whoa, yuo haven't looked at their change to the Fighter.
Weapon Training as a class feature is fundamentally pretty equal to the combat bonuses a barbarian gets when raging. On top of this, he can specialize, and completely overawe any other melee class with his preferred weapon (+8/+10, weapon Supremacy, and the capstone are verrrry hard to overcome). On top of this, he's got more feats to compliment a generic or specific combat style.
It'd be easier to say the other classes get more out of combat buffs, and the Fighter gets some nasty in-combat stuff that is just this side of total Ownage.
==Aelryinth
You missed my point.
I agree that Weapons Training gives comparable bonuses to rage (not quite as good, but he does get bonus feats and armor training too). But Rage applies to all attacks, while Weapons Training only applies to one weapon.
This is exactly what you've said (fighters are swordsmen/lancers/spearmen/etc). What I'm saying is that, for a class which is supposed to represent formal (or at least highly comprehensive) training and a general mastery of combat, this doesn't make sense. If anything fighters should be the ones who can kick ass with any weapon under the sun, and barbarians should be the ones who only know how to use an ax.
Honestly, until you get to the point where you've got weapon-specific feats or abilities, weapons fall into a very limited number of groups - those you swing at the enemy, and those you poke the enemy with.
It's only when you get into formal training and learning the ins and outs of a particular weapon (say, with weapon focus, or the fighter's weapon training) that you appreciate the differences between, say, a longsword and a scimitar - to someone who's just proficient, they are used exactly the same way.
Okay, I guess that makes sense to an extent: a barbarian is less likely to appreciate the differences between a sword and an ax.
But what about bows verses thrown weapons verses one-handed melee verses two-handed melee verses reach weapons? I could be wrong, but my understanding is that these are used very differently from a real-world perspective as well as from a tactical/gamey perspective. Switching between dramatically different styles like that (archery to polearms to close combat) is something that I see only a highly-trained person doing, yet barbarians and paladins are better at it than the fighter.
It's corny, but I have to admit that I'm also thinking of the scene from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, where Shu-Lien (I think) keeps pulling new weapons off the wall (and apparently using them all with great proficiency) as quickly as Jen can sunder them. That strikes me as something that a fighter would be much more likely to do.
The barbarian is a better all around generalist because of his massive strength bonus. A barbarian is NOT an inept fighter...he's a born killing machine who can pick up and use most anything with power and fury. He's got a full BAB and martial weapon prof...he knows how to use everything.
The paladin is NOT a better generalist then a Fighter. The fact that he can pick up a Dinner Fork and Smite something to Heaven and back does not mean he's a better generalist. At best, he's equal with a Fighter, and since the Paladin is a full BAB class with a full martial tradition behind him, this is quite acceptable.
Only the Fighter can pick up a sword, smile, and say, "You'll NEVER be as good with this as I am," and proceed to utterly own them.
Your Crouching Tiger analogy was amusing, but what you have is a lower level wuxia fighter with an awesome sword and Spec in it, vs. a higher level generalist and proficiency in bunches of exotic weapons. When the pretty girl goes up against another wuxia sword guy of high level, she promptly gets schooled. (why the lady didn't just use another good sword we can chalk up to showmanship cinema).
A level 6 Fighter with weapon spec and a sword +5 against an 9th level Fighter just using general weapons has a terrific advantage.
==Aelryinth
Fighter-only feats are an exceptionally clunky way of trying to sneak actual class features into the fighter. What I've done instead is to assign a "fighter talent" (analogous to a rogue talent) at every odd level, and made some of the fighter-only feats and all of the new class features into talent options. Any fighter-only feats that didn't become talents become general feats instead.
Funny. I was going to suggest exactly this. Instead of a fighter getting "bonus feat" at every other level, give 'em "combat maneuver." Take out the fighter-only feats. Make each of those feats a combat maneuver option. Add another combat maneuver, which can be selected more than once, that allows a fighter to take any of the not-fighter-only feats.
Thinking about it this way really puts the fighter on par with the barbarian, I think. The fighter's better armor balances the barbarian's better hit dice; the barbarian's greater speed and skill points balance the fighter's armor training; the fighter's weapon training balances the barbarian's rage; and that leaves the fighter's combat maneuvers to balance the barbarian's rage powers, which leads me to conclude that barbarian rage powers should be bumped up to feat-equivalent strength.
Hah. Given the wimpy nature of most feats, the rage powers ARE the equivalent of feats. The fact they only work in a rage is a non-issue...the barbarian is going to be in combat, when most of them are useful, when he uses them. And given the new rage mechanic, he can literally activate them at any time for short durations, as he wishes.
==Aelryinth
Funny. I was going to suggest exactly this. Instead of a fighter getting "bonus feat" at every other level, give 'em "combat maneuver." Take out the fighter-only feats. Make each of those feats a combat maneuver option. Add another combat maneuver, which can be selected more than once, that allows a fighter to take any of the not-fighter-only feats.Thinking about it this way really puts the fighter on par with the barbarian, I think. The fighter's better armor balances the barbarian's better hit dice; the barbarian's greater speed and skill points balance the fighter's armor training; the fighter's weapon training balances the barbarian's rage; and that leaves the fighter's combat maneuvers to balance the barbarian's rage powers, which leads me to conclude that barbarian rage powers should be bumped up to feat-equivalent strength.
I'd like this idea. Maybe making one or two of the manouvers grant the fighter the option to apply weapon specfic benifits (like weapon focus) to multiple weapons, maybe even all.