tsuruki's page

I wouldn't like a new edition.

I would ADORE a cleaned up edition. Kinda like Unchained.
A "Core rulebook MK II" that buffs and debuffs feats, spells, classess and other stuff. Core rules that make two weapon fighting more viable, double weapons marginally useful, new methods to move and full attack (im the the small group that full attacking and multiple attacks are fine, but that we need more ways to close distance without costing an important action).
A new feat line that makes fighting one handed less bad. An offensive-Defensive re-balance, damage can get a little too high sometimes and non-AC stats are a little to hard to acquire.
More ways to implement and use stamina pool. Non-multiclass methods for non-casters to gain limited spellcasting.

Yeah, I would love those.

Isnt the general idea the op is suggestion to introduce nested messages so that different conversations may flourish without tkakign voer a thread?

I.E:
Poster 1: "How could I make this fighter build work."
Poster 2: "By not playing fighter!"
-(Nested conversation starts where people argue about the viability of fighters)
Poster 3: "You could do Y and take X to make it work"
Poster 1: "K-thx."

In the example above the original poster can hope to get a reply without having to work through however many arguments about fighters the thread started.

Aeon: a four-armed cloud featuring a photo taken by the Hubble telescope.

Well a colossal nebula cloud sized monster is a whole other thing :P

"And then the universe collapses in on you in 4 giant fists"

It can be the most interesting creature in the world ability/fluff wise, but if it doesn't look cool I might not even notice it.

Quoted for truth.

put me in the "i like the alignment system" concentration camp

I understand there will never actually be a Roleplaying game exactly designed like what I would dearly like to play but pathfinder comes fairly close.

If there werent so many subsystems in 3.5/pathfinder I would have stopped usign it (Subsystems including crafting, item and objekt hitpoints/hardness, travel timers, trap and hazard rules, monster creation and modification). All of the systems that drive 3.5/pathfinder are what make it so good, and although the use of such systems often leaves you with a lot of stuff to keep track off (Bab + Str + Spell 1 + Spell 2 + Flanking + Charge + Higher ground + Circumstance + Morale + Inspiration + Insight - Sickened - Dazzled and so on).

My mastery of the system lets me do pretty much whatever I like with it. Which is the only reason I havent ever moved entirely to other systems.

The more GM-materials paizo releases the more I love paizo. Yet, I hate 90% of paizo softcover books. Gm material or no. They degrade the system with badly balanced options (Pick your ability bonuses Ashimar/Tiefling).

I will never be able to use every monster paizo has ever released in my adventures, but I still want more!

I hate how sterilized paizo stuff has become by giving in to parents and people with fear problems, which is why I love the horror themed monsters in bestiary 4 even more.

People with problems need to live with those problems on their own and leave other people out of them.

That includes leaving people out of having to smell you if you havent taken a bath for a week.

I actually like AP's but dislike pathfinder society modules, also I understand that we were all young once and am ready to forgive the youthful mistakes the next generations of players have to make for themselves. But damn casuals dont get not respect from me.

Where do you want it to happen? There are loads of places this can work/happen.
A busy market street with moving caravans, the speed at which the carrts must move, horses and other dangers can make falling off a deadly danger.
A fast flowing river with a bunch of boats or prams that get cut loose and speed down the river.
Dinosaur stampede in a narrov cliff valley.
Massive caravan thats in the throes of entering the main gate alongside a bunch of other carts and caravans.

The game mechanics would be simple.
Every round at initiative 0 the "map" moves. You would need appropriately sized tiles for the cart if youre usign a map, cut pieces of paper will of coirse be sufficient.
Each row of tiles has its own speed, so if you have several carts in a row they all move at the same speed, they then pass and overtake each other with their difference in speed, one cart group might move 1 square forward per round, representing its movement speed of 80ft/round vs another cart group´s speed of 75ft/round, a difference of 5ft. Exactly how and why this is happening is up to you to figure out.
Jumping between carts at the same speed ought to be a DC 10 acrobatics test, or DC 5 for players that spend a full round to make the jump safely. Different speed carts would require DC 15 checks (DC 10 safely).

Good luck with your idea.

What books do you have access too?

As a new player I highly reccomend you DO select a class that has some of those resource features, mana, rage, ki or other x/much of per day abilities. The fact is that nearly every class in the game has at least one expendable resourse and those classes that didnt initally have them have gained them through new options and features as the game grew. Even the basic fighter was very recently buffed by the rules for combat tricks in Pathfinder unchained, which gives the fighter a pool of stamina to work with.

Heres a list of all the basic limited resources that i can remember before unchained (not including the really limited stuff like specific rage powers and feats):
Bardic performance, Rage, Channel energy, Wild shape, Ki, Smite, Bloodline powers, School powers. That accounts for all but three classes in the Core rulebook, not counting spells.
Bombs. Mutagens. Challenge. Judgement. Bane. Revelations. Summon monster. Hexes. Thats every class in Advanced players guide.
Arcane pool for Magi.
Arcane reservoir. Bloodrage. Martial flexibility. Animal focus. Inspiration. Spirit magic and hexes. Raging song. Blessings. Fervor. That accounts for every class except slayer in Qdvanced class guide.

In other words. Every class in the game except four has a defining limited use class ability, still not counting spells.
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Thats why I reccomend taking a class with a limited-use resource, because they are integral to the system. They are really easy to manage once you get the hang of it. The classes have very different complexity tiers and are easy/hard to mess up in character creation depending on the class. A Barbarian for example is easy to play and very hard to mess up during creation. All you need is con and str, then power attack ,and youre good to go. A fighter however is a little more prone to fall flat if you choose the wrong feat, and classes like Bard and Rouge really struggle without finesse.

64) Allways use the same mini for human sized BBEG's, make a poiunt of gathering said mini before a session every now and then

Op has a rather unconventional opinion about Enlarge person :P
Also somebody dissed virtue! My Oracle constantly chants Virtue and Guidance while we dungeon delve, it has saved my life!

Well Daze monster has to be the most worthless spell I know if you play pathfinder rules as written, not only is it a bad spell for its level it´s completely inferior to Ear-Piercing scream.
Daze monsters only causes the victim to be dazed, and has a HD cap, ear piercing scream does the same thing but also deals a good bit of damage and is'nt even restricted by HD.

191. Take the leadership feat and train them as clerics. Those babies might be able to pump out up to three castings of CLW per baby per day. More if any of them actually have a moderate wisdom score.

I think its important to differentiate characters that are "evil" from character who "Want to destroy the universe". What exactly makes a character Evil?

In my opinion a person who constantly lies to get ahead in life might be evil. Even evil people have standards though, an evil character might lie about unimportant things to his teammates, but he wouldn't always try to get an uneven split of the loot or maliciously get their teammates in trouble. Evil people need friends and people who they can trust just as much as good people do.

I know an evil player character who rarely lies to other players and rarely to important NPC's but he constantly deceives other characters. One time he faced a BBEG alone, when he realized he could not fight it alone he pledged allegiance to it rather then run away, led it to the other players and stabbed it in the back during the battle (and no this was not another example of BBEG stupidity but a very specific in-game circumstance that ensured the BBEG trusted the evil player that time).

I've played an evil character myself who yearned to become a hero, bu saw no fault in using whatever evil means necessary, the character would wind up saving villages from danger via horrific means that the villagers never found out about.

There is a bloat of bloat threads!

