Okay so we did a big batch of combats, skill challenges and heres the collected information my groups come up with.
Arcanist - Versatile is the word of the day here its got options options options.. However like most party oriented games focus nearly always trumps versatility.. As a general party buff wizard this guy is good but the specialty school wizards are all just better at what they do. This classes power more then many others is GM caveat class where access to scrolls and such makes or breaks it.
Bloodrager - This one took forever to playtest the various bloodlines and builds but it performed well.. It has some serious combo-wombo wonky to it depending on allowed feats and such but it was less full on steam rolling then the barbarian. Flavor Wise we loved this class and it felt like the most thought out in terms of fluff.
Brawler - The idea of an unarmed fighter that wasnt seeking enlightenment is something my group has thought missing for a while. We all agreed he works like Bane from Batman, the comics specifically. This is not a thug or a tavern brawler. This is a class of perfectly directed brutality. When needed he steps back and figures out rationally what he needs to break whatever is in his path. He takes the monks all the time versatility and applies it to hitting things and like his general refusal to depend to much on one thing relies first and foremost on his own body. I cant add anything new on the few squidgy mechanics problems' lame capstone, and language cleanup other then to say his martial maneuvers really does seem to need to keep scaling for action economy as he levels up. It cant hyper specialize as well as the fighter and it lacks the monks grab bag of situationally not awful random.
Hunter - This class is confused and awkward.. worse spells then the druid, worse in combat then the ranger. Animal focus seems just.. unimpressive most of the time you use it and mostly just went back and forth between bear and wolf since everyone needs hitpoints and scent is a thing that is surprisingly useful. Hunter tactics would be an awesome idea if teamwork feats didnt both members to be doing the same thing so often.. It would be nice if there were some melee/range or melee/spell rather then the melee/melee or target/target type we have now. Other then that its got a grab bag of ranger and druid stuff that makes it woodsy.. I think this class could use some eidolon evolutions or something to improve the pet.
Investigator - All the skill monkey of the rogue but better less of the flanking stabbity. This class seems like a pharmaceutically inspired PC expert that should honestly probably just have the whole skill list as class skills. Though some of its talents allow for that to not be needed. We didn't think he should get to pilfer rogue talents when the slayer couldnt. Inspiration was actually a fun and interesting do-hicky to play with and came in handy enough times to matter. We agree with the replacement of sneak attack and would like to see some way rather then moar damage for him to debilitate his foes.
Shaman - Like the bloodrager play testing every combination was a nightmare.. so much in fact that we only did like five before we just went 'Okay this class just works.. It does lots of work. I think s#*!ing it to the druid spell list like some suggested is a great plan since that would give us 2 full casters that use it and it jives more with our ideas of shaman. Its combat presence was less obvious then clerics or oracles but as a support class that helped the party do better it was off the chain.
Skald - We just didn't know how to judge this class.. It was less a bardbarian and more just a variant bard nothing in and of itself seemed to be barbariany other then it raged too when it granted rage.. Spell kenning was interesting and maybe if expanded to be more important would make it pop more
Slayer - To us this class swashed more bucklers then the swashbuckler did.. Its chosen target felt very duelist-i focus on a single dude-like but then it had all the tracking and running down of prey that it has.. We found this to be one of the best fusions on the simple side and feel that with an expanded talent list and the bluff skill added in it will be perfect.
Swashbuckler - Okay so the class isn't bad per se. But when almost ever ability seemed just not quite right in some way with some stuff We figured this class needs to allow all light and one handed weapons or everyone will just always go rapier or scimitar-dervish dance and we hated that picks and flails were swashy but kukri, fighting sticks and whips were not. The parry riposte is an awesome idea that doesnt play well mechanically, The class wants to be charismatic for flavor but is better dumping the stat and taking extra panache as a feat. To be a front liner combatant it has to take feats that don't taste right and when you take the feats that do taste right you don't fill your d10 full BAB role very well.Lots of good ideas that just need smoother execution.
