Pneumonica's page

I have to agree that Spellcraft and Concentration shouldn't be splatted together, and that Spellcraft should be splatted with Knowledge (arcane), though I would say that Knowledge (arcane) is only for arcane spellcasting and Knowledge (religion) is for divine spellcasting. I would also agree that Concentration should absorb Control Lycanthropy and Autohypnosis.

I am not convinced by the argument that spellcasters have to take both. In particular, Spellcraft in 3.5 is unneeded. Why would you have to take it? Especially if you're a Cleric or Paladin?

Indeed, why would you have to take Concentration as a Wizard?

How smart you are has nothing to do with how good you are of an Acrobat, or how good you are at Climbing. It has everything to do with how quickly you learn, and in this way the +Int for Skill Points makes total sense. I'm all for keeping it.

Seconded on the +5. Removal of the Track Feat in its entirety nullifies backwards compatibility for a lot of characters (having played non-Rangers with the Track Feat, I want that backwards compatibility).

I have to pitch as pro-Fly for the same reasons I'm pro-Swim, pro-Climb, etc. Why am I not pro-Run? Because I am pro-Acrobatics.

But not having movement penalties is better than having movement penalties, so as you level, you'll want to upgrade the full plate to celestial mithril full plate. That changes the armor categories.

No, it doesn't. I'm sorry, you're wrong. It changes the effect the armor has on movement and similar, but the armor still requires heavy armor proficiency to use, and is still considered heavy armor. You are mistaken.

Having payed an Arcanist in 2nd ed Ravenloft and a White Arcanist in 3rd, I am also kinda sick of the whole "necromancy = evil" thing. For starters, it flies in the face of whole swaths of religious belief. To the Greeks, the Chinese, the Celts, and many others, being visited by a ghost or revenant was a time to honor your ancestors, not to grab for the stakes and torches.

Also, it totally overlooks the value of necromancy in a good way. In one campaign, someone played a necromancer who was called the "autopsist". She performed "autopsies" - that is, she examined the dead (speak with dead) to determine the particulars of how and why they died. She would also seance those who remained after death, and do other neat things that weren't wicked or evil at all, and certainly didn't make her undead at level 20.

I also don't like the fact that the only deities of Death who aren't evil are true neutral. On what account is there no good god watching over the dead?

Jason, are you reading this? Please consider keeping Concentration, rolling Autohypnosis into it (thus making it more useful for other classes too, perhaps even call it Meditate) and work in the Soulknife, psionic focus rules (useful for spellcasters too!), a few focus feats.

Seconded, although "Meditate" is not the best of choices. Because of how its used, perhaps "Focus" would work better as a name. Besides, in my opinion Spellcraft should be rolled into Knowledge (arcane) (for arcane magic) and Knowledge (religion) (for divine magic).

Soulknife actually isn't my preferred, but my preferred isn't going to get in there anyway. Psionic focus should be renamed since it isn't singularly for Psionics.

An alternative would be a "back door" approach. Include the Wild Talent Feat along with the "Focus" skill splat and a few focus feats, and an appendix about psionic powers, a strip-down of how they work and how they interact with arcane and divine spells, and a list of 1st level psionic powers (only). That way psionics start in the game without being major (and you can play characters born under a blood red moon with strange powers nobody understands... which everybody and their pet has done at some point or another).

True20 started using the skill system in the current alpha document, a system first presented in Unearthed Arcana IIRC. They reverted to the old system - although in chargen you take individual Skills at 4 ranks, there on you just accumulate Skill Points.

I like Skill Points because I play generalists. A generalist isn't a specialist - they're unlikely to have max ranks in any Skill. However, they're very likely to have enough ranks in many Skills to be useful, if not all-powerful, in a wide diveristy of situations. Bards and Rogues will suffer greatly if you use a force-max system.

I am slightly torn on this point, but I know for a fact that several of the players I play with and sometimes run games for will dislike greatly the limits on skill selection that a force-max system imposes.

Frankly, not including psionics in the core rules is a serious mistake (similar to but, IMHO, considerably worse than not including epic levels). As for the amount of extra data, bear in mind that if you're already condensing the PHB, DMG, and MM into one book, Psionics isn't actually going to add considerably to your scrunching. I would imagine that there will be additional data in later sources (a Pathfinder version of the Complete rules, for instance), but the basic rules for Psionics can be made to gel with the magic rules more easily by making them planned and established parts of the setting from the get-go.