Muspellsheimr's page

thought it made perfect sense that someone wielding a dagger should usually be able to stab faster than someone wielding a greatsword

Anyone with even moderate experience with historical armed combat can tell you that is wrong.

While initiative point systems can have a lot of advantages, it is very easy to make them too complex for practical use, and yours is pretty high on that scale. If the goal is realism, as you seem to imply, you need to first understand what is realistic, which you do not.

"What if it was one guy with six guns?"

And Shepherds we shall be

Azran wrote:

I will show you what I mean. The arcanist prepared the following spells: ...

I think this is all that needs to be said as to why the arcanist's spellcasting mechanic is so stupidly powerful.

Not really. The spells he had prepared / used are identical to what a sorcerer is capable of. The comparison should be arcanist & sorcerer, not arcanist & wizard. The arcanist gains the ability to change their 'known' spells on a daily basis; in exchange, they can cast significantly fewer of those spells, and further use their daily spells as fuel for their other class abilities.

It is not the spellcasting that makes the current version of the arcanist overpowered, but the spell enhancement from their arcane reservoir, along with a couple of their exploits.

They have addressed the issues with the class, and certainly improved it. However, I feel they didn't really fix anything, just apply a few patches.

The real problem is the harsh restrictions imposed by the Raging Song, severely limiting the class to who its buffs can apply to (and it is very much still a support class, so that matters a lot). Relaxing the restrictions on recipients of the song would go a long way to fixing the Skald, even if it is imposing penalties on skills or requiring concentration checks to cast spells (as long as it is not to severe, at least). Even with that change, it feels to much like a Bard archetype instead of a BardBarian gestalt.

Instead, I would suggest a redesign of the class concept. Reduce the spellcasting to a level 1 to 4 progression (Paladin/Ranger advancement), keeping the Cure line and buffs from the bard, but less focus on enchantment - possibly a new spell list entirely. Increase base attack to full progression and hit dice to d10's. Increase the rounds of use on the Raging Song to 4 + Cha modifier, +2 per level after first. Keep the rage power progression at every three levels, but play around with other abilities to accommodate the loss of spellcasting, keeping them on theme.

I still think that arcane exploits should follow either hexes progression (1st level and every even level) or talent/rage powers progression (every even level).

The reason they are every odd-numbered level is due to the arcanists current spell progression. If the exploits were moved to even numbered levels, every odd level beyond first would be a 'dead' level. As is, the arcanists second level is a dead level.

Personally, I fully support changing the arcanist (& every other spontaneous full caster class) to use the 1-3-5-etc advancement for new spell levels, and move the arcanist exploits to even levels, starting at level two.

With the addition of granting access to sorcerer bloodline or wizard specialist abilities, I feel the DC boost from the arcane reservoir's basic function is to strong (especially with the exploit increasing it). I suggest redesigning the basic function of the reservoir points to something else.

Many of the exploits should be revised, some underpowered, others overpowered. With the fix to spell tinkering however (which went a little to far in my opinion), none stand out as grossly broken.

Yes, of course. But it doesn't protect against ALL charms and compulsions. It also protects against suggestion for instance, which isn't on the list.

Read it again. What you seem to think it says is "(including someenchantment [charm] effects and enchantment [compulsion] effects)".

This is incorrect. As written, Protection from Evil blocks all charm effects, compulsion effects, and any other effects that exercise control over the subject.

Whether this is the intended functionality or not is largely irrelevant. Until a change is made in an errata document, that is how the spell works. FAQ's are not errata; they are used for clarification, not functionality changes, and are little better than declaration of intent.

This is something which you can already do with Extend Spell to an extent. A level 11 Wizard can cast Extended Overland Flight and have it last for the next 22 hours, rest up and the next day replace that spell slot with something else when he goes adventuring.

The difference is that the Spell Tinkering arcanist ability, without a once-per-spell type of restriction, allows an arcanist with 16 intelligence to do this with 'hour/level' duration spells starting at level 3. At level 4, they can turn any second 'minute/level' spell buff (including those with CL3+ from items) into a 5+ day effect with two days of preparation, which then just continues to grow exponentially with one point from their pool each day.

At level 6, an arcanist can with one day of prep, cast one of their third level spells with a duration measured in 'rounds/level' and increase the duration to 118.5 hours.