Warpriest - The only class in this i will say seemed bad We just didn't think it contributed more to healing then a clerics it fights worse then the inquisitor. People want a holy champion that can.. champion and not just be a cleric that traded spells at useful levels for feats that its bab often isnt good enough for. Maybe give it bab = to hit die for the deity weapon or the often mentioned magus for buff spell idea.. We just couldnt figure out what the intent of this class was enough for feedback
I'll get around to the more details and level break downs on each class when I get my text to type set up tomorrow.. There are notes and stuff that I don't want to just type from the notebook because I'm lazy and.. Well I'm lazy.
Okay now that thanksgiving madness is over i can do the breakdown on some of them there ACG classes. Keep in mind were doing this by level rather then advancing through and did it with super optimized builds <Thanks to our RulesGnome> and more organic I'd have taken this at level 3 when i needed it then just not used it anymore or tee hee this is silly builds <from our FlavorGnome> and yes my usual group has two gnomes. Not so much play gnomes as are gnomes.
We also have
Girlfriend who is much more of a larp style gamer and plays druids and summoners so she can when possible say I sic my dire weasel on You may all pity me.
D-Bag whos yearbook photo should read curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal
And Me the luck sack who seems to always do better with terrible terrible plans and favor of the dice gods then any real sane form of thought process and a penchant for recklessness and poor impulse control
We also have GM his life sucks and its our fault.
I'm the one voted to put stuff up because the others either dont want to give up lurker status, dont want to make an account or dont want it known that they associate with me on a public forum.
We going to start with
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The Arcanist.
This class is an arcane caster and has all the baggage that comes with it and since this was a playtest we didnt add our usual notebook of houserules. When it comes to spellbook arcane casters you get a real big YMMV on their power level that depends entirely on how easy the GM makes it to acquire scrolls and spellbooks with janky busted ass spells. If every town has a shop smart shop magic mart sort of location the arcanist will wreck you kick your puppies and make you cry. Were going to go with our review of this class playtested old school arcanist because we really dont feel that the class lost anything it didn't get back in spades between versions.
Level the first. Hey its an arcane caster at level one does anyone really think this magic missile/burning hands/maybe mage armor jockey varies much from the others ? He doesn't. Moving on. Do not burn all your blood point things.. Your life will suck.
Level the fifth: Here ? Yeah still not much to differentiate them spell-wise RulesGnomes Icanhasscrollsyes? usage of WBL out performed FlavorGnomes brilliant idea of I set aside this much scroll munnies roll them up at random. Duh. Still it feels like a wizard who stole two bites of the sorcerers wheaties.
Level the Tenth and up: As level the fifth but the gap between optimized spells and unoptimized spells is now brutally apparent. It doesn't quite feel just wizardy any more as Sometimes it steals abilities from its sorcerer bloodline and it seems that its a better generalist then anything which I know is a well duh but until you play it its hard to get it. Itsm like it traded class abilities away for spell flexibility.
Player Views
RulesGnome: The spell for every niche made him sticky until it wasn't a level 20 diviner. Some of the sorcerer grabs were nice but there was no reason not to jump to a prestige full casting class asap
FlavorGnome: It was Kinda like that Old OK soda.. It had so much everything it didn't really taste like anything. I guess it cast spells better.
Girlfriend: Ugh.. Rulesgnome takes longer with his spells every new day now then with his stupid wizards.. I stab him while he sleeps so get us another hour of time actually playing.
Dbag: Its okay.. I'd still rather be a enchanter, necromancer or summoner wizard school/sorcerer bloodline though this class doesnt have the potential to have its foolish minions ruin its plans that I like.
Me: Um 'splosions ? No its not really very combat magey is it ? Party buffing ? Yeah bad ass at that.. But i want to *do* stuff not make doing stuff work.
GM: See girlfriends response.
** Not that I think they do or anything but RulesGnome is going to explain to me why the new abilities the class gets super duper do not suck.