Just like last time, I'm going down the line and putting serious analysis into every class. This isn't in proper order, because I have to be mindful of how long I'm talking in one post, so books with few classes in them are getting plugged in randomly. Sorry!
Advanced Player's Guide
Alchemist. The first new base class added, and man did they set the bar high with this one. It's modeled after Bard in that it's a little bit of everything and fantastic utility, but it's turned inward: Alchemist buffs itself, not the group. It has some of the best personal buffs in the game(Mutagen), but also some fairly new, forward concepts. Bombs can be used for damage or utility, spell slots can be held to mix later on the fly, and Mutagen itself just needs an hour to brew one up: something you can end up doing multiple times a day. As for class fantasy? Maybe it's me but Alchemist is a gold mine of concepts added to the game, from mad scientists like Doctor Jekyll or hedge wizards mixing magic with "Science".
I told myself I wouldn't mention specific class archetypes here, but I really have to break that rule. Vivisectionist is an important choice to your character, adding melee damage in exchange for the utility of bombs. It's important to note that bombs can be made into very powerful spells with some discoveries, and this isn't a choice to be made lightly. Otherwise, Alchemist can built in a lot of directions just like bard, with the added benefit of a damage build being easier to approach thanks to Mutagen. Budgeting resources is a must for an Alchemist, but it's a small price to pay. It's also one of the few classes in the game that sort of has to choose what they want to be good at: bombs, melee damage, or spellcasting. And I wouldn't focus too much into spellcasting. It's one of my favorite classes, but it can be a little hard to build.
Cavalier. Hey, you want to hear a secret? I've kind of been dreading this one. I have so little to say. Cavalier is supposed to be a classic knight, sworn to a cause and powered by the conviction of their ideals. Now read all of that and add "But it's not paladin, so any alignment can take it" and you arrive at the first of Pathfinder's two attempts at compromising with the fairly large number of people who want Paladin's alignment restriction gone. This is kind of a can of worms, but suffice to say they feel the class can represent someone devoted strongly to any ideal or code of conduct and not just one specific one. Paizo doesn't agree so they publish Cavalier. Look! It's Paladin, but not as good! It brings nothing to the table except being kind of okay and letting you play any alignment.
Cavalier has some interesting mechanical concepts, such as sharing teamwork feats and its various orders. Don't get me wrong, it'll perform well enough. Maybe even great. I just don't see a reason for this class to truly exist outside of being a "Paladin Compromise".
Inquisitor. Now here's a great palette cleanser from that last one. The game sorely needed a divine utility class, and this is the first of several. Inquisitor is almost a diamond in the rough, I feel: I never see anyone play it, but it has the amazing fantasy of being a church inquisitor followed up with some really great class abilities. It used to be that your options for a divine character who wasn't a cleric was "Paladin", and I'm glad Inquisitor exists as a sort of "Divine Handyman" and church troubleshooter. You can make a character like that with other classes, of course...it just always felt a little flat to me.
In addition to the standard(amazing) list of cleric buff spells to shore up your 3/4ths AB, you've got Judgment, which is sort of your version of rage or Smite Evil, but with the twist that you pick your bonus and can change it every round. It's potentially one of the best personal buffs in the game, competing with Mutagen or Rage. You can pick something offensive until the exact second you need to defend yourself. You also get a simplified cleric's spell list distilled down to the most useful stuff, like Restoration, Dispel Magic, Break Enchantment, and the cure spells. All that and 6+INT skill points. Honestly, looking at all this put together, I'd be tempted to call Inquisitor OP...if I were the type of person to say that about any class, I mean.
Oracle. Want divine spells, but like Sorcerer? Really loved Favored Soul? Oracle is for you! PF jazzes up what could have been an overly simplistic idea. It's a staple, though, and I'm glad it exists. It's meant to evoke the feeling of the Greek Oracles, especially with its enforced disability "Curse" class ability. I think it's a novel idea, but more options would've been nice. The Oracle is one of the few times I've felt class fantasy was sitting on my shoulders and weighing me down instead of inspiring something cool.
There's not much to say about this class mechanically, though. Sorcerer-style spellcasting and selectable class abilities. Nothing wrong with it. Some fun stuff in there. Cleric gives up a little bit more than Wizard when switching to sorcerer casting, though: A lot of the use people see in Cleric is its ability to cure conditions, which certainly doesn't need to be done every day. Still, I think it's alright. I'm the closest thing to a Sorcerer champion you'll ever see, so Oracle can come hang out in my clubhouse too.
Summoner. Alright. Deep breath. Technically there's a lot to go over here having to do with how powerful Summoner can be, but let's try to scoot over that quickly. Pet class! You want a pet class, you got a pet class! There's another pet class now, but this was the first one! There's a ton of places you can take the fantasy of a pet class considering your pet can look like anything you want, so this is one of the more "free" and mutable classes in the game, concept-wise. Demon? Extremely Talented Gorilla? Personal Iron Golem? Dead wife? Floating Head? God Fetus? All valid concepts for your Eidolon, but let's maybe not do that last one.
