Urgent Request: Please change Soldier back to a PRC

[Skaix]

So soldier as an archetype is to good. Getting a possible 10 Mako Infusions instead of 5 is busted. The Soldier Techs are awesome and should be added to Soldier if it is changed back to a PRC. Losing the free stuff a Soldier gets as a Shinra employee is a fair trade off for a full level progession of Soldier, But since soldier is now a starting class, Soldier can be multi calssed with much better.

As a Prestiege Class, Soldier was a wonderful end goal. You wanted to take the Full ten of solfider to get the juicy benefits as part of the end game. Where everything is awesome and powerful and soldier has equals. In the Early game though soldier will over power and just ruin all the carefully planned encounters a naive, unsespecting GM has made. Mako Infusions at Low levels is just disgusting. Increasing your Attack and Damage at low levels, where things have little HP, is just not fair. Mako infusions late game are fine because things have DR, lots of HP, and higher AC's. Think of a Mako Infusion as a Free, Untyped, +2 wonderous item. Think of the consequences it could have on Lower leveld players where they need to spend their gold on other things like equipment, weapons, and armor. A soldier can get all that plus his free wonderous items. Now lets think about all the Multi-calssing options a Soldier can have now.

Now that Soldier is an Archetype it can be part of ridiculous builds that will make a players day but a GM rage quit. Some examples i can think of is, Bererker/Soldier, Soldier/Judge Magister, and hell, Berserker/Soldier/Judge Magister. The Possiblities are endless because of a Fighters flexability and the Soldiers raw power. The best way i can think of keeping this wonderful atrocity from happening is changing soldier back to the way it was. Soldier is good enough as a PRC that it doesn't need to be an Archetype. It is a great end goal for a build instead of a Base. As a base, it will just ruin the Balance of FFd20.

[dairius_chi]

I'm gathering your main issue is the concept of 10 Mako Infusions since your entire post seems to be about how crazy high a SOLDIER's strength(or stats in general) could get.

Instead of turning it back into a PrC Viladin could just add a limited, like some of the Eidolon abilities on the PF summoner. 'Can only take Mako Infusion at most 1 per 4 class levels (min 1). So if you REALLY tried to get the most out of it you could manage one at 2nd, 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th. So you only get +10 to a stat (or +10 split up among your physicals) if you invest in the class avoiding the multiclass abuse-ability put forth.

Another option might be turning Mako Infusion into an Enhancement bonus so it doesn't stack with Ability Boost materia or Wondrous Items, in fact... really I think that should have been added a while ago. It's like having Ability Boost materia flowing through your blood, makes sense it wouldn't stack with another of the same type.

EDIT: Also just pointing out, but Berserker/SOLDIER/Judge Magister could happen back when it was a PrC, this is nothing new. Beastmaster(Berserker) 7/SOLDIER 10/Judge Magister 3 nets you +6 str(Frenzy) +10 str(Mako infusion) +8 str(morale, Judge's Might)

[Viladin]

It will stay as an Archetype. A net +20 str isn't that tremendous. Also, you have to dump fighter talents and take a -10 total to your mental stats. There's a balance. The only change I'll probably make is to make the stats an inherent bonus instead of untype.