Chymor's page

I was originally going to voice my dislike of Combat Feat mechanic, but then I found out that it's already going to go away. Should've checked the forums before diving into the rules. :D

There aren't many issues left:

Combat Expertise
I assume this change is made to curb Fighter ACs due to Armor Training? Fighting defensively is -4/+2 as a full round action and this feat *is* better, but INT 13 fighters are going to get one less AC with the feat... It seems a bit off, but this is not a biggie.

Deft Shield
Why the name change? After all, this is slightly altered Improved Shield Bash. In my opinion feat names should not be changed in order to keep conversion as easy as possible.

Double Slice
The fluff description contradicts the benefit. First one says off-hand weapon and the latter just one light weapon (no mention of the off-hand). So if you're wielding two light weapons you could get the feat bonus with your main hand? Not the intention perhaps, but it's not clear...

Furthermore, I don't like this feat because it forces a light off-hand weapon on dual-wielders. Two medium sized weapons are a fantasy staple and this feat makes it even more painful choice, especially because...

Two-Weapon Rend
has Double slice as prerequisite. Please replace Double Slice with Improved Two-Weapon Fighting for example.

BARD

1)
Distraction is a poor name for an ability that helps your comrades see illusions for what they are.

2)
Fascinate description starts off by stating that it's usable with music or poetics. However, the last sentence contradicts this by saying it can be used with any type of Perform.

3)
Deadly Performance, is broken as written. Save or die 20 times per day with a Perform based DC? This gets easily out of hand by stacking skill boosting feats, items and spells. Remember Forgotten Realms Spelldancer?

FIGHTER

Armor Mastery is sort of sudden on 19th level. A strong full blown ability that suits fighters, but some sort of progression for earlier levels would be nice. Maybe 1/- and 3/- included in the two earlier Armor Training improvements on levels 11 and 15?

PALADIN

Lay on Hands doesn't heal enough per single use to be useful in combat at higher levels (until you get Heal). Maybe paladins should get an ability to burn multiple uses of lay on hands at one go (full-round action?). Two on 6th lvl, three on 9th, etc... ? Heal would cost 6 uses with this progression, but it's still more hit points + extras than 6 uses of regular lay on hands.

ROGUE

1)
Trapfinding is a sacred cow ready for slaughter. Make Trapfinding a scaling bonus to Perception (like Trap Sense) when searching for Traps and adjust trap DCs accordingly. It's horribly stupid that a 1st level rogue can find a DC 21 trap, but a 20th level ranger with Perception +40 cannot. No matter how long the ranger searches for it!

2)
Skill Mastery should scale with permanent INT gains.

BARBARIAN

1)
Permanent CON changes should modify the rage point total retroactively. This could already be the case, but it's not pointed out clearly.

2)
Rage Powers are swift actions unless otherwise noted. Animal Fury doesn't state which action it uses, so RAW it's a bonus attack as a swift action every round. If this is intentional, please consider changing it to a generic unarmed strike (that could be a headbutt, elbow, knee, kick etc), as rapid, ankle-biting barbarians are rather silly.

3)
Clear Mind is listed as supernatural, but (Ex) fits the concept better. Also, consider a name change as using "rage" to "clear" your mind is a bit strange to me.

4)
Increased Damage Reduction rage point cost seems a bit expensive. At level 16 you can add 3/- to DR for one round, or +8 AC bonus for six rounds with Guarded Stance. This seems to be a bit off, but I haven't done the math on it.

5)
Guarded Stance is another poor name choice. Raging in a guarded stance is odd.

6)
Elemental Rage is a bit too magical ability for Barbarians in my opinion.

7)
Renewed Vigor is also Supernatural. (Ex) would be a better fit. I see this as gritting ones teeth, ignoring the pain and jumping back into fray with "renewed vigor". No reason why Barbarians shouldn't be able to do this in a dead magic zone for example.

8)
Roused Anger becomes useless on lvl 17. Useless class features suck, so this should be modified.

9) Mighty Rage is too expensive. Under 3.5 rules a lvl 20 Barbarian with CON 30 (in rage) can rage 6x13 = 69 rounds. In PF the same character has 162 rage points = 40 rounds of mighty rage. This assuming he doesn't use other rage powers at all. Barbarians should be able to mighty rage *and* use the other rage powers a bit more. I think a rage cost of 3 is more in line.

EDIT:
I just wanted to point out that I for one like rage points. It's added book keeping, but it's necessary to break rage/day into finer pieces in order to give barbarian extra options they can and would actually use.

Hello all,

This post is my first on the forums and my series of feedback on Pathfinder Alpha 3 will soon follow on the appropriate categories.

First, let me thank everybody in Pathfinder team (and playtesters) for an already excellent revision of 3.5 ruleset. Almost all of the changes are in the right direction (imo of course), yet not too intrusive as to change the game too much. Backwards compatibility is highly appreciated. Also, the notion of public alpha/beta releases for the ruleset is a brilliant idea. Whoever though of this first deserves a gold-plated d20. :D

Feedback on Races:

ELF + 1/2 ELF :

Keen Senses
--> Drop the door detection ability. Elves have heightened senses and have bonus to Perception, so a tingling door sense doesn't make sense. It's a silly holdover from old D&D and an annoying thing for a DM to track.

GNOME:

Defensive Training
--> A minor quibble, but the name doesn't fit gnome fluff very well (unlike with dwarves).

1/2 ORC:

Orc Ferocity
--> Will Diehard feat replace this?

HALFLING

Languages
--> Why halfling societies are so in tune with demonic forces that a large percentage of them learn Abyssal? ;) Please replace this.