I have been working on this for a little while now. If we are going to do a point based system for rage, why not the same for paladins and clerics with divine power and druids with wild lore. I was saddened to see that paladin had the same x/day methods. There should be a divine reserve for all the paladin abilities that increase you damage (smite) and that buff you. A cleric could benefit from this as well adding the whole turning mess into the equation. I have known clerics that refuse to turn undead because of all the book work involved.
See, I love point systems, but I hate book keeping. I love how the Ninja did a "point" pool, and I'd wish that on the Barbarian, Paladin, and even the Druid (I hate per day things). I really do love the new barbarian powers, but the point pool seems a bit... odd.
It's another large number that you have keep track, with greatly varying costs for powers that get subtracted. I think you should relegate the powers into something like tiers, or shorten the variation on the numbers something from like 1-6, versus this variation of 3-18; and greatly reduce the actual number of rage points.
Taking the ninja, which has a effective point pool of half class level + stat mod; and all their powers cost somewhere from 1 to 2 "points". I would probably like something like class level + stat mod and rage powers can range from 1-6 points; so it actually is easier to hash through. To me it's little simpler, but could still easily do the same thing.
So would you have rage last in three round bursts, then? The basic premise seems to be that rage powers are worth increments of three rounds of rage.
But if you're looking for pools, by all means look into a system by Monte Cook called Iron Heroes.
That said, I was also expecting faith pools for paladin, and more flexibility over what abilities were available when.
But then, I was also hoping for paladins of all four corners of the alignment spectrum, which isn't going to happen in any time soon. But it's nothing that can't be houseruled. AFTER the playtesting is over, of course. :)
Honestly, if I ever want a perfect game, I'll try designing it myself.
I don't buy the argument that keeping track of a point pool is any more difficult than keeping track of hit point or the x/day method. But I do think it is a good idea to scale it back some from the 8-16 range into a smaller amount. I like the rage abilities I was just looking for Paladins and Clerics to have a similar combined pool for turning and smiting.
You could even build feats around specific pool abilities. Any paladin has smite but if you pick the feat Smite Focus every time you smite it only costs 1/2 the divine power points.
Just an idea but I think a point pool for abilities allows for much more flexibility.