Mechanically, it's such a monster that Unchained sought to nerf it. The summoner gets all kinds of buff spells they can cast while the eidolon can wade into combat. The number of actions you can take in a round, called Action Economy, is very important. Summoner has action economy in spades. It's got the summoner casting buff spells, but also it has the Eidolon wading into melee combat. On top of that, Eidolons can be built to take a scary amount of natural attacks which can translate to a ton of damage. I dunno, dude. I'm starting to see summoner as one of the "power gamer" class picks, against my better judgement. Still, having a big ol' pet is pretty fun, I guess.
Witch. I wasn't on Team Witch at first. The fantasy of being a creepy backwoods hermit-caster is cool, and so is every other type of witch I can think of, honestly. I just didn't see the use of the class at first. Like, we have a lot of caster classes if you want to play a "witch". An arcane caster with a mix of divine and arcane spells is nice, though, so I didn't really complain too loudly.
Here's the thing, though. Hexes are amazing. They're great debuffs, and with Cackle extending durations, sometimes it doesn't even matter if they succeed at the save. Their spell slot longevity is through the roof thanks to hexes, meaning they can easily hold their own in combat with a spell list half-full or more of utility. Witch is definitely another diamond in the rough: it doesn't jump out at you, but it's an amazing class that's a ton of fun to play.
Antipaladin. This is one of three classes that ride the line between being an archetype or a real class, but we'll go over it briefly anyway. Antipaladin is a classic concept that never exactly made a lot of sense to me, because the logical opposite of a Paladin's code would essentially be to be cruel and mean to everyone for no reason...and that just doesn't scan to me like the core Paladin's code. It sounds childish and dumb. Still, if you can convince your gm to be lenient, or to take the Tyranny archetype which makes you Lawful Evil, Antipaladin can be a lot of fun.
Mechanically, they're far more offensive in nature than paladins. They get touch of corruption, which then can be delivered via a full attack action thanks to Crusader's Fist, so long as you don't mind doing it via unarmed strike. Smite Good is never gonna be as useful as Smite Evil...even in a dedicated Evil Character game. It's the nature of evil, after all: Good guys fight bad guys...bad guys fight everyone. However, Touch of Corruption is damn nice, so I guess it works out. Oh, and good news: You get a copy of Divine Grace.
Ultimate Combat
Gunslinger. There is so fucking much to unpack here that you wouldn't believe it. I'll try to leave the big stuff to their own posts and just talk about the class itself. Ultimate Combat introduces guns, and with guns came a class reminiscent of Blondie, of chivalrous musketeers, of mysterious western-style gunfighters...yeah. If you told me Gunslinger doesn't exactly fit a classic fantasy world you'd probably be right. I don't mind, though. I think it's okay to expand what source we have, what things we include and the richness of our fantasy worlds. Maybe that's just because super-high-fantasy, Tolkein style, wears me fucking thin. Posts for another day.
Gunslinger is like my little buddy, though. He keeps chugging along even though he's just plainly not very good. He's not very good because guns aren't very good. He has relatively few chances to get Grit back per day because he needs killing blows or critical hits...and he's not likely to get many crits seeing as how every gun ever made only crits on a 20. This is in sharp contrast to Swashbuckler, which we'll be addressing when we get there. Suffice to say Swashbuckler shows us how Gunslinger could have felt but doesn't. Still, there's no class that absolutely doesn't work to play. I meant that when I said it. They've got some fun abilities, and I've always thought guns are cool. They're over-complicated and not worth using in Pathfinder, but they're cool.
My advice, if you want to play a gunslinger? Ask your GM to allow advanced firearms. It's a big ask, but it'll mean you're not languishing behind everyone in terms of combat. The hump most people have to get over isn't the mechanics of the advanced firearms, but the idea of them and the lore.
Ninja. Ninjas are cool. I did a whole post on that. I don't think any system absolutely needs a ninja class to have ninjas...but here we are. Ninja! You all know what a ninja is.
Unfortunately, what was a cool class with neat ideas is severely overshadowed by the printing of Unchained Rogue. If you really want to try this class, there's a third party conversion which brings it up to where Unchained Rogue is. Ask your GM if you can use it. Otherwise? I don't think the few unique things Ninja gets are worth playing a worse Rogue. You don't need to play ninja for your character to call themselves a ninja, anyway. Don't forget that.
Samurai. You remember how I said Ninja is a title, a state of being? You can absolutely say the same thing about Samurai. This is an alternate look at Cavalier, and except to just fill some space and appease some weaboos, I don't get why this exists. The fantasy of being a Samurai is super cool, but it can be arrived at many, many ways better than this.
Honestly, mechanically speaking, I can't even really tell you why this exists either. They get a lot of defensive-minded abilities. I guess that's cool if you're into that sort of thing. Otherwise, this is a glorified Cavalier archetype.
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