Lacking a once-per-spell restriction on Spell Tinkering (something that needs to be added), as part of your previous day preparation, you could easily have done this entire thing with a ~40 hour duration improved invisibility, true seeing, and greater arcane sight. I have not done the math fully, but I suspect you would have more than enough points to support another two or three spells of choice like stoneskin and (from a scroll) shapechange; with an additional day of preparation, you could have half your spell list active.

Also, without the once-per-spell restriction an Arcanist of this level can generate an infinite duration time stop.

The purpose of this post is to provide an analysis and suggestions to the race building system. It does not (for the most part) address any single ability, over- or under-costed options, etc. Any point values presented are used to illustrate and provide examples, not to be balanced or regarded as final.

Creating a Baseline
Although this has been brought up before (and apparently going to be fixed), I would like to quickly rehash that using a category of races (in this case, the base 7 in the core book), and adjusting the value of certain abilities to shoehorn them into the same total is a bad idea for a variety of reasons. Instead, select a single race to use as a baseline - I would use Human - to measure everything against.

Determine what Racial Point total you want this base race to use, and work from there. Currently, the system is set to use 10 as this base value. Unfortunately, this leaves little room to work with for individual values (assuming you want to avoid fractions or decimals - something I would strongly suggest). Increasing this base to 30 RP gives a much greater range of values we can work with, while remaining small enough to not appear daunting.

Ability Scores
As it stands now, restricting the ability racial modifiers to predetermined categories severely limits the flexibility of the system for no real gain. Having a separate 'advanced ability score bonuses' section is essentially unnecessary. Providing the foundation for building your own arrays would be much more useful. Simply put, have the value of each possible modifier presented, and have the player or GM assign the modifiers as needed, adding the total for the final cost.

To illustrate this, lets setup an outline:

-2 to a fixed ability is worth -8 points
+0 is our baseline, costing 0 points
+2 to a fixed ability costs 8 points

Because a +2 to an ability of your choice is obviously more valuable than a +2 to Intelligence, it should cost more. However, because it is not actually any more powerful, the cost of such versatility needs to be minor. Lets set it at a 25% markup (this can be extended to everything else as well - a chosen feat is worth 25% more than a fixed feat, for example).

+2 to a chosen ability costs 10 points

Next, we examine modifiers of greater values. The value of a +4 to one ability is generally superior to that of +2 to two separate abilities, so it needs to cost more. It is probably not, however, the equivalent to three separate +2's. A +4 modifier is worth 2.5 times that of a +2. This can be extended as far as is needed a +6 is worth 2.5 times that of a +4, etc.

-4 to a fixed ability is worth -20 points
+4 to a fixed ability costs 20 points
+4 to a chosen ability costs 25 points

This also gives us an important limiting factor - you cannot take two +2's to a single ability for a +4, you cannot take a +2 and a +4 to a single ability for a +6. Simply put, they do not stack. This should also apply to the flexible modifiers to prevent munchkinism - a race can have +2 strength, and a +2 chosen, but that chosen cannot also be placed into strength.

Creature Types & Subtypes
Another common complaint I have seen is the creature type prerequisites found on many abilities. These complaints are justified - having these restrictions adds little or nothing to the system, and so should be used sparingly, if at all.

Having said that, one of my complaints is that the selection of subtypes is extremely limited. I would strongly suggest pricing out every type and subtype, as the sum of it's component abilities. If space constraints are an issue, include a page reference to the Beastiary appendix instead of the full description.

Special Abilities & other Racial Features
Similar to my complaint about types & subtypes, this section feels incomplete, at best. Include values for every racial feature of the 'base' races, as well as the key-worded abilities in the Beastiary appendix 3. Be as nondescript as possible (ie +2 [Skill] instead of +2 Perception), and remember the nonlinear price scaling I mentioned before (fast healing 10 is worth more than twice fast healing 5).

This incompleteness not only applies to the abilities listed, but individual abilities themselves. For example, damage reduction is missing b/p/s weapon types and materials (although some of those are listed as entirely separate abilities), and dr /-.

Templates, Power Level, and Point Buy
First, whenever I say 'build points' or BP, I am specifically referring to the attribute points used in point-buy character generation. Also, when I say 'level adjustment', I am speaking of the Beastiary appendix 4 rules of using the monster's CR as 'class levels', and generally assume LA and CR are equivalent.

I have noticed that, while doable, the system doesn't currently support racial templates independently of a base race very well. Just something to look at.