Solution to bloat:
Dont play with every supplement, rulebook and 3pp you've bought/Downloaded for 3.x ever.

My personal solution:
Any player resource in a hardcover from paizo is permitted, everything else (whether its 3.5, 3pp or even paizo softcover) is GM's discretion.
As a GM I use and allow most of Ultimate campaign, the hero point rules from APG and Dueling rules from UC, everything else is rarely used.

Small creatures are much larger then the backpack allows. A halfling/ gnome is roughly the size of an adolescent kid 12-14 years old, you dont carry an adolescent kid that age in a backpack like its nothing.
A small creature can ride a medium creature, if the medium creature has the right physique, humanoids are nto suitable for riding vecause they stand upright, if the half ork would agree to stand on all fours and crawl everywhere hten this would be possible, but I doubt he'dd want to reduce his speed to 5-10ft per round and take a -4 penalty on AC abd attacks right?

This is, however, possible if the halfling casts something on himself to turn into a tiny creature (reduce person). In this case be upfront about the tactic and mention the downsides along with the upsides, this way the GM is much more likely to allow it.
A riding creature must make concentration checks to cast spells, this would also apply to someone riding in the backpack of an angry half-orc swinging a weapon in melee, also remember that if the "mount" moves so far or takes certain strenuous actions the rider cannot do anythign but hold on for dear life.
The "rider" could for example not cast spells if the "mount" is running.
Because a humanoid makes a lot of sideways swinging and movement while fighting (as opposed to 4 legged creatures that attack with their forelegs while the aft-section remains relatively still) you can probably not cast during a full attack either

Kitsune sorcerer? Something that could mesh with the multiple tail feats perhaps? Foxfire even?

Between melee styles here's the reasons:

Two-handed fighting is "easy", once you have Power attack you're set, everything else you add on top of it in feats or class features is just an extra bonus (High str / weapon spec/ rage, etc) or a different way of doing things (Cornugon smash / Reach, etc).

This low intensity fighting style shines like a supernova at early levels compared to:
Two weapon fighting, which requires an initial feat along with a feat tax every few levels to stay relevant. Additionally you must have a sufficient DEX score to do it, which is inefficient for many characters. Despite the costs the payoff tends to be unimpressive, Two weapon fighters are completely gimped when they cannot make a full attack and they are vulnerable to DR.
Two-weapon fighting can beat two-handing in damage and AC if built well. But only when full-attacking.

Two handed fighting also tends to roll over Sword & Boarding.
Using a one-handed weapon and a shield means you get a much bigger AC, at the cost of offense, a one-handed fighting style does as much as 40% less damage per attack then a two handed fighter of equal level. A shield fighting style also tends to depend on a lot of feats, though the payoff is much more reliable then two-weapon fighting. An innate downside to using a shield is that in many circumstances the shield is useless (attacks that require saves instead of AC) and pathfinder generally favors aggression.
Sword & Board beats two-handing in versatility and survivability, you can always put down the shield and wield your weapon in both hands.

Archery is a fighting style favorable over two handing.
Archery is very feat dependent, similar to two-weapon fighting, but Archery has very good payoff for many of the core archery feats, dealing great damage at enough range to make many battles moot, they're over before the monsters ever get to make an attack, just like it is for some spellcasters. The downside here is that you're not playing the role a two-hander does, an archer does damage from a safe distance while two-hander's usually play the role of team HP tank in addition to their damage role, you wouldnt' put an archery specialist on the frontline anymore then you would a Wizard (Unless the wizard or archer has some special training or spell, of which there is a lot in pathfinder).

Sadly I feel that the game lacks a One-handing fighting style, as this style is both cinematic and realistic, a free hand holding nothing is just as good as a shield in many close-up fights, and a single hand can wield a weapon in precise ways never possible in two. Swashbucklers are the only ones who can pull this off I guess.

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Summary:
Two-handed fighting is a low-cost and action efficient fighting style. With moderate dedication you can pick up two-handing and be very competent in melee, even if your main focus is something entirely different (such as spellcasting as a cleric).
The ease of which you can be inducted into this fighting style makes it the very best method of combat at levels 1-3.

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Extra
If you want the best of both worlds in terms of spellcasting and melee in a short story lasting only so many levels or sessions (such as the first book in an adventure path) you could build a strength focused spellcaster (even a full caster such as wizard, initial Str 16-17, con 12-14, int 13-15, dump cha & wis).
Flip everyone off while you go around mulching every encounter with your monster Str + Power attack damage and beating every puzzle with your magic, just watch your HP.

People who cant roleplay what they put on their paper.

If you're Int 7- but still want to say smart things in game, don't say them like Sherlock Holmes, try to tell it like Pinky! (Pinky & The Brain).
If you're Cha 7- but still want to talk to people try to use rude or bad words, or be really awkward. Especially if you dumped Int too.
If you're Wis 7- try to be short-sighted, shallow or otherwise do things with little or no foresight.
Common need not always be your primary language. If your Int is low it is totally viable that you talk Common like an immigrant but your main language fluently. This is especially true of races with racial languages.

I also dislike lumps.
People who never learn the system, even after 10 years of play.
Intentionally destructive players.
Players who desire the spotlight but always fail to grab the mic when it's tossed in their lap.
PFS people who make horrible tactical choices in combat. When the team has 4 archers/ranged characters obscuring mist is the very worst spell to cast in the middle of the enemy team.

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Mind you I can play with anyone who has a mild understanding of the rules, so long as they are fun to be around in general.

A government sanctioned alchemy workshop.
The alchemists get to work within the society with perks, instead they use a huge distilling tank to purify seawater constantly via a combination of magic and science.
Plot hook: The distillery gets sabotaged/poisoned and the PC's find themselves on the problem solving/causing side.

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A magic fountain run by a water Weird. An obscured grove of nature atop a hill (Olympus style) where water sprouts, a river connecting this grove to a nearby sea is the lifeblood of nearby locales. The Weird may be aware or unaware of the life it provides for the people or perhaps it is working directly with some local druid or city official.
Plot hook: Something happens to the Weird, has it been killed or kidnapped, did it simply just wander off?

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A huge magic statue of some forgotten king spews an endless stream of clean water, providing for a large society. Many speculate as to the identity of the life giving king from ages past, half followed clues lie everywhere waiting for someone determined enough to tie the ends together.
Plot hook: The grave of the unknown king is unwittingly disturbed in a large scale grave-robbing incident. Hundreds of graves have been disturbed. The PC's must piece together the clues and match them to the right grave to find the right king, and then they must appease the spirit to get the water flowing again.

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The locals dig deep wells to connect to hidden water veins underground. To provide for an every growing society they must venture further out into uninhabited area to gain access to more water veins.
Plot hook: Eventually some abhuman society figures out that the human society is by far the easiest source of water in the area, but cannot make sense of the technique used to gather it. The abhumans begin to raid human settlements with growing ferocity as their own society grows ever numerous.

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A diverse multi-god church full of talented clerics of varied gods provides water for the entire society. The priests take turns to fill a huge underground basin with water which they then distribute to officials and locals as needed.
Plot hook: A jealous priest secretly intends to displace the others and usurp the church for his own faith. He reverse-engineers the water conjuring spells unique to the church and sabotages the water depository.

Invisibility is a Glamer spell. There is no mind affecting component preventing you from seing the creature it is merely a visual element that hides the creature from normal sight.

