| Wordmeiser |
With all due respect, I have to say that many of these fixes fail to... well... fix the problems that the classes faced. Maybe this is addressed in other Paizo material; I don't know--I honestly haven't seen much of it, so I may well be working under flawed assumptions. I'd like to post what I think about each of the classes, but it will probably take a while so I'm only going to talk about my impressions on a couple now.
Anyway--
The Arcane Archer
The entry requirements are too strict in both the original AA and in this one. You might think about dropping them to something along the lines of BAB +4, 1st level spellcasting and 2-3 Archery feats. If you want to delay entry by a few levels, I'd recommend 8 ranks in Spellcraft or Spot too. Judging by the other classes, though, you don't think early PrC entry is much of an issue. It's mostly a matter of taste, anyway.
The class still features its one glaring weakness from the original version--no spellcasting advancement. Even if you have class abilities to make up for weak casting, the spellcasting level spent on entry is inelegant and nearly useless for the Archer. I would recommend 8/10 progression if you want to leave the class abilities weak, 6/10 if you want them to be stronger.
The 1/day arrow attacks just aren't worthwhile. Seeker Arrow and Phase Arrow let you land 2 attacks per day that you might not be able to make otherwise. This might be nice once in a while, but archery damage comes from taking lots of attacks--you just don't do enough damage with an arrow for this to be worth a standard action. If one arrow's enough to kill an enemy, the baddy probably wasn't a threat in the first place. If it isn't, you'll need to find a position to attack the target anyway, so the time saved through the special arrow is basically wasted. I would recommend making these attacks work along the lines of your Paladin Smite or the Lurk Augment--Take a Swift action a limited number of times per day (maybe 1/2 AA lvl + Casting Stat?) to turn the next arrow attack into a Seeker Arrow or a Phase Arrow. This would make the abilities worthwhile, but would still be a long way from game-breaking: an Imbued Arrow will be able to deliver an Antimagic Field through a closed door, a full attack will ignore the miss chance on its highest-modified to-hit roll.
Hail of Arrows is an inelegant ability in the first place, changing its potency with the number of enemies in an encounter. Leaving it 1/day just makes it worse. Along the same lines as I was using for Seeking Arrow and Phase Arrow, I would recommend turning this into a Swift-Action boost that grants an extra arrow shot (or two, if that doesn't seem like enough) during a full round attack.
Death Arrow's fixed DC is a joke. If this is going to be a class feature, making it 20+Casting Stat would be a start. I would prefer replacing it entirely with a swift action ability that made all arrow attacks for one round bestow 1 negative level, no save. It really depends on how much you like the "Death Arrow" concept, I guess.
Also, when considering whether anything the Arcane Archer can do is "broken," you should probably compare it to a Bow-weilding Arcane Trickster. The AT does an extra 7d6 with each arrow and has 17/20 spellcasting (and the latter alone will often be enough to catch up on attacks per round and damage per attack; the Sneak Attack is just gravy on the cake, as they say).
The Assassin
The problem here is largely a problem with the Poison system. If there were cheap potent poisons available, it would be worthwhile. Without those, the poison abilities are nearly useless.
I would raise the skill points by 2 or increase the BAB to 10/10. This fix loses the versatility of Assassin spells without gaining any new utility options. Either turn it into a real combat class or turn it into a skillful class if you want it to be worth a character's time.
The Dragon Disciple
I don't know where to find Bloodline Powers now, so I don't have much to say about them. The free caster level at level 1 bothers me; it seems like this is going to turn into yet another 1-level dip that's both foolish to pass up and foolish to develop further. I would think that if you're sticking dead caster levels into the class progression, you'd do it at level 1.
The Duelist
You've changed a bit of this class, but you haven't really fixed anything. The problem with the original Duelist was that it was a combat class that didn't have anything to do in combat* beside "not get killed"--and with its crap saves, it wasn't even very good at that. I don't see this Duelist having fixed any of that.
*One-handed weapons mean that power attack and most combat maneuvers are out; no source of significant damage leaves the Duelist with nothing to do.
The prerequisites are pretty rough for the class; I would probably replace the entry-delaying +6 BAB with 8 ranks of Tumble.
The class has neither important saving throw. If the class abilities don't provide some defenses, playing this will be ugly.
I like that you've allowed the Duelist to wear armor; that part of the original was annoying and poorly-designed (the central class feature would be ignored entirely until level 3 or 4).
Starting Precise Strike from level 1 isn't a bad idea, but the ability needs a boost. By fighting with a single Rapier or Dagger--presumably the intended weapons--a Duelist is sacrificing a huge amount of damage. 1 point per Duelist level just isn't enough to make it up. 1d6 every odd-numbered level would probably be a better bet. Just compare it to the Two-Weapon Fighting Rogue: the Duelist won't even do half as much damage, but will do it more easily. That seems like a better trade-off.
I like Parry and Riposte, but they make some of the other abilities (namely Elaborate Defense) seem repetitious.
When I think of an interesting way of boosting the Duelist's Fortitude and Will saves, I'll post it. I'm not thinking of anything that feels *right* at the moment.