Finally got some time last night to read through the .pdf (printed it out, I have to have my dead tree), and I’m still very optimistic. Despite a serious power up trending, the overall concepts are very sound.
I haven’t playtested yet (now that I’ve read it, I can start), but here are my preliminary nitpicks:
There is a huge gaping hole, likely due to OGL restrictions: Once the player’s guide goes out of print, how does one create a character?
Psionics. Where is it? Every single edition has treated psionics as an afterthought, so people avoid it. Time to cowboy up and put psionics first. People will warm to it if you lead with it.
LA: The level adjustment rules for 3.5 are just horrid, a tweak here would be greatly appreciated.
Repeated SRD information. The alphas are in desperate need of either a changelog, or new concepts in a different font or color.
Races: Not sure if I like the idea of racial tweaking, but we’ll see how it goes.
Now that dwarves are even more ingrained into the cleric role, is it time to reexamine their role as favored class fighter? Seriously, what is +2 wis getting them as a fighter? In addition, encumbrance is “never” modified? Not sure if I like the word never here, as it implies if a dwarf can lift the statue of liberty, he can still move at 20 a round.
Giving half-elves secret door perception…eh. Might work.
Orc ferocity generally implies orcs will choose barbarian, but that doesn’t seem to be as likely now given the stat changes. I’m more inclined to give them a single daily use of rage, or simply giving them die hard for free.
XP Tables: Very interesting. Should be fun to experiment with.
Hit points: Double at first level is way, way too much. Maybe racial, or flat, although maximum plus standard hit point roll could work, or simply rolling twice instead of max.
Favored class bonus: Nice. I like it. Discourages dipping, rewards staying the course.
Clerics: Adding favored diety weapon = excellent. The orisons thing, honestly, considering the whole turn healing concept, 4 cure minor wounds a day is unbalancing? Pfft. I do like stabilize though.
The fighter: Oiy. Yeah he gets a lot of power up combos, but yuck. The fighter is NOT SEXY. Especially when you compare it to the new rogue and wizard, ouch. The last two powers are really nice, but are out of place. Personally you should only be able to take them if you focused on a single armor type or weapon group. In addition, he loses jump, but doesn’t gain acrobatics! The new knowledge skills were a nice addition. Personally I’d rather see a more flexible fighter. Something like the warrior class from UA, where you can pick your good save and skills. Another nice option would be options like hold the line (preventing ground based monsters from passing) and nerves of steel (something like “mettle”).
The rogue: Anyone who doesn’t dip one or two levels of rogue is probably an idiot. The new rogue is too good. D8 + ramped up Sneak attack + skill monkey + trick + traps + evasion? Crazy…. At the very least, leave the hp at D6.
Magic: I’d like to see the option of choosing two cantrips once a day each for minor, and a single second level spell a day for major.
Resiliency: This doesn’t sound like a rogue ability at all, but would be nice for the fighter.
The surprise attacks option should really be an advanced talent.
Wizard: D6 = awesome. Holy power up! I can see wizards carrying a ton of utility spells now, because very few of them need to learn any blasting spells. They will definitely not be out of things to try. Arcane bond is a lil’ funky, but could be cool. The casting from prohibited schools deal, very interesting.
Familiar rules: DO NOT NEED TWO FULL FRICKING PAGES OF REPRINTED SRD INFO!
Skills: Very funky directions on this one. I’d almost rather see instead of gaining new skills at higher levels, the ability to instead learn new uses for existing skills. The new skill checks are crazy high. I’m wondering what the justification was for this. It seems like PC’s will almost never fail a trained check now, especially with synergy bonuses.
Concentration touches many items. What do people who need to concentrate do now...will saves? The same applies to use rope. Honestly, it was a needless skill to begin with, but knot tying is definitely a knowledge type skill.
The following skills can also be merged: Climb and Escape Artist into Acrobatics. Perform, Profession, and Craft. Disguise into Deception. Disable Device into Theft. Swim into Survival. Intimidate and Diplomacy, especially seeing as they are both still charisma based.
