (w/ limited cantrips -.05) (.85)
6 magus arcana + 3 feats (.9)
arcane pool (.2)/spell combat/spell strike/knowledge/recall/improved recall/fighter training (.05) / (light/med/heavy) armor/ greater spell combat / counter strike / greater spell access (1.35)

fighter = (~3.1)
11 feats (1.1)
weapon training (1)
4 armor training + 5 bravery (.9)
counts as a fighter for feats (.1)

bard = (~3.2)
6th level arcane highly restricted support casting (<1 p="">bardic performance (>1)(equate Archaeologist = .5 tal + .2 Ts + .2 Ud + .2 Ev+ Versatile performance (.2) + Well versed (.2) (~1.5tot)
Bardic Knowledge  + lore master + jack of all trades x3 (~.5?)


We used this general formula of equivalent power values to refine our own home-brew class rules, and they seem to get classes quite close to equally powered in comparison with Pathfinder core classes (we used a 3 +/- .2 variance in our class numbers). Now it does seem that the newer classes have higher point values, but if 3.5 is any indication this is true and will be the way of things.