When determining the value of the seven base races and other CR 0 creatures (such as Tiefling), it is essentially unavoidable that they will not all come out the same. Instead, we will have a range of RP, say 25 to 35, that is the equivalent of a +0 LA. This is largely unimportant for players who prefer dice rolling for character creation, as 'close enough' is probably assumed. For those who use point buy, however, relative balance between races is probably going to be more of a concern. Conveniently, pricing out races gives us an excellent way to tie in to point-buy generation, balance out races, and provide an alternative to the level adjustment system all at once (level adjustment generally being a clumsy but 'good enough' balance for more powerful races).

To do so, we simply need to find the RP to BP value conversion. For this, assume that 5 RP is worth 2 build points. Now, lets say that humans are worth 30 RP, while dwarves are worth 35 and halflings are 25. So in a 20 point-buy game, playing a dwarf will 'cost' 2 BP to account for being a stronger race, while halflings are given an additional 2 BP; the dwarf would be built with 18 BP, the human with 20, and the halfling with 22.

This is easily extended to replace a level adjustment system. If 10 RP is worth +1 CR, then instead of increasing the characters effective level / reducing class level, playing a +1 LA race 'costs' 4 build points.

Final Thoughts
At this point, the only thing really preventing this race creation system from also being an advanced monster creation system is the lack of racial hit dice. Increase the range of supported sizes from 'tiny' to 'large' to include all size categories, and tie racial hit dice into the creature types (outsider racial hit dice are 5 RP each, humanoid are 3 RP each) and you have a very versatile and effective system.

I think you are going the wrong direction with this. Instead of converting the Pathfinder system to the Zendikar setting, you should convert the Zendikar setting to work within Pathfinder, with some possible additional material &/or restrictions to represent active races.

On a side note, I think that the Dark era of Dominaria and (so far) Innistrad are far stronger settings. Of course, I never particularly liked 'pure' adventure campaigns. Ravnica is also a great setting for roleplaying games.

As mentioned by previous posters, the damage scaling on your spells is to high. While using d4's helps a little bit, the first level version should probably scale at half caster level, and the damage caps on the third and fourth level versions are 5 dice higher than they should be.

Additionally, having four separate spells all doing essentially the same thing, all within one level of each other, feels sloppy at best as there is little do distinguish them from each other, and little reason to use the higher-level ones until you have already passed the damage cap of the previous level (something that does not happen the level you gain access to them).

I have something similar I have been playing around with for an upcoming game you may be interested in using instead. The conjuration Orb variants I outline below are probably the best suited for what you are looking for, and changing the name from 'Orb' to 'Spear' is inconsequential.

Force Bolt, Lesser
School: Evocation [Force]; Level: Sorcerer/Wizard 1
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Components: V, S
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Target: 1 creature or object
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None; Spell Resistance: Yes

Lesser force bolt deals 1d6 force damage, plus 1d6 per two caster levels above 1st to a maximum of 5d6 at level 9.

Force Bolt
School: Evocation [Force]; Level: Sorcerer/Wizard 4
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Components: V, S
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Target: 1 creature or object
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None; Spell Resistance: Yes

Force bolt deals 1d6 force damage per caster level to a maximum of 15d6 at level 15.

Force Bolt, Lesser Analysis:
Most direct comparison is against Magic Missile. First, lets look at damage values. Lesser force bolt will deal 1 to 6 damage with an average of 3.5 at level 1, compared to 2 to 5 with an average of 3.5 of Magic Missile. At level 9 (the damage cap for both spells), it will deal 5-30 damage with an average of 17.5, compared to 10-25 with an average of 17.5. The spell trades a slightly higher possible damage output in exchange for a lower minimum, while overall basically being the same.

This spell trades the ability of Magic Missile to divide its damage between multiple targets in exchange for the ability to damage items. Because the spell automatically hits, this is a possible concern for sunder attempts, but because it still has to deal with Hardness, this strategy is impractical at best against most weapons until nearing the damage cap at level 7. Even then damage would be relatively low, particularly against magic weapons.

Other than that, the two spells are essentially identical. As a side benefit, it is not blocked by effects such as Shield - something that always felt like a random and poor design choice of Magic Missile to begin with.

