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Let us take a closer look at the spell-casting Fighter.

Level 1: 4 skill points per level, 4 Int-based class skills added. Lose Tower Shield, Two-handed martial weapons AND the bonus feat. This is officially the worst first level any PC class has to offer. Note that the archetype never gains any ability, at all, that would make one-handed weapons a good idea.
Level 2: Cantrips! You get to memorize one. Also, small, narrow and fiddly Knowledge bonus. Lose your bonus feat, again. Bravery +1.
Level 3: Eldritch Armor Training 1/15%. It is a straight upgrade to armor training, but at this point you don't have any combat spells worth the action, so you don't care.
Level 4: First bonus feat!
Level 5: Spellcasting, using Ranger spells/day and the Bloodrager list. Note how actual Rangers get their first spell at level 4, not 5.
Level 6: Second bonus feat, Bravery +2
level 7: Eldritch Armor Training 2/20%. 2. level spell(s).
Level 10: Third bonus feat, Bravery +3, 3rd level spell
Level 11: Eldritch Armor Training 3/25%
Level 13: 4th level spell.
Level 14: Fourth bonus feat, Bravery +4
Level 15: Eldritch Armor Training 4/30%
Level 18: fifth bonus feat, Bravery +5
Level 19: Armor Mastery
Level 20: Weapon Mastery

To sum it up, you have a martial class with:
4 skill points
No proficiency with two-handed martial weapons.
Int-based prepared Bloodrager casting with wizard cantrips.
Armor Training with percentage ASF reduction
Bravery, with no ability to trade it for anything you care about
Bonus feats at levels 4,6,10,14 and 18.

All in all, very unimpressive. Losing your early bonus feats AND Weapon Training is just too painful. The loss of two-handed weapons is just adding a weird insult to injury.

I'm building a PFS character for a friend, and the constraints are that at level 1, he must be able to punch people twice on his turn. I'm making a Str-based Unchained Monk, and I mean...sure, he's pretty good at punching people, but he would be even better if he picked up a weapon. Just a cheap weapon that he's already proficient with, no particular feat or trait or stat investment, just pick up the 50% more damage that's lying at your feet.

Why would Punchy McLowlevel use his fists over a weapon?

I made a guide: Guide to the One-Handed Swordsman

New year, clean slate and all that. Let's take this opportunity to root out the big rules issues that would benefit from a thorough treatment by the PDT.

Mounted Combat: Who needs feats X,Y and Z: The rider, the mount, both? (Coordinated Charge, Charge Through). Can you lance-charge AND have your mount Overrun the target?

Stealth, total concealment, 5' step: Does a 5' step count as "movement", allowing you a Stealth check? If you have total concealment, but your enemy doesn't, is he denied his dexterity bonus against your attacks?

When do you/don't you have a "free hand"? Is it the same as an empty hand?

These are all complicated questions; even if they're answered with yes/no replies, they have wide-ranging effects.

Also, your favorite character mostly fights low-level nobodies.

Can you make an (unmodified) Stealth check after a 5' step?

The Stealth skill is normally used "as part of movement, so it doesn't take a separate action". Does this mean that a character with cover or concealment (or Hide in Plain Sight) can make a full attack, then take a 5' step to disappear with a successful Stealth check?

I feel like making a character focused on using the Launching Crossbow.

It's exotic, takes a full round action to load, and has 30' range. Also, depending on ammo, it targets touch AC and does about 1d6 damage, expensively.

So, I'm going to want the following bits and bobs:
*Proficiency
*Rapid Shot (Point Blank Shot)
*Crossbow Mastery (Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Rapid Reload, Dex 15)
*Concentrated Splash (Throw Anything or Precise Shot)
*Int to damage (Alchemist 1/Underground Chemist 2) OR Focused Shot
*Dex to damage (Bolt Ace 5)
*Basic shoot crossbow good ability.