The spell however is still in place, emitting an aura of the illusion school. Thereby it is detected by a Detect magic spell. Without this element of Detect magic many magical traps could be avoided by invisible adventurers, enemies without access to high level invisibility countering spells would be defenseless against anyone using greater invisibility (even moreso than usual) and most encounters could be picked apart or avoided completely.

Please note that Using detect magic will by no means negate the complete benefit of invisibility.
An invisible creature pinpointed by Detect invisibily still has 50% concealment and +2 ac against any attackers who rely on the cantrip to detect him and he is immune to attacks of opportunity. Furthermore if the detecting creature takes any action other then concentrating the exact location is lost. Additionally the invisible creature cannot be targeted by most spells, because there is still no legal target for them to apply the spell too. You cannot, for example, target a creature seen via detect magic with Magic missile, because magic missile requires a target creature, even if you know where the creature is you still do not see it.

The reason pathfinder still ives and STILL sells better then the newest 5th edition stuff is that the Rules crunch bloat, despite what your DM-fatigue is telling you, is sometimes nessessary to keep the system strong.

Ive played some Numinera, its a really cool system, but after seing the rules for character creations I see like 5 different characters I can make before completely exhausting the options available outside custom rules.
Ive seen the 5th edition rules, and trust me, this time next year there will be 2 or even 3 extra splat books with names STILL based on books they developed for 3.5 (Complete arcane, Complete divine, so on) as they fight to produce enough new material to keep players interested before they slowly exhaust their character options to extinction.

Im genuinely sorry if I sound offencive with my arguments above.

Remember, if the rule-bloat is counter-inituitive to your GM-style then tell your players "EVERYTHING non-core requires approval!" and use the PFS method "Own the book and bring the hardcopy to the session, otherwise youre not allowed to use Trait X from softcover splatbook ZY".
I generally love new crunch, and I collect 3rd party stuff when the thirst for new stuff becomes too great, but everything outside paizo hardcover books requires approoval, even if it comes from books like "Blood of X".

Then dont be afraid to make excessive use of the rules you set, if youre not comfortable with Summoners in your game just declare them nonexistent.

On the supportive note, I also want Pathfinder 2.0. But I dont want a rehashed rule system that is again, backwards compatible, I want a rebalance. An update to the classic classes that modernises them without changing them, small things like granting Fighters 4 skillpints per level, nerfing or rebalancing power attack so that Two-handed weapons dont dominate the scene anymore, possibly modifying the way critical hits work.

Ive seen my players surrender against odds they were perfectly able to steamroll. It wasn't a political ploy on their part, they were honestly afraid for their lives.

I've seen them admit defeat and retreat from hostile territory in face of terrible odds.

I've seen them sit down next to the BBEG to have tea, watching as he mutilated enslaved servants. Perfectly able yet unwilling to intervene out of fear.

This I accomplished by making sure they knew that my stories will inevitably have characters far removed from their APL. Every character with a name and description is worth scrutiny, in case they hide some deadly skill.
I'm also known as a bit of a character killer (which I advertise to all new players even in stories with low difficulty planned).
The two facts above combine to help me keep the players in check and properly fearful of the world.

Idd have gone with just about anything but Hunter, of all the APG classes it seems the most bland and I dont see the point, unless the official book fixes it to be more interesting somehow of course.

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I'dd have liked a martial druid. Full-bab or Limited bonus dependent class with less spellcasting (paladin progression or just no spellcasting at all) and more focus on Wild shape, basicly a Druid/Ranger hybrid or Druid/Barbarian hybrid - Spellcasting.
At later levels instead of gainign access to more creautre types (elementals, plants) it might gain bonuses for existing forms, larger claws, stronger bites, extra senses.
Somewhere past 14th level he would become able to shift its wild shape form without expendign extra uses.

Archetypes might have enabled extra variety, an abberration archetype that lets the character turn into eidolon like aberrations, dinosaur form archetype, dragon form archetype and so on.

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Idd also have liked a kind of caster that mixes Arcane and Divine magic, a 20 level base class Mystic Theurge.

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Does anyone remember the Ultimate Magus from "Complete mage". I would like to see som class options with that kind of metamagic proficiency.

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It would have been nice to see a single Psionic character type, ven if it was just a trumped up Arcane caster.

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Of course the game has been missing a 1/2 bab full divine casting class, something with exeptionally strong healing ability and a multitude of domains.

You can give it Summoned mechanics. Share hp between heads.

It's pretty easy. Just stat up 2 different creatures. Combine their health totals and move them like a mount & rider.

Alternatively you can stat up one creature with a ton of abilities. The creature gets an extra standard action per turn to represent the extra head. Then the exterm head can be severed by sundering it by dealing 25% of the dragons total to just the one head.
The extra head doesn't actually have extra abilities, it just grants extra chances to use existing ones.

My experience is that no weapon in the game can top the basic Hi-Crit weapons (Rapier, Scimitar, Falchion). A few weapons have surfaced among the supplements that maintain this success by also having a high crit range in addition to something else, such as the Falcata high crit multiplier high crit chance weapon.

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In my home rules package ive taken some steps to make the Exotic weapon prof feat (and martial) a bit more appealing by taking on a +1 damage bonus built into the feat (Ergo, if you gain proficiency via class features you don't gain this damage bonus). Generally spending a feat on weapon proficiency is'nt worth it (The easiest way to explain this is by damage. A longsword (martial) deals 1d8 damage, its one-handed exotic sword equivalent is Bastard sword, which deals 1d10, an average damage increase of only 1. When you select a damage increasing feat you want a feat that grants you at least +2 damage, but exotic weapon proficiency only grants you 1, so it needs that extra point for it to be an effective feat choice).

With that much gold to spend here's my list of reccomended stuff:

The classics:

1) A suit of armor.
A +3 or +4 suit should serve. If you're not using a shield then you need to consider +5 in case you want to go frontlining. If not then just save your cash and go for +2.

2) A weapon.
Depending on your chosen role you will need a fitting weapon, for combat you will need to go for +4 for accuracy, if you don't intend to go into melee then you should at least bring a +2 weapon for those times casting spells is ineffective.

3) Cloak of resistance.
Nobody likes to fail saves, failing saves generally means something bad is about to happen and you WANT to make that save. If you focus on casting and blew up your WIS then a +2 is enough, if you spread out your stats then a +3 or even +4 is advised. Ask your GM if he will allows you to combine items, I find Cloaks of resistance +x to be booring, a "Resistant Hedge wizards cloak +x" is much more fun.

3) Ring/Neck slot AC item.
If you're going into melee, you will need to buy a Ring of protection and an Amulet of natural armor. At this level you should go for +2 or +3. Also check if the GM will allow you to combine item effects on these slots as i mentioned for cloaks of resistance, an Energy resistant Ring of protection is rather thematic.

4) Backup weapon.
I dont care if your dex is 7 and your BAB is below average, never go anywhere without a ranged weapon, even just a crossbow. You don't even need to spend money on it, you'll find some magical ammunition eventually.

5) Second Backup weapon.
If you're going into melee, you need a backup of your primary weapon, there will come a time where you're standing directly in front of the BBEG and you realize that he just made your favorite Sword fly a bunch of feet in some terribly inconvenient direction, you will be so relieved to remember that you bought a +1 Backup and kept it in your Handy haversack just in case.

6) Handy haversack.
Its just so handy, it will save you tonnes of time, in and out of combat.