Force Bolt Analysis:
As a 4th level single-target spell, the damage is not particularly impressive. This spell stands out in that it is force damage and automatically hits, as well as being one of the few decent damage based spells of its level. Because of its damage value, using it for sundering attempts becomes a valid option and possible area of concern. If this does turn out to be problematic, one possible solution would be to have the spell (and the lesser version by extension) deal half damage to objects. That, combined with Hardness, would make this a possible strategy, but probably not particularly effective.

Variants:
I have considered Force Orb as a possible Conjuration alternative to these. The only changes would be that spell resistance does not apply, but the spells require a touch attack to hit. This nicely solves the possible sundering issues I outlined by removing the automatic-hit aspect, while also creating a stronger distinction between the lesser version and Magic Missile. In exchange for not automatically hitting, they can now affect creatures with spell resistance/immunity freely.

Here's a modified version that fixes the balance issue, and also gives you a slightly larger (but selective) benefit.

Spell Versatility
Prereq: Spontaneous spellcasting class with limited spells known
Benefit: Choose a spellcasting class other than the one for which you qualified for this feat. Each time you add a spell to your spells known due to an increase in level in the qualifying class, you may instead add to your class list and your spells known any spell that a caster of two levels lower in the chosen class could have learned. That spell has a level equal to the highest level of spell slot available at the time you learn it. You may not later retrain these spells.
You may learn a total number of versatile spells equal to your modifier in the spellcasting ability score of the chosen class (minimum 1).

Thought I'd chime in because I am updating and expanding a feat I designed & used in D&D not to long ago. The original version functioned specifically for Sorcerers accessing the Cleric spell list, with the limit of spells 1 level or more below the highest level spell you can cast, and if the spell appears on both spell lists, available only at the sorcerer spell level.

Your idea of character level -2 works nicely for expanding the spell to allow other lists, but I would not place the spell at the highest level you can cast. Leave the spell at it's actual level (or primary spellcasting class level, if higher). Unfortunately, this still allows the possibility of abuse with Bard-esque lists; not sure how to solve that yet. The never being able to retrain them is a pointless restriction; remove it.

Another change I would make is add a spell to choose a spell. This disables the feat for Beguiler/Warmage type classes (who could easily abuse it horribly), while still allowing benefit from Advanced Training type class features, and the Expanded Arcana feat.

Assuming I remember, I will post a writeup for the (updated) feat itself when I wake up.

I 'created' a user profile, but it appears that simply gives others the ability to contact me, not the other way around. And you apparently also do not have a profile, so I can't send you anything. If you send me some contact information, we can discuss the possibility of working together in a bit more detail. Until then, I will simply continue working on mine as I have been.

@SmiloDan
I would actually be interested in making a joint project of working on these classes with you, but cannot seem to figure out how to send a private message to another user. Let me know if you are interested.

Hexblade: My largest problem with your version of the hexblade is them retaining the spellcasting they had in 3.5. The hexblade should focus on their supernatural curses to make them unique, and including minor spellcasting with that creates a split of focus. There is really no need for it to remain there.

I also do not like the hexblade arcana ability or the arcane pool's influence in other abilities (such as arcane resistance). I would limit arcane pool to the hexblade curse & aura of unluck, change the name, and replace hexblade arcana with something else. I have a personal dislike of the Witch hexes, but I must admit they are convenient & many are appropriate. I may end up using them in mine simply to avoid unnecessary work & bloating the system.

Overall a reasonably solid class, but not what I feel a hexblade should be. You also might want to check your wording for aura of unluck - why would the hexblade want to spend their own resources to give themselves a 50% miss chance, instead of say, the attacks made against them?

Warlock: Why on earth would you give them the hex ability? It does not fit the class concept, it splits their focus, & ultimately has no reason to be there.

Two & Three blasts - this is actually something I had in my earlier designs, but dropped it for a variety of reasons, the most prominent probably being its interaction with area effect blast shapes. I tried putting "multiblast" as a shape itself, but that didn't work how I wanted either.

Other than that, it actually looks similar to my project, although the pacts are handled differently - mine function much closer to the sorcerer bloodlines, & govern a larger portion of the class features. Also of note is that my design is focused around at will or continuous abilities. If an ability has limited uses, it has no place on the warlock.

Actually, I disagree with a lot of this. I'm interested in the sheet primarily because there seems to be a "combat" side and a "non-combat" side that I find refreshing and interesting. Most of these changes would make the sheet into little more than a carbon copy of what has come before, which would kill a lot of the sheet's uniqueness. That said, this is your project- I'll print out a copy of this as is if you plan on changing it as suggested here.

