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Gaining an Archetype

Source Starfinder Core Rulebook pg. 126
You can gain an archetype when you achieve a new class level in an eligible class matching the earliest level for which the archetype offers an alternate class feature. The archetype is then considered part of the class you gain a level in when you level up. For example, if you are playing an envoy interested in being a Starfinder forerunner, you must select that archetype when you gain your 2nd level of envoy (the first level at which the Starfinder forerunner has an alternate class feature). From that point forward, whenever you gain an envoy class level, you should check whether you gain an alternate class feature from the Starfinder forerunner archetype, as well as whether any envoy class features are altered or replaced. When you first gain an archetype, read through all the altered or replaced class features that will affect your character, and note these down; for some classes (especially mystics and technomancers) these changes affect features from levels before or after the levels at which you gain archetype features.

You cannot add the same archetype to multiple classes if you multiclass. For example, if a 2nd-level vesk envoy has selected the Starfinder forerunner archetype and later decides to multiclass and gain levels in the soldier class, the character cannot add the Starfinder forerunner archetype to his soldier class. Every time he gains soldier levels, he follows the normal character progression. If the character later gains more levels in envoy, that class continues to have the Starfinder forerunner archetype attached to it.

You also cannot add more than one archetype to a specific class. For example, once you have added the Starfinder forerunner archetype to the envoy class, you cannot add any other archetype to that class. If you multiclass and gain a level in a new class, you can add a new archetype to that class when you reach the appropriate level.

When an archetype refers to class level, it is referring to the number of levels you have in the class associated with the archetype.

Archives of Nethys

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Gaining an Archetype