Class-wise, I'm considering:
*Bolt Ace 1, for proficiency, free MW crossbow. I also get Sharpshoot, Gunslinger's Dodge and Vigilant loading.
*Alchemist 1, for Int-to-damage, Mutagen, spell-trigger items, and a bonus to crafting my own ammo.
*Alchemist 2, to get a Discovery (probably a familiar), Poison Use, and poison Resistance.
*Bolt Ace 2, because I have to. +1 AC from Nimble is not terrible, but not exciting either.
*Bolt Ace 3. Shooter's Resolve is decent, and I'm not doing much else with my Grit. +2 Initiative is always nice, and Crossbow-whip might be fun.
*Bolt Ace 4. Bonus feat.
*Bolt Ace 5. Dex to damage, *3 crits, and we're done with this class.

Feat-wise, I think it's going to be
1: Rapid Reload....Ugh, you can't actually take Rapid Reload (Launching Crossbow). Laaaame.

So, by the rules, I'll be stuck with full-round action loading until level 5. Maybe I should carry multiple loaded crossbows. This blows.

I like Smashing Style, the feat from Weapon Master's Handbook. But the other two feats in the style+ Not so much.

Benefit(s): While using Smashing Style, if you successfully damage an object with the sunder combat maneuver, you reduce its hardness by 1. An object can't have its hardness reduced to less than 50% of its normal hardness, and its hardness is restored when the damage dealt by the sunder attack is repaired.

Reducing hardness by one. Wov. Imagine a feat existed that could give you +2 to damage. In order for this feat to break even with that, even within its very limited area of application, you have to perform 5 successful Sunder combat maneuvers against the same object. Even if you could only get +1 damage, and only against objects, this feat would still require 3 sunders to break even with that.

By the time you take Smashing Crush, it's your 5th feat invested into this path, and 3 feats specifically into sundering. You're doing, very conservatively, 20 points of damage per attack, so even if you decide to sunder an opponent's metal armor in combat, this feat doesn't make much difference.

But maybe it's a feat tax for the top feat?

While using Smashing Style, each time you damage a suit of armor with a sunder combat maneuver, you reduce its armor bonus to its Armor Class by 1 and increase its armor check penalty by 1. Armor cannot have its armor bonus to AC reduced to less than 50% of its normal bonus or its armor check penalty more than doubled.

So, nope. At this point, you're 6 feats into sundering armor, probably 7 with greater sunder. With almost all of your feats invested into armor-sundering, it's fair to call it your specialty. You are at least level 6, and can easily afford an adamantine greatsword, or one of the many other ways of ignoring hardness.

Given that you're already reducing plate armor to half armor bonus and double ACP with the first Sunder, by giving it the Broken condition, this feat does literally nothing.

I don't get it.

WMHB is a very crunchy book, so I just want to make sure I got it all right.

Rondelero Flexibility (p. 7): This is a pretty pointless ability (on it's own, but see Shield Catch) - right?

Illusive Gnome Style is completely terrible, right?

Overwatch Style: Your initiative is set every time you use one of the readied attacks, right?

Startoss Shower: It's the initial attack, plus (1 + 1/5*BAB) ricochets, right?

Ascetic Style. Oh boy, here we go. "apply the effect of feats" that have IUS as a prerequisite. That means I can get my Panther/Snake/Crane counterattacks off with a weapon (once I can have multiple styles active), right?
..."As well as effects that augment an unarmed strike". Huh. I'm gonna cheat and peek ahead, and well, certain class abilities that would augment unarmed strikes, most notably monk-like damage progresion, are part of later feats. The only way that makes sense is if the Style feat is supposed to read "effects of feats that...as well as effects OF FEATS that...". Riiiight?

Ascetic Form. Class abilites...that means FoB too, right? Oh wait, we're already restricted to Monk weapons. Duh. Speaking of which, abilities that let a weapon count as a monk weapon do nothing, because the style references the fighter weapon group, right?

Also, about ascetic style...which questions did I forget to even ask?

Guide to using poisons (link)

The guide

So, I've been thinking a lot about Feinting lately.

I've noticed that it has a lot fewer restrictions than you'd think. For starters, it doesn't require you to be within striking distance, or even wielding a weapon.

Ways to get more feints:
Twinned Feint (Feat): The Cleave of Feints. 2, potentially 4 feints per turn. Not bad.

Moonlight Stalker Feint (Feat, many many prerequisites): Swift action feint.

Passing Trick (Ditto)

Wave Strike. Another opportunity for swift feints.

