Bevan's page

Energy Drain has always been my least favorite D&D rule (well, actually originally it was third after racial level limits and poison, but those two were corrected with 3rd edition). Not only is it unreasonably nasty for a character to lose a couple of class levels with each attack, but it doesn't make sense thematically. What exactly is being sucked out of the person that causes him to become less trained? When does anything approaching this happen in fantasy fiction?

At the very least, all energy drain attacks should be replaced with ability drains (a spectre removing a person's Strength is much easier to visualize then one removing his levels), though permanent ability drains might still be a little too powerful.

The rogue should be proficient in shuriken and possibly bolas as they help to define her subtle and cunning approach to combat.

The druid should be proficient in the short bow (as it is a major hunting weapon) and scythe (for its strong connection to the harvest and similarity to a sickle).

I'm pleased to see that in Pathfinder, clerics are automatically proficient in their deity's favored weapon, but clerics whose deity favores a simple weapon should get somethint to make-up for the loss of a free weapon proficiency. A fair trade-off, I think, is for these clerics to instead get a free Skill Focus in a cleric class skill of their choice.

Also, shouldn't the sap be a simple weapon instead of a martial one? After all, it's such a basic weapon to use, and numerous people practice that form of thuggery without any special weapon training.

In folklore, necromancy has always been most closely tied with speaking with the dead (though in modern fantasy that element of the necromancy does take second place to raising armies of skeletons and zombies), and because of that, I've always felt it should feature much more prominently with necromancers in D&D than it does.

Personally, I think that it should be a wizard spell as well as a cleric one, and be included on the list of necromancer specialist powers as on the Death domain for clerics.

If it comes to that, I think that as it stands the distinction between the Repose and Death domains are a little arbitrary (good death vs. evil death). I think instead the two domains should be titled Death and Undeath, with one domain focusing on death itself and the other domain focusing on zombies, wraiths, and the rest of the undead crew.

A few comments about general class skills

-I find the idea of the barbarian possessing a Knowledge class skill to be a little strange, and I think Survival covers the sort of familiarity with the natural he would possess. Stealth would be a more appropriate skill, I think

-As druids are priests of a sort, they should have Knowledge (religion) as a class skill

-since fighters are involved in armies and often serve as guards, and, for that, matter, secular knights are generally fighters, they should possess Knowledge (nobility) as a class skill. It’s a more pivotal Knowledge skill for them than Knowledge (engineering) or Knowledge (geography).

-Knowledge (religion) should be kept for monks. If nothing else, there’s such a strong link between the class’ name and religious knowledge.