I only skimmed through the book so far, and I like what I see. Mostly.
The starting HPs is a thing that has been bugging me ever since I started playing D&D, so low that a swordthrust could kill you instantly, and later on you need lots of thrusts to get a character down... I'm reminded of a very old Dragon magazine cartoon which depicts the execution of a barbarian.
Would it be possible/advisable, maybe, to add "background-classes" to the mix? Much like what Jeff Grubb suggested in Kobold Quarterly. I've been toying with that idea some, yet haven't implemented it yet, for lack of a new campaign/group.
What I think is this:
nobody walks out of the house and becomes a fighter, wizard or whatnot. If one were to add, say, pre-existing levels to some character class, say a blacksmith apprentice who joined the militia before setting out on his own as a fighter might be a Blacksmith (Crafter) lvl 4, Militiaman lvl 2 and then a Ftr lvl 1. His attack bonus might shift a little upward because of the militia-training, but it wouldn't be ungodly high. The "background-classes" would add some HPs and skills into the mix. Every class that basically just adds to the background has a maximum of, maybe, 6 levels for very complex "jobs" like scribe, illuminator, wizard's apprentice, and maybe 2 for said militia man.
This way you could tag them even onto the regular NPC classes and actually have folks that could become really good in one area.
Plus, this way, not every tavernboy is just a lousy regular human with 6 or 8 HPs. Maybe the guy was in the militia for a year and knows at least some of the moves to help clear up a tavern brawl...
Thoughts?