I just litteraly stumbled on pathfinder today on the NWN2 forums of all places, I am No Fan of 4E either and i have been playing Dungeons and Dragons for 19 years now. I will not Presume to shape this community as to the direction of the game's rules but will simply express My own opinions.
I Loved the core classes redone in a simple format where you continue to gain powers in each ability and spell up through 20th. This has been missing for some time.
I loved no prestige classes, sorry but they were either underpowered or overpowered and had no balance in between.
Sorcerers are now alot different from Wizards and specialization is again worthwhile, thank you.
Barbarians are more balanced however i would give them more options to increase damage reduction even further if an EPIC book ever was released.
Jhon's ideas on the EPIC game being a totally seperate style of rules is intriguing and is reminiscient of the Classic "immortals" boxed set.
Psionics if you do it should not be the same as Arcane/Divine but with a different name, Rather it should be completly unique dealing with a Dimension of thoughts and dreams. A Psionic could manipulate/access this dimension to gain his powers and learn more about the 'meaning' of events and analyse "psychic" data to gain insights to the adventure. Psionics of higher level could gain powers that allow them and party members to enter a Dream world or dimension and here the psionc would have powers he would not have in the physical realm (prime material), more powers like Dream Travel and Dream Control. In Comparison I would like to see Psionics more like Edgar Cayce than Carey (from stephen king), telekinetics is cool but it's old hat and I will not use it.
I would like to suggest any presitge classes or additional feats and Rulebooks be Clearly labeled OPTIONAL and allow the Game master or gameing groups to yay or nay any content in "official community" games.
(too add i have always said no to players in 3.0 and 3.5 if i did not like a class/feat/spell however i have seen many young DM's swarmed by OGL that they never read).
Control Stacking of properties with a Level based System, ie at x level you may not have more than a y bonus to any ability,stat,skill or roll of any type until you reach the next "tier" of advancement. To expunge on this you can stack natural armor, enchantment, deflection, Luck, and dodge bonuses to AC but until level 5 those cap at a +5 total and from levels 6-10 the cap is +8, and from levels 11-15 the cap is +12, until levels 16- 20 when it becomes +15. This should INCLUDE the ability bonus and all die modifiers that i may have left out in this hasty typing. (just an idea but a good one for balance IMO)
Item Level Requirements: they are in evrey CRPG for a reason, but also with this add more properties to magic items as the player gains levels. so I aquire a sword that has these properties : Level 1 properties: +1enchantment, +2enchantment vs goblins; Level 5 properties: keen edge, 1d6 slashing vs Goblins.
(you get the idea)
More Combat manuvers you Buy like found in the Tome of battle it truly gives unique flare to warriors, allowing you to personalize there abilities, This could be done in OPTIONAL rules that can be yay or nayed by "official community" gaming events.
Alternate magic systems, they suck, even the best ones only applied to the powergamer in me, Monte Cook was onto some great ideas in Arcana unearthed, but ultimately if you have WIZARD and SORCERER stick with that tell the Geomancer to jump back in the boat he rode in on.
Anyway The Product looks Great and I am going to buy 10 core books among my gamers already. I look Forward to Ed Greenwood and Jeff Grubb working together on a campaign world again starting from scratch i Expect big things.
Issac