7) Potions and scrolls.
I have a list memorized of potions and/or scrolls that I never go anywhere without once i've hit certain wealth threshholds. Invisibility, Darkvision, Fly, Air bubble and See invisibility are just a few of the most important potions/scrolls i never leave home without once i get to the wealth youre at.

8) Hireling.
A simple commoner who gets handsomely paid to travel with you and run errands for you. He doesnt even need to enter the dungeon with you, just make him hunt for your food for you, set the camp for you, watch for travelers and trespassers, cook the food, set some tripwire traps around your camp, run into town to buy some necessities or even gear (once you're sure they can be trusted).

9) Metamagic Rods.
At a certain point some Metamagic rods become so good that it becomes hard to reason why you would'nt buy them. At this level you should give the Quicken rod a serious though, its nearly 40k gold so its a big pill to swallow, but if you focus on spells then its a great replacement for your weapon. Other interesting rods include Echoing spell (the lesser variant basically grants you 3 extra level 3 spells per day), Extend spell is great, Reach spell is situationally amazing, silent and still spell rods have their merits, the list goes on. Rods again are an example of an item which you should ask your GM if he allows combining or modifying, Rods that are also weapons is already a thing, and you should ask your GM to let you use it as a holy symbol.

10) Staves.
Honestly speaking staves arent all that great in conventional games. But with this much money to blow then a staff is a characterful item to own, especially if your GM lets you make your own. Just remember to follow the pricing rules to the letter, they are a bit complex sometimes.

I like these questions.

"Is there balance between the classes?" and "Should there be balance?"

For reference, look at Gurps, where your "class" is a specifically constructed custom entity, at its core balanced with others in the same setting.
Despite the balanced player resources and multiple options for different games the system has never ever made it into the big spotlight like DnD (whatever edition) or Pathfinder has.

As a second reference, look at DnD 4th. A system so extremely focused on balance and class rules that the classes blurr. The effects of different classes attacks are dissimilar but the execution is the same. Its more like a computer program in its simplistic efficiency.
The ultra effective systems of DnD 4th are its biggest strength, you can really churn through combat after combat in record time in that system if you have some experienced players. On the other hand, it also feels a bit "plastic" or fake, along with a lack for strong GM tools and uninteresting out of combat play made the system a failure, in some peoples opinion.

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3.5, and thus Pathfinder, has some of the strongest GM tools for developing worlds and populating them with a variety of obstacles, along with such a heap of player material that has accumulated through the times.
It may just be my system mastery as a GM, but knowing the tools for other game systems (a fairly decent list including Numinera, Gurps, Savage worlds, Cyberpunk 20xx, D&D 4th and others) i can safely say that I can much more confidently claim that I can make pretty much any campaign I want using pathfinder, populating it with customized or scratch built creatures, in a fairly short amount of time.

The variety of possible stories, and the GM's ability to exert control over the content in the form of CR and ECL, along with a healthy knowledge of the system and how to liberally apply CR the way its meant to be, you get a system that can accommodate a variety of playstyles. In my recently finished story The players had to up their powergame and really stick it to me in a game of rocket tag to the death, sadly it ended in an unofficial TPK, as the battered characters suddently found themselves with different goals after a near defeat. It was a game of having the odds stacked against you and foes behind every corner, and the characters were suitably aggression oriented with a slew of methods to dish out damage in droves.
The next game is to be a different story altogether, the NPC have already proven to be friendlier and supportive, and the only combat for two sessions was one where an old, drunkard half ork monk, feeling aggression rise in his ork blood, provoked a fight with a bear.
This party is hardly efficient at all, I doubt they could win a ECL +2 fight (which was pretty much standard in the other campaign), there is no tank or protector, the HP pools are mediocre at best, and no strong healer. On the other hand, every character in the latter story has a defined soul, several roleplaying elements waiting to be explored and a large open world with a core story hidden somewhere in it.
Ill leave it to you to decide which is more fun, I find immersion to be more interesting to play, but it is also exhausting when played at length, hardcore rocket tag is exiting, but it too can be exhausting.

It was a wall of text, but what I want to say is, class power level is nearly irrelevant.
If the class works and is passable in battle then that is fine, so long as it has elements that makes the player want to play it and enjoys it.
Different stories call for different classes.

The Rouge and the Upcoming Investigator have little to offer for combat. They have some tricks to pull and some sneaky tactics, but honestly wouldnt you rather do a steady 20 dpr as a Paladin or Cavalier rather then a possible 50 damage every 3 rounds or so when you finally land a sneak attack? The thing is.. Those numbers dont matter when youre not supposed to do damage, for example when youre sneaking around or stealing or even just rummaging through a forest for food.
A Wizard can do those things you say? No honestly, they cant. They can do it for a few minutes, tens of minutes, perhaps even a few hours a day, but at the cost of limited munitions

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A good GM will be up-front about his story. He tells his players what to expect, what they are about to do, and gives them some options for the story, not only in character selection but also in what kind of story they are about to play.
This will let the players tailor their characters to the story, and the Gm tailor the story to the characters, my current party has a lot of skills and out of combat abilities, so I will have to adapt the story to them where they are strong, and where they are weak. For the first time in years this group will truly fear for its safety if faced with a horde of weak opponents, for they have no sustainable source of blasts nor a cleaving master of melee combat. I will enjoy the first time they find themselves in this sort of situation, because hidden in the background will be a lot of options for environmental destruction, did anybody say burning bridges and falling rocks? Sounds like a job for a rouge, or Possibly an Investigator.

Animals aren't intelligent enough to use magic items.

If you can clear that hurdle then:

For every 100 mariner merchants there might be 1 or 2 spellcaster willing and able to craft said boots. And if they aren't already too busy selfishly using their crafting time to make magic items for themselves (or worse, some player characters who need Demon bane swords and quick runner shirts to save the world) then that crafting wizard still needs the merchant to pay the crafting cost up front.
I don't know many merchants who've got that kind of money lying around.

Then there's the lack of trained brachisauruses. How did you get the 9k cost for a trained brachisaurus?

Also. Most merchants don't pay the building cost for a ship up front. They enlist a crew of steady hands and carpenters, most of whom will work for hardly anything at all, a bowl of cheap food every 4 hours and a roof to sleep under, perhaps a copper or two on a good day.

Keep in mind that if the GM declares "this is a high fantasy story" to begin with then the dinosaur teleport action service instantly becomes the status quo. And it wouldn't be the first.
Remember erberon? One artwork features a group of heroes aboard a flying boat sailing in the city of towers surrounded by goons on magic green hover disks, those must be very VERY rich goons because each hover disk is worth 20k gold.
The moral in this story is that it doesn't matter how expensive it is so long as it looks good.

And yes, they need to get him to do more monster art. Some of his works are quite old now (by some standards) and i´ve seen re-depictions by other artists of monsters he´s done years ago and they sure lack that oompf Wayne is so good at bestowing his creations. Some of those critters had their own charm mind you but I like Waine´s agressive looks.

He did the orks on Ultimate campaign, and they look good.

Also I think the change to bugbears and Hobgoblins is a golarion change, not artist licence, as in "WotC did Brown hobgoblins and bugbears, we need something darker, and theres nothing darker then black!".

This guy is one of my artistic role models.

