First off, I just wanted to say how much I’ve enjoyed everything you guys have been doing, and the Pathfinder RPG is no exception.
Overall, I think it’s one of the best dnd products I’ve seen in a long while, and yes I agree with some people that the characters are powerful, but I don’t think of that as a problem.
I’ve been thinking of the main problem with the system as written, which to me is the Multiclassing rules. At first I thought my problem was the whole first level Rogue is better than any other character skills wise, but now I’m changing my opinion.
First level represents more than just level 1, it’s your character’s history, the first fifteen to twenties years for a human, even more for a non human. This is when the fighter learns the basics of how to fight with any weapon and wear any armor, it’s when the wizard is trained in the magic arts, and it’s when the rogue is trained in all his skills. I shouldn’t be able to go from being a fighter for twenty years and then switch into a competent thief. So I think the Skills rules are dead on.
Yes I understand that this system discourages you from multiclassing into a Rogue, because you will lack in skills a first level Rogue would have gotten, but by the logic given above, I’m fine with that.
The real problem is that there is nothing to discourage someone from starting Rogue and multiclassing into any other class. What I think we should think about are ways to limit characters who switch classes. For example, let’s make the rule that you only get weapon proficiencies for weapons and armor from whatever you take for your first level. Does it make sense that my level 6 Wizard, who only knows how to use a few simple weapons and no armor, after taking one level in Fighter can now use any weapon he picks up and can wear Full Plate?
To me this will go far to limit the Rogue first level, Fighter for the next 19. It doesn’t fix the Rogue/Wizard problem. Honestly, I don’t know how to fix this easily. We could make the Sorcerer far less powerful and give it the you can multiclass into it easily advantage, where with the Wizard you just can’t multiclass into with out years of in game training. But that doesn’t seem right to me.
Also in regards to Skills: I really like the way the Human Skill Pick is for any skill that is now a Class skill, what do you guys think about allowing Int bonus Skill Picks doing the same thing. It would allow a smart person to be far more versatile a character, which is one of the points of being a smart character.