Blake Knutson's page

Scotto's idea on Spellcraft is excellent. It's clean, easy and class specific.

Thought the 3.0 Lay on Hands being tied to Cha score was one of the excellent rule changes made in 3rd edition. Original versions were 2/level. We are now talking 1/level plus special stuff. Keep the special stuff but also return lay on hands to Cha bonus/level.
Glad to see Divine Grace unchanged at Cha bonus/save.
Paladins/Sorcerers/Bards and Cha based skills were a great addition to the game by 3rd edition, that made Charisma a real ability and not just the after-thought ability. Do not undo that.

Just reviewed the Alpha 3 release. Couple of quick thoughts:
Bards need to know more spells, +2/sp lvl. Need to get at least +1/sp lvl. The spells a appropriate and not over powering. So giving a bard 2 more to chose from at each level should not be over powering. Also more spells per day at least +1 maybe even +2 per spell level. Most players in our groups have abandoned their Bards at some point. The slow spell progression plus few spells known and overall strength of the spells have made them unplayable or a serious liability.
Monk got more feats to choose from but I am confused as to why they need to be 6th level to get Mobility as a bonus feat or 10th to get Spring-Attack as a bonus feat. Are these feats not available to all characters at lower levels. Spring Attack used to require +4BAB. If so then a Monk would be eligible at 6th level and could take it with a 7th level character feat. Why not just make a list of Monk feats similar to the Fighter feats. Let the feats dictate when a Monk could use a bonus feat to acquire each one, don't arbitrarily restrict them.
Wow! Mobility got a lot better, too much so. The original +4 to AC was excellent. The new no attacks of opportunity is too much.
Power Attack got worse? Why? Never found it that over powering in the past. The trade off on attacks for damage seemed balance. Even given that at higher levels Ftr could drop +10 from attacks and add +10 to damage. It really just level the playing field with Wizards dice/lvl spells. The STR restriction is only going to hurt players. The big monsters can still PA as before as their STR scores are much higher.
Glad to see Paizo is keeping 3.5 alive. Not planning on buying or switching to the 4.0 money grab. Grew up playing AD&D and then 2.0.
3.0 was a god send and the 3.5 changes were okay. But can't see switching to the whole new system of over simplified skills rules, and new restricted character roles. Best part of 3rd was the prestige classes and multi-class rules. They allowed you to have a character concept and then be able to find classes that allowed that vision to come to life on the battlegrid. Best of luck with 3.75.

I would like to see a list of bonus feats for the Monk similar to the Fighter list. Not the same feats but a similar listing. That way as Monks gain the bonus feats the choice is the players. The list should include anything mental on physical that seems appropriate.
List could include but not restricted to:
Iron Will, Great Fortitude, Lightning Reflexes, Weapon Focus(Monk weapons only), Skill Focus (Monk skills only),any of the skill feats that are Monk skills(ex: Acrobatic), Dodge, Mobility, all the Ascetic feats, etc...
I beleive the Monk and players would be better served by this flexibility instead of the one or two listed or the various schools that prescribe other specific feats.

I find it disturbing that Knowledge is only considered evil or neutral.
Knowledge is by its very nature only as good as the people using it.
D&D gives the domain only to two deities: Boccob and Vecna. Makes complete sense why these two get knowledge in their portfolios. But why is Knowledge also not included for a good god? It could and should be associated with a teaching god or an all know god. Odin fills this role in Norse mythology. I see that Pathfinder has used this same method for assigning Knowledge. Prehaps Iomedae, Torag or Shelyn could include Knowledge in thier domains. Iomedae: good governance requires knowledge. Torag: Crafting and Artificing requires knowledge to create. Shelyn: Art is often associated with higher learning. Even if these gods are not a perfect fit, some good god should be. Create a new one. Knowledge is not evil and should not be looked upon as such. Knowledge and Truth go hand in hand.

Bundling of skills is okay. We can argue about which skills get bundled with which ones all day with excellent arguments on either side.
However if skills are going to be condensed then classes with high skill points should get fewer points to spend. Rogues and Scouts should probably drop from 8 pts/lvl to 6 pts/lvl.

Additional comment: Skill focus feat should make that skill a class skill in addition to the +3 bonus from the feat.

Thnaks to Paizo for keeping 3.5 alive.