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Hey, I design 2 feats for dragon shaman a while back, so here they are, you can use them if you like.

Persistent Aura [general]
Your auras still function under adverse conditions.
Prerequisites : Cha 13, Ability to project an aura as a class feature.
Benefit : First, the aura still function when you are unconscious (it still cease to fuction if your dead). You still need a swift action to activate the aura, so you can’t activate it while unconscious (it must be active before you fall unconscious). As always, the aura cease functionning if you die.
Second, the aura can still work in area where magic does not normally function (such as in an antimagic field). The character can maintain an active aura in such place by making a successfull Will save against DC 20 or the DC of the caster for that type of spell (6th level abjuration spell for an antimagic field for exemple), whichever is higher, as a swift action. The aura remains active for a number of round equals to his character level, at which time he needs to make the check again. If he fails the save or if he tries to activate a new aura, he must spend a move action and make a Will save against the same DC. Only one attempt can be made each round.

MIGHTY Aura [draconic]
You channel the might of your ancestor into your auras.
Prerequisites : Cha 15, Draconic aura class feature, dragontouched (or dragonblood subtype), aura bonus +3.
Benefit : Choose one aura you know. You gain additionnal benefit when you project that aura.
Energy shield: Half the damage of the energy shield becomes untyped, not subject to any kind energy resistance or immunities.
Power: The damage bonus from the power aura increases by +2 and anyone who benefits from this aura treats his weapon as magic for purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Presence: The aura grant frigthful presence (as the feat), but only the character who initiate the aura gains the benefit.
Resistance : The aura grant a bonus to saving throws against attack of the type it grants resistance to equals to the aura bonus, as well as the benefit of a endure element spell.
Sense: The aura also grant blind-fight (as the feat), and an additionnal +2 on search check to find secret doors.
Toughness: Choose an alignement opposed to one of the component of your alignement (for example, a lawful evil character could choose chaotic or good); the damage reduction granted by this aura becomes 1/magic and (type chosen). (For example, a lawful evil character who choses good grant damage reduction 1/magic and good to all target.) The damage reduction granted by the aura increases to 2+(aura bonus).
Vigor: The fast healing continues working even if the character as more than half is normal maximum hit point, but only for the character that generates the aura. Other target affected by the aura still benefit from fast helaing if there below or at half their full normal hit point.
Special : This feat can be taken multiple time. Each time, chose a different aura to which the benefits apply. The secondary feats granted by this aura cannot be used to qualify for other feat or prestige class.

I had other versions for the vigor also, in case it was found to be too strong. One was to give one of your affected ally temporary hit points equal to your level that last for 1 round, once per round. Another was to grant benefit of the diehard feat to all affected by the aura.

I always liked the idea of the hexblade, but always thought it had a poor treatment. Espacially when the duskblade came out, with all the armored casting and combat abilities, and although its spells were not as strong in terms of versatility, they were more offensive. I thought of some fixing in the past. He should have FULL CASTER level, not half is level, for variable effects of spell based on caster level. Spellcasting is a dominant feature of the hexblade, unlike the paladin or ranger. Also, I always liked the Spell Shield alternate class feature (originally desinged for the sorcerer in Dungeonscape), which I find would fit the hexblade role well as a fighter-type character, so he could have that also. And perhaps add a few item creation in the list of bonus feat, like craft magic weapons, armors, and wondrous items, just to add some options.

Unlike the cleric, the dragon shaman do not have proficiencies with heavy armor. Also, the cleric has spellcasting, which is replace by auras, breath weapon and a few other abilities for the dragon shaman, which in my opinion does not quite compare. So I think d10 for hit dice his very reasonable, and I would not be against a d12, espacially if you think of the dragon shaman as sort of a 'barbarian' version of the cleric. Don't get me wrong, I love the class, but I think it might be missing a little something with the now improved and more balanced classes of Pathfinder RPG.

I would give the dragon shaman a little 'upgrade' (which I will do in my upcoming pathfinder game), espacially when considering the new Dragon Disciple, who orginally filled the role of the 'dragon' adept, now has d12 HD(according to the pathfinder reference document) and a better spellcasting. I did not yet decided what and how exactly, but it would (will) be along those lines:
- Give bonus to str, con, int and cha, the same as the dragon disciple, spread over its 20 levels, effectively becoming a half dragon, which is more in line with the character;
- Instead of doing this as an option, give access to invocations (from one of the spalt book), possibly 3 or 4, and 2-3 breath effect, possible at level 10, 15 and 20, considering the effective level for purpose of qualifying for invocations and/or breath effects to be 1/2 the dragon shaman level;
- A rage ability, fulled by draconic power, which gives additional strengh, hp, fort and will, and possibly makes his aura stronger or gives it an additionnal effect for the duration of the rage (through the use of rage points similar to the barbarian). Possibly add claws and bite while raging, and wing buffet when he gets is wing, giving an attack routine of claw/claw/bite/wings or something like that;
- Or even a combination of the above.

