Character generation idea, moved to its own thread.

[gr8artist]

So, I want to discuss, in better detail, the aspects of character creation that I plan to implement in my next campaign.
First: PC's begin play with NPC class levels. At a certain point in the story (after achieving lvl 4) they will meet a wise old master who can train them in the old ways, allowing them to re-train their NPC levels into PC class levels.
Warrior levels can become Brb, Cav, Ftr, Gun, Inq, Mnk, Pal (or Anti-Pal), Rng, Rog.
Expert levels can become Alc, Brd, Gun, Mnk, Rng, Rog.
Commoner levels can become anything. Poor commoners.
PC's can't take Aristocrat levels. They're not that important yet.
Adept will come in 3 variants... Arcane, Natural, and Divine, and use the Wiz/Dru/Clr spell lists accordingly.
Arc Adept can become Alc, Brd, Mag, Sor, Sum, Wit, Wiz.
Nat Adept can become Dru, Rng, Wit.
Div Adept can become Clr, Inq, Ora, Pal, Wit.
Second: PC's will be generated using a point-buy system, which increases in value as they level in NPC classes.
The base point buy will be 10 points by PF standards. This number increases as follows:
Warrior and Expert get +1 point buy per level (total 14)
Commoner gets +1 point buy per level, and an extra at 4th (total 15)
Arcane and Divine Adept get +1 point buy at even levels (total 12)
Natural Adept gets +1 point buy at every level after 1st (total 13)
These bonuses will become class features so as to not get confused with the standard Ability Score bonuses. Rather than every 4th level, the PC's get a +1 ability score bonus at every even level, retroactively, beginning from the time of their retraining.
So, someone wanting to play Druid would start with 10 pb as a natural adept, then 11/12/13 as he leveled. At retraining, he immediately gains two +1 ability score bonuses and no longer adjusts his point buy, which will remain at 13.

[DMMike]

Awesome idea. I hope your players like it. To be honest, you lost me a bit at the increasing-point-buy idea.

[gr8artist]

Let's say that one of the players wants to run a FTR/ROG, so he goes Warrior 2/Expert 2 for his NPC levels, alternating between the two classes.
So, at first level, he has 11 points for PB (10 base, +1 warrior). Using PF's point buy system, he generates scores like this: 10, 14, 12, 12, 10, 12 (worth 0, 5, 2, 2, 0, 2 points, respectively).
At level 2, he gets his first level of Expert, which is worth 1 additional point (12 total). It's not enough to up his 14 to a 15 (costs 2 more) but he spends it on Con, resulting in a spread like 10, 14, 13, 12, 10, 12.
Levels 3 and 4, Warrior and Expert, he gains 1 additional point. He decides to use them for strength, so his final spread is 12, 14, 13, 12, 10, 12 with his 14 point buy total. At re-training, he gains two ability score increases (for 2nd and 4th HD), but will no longer gain extra points for buying. He puts one of these bonuses into Dex, and one into Con.
After retraining, he is a FTR 2/ROG 2 with stats like 12/15/14/12/10/12

If he'd been planning on FTR/CLR, then he would not have received a bonus at level 2, his first level of Div Adept (since Div Adept only gets extra point buy at even levels). After retraining, he'd have a 13 point buy and two increases, and probably an allotment like 14/10/14/10/14/12 (worth 3/0/3/0/5/2 points, and bonuses in Str and Con)

Does that help clarify?