It would be cool to see a Waine reynolds depiction of a wizarly duel, as they each try to ravage each other the arcane energies twist and roil in an ocean of colors between them. A grand swirl of crazy things manifesting in the energies as they mix together, dragons heads, leaping salmon and spiderlegs might be some of the highlights in the chaos. One wizard would stand at the far left of a wide (desktop resolution) canvas, perhaps standing atop a tower, with the other wizard neatly on the other side of the picture on a mountainside or perhaps just flying somehow, no steed.

Quote omitted.

Well if you guys can get the developers to remake the rouge so he can stand on his own 2 legs without dm and player assistance then I'm all for that. A rewrite of core is overdue.

My suggestion is a pool of point that let the rouge sneak attack whomever he wants X many times per day. No flanking or flat - foot required.

This is too situational to truly answer in one way only.

If a robber invaded my house, would it be okay to kill him immediately? No, it would not be okay, he hasn't done anything yet but invade my privacy and assuming he runs away at the sight of a weapon he has yet to do anything that is worth killing him for.

Is he in the process of removing valuables and loading them in his truck? Killing him at this point would surely be legal and neutral. He's breaking a more serious law, and doing me a serious and malicious harm, if I attack him and wind up killing him I am still just defending my rights at this point and idd feel terrible afterwards.

Is he in the process of dealing me, my family or anyone else physical harm? At this point stopping him is a good act, even if it kills him.

On the note of someone who has to kill to survive the only determining factor of his morality is, how does the perpetrator feel about it. Does the vampire utter "forgive me" to each of its victims before drinking of its blood? If the victim dies does the vampire do the family of the deceased any favors? If the vampire is found out and confronted will it collapse and beg forgiveness or run away pleading "I am so sorry!" Repeatedly? In my opinion the aforementioned vampire is most certainly not evil, perhaps even good.

I dole out my own type of "evil points" in my campain. As a rule, doing one thing in an evil way wotn shift your alignment, but many might, and some irredeemably evil acts do it right away.

Slow change:
-Stealing without needing it.
-Killing low-conviction/priority foes. (Slaying ALL the guards wasnt really nessesary to kill the Noble was it?)
-Not fixing an issue you caused to a neutral party. (You blew up the brewery accidently, everybody knows, and you still wont pay for the damages?)

Steady change:
-Dominating people to do your will and not use them to do something good.
-Killing no-priority/surrendered foes. (ok so the goblin chieftain, his lieutenants ok, the bossy druid? sure. But the surrendered militia!?)
-Stealing or subverting cash from important or charitable public non-evil organisations.
-Non-deadly Betrayals.

Fast change:
-Killing innocents.
-Mass killing surrendered foes.
-Entrapment and deadly betrayals.
-Self sacrifice for the cause of mayhem and murder.
-Any grand act for the cause of evil (Killing a king to throw the city into anarchy).

Theres als oa list of good acts.

Slow change:
-Showing mercy.
-Saving non-teammate allies from distant danger (like evacuating a town).
-Charity.
-Benevolence.

Steady change:
-Forgiveness/acceptance. (Both cases it must be openly shown by roleplaying).
-Resquing non-teammates from mortal and immediate danger.
-Grand and earnest charity. (Like building and giving away an orphanage)

Fast changes:
-Self sacrifice for a good cause or to rescue a non-teammate (The "Go, ill hold them off!" kind of sacrifice.
-Accomplishing a grand act for the cause of good (killing a tyrant and enstating a benevolent king).

In my scale you:
Are charitable. (Slow good)
Are subverting peoples will to do your bidding. (Steady evil)

Ok, so every now and then, mabe once a month or so, idd be doling you an evil point, and youdd be in the risk sone for extra evil points depending on the information you get and how you use it. Using it for good purposes however would put you back in the neutral zone.

End opinion, neutral with a large stain of evil on it. No reason to change your alignment, yet. After about three months of doing this without remedying it with good acts would set you to evil in my campains.

Im from a non-tipping country, and I almost stopped tipping when im abroad after I found out that many employers take the tipping proceeds (at least in the places I visited) with the reasoning that tips are a voluntary part of the service which the employer spent time and effort to teach the staff. In other words: "I taught you to smile and be nice, so all your tips belong to me!"

I still tip when appropriate, but I do it with a half heart worried that its going into the wrong wallet.

My intepretation is simply "What would the person never EVER do?". Most DM´s i know use this interpretation.

Would the Fighter never EVER stand still? Oh he does it all the time? No save.
Would the fighter never EVER attack his buddies? No? Gets a save.
Would the fighter never EVER attack the nasty rouge party member? Oh the rouge is stealing from the party regularly? Grey area, talk it over with the player and if you still disagree just roll for it, 50/50.
Would the evil fighter never EVER attack his party? Oh he dreams of murdering as many people as possible? The only reason he sticks with the party is because they let him kill stuff all the time? No save.

As a DM idd veto this, ask your Dm.

Its his call.

A simple fighter build:

With 20 point buy you can get Str 17 easily. Then get a race with a str bonus. Con is score nr2.

Armor of choice is breastplate. Full plate at 7th level.

Weapons:
Falchion.
Composite bow.

Feats:
Power attack.
Weapon focus.
(Iron will if human)

Use class feats to build weapon spec. Imp foc. Grt spec. Decide if you want cleave.
Make sure you get improved crit.

Use level based feats to build initiative, saves.

Once you've got the bare nessessities consider trip or archery. Even if your dex is low your bab will make up for it.

If you can get the GM to allow feats from APG you might want furious focus.

That's pretty much it. Get items that help your movement, saves and your damage/strength.

Your save DC with fireballs is 22? Your Cha score is 28? Unless youve got some sweet magic items youdd need "Spell focus" & "Spell focus greater" for that, and they are pretty revelant to an optimised blaster.

If not then remember that metamagic doesnt increase the save DC of your spells. A maximised empowered fireball (Level 7 spell with your adjustment) will still have a save dc of 13+cha. This is why Heighten spell exists.

Also, metamagic discount effects apply only once to each spell, i say this becuse I dont understand how you cast 2 fireballs for 44d6 damage each round. (With the feats you mentioned the max damage i think would be 90 (maximised empowered fireball) + quickened intensified fireball 15d6, and thats still only the equivalent of 41d6 damage).

If i am entirely wrong (and it is likely I am) I am sorry for picking appart your post, Im working with what information I have here :)

If the character is just that good, then theres very little to be said other then find ways to help your teammates get the kills rather then yourself. Heres some recomendations:
Telekinetic charge: Throw your teammates at your opponents.
Ally teleportation spells from Players handbook 2, 3.5, if they are allowed.
Use your quicken spell feat to cast support or debuff spells rather then attack spells. A swift action Dimentional anchor is to be feared, and your allies will love you when you cast Invisibility Greater, Fly or Haste as a swift action.

If thats not enough ask your DM to up the difficulty for you personally, rouges popping into fights when you least expect it is sure to get your attention.

Still not good enough? Perhaps upping the difficulty in your "favor" can get you killed, and the poor sorcerer decides he likes it better in heaven than on earth.

Barring all that, who exactly are you using your balls of fire to blow up? Perhaps you could reach the conclusion that youre a psycho pyromaniac and need help.

Its a balance number, to fit the code of X-gold per spell cast from the wand, to get the cheapest manner of all to cast spells with limited-use items (The number for 1st level spells is 15 gold / casting, a bunch cheaper then a scroll that is 25 or a potion which is 50), it sounds like a weird way to save money but youll find it makes complete sense after you play a healer cleric for the 1st time and your teammates top their HP off with that wand rather then your precious spells/day.

