Michael Ahlf's page

A lot of the problem in the 3.0/3.5 system was the ease in which people could "munchkin" together a character to broken levels. With the new "pick one of two" favored classes racial wording in Pathfinder, this gets even easier.

So here's my suggestion:

Multiclassing should be a cumulative 10% penalty to XP for each "infraction."

Infractions:
- Having more than two base classes (the old rule was that this only applied if a base class was 2 levels higher than another level and it wasn't your favored class: thus a half-orc Ftr2/Bbn1/Sor1/Rog1 was still legit). Infraction for each extra base class beyond 2, period.

- Having a base class 2 levels higher than another class, and one of the classes not your favored class. Dwarven Paladin4/Rogue2 = Infraction! Purpose: prevent "dipping" for abilities.

- Having multiple unfinished (read: not fully leveled) Prestige Classes. Infraction for every P-class beyond the first. (Rogue5/Invisible Blade5/Assassin1 ok: Rogue5/Invisible Blade4/Assassin1, not ok).

Purpose: prevent the Fighter2/Cleric3/Pious Templar4/Holy Liberator2/Divine Crusader1/etc/etc/etc - that's "dipping for abilities" again.

Linguistics (Page 60):

I do not agree with rolling in the "speak language" skill - consider the case of a Rogue with 16 intelligence and full ranks in Linguistics of, say, 10th level. He now speaks 17 of the world's languages, and this makes the point of the "decipher script" portion of the skill less and less useful.

Others have commented on the effect of skill consolidation leaving Rogues with a plethora of skill points; I think splitting these two out would help greatly.

Feel this needs to be brought up:

Intimidate (page 60):
I suggest that the "demoralize opponent" function be usable with STR instead of CHA.

Purpose: ensure that the average gnome farmer is not more intimidating in a fight than a raging half-orc barbarian.

Got a few quibbles with these.

Also a side note to the devs: there a lot of feats that say they apply "until your next turn" but don't say what type of action (free? move? immediate? swift?) they take to invoke. See Dodge for one example.

Anyhow:

#1 - Power Attack / Deadly Aim / Combat Expertise (Page 66-67), aka "The feats that give too much."

(A) Power attack should be 1-for-1, not 2-for-1 for 2-handed weapons. 2-for-1 is too easy to exploit with weapons/feats that then "double" damage further.
(B) Both of these feats should only go to 5 points, as should Combat Expertise. If players wish to Power Attack/Deadly Aim/Combat Expertise for more than 5 points, institute "Improved", "Greater", and "Master" versions of each with the previous tier as prerequisites to allow them to go further. Each tier to improve it by +5, to a max of +20 possible if a creature/player has all 4 feats.

Goal of tweak: limit overpowered nature of these feats and slow down somewhat the "arms race" of "I do 1d8+400 damage then double it with Feat X" builds. Especially limit oversized monsters that gain ridiculous strength bonuses from size increases due to hit dice advancement.

#2 - Combat Expertise (Page 66)

This feat should apply when declaring the "full defense" option as well. Otherwise, you have players declaring they are Fighting Defensively and striking the floor, the nearest rock, a nearby chair, etc... to get into fighting stance.

Sorry if this is in the wrong place but I couldn't find a spot for "magic item" discussion:

Regarding Stat bump items (Page 140-141):

You've got all physical stats on belt, all mental on headband. While I agree the old "wisdom/constitution neck slot collision" effect was a problem, the idea of sticking three stats on an item seems overkill. Plus, the current setup still causes problems for classes (like monk and ranger) that have more "prime" stats to feed than other classes (fighter, cleric, etc).

For example: it's now quite easy for a Cleric to grab a belt for Constitution and Wisdom (at easy base prices for each), while the poor Monk is trying to feed all three physical stats plus his Wisdom as well, at the exaggerated prices of the 3-stat physical belt.

Suggestion for alternate: allow for any torso-based slot item (head, neck, belt, vest only) to be imbued with a given single stat bump from +2 to +6 on base price. This allows people to find/buy/craft appropriate bumps (up to 4 of their 6 stats if they are willing to forgo other items from those slots) without collision, while hopefully preventing (as possible should someone run a "monty haul" pathfinder setup) people somehow getting +6 to all six stats in only two slots.

Yes, the classes requiring 3-4 "prime" stats are still penalized compared to the 2-"prime" classes, but at least they would have a little easier time of it.