Gun Twirling (Feat): Hilariously bad writing. Lifts the non-existing requirement for using a melee weapon to feint, but does not remove the actual limitation of feint, namely that the loss of dex to ac only applies against mele attacks.

Distracting cloak (part of the Equipment Trick: cloak feat): Feint every enemy that can see you. The effect of a succesful feint is different, but it is still a feint.

How to benefit:
Dueling Cloak Adept (Trait): +2 to feints AND a stacking +1 to AC every time you feint. Easy combo with Distracting Cloak for +1 AC per enemy in sight.

Blistering Feint (Ifrit feat): If you wield a weapon that deals fire damage, every feint deals the weapon's damage to the enemy. Note that this feat apparently assumes that feinting requires the use of a melee weapon within striking distance - as none of those limitations are built in. The intended use is probably something with Flaming weapons or the racial feat to add +1 fire damage or somesuch. RAW, you can damage someone flying circles above you with your flaming sword. RAW, you should be able to brandish a pistol with a Dragon's Breath cartridge, or a bottle of alchemist's fire, and deal that weapon's fire damage over and over. If you use Battle Poi as your weapon, I don't even know if you deal your damage dice alone or if strength and other damage bonuses counts as "your weapon's fire damage". A Flame Blade spell or a Pyrokineticist with melee powers can probably do a lot of damage too.

Vexing Daredevil Mesmerist might benefit from more feints.

Some weapons have the Grapple special quality.

So, "Grapple check on a crit". Let's see how that pans out with the actual grapple weapons:

*Grappling hook: Okay, the grapple seems reasonable.
*Grappling-hook-on-a-stick (Kumade): Ditto.
*Barbed Arrow: You need to hit a target on average 20 times before you're allowed a single grapple check? Seems kinda pointless.
*Harpoon: Ditto.
*Mancatcher: This weapon attacks and grapples without using the grapple weapon quality. So...on a critical hit, you can roll TWO grapple checks? Also, it's unclear whether the initial hit does damage (RAW, it totally does. On a reach weapon touch attack. You're welcome, Warpriest).
*Garrotte: Go straight to CM roll, do not make an attack roll, do not have the chance to roll a crit. The grapple quality does literally nothing.

The grapple quality is obviously completely borked.

So, Knowledge is Power has given me an idea. A Combat Maneuver Wizard!

I'll go Wizard, Crab Familiar for +2 to grapple. Either Alteration for the stat boost or Earth for the to-hit bonus. Probably Alteration for the much, much better spell list.

I'm struggling with ways to get proficiency with mancatcher and a reach weapon for tripping. I also like the bolas (AFAICT, you use Str-based CMB to trip with those).

I think I'll stay straight Wizard, but if I have to dip, what's a good dip? I can't find any class or archetype to give me mancatcher proficiency.

At best, this spell will lead to hours of rules discussion, as GMs try to salvage the game.

Being able to extend any of your summons to hours/level for the cost of a 2nd level spell and maybe a feat is crazy. Also, the creatures summoned with this spell aren't banned from using Teleportation effects, planar travel or spells with expensive material components, nor do their spells end at the end of the summoning.

Please. This spell is worse than Divine Protection. It's far, far worse than the Master Summoner ever was. Just ban it.

Am I missing something, or does the Kineticist do absolutely pathetic damage?

I was noodling around with a level 6 pyrokineticist, just to see how bad the "I wish I was playing a Sorcerer instead" would get, and it seems bad.

With 2 points of burn spent to fill up elemental overflow, and a +6 Con modifier, The Fire's Fury talent, the Kineticist does at best 3d6+7 damage once per round, or takes some burn to do the same damage, reflex save half, to 2 or 3 targets. Maybe a tiny bit more with Burning Infusion.

For a level 6 character, doing their specialty thing, that is ridiculous. Am I missing something, or is the kineticist supposed to be a nerf thrower?

So, when is a foe "unarmed"? A quick search didn't net me anything useful.

The first place I looked was Improved Unarmed Strike, which provided this gem of insight: "You are considered to be armed even when unarmed—you do not provoke attacks of opportunity when you attack foes while unarmed...Without this feat, you are considered unarmed when attacking with an unarmed strike".