For homebrew its generally a bad idea balance wise to allow players to buy wands by the number of charges they buy, and the only way to price it fairly would be to make a rather complex formula. It is also a bad idea to allow players to recharge wands at cost, that way the wand becomes a mini-magic mart, a Cure light wounds 99cent store.

50 was chosen because its a reasonable amount of charges in an item like the wand. If you're buying a wand for the spell at all it must be a spell that you want ready and rapid access to, the whole idea is to allow limited-spells-per-day casters to save their slots and still go pew-pew. So, like ammo clips in rapide-fire guns, 30-100 is a very suitable number for that purpose, and 50 happened to be in a cost sweet spot. In the current meta though and the way items and saving throws work most wands are relegated to buff spells or healing.

Overlooked rules? Sure.
Wall of text incoming.

-Firing into melee:
Firing into melee is a -4 penalty, but most forget that there is another VERY important penalty.
If you fire through an ally into melee (the ally is positioned on the line between you and the target) the enemy gets a cover bonus. That means you get a -4 for firing into melee, and the enemy gains +4 AC for your ally (or whatever other creature youre shooting through) for a total difficulty increase to hit of 8.

Recap:
Firing into melee = -4 to hit.
Firing through a creature, even an ally, = +4 to enemy Ac.

-Creature size:
Creature has a very noticable effect on the space it takes on the battlemap, and large creatures have a unique set of flanking rules, as do small creatures have unique reach and attack of opportunity mechanics.

To flank a large or larger creature, both flankers must be on completely opposite sides of that creatures 4 possible sides. You cant flak if your ally is standing to its side and youre at its front, one must allways be behind it and the other in front.
Not all larger than average creatures have extra reach. Generally a large creature gets extra reach for every size category it increases, but creatures that walk on all fours often have 5ft reduced reach.

Tiny and smaller creatures usually dont have reach, or rather, their reach is 2,5 feet or less. Creatures this small must enter the target's square to melee attack, this means that to use most Familiars offensively can amount to suicide for the familiar, this also goes for Small characters who use reduce person on themselves. These creatures also do not threaten any squares, and dont get Attacks of opportunity unless someone walks right over them.
Remember the size bonuses and penalties.
For every step larger then medium you are, you take a -1 penalty to AC and Attack bonus and a -4 penalty to fly and stealth. They get +1 to CMB and CMD.
The modifiers are completely reversed for small creatures.

To recap:
Large creatures often get extra reach, but take penalties to attack, ac and some skill checks. They get bonuses to CMB and CMD.
Small creatures get armor and attack bonuses and some skill bonuses but are penalised in CMB and CMD. Tiny creatures dont have reach and may need to take deadly risks going into melee.

-Implied spell effects.
Many spells have lots of effects in their descriptions that dont have an effect on the game, in fact some spells have spell effects with little or no numerical factors to contain them.
This includes all illusion spells (the usefullness of which depends on how your DM interprets Illusion spells and how imaginative you are).
Grease (is it flammable? I know Gm´s who say it is).

To recap:
Spells are very complex, go over their effects and usefullness with your GM to clarify them and so youre both on the same page. As a general rule, a spell does what it says in the description, if its not in the description then the spell wont do it.

-Bows.
You cant shoot a bow if youre prone.

Combat bonuses and penalties.
For easy combat calculation, summarise your basic "allways on" bonuses into one big number on yoru character sheet, then draw up a bunch of boxes next to it. Fill in the boxes with temporary buffs, benefits and penalties on the go. This will quicken up the game a lot, especially if youre new at this. Allways on bonuses include your Str for melee or Dex for ranged attacks, Base attack bonus, weapon masterwork quality or enhancement bonus, the Weapon focus feat and similar class features.

To recap:
In some groups theres so many bonuses flying around that it gets hard to monitor them all. Use some method to keep seperate track of your normal attack unmodified attack bonuses and your buffed attack bonuses.

GM's game. Play it.
Once youve got a story or two under your belt you can play with a bit more finesse. An experienced player can run circles around a newb, even though their characters are essentially the same. The same goes for GM's, and all GM's have an intentional or unintentional theme to them. Is your story combat focused or is there a lot of intrigue and NPC's to deal with and talk to? Select a class appropriately and let the feats follow suit.

Its not just vanilla.
Its an imaginary game, if youre not using any imagination then youre not trying hard enough.
Every game rule has a real-world precedent or some in-game reasoning that makes sense, at least to us all-powerfull players. If something doesnt make sense, or if something is missing then dont be afraid to expand upon it with your friends.
For example: The Alchemists Vestigial arm discovery grants him a bonus arm, it does nto grant extra actions, just the arm, it may grant attacks though, which lead me to beleive that certain types of multitasking were possible with it, even though there were no such mentions in the feat, after a short chat with my GM we decided that the arm, in addition to its norml rules, would let me reload both barrels of a double firearm at once (if I had at least two hands free, with the third holding the firearm), not faster mind you but two at once. Is it owerpowered? It doesnt sound important, and the DM is like to be good sport and make some NPC's give me trouble over my mutation, but I woudlnt have picked the extra arm if I wasnt willing to be subjekted to that!
Extra arms arent the only thing, theres also "homebrew" rules that are unique to your group or your GM, 3rd party material and silly things you need to improvise on the spot. Such things are by no means "bad" and shouldnt be ignored (save perhaps for Organised play, where everyone needs to be playing by the rules). If you cant find a feat or item thats JUST right for your character, have a chat with the GM and see what you come up with together, and if its horribly unbalanced it can all be waived away and fixed at the drop of the GM's hat.

To recap:
If an unforeseen situation arises, check with your GM to see his official ruling on it. Dont be afraid to browse 3rd party stuff or make up your own rules, the Pathfinder game designers arent the only good game designers in the world, they just happen to be among the best in a huge pool of men and women who´ve made a living of the 3.5 system.

The familiar:
Dont forget your familiar, so long as youre forgeting your familiar youre not making use of a good class feature. Dont try to hide it ("Hide" as in never mention it so your Gm wont think about it) away either, a good GM will remember it and might pick a nasty time to kill it vengefully.

To recap: Dont forget the familiar! or the animal companion for that matter.

Re-writing the AC system is bad. This is a game, not a war enthusiast re-enactment manager.

The system assumes monsters hit you an X amount of the time, and DR exists to modify the end damage result by Y. Z is the damage per attack.

But this is not a matter of X=ZY.

If you modify the To-hit numbers (X) and give extra DR (Y) to everyone who wears armor, that leaves Z (Damage dealt) unmodified which means Z will always invariably skew whatever AC->DR system you may try to write. This is also the reason why the old Armor=Dr system is an optional secondary system to the 3.x To-hit vs AC system.

If you re-write Ac, you also need to re-write the manner of how DR actually works and how damage is dealt. All from scratch.
Also you need to create a DR erosion system, which is a lot of bookkeeping for everyone involved.

Example of skewed Armor0Dr mechanics:
Fighter fights Dragon. Dragon has +12 to hit. Fighter has 26 armor. Dragon deals 16 damage on hits. Hits only 30% of the time. Damage per round is roughly 5.
Under Armor=Dr rules, Fighters Ac is 17, but his DR is 10. Dragon deals 6 damage on hits. Hits roughly 75% of the time. Damage per round is roughly 5. Looking good so far?

