A big discussion on the official forums is whether we should be able to change our advanced class. BioWare is likening each advanced class to a separate class rather than a different spec compared to other MMOs like WoW, so it would be a much bigger change than something like a warrior in WoW respeccing from arms to prot. Do you think players should be able to change their advanced class?

I think it would be a pointless restriction to not allow changing your advanced class, but I could see them taking that route. It makes players roll more characters thus keeping them playing longer. I could see it being removed a while after release though.

Just a note that you will be able to change your skill points in your advanced class, so your build definitely won't be permanent.

Well IIRC in games like the classic Dragon Warrior/Quest 3, that was one of the first games where you could change classes for all your characters except the hero. It was good for rounding out a character's attributes and giving them some diversity in skills. You'd have to stick with it awhile before you could change again.

This would greatly affect stats and skills you could learn.

Personally I think it's okay. Like if you became a soldier but later decided to become a smuggler. However I think there might be some drawbacks to crossing classes. I.E. You start off a consular and evolve to sage, but you change to the more combat oriented shadow and you'd only have rudimentary and intermediate force power skills from previous while now you could only learn one additional lightsaber form as opposed to two or three, and you may not have any choice which one.