Yeah Pillars had a cool concept. Pick 2 and progress in whichever direction you're vibing on most from there, according to the gameplay you find more entertaining. That seems durable and works pretty well.
They've been trying to solve the multiclass fascination dilemma since the earliest days when it was first introduced in D&D. Like how many kits or new classes basically amounted to... "a Wizard, but who casts spells like a Priest!" or "a Priest, but with a Sword!" Or a "Fighter, but with an animal buddy or that can sneak!" hehe
I always get a little confused about the order in which classes were first introduced in 1e going to AD&D, like Monk and Druid I think were definitely in there from pretty early. But first iteration was what, Divine Fighter, Regular Fighter, and Arcane Magic User, all human? Then Rogue/Thief out of Greyhawk? Add in Races to the bag and shake hehe. Regorganized then into the big 4 from 2nd Edition, where each archetypal Class had two or more variants basically going off the pick 2 idea for their secondary Class types.
So basically from 4 to like 12, with a few more types weighted to the Warrior combo, since Warrior is always the most popular lol
I kind of feel like that was a good sweet spot, and everything that comes after would be better off as like kits that you can develop on top of those archetypes rather than being a core class choice up front. I guess that's kind of what 5e tries to do, just with a few of the other class combos rounded out to sort of match the Warrior combos now.
Also in Pathfinder there are so many background and deities that just kinda grant weapons proficiencies, it's almost like the old hybrid-core classes are kind of meaningless, since they were basically designed around equipment restrictions to sort of define them in the first place lol. But I do kind of appreciate just how many class concept types are floating around now just from seeing the big lists in the menus. It's more like pick 3 than pick 2 now I guess. I do like having Witches and Warlocks though, so I'm not too down on everything I guess. 25x6 subs seems a bit insane, but I guess if they pull them all off eventually I'll be pretty impressed. Probably nothing comes along after Pathfinder to really attempt the same, so seeing it taken to its extreme is kinda fascinating. I think I would have been into it when I was a little younger and less set in my ways maybe. I wish they'd have gone the extra mile and made each sub-class get a different look. Cause I can just picture someone new to the thing making choices arbitrarily based on that, and maybe finding something they really like on the random.