First, this is not my project. I simply made some suggestions for jtokay to consider for improving his sheet.

As for my suggestions on the sheet itself, nearly all are focused around getting skills to the front of the sheet & visual appeal - this is because not having to flip your sheet over every 10 seconds is actually a good thing. It is up to the players to know their character's abilities & possessions. If they commonly forget things, forcing them to flip the sheet over to look at skills is not going to help.

By far my personal favorite base classes (apart from Core) where the Warlock & Hexblade.

I am currently working on revising both classes (soon to be followed by Scout & Favored Soul) for an upcoming Pathfinder game. As I am currently only filling out missing abilities & fine tuning for the Warlock, I expect a fully playable final draft by the end of this week, if not earlier.

The Hexblade is in a similar, but less finished state as the Warlock; I have decided how the abilities work & their layout, but the abilities themselves are largely unfinished.

Both will be posted in the homebrew section of this site once finished.

Edit: Thought I would give a brief rundown of my design.
Warlock
Eldritch Blast: One of the defining features of the warlock class, it remains largely unchanged. Damage progression is that of Sneak Attack, and range is Short at 1st level, increasing to Medium at 8th & Long at 17th.

Invocations: Another defining feature of the warlock, invocations are again largely unchanged. Number of invocations known is smoothed out a bit, but still begins at 1 and ends at 12. Invocations are spell-like abilities usable at will; they function exactly like spell-like abilities - no random exceptions. The invocations themselves will have been rebalanced but essentially function the same way, including Eldritch Essence & Blast Shapes.

Pact: The pact is the source of the warlock's power. Originally purely for flavor, it now has a mechanical function similar to a sorcerer's bloodline. The five pacts I am using are Celestial, Elemental, Fey, Infernal, Shadow.

Other: At low levels, warlocks gain a continuous Detect Magic effect that improves to Arcane Sight & Greater Arcane Sight as they level. At high levels, warlocks gain the ability to plane shift at will, with some restrictions (such as self only). This improves to pinpoint accuracy (greater plane shift) near level 20.

Hexblades

Combat: Hexblades have full base attack progression & d10 hit dice, with martial weapon and light (& possibly medium) armor proficiencies. They are a support fighter & debuffer.

Curses: A hexblade's curse is a supernatural ability usable a number of times each day equal to one half their hexblade level plus their charisma modifier. Curses are debuff effects requiring a swift action to activate & a will save to negate. A hexblade knows 1 curse at level 1 and learns additional curses as they gain levels, up to 8 at level 20. Curses range in power in a manner similar to a warlock's invocations, & become accessible at comparable levels.

Other: As the hexblade levels, they gain access to a number of other abilities, largely increasing their resistance to magical effects in Arcane Resistance & Mettle (and a new Improved Mettle ability, similar to Improved Evasion), as well as additional curse-type effects to improve their combat abilities such as Cursed Blade. Aura of Unluck as been reworked as an emanation debuff effect (no save). Activation requires expending uses of the Curse ability.

Better than the other one in a number of ways; good enough that I might use it.

I do have a few suggestions though. As mentioned, the skills on the back sheet is quite annoying, & the Feats/Special Abilities on the front is largely unnecessary. As such, I would advise some rearranging.

Description / Date Created: The area allocated to the character description is far to short to be of any actual use in my experience. Additionally, if the date the character is created has any relevance, it would be better placed in a "notes" section (alternatively, put "residence" in a notes section, moving "date created" up). Removing both frees up some room on the front page. Move everything up a line.

Edit: There is very little space on the sheet for classes & levels. Instead of shifting everything else up a line, maybe use that space to shuffle things around for more class/level space.

Base Attack Bonus: While I like the current placing, some room needs to be freed up on that side if skills are to fit on the front page. Move it to the upper right, next to ability scores & initiative/speed.

Defenses: The placement of defenses with armor etc. is very well done. Only change I would make is to move it up (or down) into newly freed space.

Edit: After looking at it a bit more, there won't be enough room to move the offense section under defense as intended. Hit points are currently semi-hidden in the middle of defenses, and should give enough room to fit the offense as intended. Move hit points to the traditional location right of ability scores, just above base attack.

Traits & Money: Unnecessary here & takes up room. Move both to the back of the sheet.