In the first and second case, I'd use d8 for hit dice, in the other case I'd leave it d10. No change to the BAB though. A few more skill points also, possibly 4+int, to be more along the lines of the powerful dragons. The dragon shaman definetly deserves to be brought over to Pathfinder. I guess It could be renamed to avoid copyright problems.

Just to nitpick a little -- in Mutants & Masterminds, the Defense bonus is a combination of dodging and resisting attacks, just like in D&D (by default, half is a dodge bonus and half isn't). I don't know about True20, though.

Well it does represent your ability to resist attack, whether by dodging, parying or other possible ways, but toughness represent your ability to resist DAMAGE from an attack, to resist the actual injury. It represents better the fact that someone could be quite slow and not be good at dodging while being able to withstand tremendous amount of physical punishment. Of course toughness applies to all kind of damages not just physical (melee or ranged) attacks.

I mean you can have a guy who is easy to hit (low AC) but difficult to injure (high DR). In the case of magic attack (spells), this would still look like touch AC and ignore armor DR, so not much changes. Except it scales a little with level.

In the end, I don't personnaly think the touch AC is such a problem. Most magical attack simply disreagard armor completly anyway, instead allowing for a different form of 'protection' (saving throws, spell resistance).

I think this comes from the way of seeing with AC is. In the beginning of D&D, AC use to represent how hard it was to injure the character, whether he was good at dodging or was wearing heavy armor. Round use to be one minute, you only had 1 or 2 attacks, hp actually represented your ability to avoid the one fatal blow, by luck or dodging or parrying or whatever way that was physically taxing. It was assume that you would be trying to hit many times per round and hitting a few, with the result being the equivalent of one attack per round. Hit point represented your scaling ability to defend yourself, not your ability to take punishment.

This has changed quite a bit in d20 system. Now AC seem to represent more how hard it is to land a blow, an hp seem to be more the actual amount of punishment you can take.

Perhaps you should use an alternative system. Get rid of touch AC, now AC represents how hard it is to connect with attacks; so your touch AC and AC are actually the same thing. It should scale with level (whichever way you prefer), but wearing an armor should reduce your AC instead of increasing it; I suppose an amount equal to the armor check penalty or something similar. In this system armor should offer DR instead, something like DR (armor bonus)/- would seem resonable, or perhaps half of that value. This will suit the view that hp is how much damage you can take before dying.

That sort of system was suggested already in the variant rules of the OGL, or use in variant d20 ruleset (Green Ronin's True20 and Mutant & Mastermind for example, altough the base system substitute wound level to hp, uses two different defense stats to account for how hard you are to hit and how hard you are to injure).

We have to give a chance to Pathfinder to grow. So far I just love what they have done with classes and races. Now everything looks fun to play. I always loved the fighter and always thought they where good and knew how to built powefull ones, but I loved what they've done with it now. I can't wait for the complete feats list coming soon.

Fighter should have more combat technics available to them, something tactical feats somewhat brought in D&D 3.5. Taken in the right combination you'd end up with a lot of different tactics to use in fight.

One option could be to replace the weapon training by the opportunity to specialise more in one weapon in particular. Instead of weapon training you could receive weapon focus and specialisation (and greater version if they aren't already fused together), followed by mastery, supremacy and others inspired by the not-so-OGL of the D&D PHB2.

The Duelist's elaborate parry is also a good ability that could be adapted to fit the unarmored fighter. The requirement of fighting defensively could be replaced or dropped. At any rate, taking a -4 to hit to get a + [level] dodge bonus to AC is not half bad. I didn't see the complete feats list, bonus from dodge could now scale up with level, and the armored training could be replace by something similar called unarmored training. I don't think an entirely new class would be necessary.

I just found out about the pathfinder, and I think it rocks.

I went over the post in the thread quickly to see if my ideas were already covered...and they were.

So a the risk of being repetitive, here are my thoughts.

There are really two sides to this. The 3.5 version, where only the correct type bypasses DR, makes every DR more special. Including for PCs who manage to get some DR (monk, some PrC). Just having your DR busted by magic weapons means most humanoid enemies will be able to bypass your DR at higher level (important rival NPCs). DR 10/evil is usually only bypassed by evil outsiders; most magic just won't cut it (or bludgeon it!:)), enemy will need a very particular weapon. DR silver REQUIRES a silver weapon; lots of monsters don't get to use weapons at all. That way it favors PCs with DR/[type/material/alignement].

However, most PC ended up (at higher levels) with what was required for every situations; a silver weapon and a cold iron weapon and an good weapon etc., or with the appropriate spell to duplicate the required material/type/alignement. With stronger magic weapon busting other types of DR, you take away the some of the pain of having many weapons to do your job. The result will be the same anyway, for pretty much every situation, so why bother. This way favors a less complicated approach for PC vis-à-vis there weapon choice.

I still favor the former version, occasionnaly giving the PC a headache and making some encounter memorable. Of course in the end, every DM can still make your life miserable :(