Acrobatics: I’d like to see the “Special” rules on a sliding scale, as you get the bonus with only a single skill point.
Deception: Perception checks should also let you decipher hidden messages.
Diplomacy: Attitude adjustment caps = BRILLIANT. Bout’ fricking time.
Fly: This has no business being a skill, at all. Should be moved to a feat.
Linguistics: Would like to see forgery creation as rogue only, and detection moved to perception. Learn language is…odd. You drop a point into linguistics and bam, you know how to speak five languages?
Survival: Would like to see terrain specific survivals, one per skill choice. Suggested: Cold, Hot, Temperate, Mountain, underground, etc…, with certain regions including swim.
Feats: Acrobatic feat includes climb, which no longer exists.
Deadly Aim: The name is all wrong for what it does. It’s a reverse power attack, but your aim is hardly deadly if you miss by a mile.
Improved turning: Why does it not increase healing as well?
Intimidating Prowess: Bout’ time. This should almost be a given for fighters.
Toughness: Much improved.
Turn other stuff: Excellent.
Arcane Strike Chain: Odd. Relies on powering up a weapon, hitting with it, casting any spell the next round on whatever you hit (doesn’t appear to have to work), then not worrying about armor for one round. Not sure if it is worth it.
Backswing: Decent.
Cleave: Liking it.
Dazzling display: “If it is higher.” If what is higher? I can infer, but would prefer specifics.
Deadly stroke: What happens on a deadly stroke crit?
Deft Shield: Any rules for wielding a shield two handed?
Devastating blow: Too weak.
Dodge: Much better.
Gorgon’s fist chain: This line suffers from awful naming. If anything, the medusa wrath might be moved to something with multiple arms. Improved unarmed strike could use clarifying in regards to what limbs you can attack with.
Great Cleave: How is this different from Whirlwind attack?
Manyshot: Is the first two arrow shot only for a single target?
Overhand Chop: Kinda sucks. This whole chain needs work.
Pinpoint targeting: Looks too strong at first until you realize you can’t use it with multishot.
Rapid shot: Same target?
Razor Sharp Chair Leg: This move sounds like it was thought up while drunk. Also, there needs to be better distinctions between melee and ranged options.
Scorpion Style: Again with the names.
Shield Master: Should be passive.
Shield Slam: Too strong.
Stunned Defense: Duration?
Turning Smite: I don’t know about you, but I’ll be using this to shoot healing crossbow bolts at my party. I’m ok with it if you are.
Two Weapon Rend: “On the previous round, you must have used weapon swap” Ugh…what? If you used weapon swap, you only have ONE weapon.
Weapon swap: Needs a free hand? Penalties for swapping a non-light weapon?
Combat modifiers: Why are there no rules for using dex? Low strength characters are going to be murdered wholesale.
Cover: Apparently, I can stab a polearm through a goblin, but I can’t shoot an arrow through one?
“If you are attacking with a weapon whose reach is greater than 5 feet, you can choose any one of your corners, instead of all your corners.” <- The words look like English, but the order they are placed in doesn’t appear to be.
Grapple: Much improved, but with one glaring error: Lots of references to “breaking a grapple,” but not a single tidbit about how to go about doing so.
Turning effects: 1d6 every two levels? Might like to see this at three, but playtesting will tell for sure.
Spells and Magic: Effects appear to be cumulative, but this isn’t explicit. Wow. Talk about a major power ramp up. Interesting.
Divination: Can Diviner’s Fortune work on you? Diviners are unreal nuts now. At high levels, you are talking about one auto success per day for every party member, plus free true strikes, without ever using a spell slot.
Enchantment: References bluff, which no longer exists.
Necromancy: How does one go about obtaining the 8 HD / level of undead? Do the undead on the 8th level power count against this limit? Do undead necros not get a bonus to spellcraft, as they no longer need to use charisma in place or constitution for concentration?