Fighter fights Goblin. Goblin has +4 to hit. Fighter has 26 armor. Goblin deals 4 damage on hits. Hits only 5% of the time. Damage per round is roughly 0.25 (Remember to multiply by the amount of goblins :) )
Under Armor=Dr rules, Fighters Ac is 17, but his DR is 10. Goblin deals 0 damage on hits. Too bad for the goblin.

Theres other stuff behind the issue too, but iv´e got class to attend. Please give the armor=Dr system a try before you make a final decision about it, you never truly understand things till you try them out.

All you need to deal with this guy is a stern gm style.

Repeatedly Split the party? Repeated Solo-derailment?
Tell him the story is happening where the other players are and he'll get to spend his characters life in a grey blob of uneventfullness till he decides to rejoin the party. If he gets angry his choices are to obey you or decide leave, one way or other, problem solved. This is my favorite because it means the player himself makes the decicion and you dont need to banish him, the decision to obey or leave is his own.

Party conflict?
Tell the other players, with him present, "This character is obviously disruptive to your party, your characters see that, I wnt you to collectively decide a course of action and follw it to the letter." Commonly the resault is some form of banishment or collective bullying, at least the frustrated players get to vent a bit on the problem player and the problem player probably feeds on conflict anyway, if he doesnt like it he allways has the option of leaving, if this happens it again is not your directly ousting him, even he should see that him being harmfull to the party means the party migth harm him back.

Party killing?
What is the premise of the story? Make the players agree on the limits for PvP. If the players agree "no pvp" then he simply cant do it, dont describe a silly in-game forcefiled, just tell him out of game that he just wont be allowed and if he insists tell him that hes just not playing in the right group and should confrom or leave, his choice.

Glory hogging?
Tell him "Shut up please, its not your turn right now, youll get yours again in a moment". If he responds by making his events drawn out and long then just cut into them forcefully with cutscenes and cliffhangers, for example: "Then I vault onto the plank and run up over th-" "And at that moment you fade to black as Chris's character is about to find out what his search of the Prince´s coffort turned up!".
This kind of scene-cutting helps him maintain his own fantasy, by underlining his activites with special effects he might just be content to look forward to his turn again rather then but into his coplayers playtime. If that doesnt work tell him "Dude, you talk so much I cant hear what Chris's character is trying to do! Its his turn so pipe down or something bad will happen to your character!". If he takes offence to your reprimanding him its again his choice to leave, not yours.

Character swapping.
Adopt a loose rule where you wanr your players that introducing new characters will take time. Play it loose at first, but the first time the problem player forces a character change so he can powerplay better make him sit in the "grey zone of inactivity" till you finally decide his guy shows up, making him wait 2-3 hours everytime he introduces a new character should break the habit.

If he takes offence at how you and your players react to him, tell him you dont care outright, tell him its a game, and that hes NOT THE ONLY PLAYER, if he cant play by the GM's rulings then he just cant play. At. All. If he continues being difficult just keep playing it stern. When he finally breaks and makes the desicion to leave the table, there it is, all the reason you need to ban him forever. "You walked away yourself man, you didnt like the way we play then and you wont now." The only reply that youre supposed to listen to then is "Thats OK, I can change my style to fit in." A reply which is next to as good as "Im sorry, I will do better.".

If you know this guy personally I would try and oust him as quickly as possible. People can tire of each other, even close friends, and when that happens you should get some temporary distance between you before the relationship chafes.

I got to talking with one of my buds.
Not my own story but a good one still:

A player created a Cleric wielding a Double sword.
It was a high level game so the cleric could afford to get Minor spell expertise (Divine favor) and combine it with Quicken spell like ability (Divine favor) to very reliably raise his combat stats if needed. Then he had a very versatile assortment of spells that he never declared in name, merely described the visuals.
Lastly, the character before this cleric had been a useless Halfling Druid (bad luck and roleplay reasons saw to it that the druid decided to leave the party behind after their quest had almost been ended by a tribe of powerful greenskins).

His introduction scene was (DM narrated) "Into the room walks a tall black man in a suit of armor too heavy to be worn by any man without some sort of otherwordly magic´s to hold him straight and strong, he walks up to you and without kneeling pulls out from a sheathe on his back his twin bladed swordstick."
(Player) "You have my blades and my word, your expedition henceforth shall not ever again be halted."
At that point everyone knew he was some annoying self buffing paladin type who was too annoying to talk to at length.

His adventures from thenforth consisted of fighting a lot in character, with hidden dicerolls or the DM rolling for him, saying stuff like "I raise my blade to the heavens, and the gods bless it!" (Casts Divine power, other players: Ok, that was holy sword just now). "The gods take your ail away!" (Casts cure serious wounds or some other healing, other players: hes touching me, that was Lay on hands). "My blade flashes with light in mid swing and smites my foe!" (Other players, Divine bond this time, too bad we have'nt fought any evil creatures yet, he never uses smite).

Then finally, a player goes down, "I rush to my fallen comrade and gesture the first verse of my bible, casting breath of life to heal 36 points of damage, was that enough to save you?" (Other players: Breath o----- WHUUUUUUUUUUT?!?!??)

Apparently the look on their faces afterwards was priceless.

Ninja/bard:
The humming killer.

Someone stalks the roofs in the night, when he nears his target he renders himself invisible.
The unknowing target then hears a low hum from the shadows of the night around him, echoing eerily.

As the melodic sound draws closer, your spine turns to ice, and soon, you will be no more.

More robots!
Enough to make a full lineup of 7-10 mecha themed bots.
And one of those robots, please make it Humanoid shaped and fight with one blade and shoulder rockets (or whatever, so long as it has a cool ninja-blade or short sword sized robot sword that extends and sheathes automatically).

More Kaiju, (not to be confused with the above mecha, though playing out Pacific Rim with pathfinder rules sounds pretty cool).

More neutral or good aligned outsiders added to existing sets, like Aeons, Arcons, Devas and so on.

More templates! (Seriously, every time I think i´ve seen the last of cool undead ideas, you make a new all-undead template!)

More aberrations (From my own idea bank: A playable Three armed and three legged race of blue aberrationfolk, the race practices cosmetic body modification and the evil necessity of amputating the third leg of every infant (thus bringing them down to two legs), their body is malleable (think octopus stuck inside a humaoid shaped skin))

Please dont go the way of monster manuals!
The ones where every creature gets 3 pages of lore and fluff to help you put it in campaign setting X, and an encounter map for good measure so you absolutely dont need to think up your own fights against the monster.

For the gaming part:

Ive been DM for years, with varyingly successful groups.
Sometimes its just friends, other times is more of a mix.
I like when the group is not just a gathering of all your BFF´s, it makes it easy for tempers to flare and if anyone makes a very bad social move it might mean those two of your friends dont want to see each other again, which makes things tough for you when you plan sessions.

In my sessions the optimal size ranges from 3-6.

3 Is a very manageable and strong party, but boring if every player is not invested in the fight/story. It gets slightly annoying with a small party of this size that you must tone-down encounters a bit. You need to be carefull to taylor the campain to the group in such a scenario.
4 is the golden number, every game rule assumes this amount of players in the group. This number hits a good sweet spot allowing for teamwork and a good pool of HP that can share incoming dmage and take hits communally.
5 is the golden number +1. You can tune up fights a bit and/or the players can affor more specialisation and they can support a "lump" player better, reducing party chafe.
6 is the maximum recomended number for a normal game, at this point youre loosing peoples attention and interest between lengthy game turns. Face time, especially out of combat, becomes a recourse that you must fine tune and balance over sessions.
7+ Half roleplay, half party. Its not about the game anymore, everybody is gonna have some distraction ready while its not their turn and people show up for this kinda thing as much for the game as they do for meetign each other and have jolly fun.

