This isn't going to be incredibly detailed, but rather just a quick overview. It's been a while since I checked in.
All of this is based on actual playtesting, no armchair analysis.
Also, from earlier posts, I said the player attributes were a little high. I have scaled the point buy-in back to just a little above the NPCs. PCs have an advantage, but not a great one. So that possible bit of parallax has been removed.
Overall.. at 4th level I am feeling a power creep. However, when I say that, I mean in terms of backwards compatibility. I'm running a 3.5 adventure and trying to minimize the effort needed to convert. Plus I have run Runelords in 3.5 as well, so I have a basis of comparison. This seems easier for the Pathfinder group. I've been ratcheting up the monster hit points and increasing the numbers of monsters.. but I'm feeling the power creep.
That's only a problem in terms of backwards compatibility though, as noted. I find myself wishing for a Pathfinder RPG monster book so that I could give them more suitable challenges. Then again, I think I could overwelm them if I tried.
Combat Manuevers- players have thumb their noses at them and really haven't wanted to try them out. They complain that they're too difficult and they result in a wasted standard action aned a possible AOO.
I have tried them with monsters, and yeah.. I wasted my attacks and the monsters died promptly. Even without the AOOs. The Tentamort was a great example. It was a nice little fight for the 3.5 group and grappled the fighter handily. In PFRPG the Tentamort grappled nothing and died fast. The players pointed to the CMB and said, "See? That's why we don't bother." They didn't even get AOOs against it either.
Likewise, the Yeth Hounds were a good fight, but that was due to DR. They actually had trouble tripping players on their bite attacks. Granted, I had some bad dice rolls, but we could all see it.
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Hand of the Apprentice- I am going to eat some crow, so I hope Doug Bragg is reading this.
I love the idea, but at low levels, it seems to be outclassing a fighter. Granted the Wizard mini-maxed his intelligence to 18, but it was a legal mini-max- I mean some player will top out their main attribute within the rules. So, he had a solid bonus..
But it goes beyond just the basic effectiveness of the power. I expected the Wizard to have more spells throughout the adventuring day.. what I didn't expect was the Wizard not to use their spells because they didn't need to..
I love the power, but that is what I'm seeing.
Making the longsword occupy it's own 5' square is the number one hinderance to H of A, so I am glad it's there.
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Positives? The new skills seem to be working well and as intended.
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Again, domain choice skews the cleric a lot.
Erik Mona asked about channelling being balanced. It seems okay.. But when the Cleric of Saranrae had Fire and Sun Domains, I am finding he doesn't have to dip into his actual slotted spells all that much either.
My cleric did take Extra Turning (Page 66) right away, so at low levels he can Channel Energy a lot. Maybe... maybe you should give some thought to outting a Level Requirement on that Feat? That way at 1st -4th levels it becomes more of a commodity that needs to be conserved.
Anyway, that's my playtest report for today.