Transmutation: Do you lose the stat bonuses if you prepare spells from an opposition school? This could get messy. Is the fist power a force effect? The 20th level power should also include water breathing.
Universal: Concentrate each round…how to go about that now? Metamagic ability: woah.
Domains: Druids too now, interesting.
Animal domain: Shapechange should be limited to animals.
Magic: Hand of the mage – concentrate?
Rune domain: Rune durations? Save? Trap DC?
Travel: Dimension hop, is it line of sight, or can you pop through walls?
Trickery: Copy Cat, I like it.
Water: Less cold, more water!
Weather: Storm Burst, should be outdoor only.
Identify: The changes seem...painfully annoying. Time will tell.
Make Whole: Wizards too now. Neat.
All in all, I’m very impressed. Good hard work and a solid base. Can’t wait to play the hell out of it, and see the next phase.
As an afterthough, the alpha is the first PF product to get me even the least excited about the deities. Nice work!
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I can help explain a few of the issues you raise, I think. Let's see here...
Clerics: Adding favored diety weapon = excellent. The orisons thing, honestly, considering the whole turn healing concept, 4 cure minor wounds a day is unbalancing? Pfft. I do like stabilize though.
0 level spells are usable at will. So you could take standard actions to heal every part up to full afer every fight, albeit at 1hp per action.
Magic: I’d like to see the option of choosing two cantrips once a day each for minor, and a single second level spell a day for major.
I'm guessing this was to avoid invisibility fun and games.
Familiar rules: DO NOT NEED TWO FULL FRICKING PAGES OF REPRINTED SRD INFO!
These are the intended full class descriptions, hence you're getting everything.
Skills: Very funky directions on this one. I’d almost rather see instead of gaining new skills at higher levels, the ability to instead learn new uses for existing skills. The new skill checks are crazy high. I’m wondering what the justification was for this. It seems like PC’s will almost never fail a trained check now, especially with synergy bonuses.
There are no skill ranks in the alpha system, and hence no synergy bonuses.
Feats: Acrobatic feat includes climb, which no longer exists.
Sure it does. It's on the big chart, and in the "Designer Notes: Unchanged Skills" sidebar.
Two Weapon Rend: “On the previous round, you must have used weapon swap” Ugh…what? If you used weapon swap, you only have ONE weapon.
Weapon swap: Needs a free hand? Penalties for swapping a non-light weapon?
The rules text is not as clear as it could be, but note the fluff: "With an acrobatic twist, you swap your weapons from one hand to another." You are supposed to have weapons in each hand to use those feats.
Combat modifiers: Why are there no rules for using dex? Low strength characters are going to be murdered wholesale.
This is not particularly different from the current situation, but check out the Agile Maneuvers feat again.
Grapple: Much improved, but with one glaring error: Lots of references to “breaking a grapple,” but not a single tidbit about how to go about doing so.
Check out the last two lines on page 42, and then on to page 43: "If you are grappled, you can attempt to break the grapple as a standard action by making a combat maneuver roll or Escape Artist check (DC 10 + opponent's CMB). If you succeed, you break the grapple and can act normally."
0 level spells are usable at will. So you could take standard actions to heal every part up to full afer every fight, albeit at 1hp per action.
Misread the intention at first, but even at will, between time commitment and the availability of cure light wounds / lessor vigor / faith healing wands, is this unbalancing?
There are no skill ranks in the alpha system, and hence no synergy bonuses.
Aha, that explains a lot, actually. Including the funky skill check modifiers.
Sure it does. It's on the big chart, and in the "Designer Notes: Unchanged Skills" sidebar.
Ah yeah, was planning ahead to where I'd already eliminated it, rofl.
The rules text is not as clear as it could be,
Looks like the dev notes are already working on these. Pretty slick.
check out the Agile Maneuvers feat again
Aha! Rock on.
Check out the last two lines on page 42, and then on to page 43:
Arg, talk about poor placement. Still, good catch, thanks!
I can help explain a few of the issues you raise, I think. Let's see here...
Much obliged!