Reposted for your enjoyment.
Here are my concerns about spellcaster specialists, not in any particular order.
1. Diviners:
--Their abilities are far too powerful in comparison to other specialists' abilities. The ability to act on a surprise round is huge, and the ability to cast the equivalent of true strike on the fighter once per day is icing on the cake.
2. Abjurers:
--Resistance to one energy 10 at level 20 is kind of pointless. It either should be changed to resistance to all energies, or it should be increased in value.
--Protective ward is completely negated by rings of deflection, and the amount of time it lasts is insignificant with the time taken to activate it. Perhaps the time taken to activate it could be a move action or the radius could be increased or the bonus could be increased.
3. Conjurers:
--The bonus to AC is inconsequential, especially since it can't be enchanted. Furthermore, mage armor really shouldn't be a conjuration spell, as is the general consensus (I believe). Why not give a bonus to conjured monsters (as per the class itself)? For instance, they could have the ability to cast summon monster spells as a standard action rather than a full-round action, their monsters could get bonuses, etc.
--Acid dart: it just doesn't fit the conjurer. I realize that, technically, it is conjuration, as the acid is summoned from the Elemental Plane of Acidburning (or somesuch), but the "feel" of the conjurer is not nuking. Why not change this to the summon monster equivalent of the Animal Domain?
--The ability to cast summon monster I is very weak. With all the other specialist abilities, I could see myself using them. Magic missile, silent image, true strike, etc. However, summon monster I is just so bad that it hurts. Unfortunately, there's not a lot to choose from in the PHB in order to make a suitable replacement, so I'm not sure what to suggest for this one.
4. Enchanters:
--A +6 to social skills is okay, but enchanters will still be lacking in the social skills department. Perhaps Deception, Diplomacy, and Intimidate could be made class skills?
--An enchanter actually trying to use dazing touch is a dead enchanter. This should be given a range, and the HD limit is really harsh. Perhaps this could be increased to HD+4, at the least (especially with the once-affected-immune-for-a-day limit)?
5. Evokers:
--The evoker's specialist bonus is pretty weak. It's like a crippled version of the warmage's edge. Considering the existence of save-or-dies/save-or-you're-screweds, this needs to be bumped up a little. My suggestion was to make spells that do dice of damage do +1 damage per dice. (Of course, even then damage spells are weak. It might be balanced to allow the +1 damage/die and the +5 damage.)
6. Necromancers:
--As with the enchanter, a necromancer trying to use this ability is a dead necromancer. I understand that it's supposed to "finish off" wounded enemies, but a range on it would be nice (especially considering that enemies don't really have a chance to stabilize).
7. Transmuters:
--The transmuter ability is outdone by items that cost 36,000gp. The transmuter's ability either needs to be changed so that it's more than +6 at level 20, or it needs something else in its place.
--The telekinetic fist doesn't make much sense for a transmuter. In fact, that seems more like an evoker thing (what with the punching force and all). Yes, telekinesis is a transmutation spell, but it still doesn't seem to fit. I think that it would better fit the transmuter to give him the ability to grow natural weapons--maybe one at level 1, two at level 5, and three at level 10? (His low HD and BAB would keep this from being too powerful, methinks.)
8. Why is the save for the abilities based on Charisma? I know they're SLAs, but come on, they're going to be pretty useless for a wizard if they have a Cha-based save.
I agree with most of this, especially #8. Obviously this restriction isn't tied to the normal "SLA is based off CHR" idea, because the sorcerer's bloodline abilities are based off of CON??? So, when they increase their CON, not only are they getting better at their abilities, they also get more HP and better Fortitude saves. The wizard does't get anything extra for increasing their CHR score.
Personally, while I can understand the desire to make spellcasters more dependent on other ability scores, this isn't the area to do it in. Their abilities (specialist and bloodline) should be based off their priamry casting ability. If you want to give them a reason to spread out their stats, how about giving the wizard some CHR-based skills as class skills for a reason to not run around with a 6 CHR??
I support using Cha for the SLAs. For one it makes them MAD and also weakens the SLAs a bit since the wizard is most likely going to be focusing on Int. However, they should get a few Cha-based skills.
On the topic of the Transmuter's ability, it saves you that 36K gp, money that can be spent one some other magical ability. Additionally, with the limit of 1 physical stat-boosting item it helps out a lot by effectively giving you two.
Well, yes, the transmuter's ability becomes more useful with the Alpha 2 release, but I still think it should be at least a +6 bonus at level 20.
Basically, all that happened here was the hierarchy got reinforced. Specialist in awesome schools got a new bucket full of awesome, those in weak schools get screwed. We ought to be usin this school-based mechanic to correct rather than perpetuate imbalances, but whatever.
First, the weak schools:
Necromancers get screwed *hard*
First, Grave touch is a *melee* ability -- this means not only will using it get you killed, but it will miss a lot despite being a touch. Second, the Specialist bonus doesn't even *apply* until level 8. Which is *way* late to get your minions. The low-level bonus spells are all decent, but not awesome. Basically, level 1-7 of Necromancer are very unexciting.
Evokers? The Specialist bonus makes me cry. Weak at low level, irrelevant at high, and a bloody pain to use in any event. 10d6 has a certain elegance to it that 10d6+3 simply does not. Energy Ray makes low-level Evokers happy though.
Abjurer: the energy resistance is very, very unexciting. The Ward is cool, but should give a higher bonus. The spells are *meh* but that's in the nature of Abjuration.
Divination: Solid granted power; lackluster spells. Free True Seeing is nice once you get there, and at high-levels the potential for skill cheese is wonderful.
Compare the Stronger schools:
Illusionists get a fun and useful specialist bonus, and a no-save blind which is prety poor at low levels, but potentially useful at higher levels against equal-leveld foes. The spells are pretty solid.
Conjurers get a scaling, numeric bonus that starts useful and stays useful, when all the 1d6+X powers have gone obsolete. With the exception of Summon I every single spells they get is awesome, especially web, the cloud, and dimensional steps, which si actually potentially *better* than dimension door.
Transmuters are pretty lame at low levels. Eventually, the CON bonus is nice, Enlarge is a good spell to have in multiples, and all the 10+ spells kick ass.
Enchanters -- While you don't plan to be in melee, a no-save daze can get you out of a lot fo scrapes. Almost all the spells are good.
So to recap: Conjurers, Transmuters made of win: Necromancers, Abjurerers screwed; other in between.