Right now I think that they are basically prestige classes?! somebody please correct a poor Rakdos cultist

It's hard to tell, but I think it's something from Pathfinder.

yeh, that's why I included Pathfinder in the title. srry if that sounded rude

Quote from Moray76 >>

yeh, that's why I included Pathfinder in the title. srry if that sounded rude

You are on a D&D forum, not a Pathfinder one, and are in the General D&D discussion forum.  Probably not the best place to get guidance about a non-D&D game.

Your best bet is going to be a Pathfinder forum, such as a Reddit page.  I guess you could try Adohand's Kitchen (the off-topic section of this site), but that section of the forum is not exactly conductive to asking for guidance on things.

Well, this is a site for D&D, not Pathfinder.

While there are folks that have played Pathfinder here, the site itself doesn't have anything to do with pathfinder, which is, as players of pathfinder will remind you, a different game.

It is also based, initially, on 3.5th Edition D&D, so it isn't something that this site is generally going to have anything to address, since it is concerned with 5th edition.

oddly enough, there is a way to find out, however: go to the pathfinder website.

yeh, makes sense. I figured out the answer by myself. Thx for all the help tho

Archetypes in Pathfinder 2E are often referred to as that game's version of multiclassing. And while it is true that every class has an archetype, and the only archetypes in the Core Rulebook or the Player Core are class-based, there are dozens of archetypes that are not class based.

Normal rules, players can choose an archetype instead of a class feat at every even-numbered character level. There's also a "free archetype" variant rule that lets player's choose an archetype and a class feat at those levels, but that's a rule the whole party/table needs to agree to, not something a player can follow on their own, and definitely not without GM permission.

Even if a player does take an archetype instead of a class feat, unlike in 5E, their progression in their base class is not effected. A fighter who takes an archetype at level 4 will still be a level 4 fighter and will be a level 5 fighter at the next level.

As far as power, archetypes are more about customization and versatility than actual power, although some are naturally stronger than others. But I heard it described as basically adding a custom subclass to your character.

The first feat a player takes of an archetype must be the archetype's "dedication" feat, but after that, they must take at least two additional feats from that archetype before they can take a different archetype.

Many archetypes do have a prerequisite that must be met. You can't take the wizard archetype without at least +2 to INT. You can't take the acrobat archetype unless you are trained in acrobatics.