This can be interpreted in (at least two ways):
A) You qualify for both "unarmed" and "armed" status, and your unarmed strikes carry the exception "does not provoke opportunity attacks".
B) Even though you count as unarmed by a common-language understanding of the term, you do in fact count as armed for rules purposes. As a clarification of what that means, your [unarmed strikes] do not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Interpretation A is silly, and inconsistent with the known writing style of the developers.

So, enemies who have Improved Unarmed Strike are never disarmed.

Gauntlets: "This metal glove lets you deal lethal damage rather than nonlethal damage with unarmed strikes. A strike with a gauntlet is otherwise considered an unarmed attack." An attack with a gauntlet is an unarmed strike, so a foe with nothing but gauntlets is obviously unarmed.

Natural attacks, aka natural weapons, can't be disarmed. But maybe you can use some of those trickster abilities to make them grab a non-weapon in their claws and be unarmed that way.

Armor spikes? Armed.

Shields? ....Well. I want the answer to be "unarmed", but I can't really argue for it.

Some kind of object that isn't really a weapon: IMO, it doesn't count as a weapon until it's been used as a weapon.

The concept of a "free hand" still raises questions. I believe that a "free hand" means an empty hand, a hand literally not holding anything. So, the hand you used for spellcasting and/or unarmed strikes is free, and if you use is to Deflect Arrows, it's still a free hand for Crane Wing.

My first argument is the first occurrence of the concept of a free hand: the Deflect Arrows feat from the Core Rulebook.

You must have at least one hand free (holding nothing) to use this feat.

Every ability requiring a "free hand" or an "empty hand" written after the Core Book has had no definition attached, because it's a common-sense, natural-language term, and it has already been defined in the core book.

In a rules post, Sean K. Reynolds points out that a free hand is not necessarily a passive hand:

The concept of the [Duelist] prestige class is that you have one hand free. That doesn't prevent you from making unarmed strikes or claw attacks, as your hand is still empty. It would prevent you from using a spiked shield, as your hand is not empty.

And now that Precise Strike from the Duelist (and therefore, the Swashbuckler) can explicitly be used with TWF, as long as restrictions are obeyed, what are the possibilities?

So, a 3rd level Swashbuckler who picked up a bite attack somewhere can easily do 3 attacks per round that each get Precise Strike (at -2, -2 and -7 to hit, but still.)

"Prerequisite: Exotic Weapon Proficiency X" actually means "proficient with weapon X", right? Because if not...

A Tengu, or other character gaining proficiency with the Aldori Dueling Sword without taking the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat, does not qualify for the Aldori Swordlord Prestige Class, or the feats Aldori Dueling Mastery, Aldori Dueling Disciple, Duelist of the Roaring Falls, Duelist of the Shrouded Lake, Falling Water Gambit without taking a feat to be proficient with a weapon they are already proficient with.

A Tengu,Cleric of Achaekek, or other character gaining proficiency with the Sawtooth Sabre without taking the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat, does not qualify for the Red Mantis Assassin Prestige Class without taking a feat to be proficient with a weapon they are already proficient with.

A character gaining proficiency with the Net without taking the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat does not qualify for feat Net Adept, or the follow-up feats Net and Trident, Net Maneuvering or Net Trickery, without taking a feat to be proficient with a weapon they are already proficient with. The obvious race choice for a net user, a Half-Orc with the Beastmaster alternate racial trait, can in fact never learn those feats, as he treats nets as martial weapons (not exotic), and thus cannot choose the Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Net) feat.

A Tengu, or other character gaining proficiency with the Falcata without taking the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat, does not qualify for the Taldan duelist feat without taking a feat to be proficient with a weapon they are already proficient with.

A Gunslinger, or other character gaining proficiency with firearms without taking the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat, does not qualify for the feats Rapid Reload or Technology Adept without taking a feat to be proficient with a weapon they are already proficient with.

There are issues with shield, armor and other weapon proficiencies, where they are entered as feats in the prerequisites. For example, Arcane Armor Mastery requires the Medium Armor Proficiency feat, but an Oracle/Sorcerer doesn't have that feat, they're just proficient with medium armor.

The Grand Marshal in the Inner Sea NPC Codex is an example of a character who has Rapid Reload illegally.