The Real Life part:
Its hard to tell you what to do mon. IF your dad thinks D&D is the devil, perhaps you should take it to someone elses place when you play?
If thats impossible then make sure you get a helper or two to clean up after every session, dirty dishes make parents annoyed.

Do you spend 56 hours per week in front of your computer? Or more? (56 hours equates to your week schedule being: 8 hours of sleep. 8 Hours of School/Work. 8 Hours in front of the computer doing leisurely acrivities.)
Dont answer that here, just answer it in your mind, and dont lie to yourself. If the truthful answer is yes then you really need to lay off the pc. G

In my game the Rouge tends to be hands-down the very biggest damage dealer, given that he can safely enough slink into melee.

Though I play with a whole bunch of houserules that modify many classes and feats, the core set remains pretty much the same.

This rouge uses the following tricks to be usefull in combat:
-Sit tight and watch: Theres a massive horde of undead in a warehouse, the buffed and Enlarged Cavalier takes it on with a hammer in his hands and a healer on his shoulder (Small + Reduce person = Tiny, HAH), The mage found a spot to cast AoE from, but the rouge spotted an assassin lurkin in the room. How was he useful? He let the tanky tank wade through the zombies, the blasty blast mage blast zombies, and all the while he kept an eye on their backs, saving them all from the real danger of the battle.

-Descent of death: An enemy overlord atop his gargatuan elemental mount one-shots everything that gets close, a bunch of npc´s help buffer shield any player smart enough not to charge. Suddenly the mage successfully casts Icy prison, the Rouge swiftly descends upon the side-boss, using a hero point to close the distance and cou-de-gras the frozen boss with a godly brilliant energy sword, the fortitude save had been successful if not for the bucketful of sneak attack dice.

-From thin air: The rouge´s bread & butter, via a custom designed Ring of invisibility Lesser, any foe without proper detection magic is vulnerable to his sneak attacks. One attack in the surprise round coupled with a swift follow up with a full two-weapon attack (The rouge´s bonus to initiative is +11, so he usually goes first after the surprise round) means that before anyone else gets to act, he´s rolled in excess of 30 dice of damage, not including weapon damage or critical hits.

-Stick of survival: When the going gets rough, and the tank is hogging all the best healing spells, the rouge just slips out for a quick breather and hits himself in the face with a stick. I meant to say a magic wand of cure light wounds. The rouge has UMD as a class skill, get familiar with this complex skill and become your own invisibility/cure light wounds/Cats grace/useful spell of doom dispenser.

-Ser Randal Thorne, Dragonslayer!: I give all my players one collective teamwork feat, to promote teamwork. Precise strike was an obvious choice. The rouge working along with his trusty, beefy, Cavalier can flank and bring down almost any foe. After learning the worth of teamwork feats both players have been inclined to try out new ones, Sting of the butterfly comes to mind.

This last one is not so much a trick this player has pulled, but a general rule:
-From the shadows: A very basic playstyle that you need to learn if youre a rouge. Everytime you move in combat dont tell your DM "I go over here" or "I stay behind this" this is important. ALWAYS when you play a Rouge, improve upon every move by declaring it in a dramatic manner "I slink through the shadows", "I keep a low profile among the furniture", "I tread through the shrubbery without making any sounds", "I try not to enter his peripheral vision as i creep down the wall". If you word your movement thusly your DM is FAR more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt, gaining you the right to make stealth tests.

The ultimate big question for every rouge to ask:
What kind of DM do I have and how does my group function?
In RAW and theory its very hard to interpret the power of a rouge correctly. A rouge who can sneak up on a target is far deadlier than one who cant, but will the DM give you the required tools and environ to do so?
Make sure you and your DM see stealth in a similar way, ask questions like "Does an inattentive guard count as actively observing his surroundings?", "If i dash from cover to cover in front of an unprepared and unaware person, do i get a stealth check or am I seen automatically?". Stealth is a grey-zone skill where RAW, RAI and Player/DM interpretations can vary immensely. There are DM´s who make the stealth skill unplayable (often inadvertedly) and there are DM´s who especially endeavor to make battlefields stealth friendly.
After you make sure a rouge is viable in a game with that particular DM, turn to your teammates. Would the team tank be honoured to flank for you? Or is it a chore to him? Also note that flanking becomes twice as effective/easy if your team has 2 or more frontliners because then you have twice as many people to flank with.

Finally, what kind of game is the group playing? Does the DM want the players to collectively play a squad of Lawful good do-gooders? Is it a dark gothic town setting? Is it a Pathfinder module? Personally I feel Pathfinder modules and storylines hold up decently for every character type to play in, depending on the DM, but for PFS I do not think you will ever find a stable basis for your Rouge to base himself on.

In this way rouges are probably the most intensive class to play, but rouges who do well will even out compared to more optimised classes, or outclass them altogether.

Wishlist:
(Some taken from other posts ive made)

-A Construct familiar with a modular set of abilities (Something akin to the Necrocraft, but with a bigger focus on utility and detection abilities, abilities such as blindsense, flight and telecommunication).

-More low Cr constructs and swarms.
-Brick golems.
-Living shuriken swarm.
-Leg golems (Magic legs that enable immobile creatures to walk).
-Living magic missile swarm (or a spell to cast one, ill get right on that).

-More creatures that are iconic for armor, along the lines of Grave guards and Phantom Armor (Helm horrors!)

-A playable aberration race, something with a unique culture that is represented in the race's physiology somehow (Perhaps a race of Aliens that are born Tripedal and Tri-armed, but a defect requires the race to amputate their infants 3rd leg early after birth. The creatures might have morphic blue bodies that can shift and move their bodies (as if the organs and muscles were a bit loose and you could mould the body like a tough beanbag), making up for the lost appendage, and the 3rd arm is useful for anything an extra arm would be good for.

Please do not ever take a Bestiary in the direction they took the later monster manuals, where monsters had 3-4 pages of fluff, explanations on their locations in a campaign world, stuff they like/hate and so on. However, if the creature already has limited fluff due to space, you could include an extra page for it, dragons come to mind especially, in the recent Bestiary 4 (which is, barring Bestiary 1 or MM 1 for the sheer usefulness of their assortments of basic fantasy creatures, the very best bestiary for any game system ive seen!) out of 5 dragons, two had only one sentence of fluff, and the other three had two sentences, hardly enough fluff for a dragon, meanwhile the mighty Almiraj received 5 paragraphs of solid text, including notes on habits, society and even a way to turn their horn into a magic weapon. Is there any chance of a large supplement or hardcover ever being released that will give us more fluff about Primal, Imperial or Void dragons? I would buy a pathfinder dragon sourcebook in a heartbeat, and every smaller supplement too!

And whatever you do, please do not ever include adventures or maps in a bestiary. Adventure modules are NOT at home in hardback rulebooks! (In my opinion)

Also: The system supports rules for making stuff out of rabbit horns, but not from the skin of a space dragon? Id like to hears some ideas about what strange things I could make from a Time dragons wings.