Offense: The offense section is currently where I would place skills. Move it into the (now) free space on the left of the sheet. You will likely have to remove one or two "Weapon/Attack" sections for it to fit. Not a big loss - most characters will never use that many of them.

Special Abilities & Feats: Again, these sections are unnecessary on the front of the sheet. Move them to the back. Additionally, the feats section seems a little small. Expand it by 2 lines.

Skills: I like the layout, and the use of greyscale in the modifiers box for "trained only" skills. I would suggest making those boxes a little lighter though - you want it dark enough you can distinguish them at a glance, but no more. The darker they are, the more difficult it is to read anything written in them. It did take me a bit to figure out what the Ranks section at the bottom was for. Once I did, I like the idea, but better labeling may be beneficial. Other than that, just move it to the front of the sheet. Cut (or add) blank skill sections to fit.

Magic: The "magic trap" was mentioned on the other thread you linked to. This is actually a very good point I had never really thought of before. Many characters will never use the spells section of a sheet, and many of those that do simply will not have enough room. I strongly suggest moving it to an entirely separate sheet dedicated to the subject.

Languages: Takes up little room, provides adequate space. Move as necessary to accommodate stuff coming in from the front page. No other change needed.

Gear/Possessions: Far to little room allocated. Hey look - there's a bunch of free space where the magic section used to be! The bottom of this is also where the "money" section should be located. Might consider including "treasure/gems" there as well.

Notes: If there is any room remaining on the back of the sheet (I suspect there will be), turn it into a "notes" section.

Ascetics: While functionality should always be the primary goal of this kind of design, having it look good should not be undervalued. You made excellent use of fonts towards this end, but that isn't always enough. Two (relatively) simple alterations to this sheet could be made to improve the visual appeal; I suggest using layers in the pdf file so those who want to keep a "printer-friendly" version can simply turn them off.

First, use the full colored Pathfinder logo.

Second, notice how the Pathfinder books are not simply printed on blank white sheets - they have some excellent background art that adds flavor while reading, without actually impeding anything. Add this to your sheet. Unfortunately, I am unsure about any possible legal restrictions on that background - while I believe there would not be any problems with it's use, it is something you should probably look into before implementing. If it becomes a problem, consider looking for something similar to use.

Edit: Another thing to consider; when I said I liked the ascetics of the sheet included in the core rulebook over the one in the other threat, I was talking in particular about the tapers/points used at the ends of different section labels, such as base attack & skills. If you include something like that on your sheet, it could greatly increase visual appeal. This is not necessary though, as the simple dashes you use to each side actually combine very well with the font.

Kierato wrote:

Trained only means that you must have at least one skill point in it to use it, anybody can invest rank into any skill.

Oops, didn't realize that. My group still plays mostly 3.5 because were lazy and poor.

You realize that Trained Only means the exact same thing in 3.5 as it does Pathfinder, right?

I think you over analyzed it Jason

No, I don't think he did. This alteration changes much more than just the survivability of 1st level characters & reduce hit points of high level characters.

While the change in total hit points are small overall, comparatively, this rule drastically increases the value placed on having a high Constitution score (which in my experience is the 3rd or 4th most important stat, outside of specific builds & concepts), and adds an additional layer of complexity that is entirely unnecessary.

What I would suggest using instead is a simple boost to starting hit points:

A character's hit points are equal to their Constitution score, plus (Class HD + Con Modifier) each level. Characters do not receive maximum hit points at 1st level.

So you're saying you won't use a sheet that has knowledge skills on it that you don't need? Couldn't you just, say, not use them?
Michael

There is a difference between having a character sheet with area's not applicable to the character being played, and having a character sheet with area's that are not applicable to the game the sheet was designed for.

In other words, no I will not use this sheet & that is one of the primary reasons why. I also personally do not enjoy the block layout of the sheet, & the grayscale shading. Also, Knowledge (local) is not region-specific, so having the blank line next to it is unnecessary (again, outside of house rules)

The ascetic design of the character sheet included in the Pathfinder core rulebook actually looks excellent; the sheet just has a few issues with layout. Personally, I would much rather have seen an improved version of that sheet.

As for your knowledge additions, why exactly would you introduce 5 redundant new knowledge skills?
Dragon Lore = Arcana
Faerie Lore = Nature
Sea Lore = Geography
Undead = Religion
War/Battle Lore = History