For a unchained bard I would like to see that you can choose your bardic music/performance abilities from a large list so the class has more variation without needing archetypes, prestige classes, etc. I would like to see bardic music/performance that can grant fast healing, energy resistance, haste, freedom of movement, delay poison, shield, DR, SR, AC dodge bonuses, all saves, see invisible, curative effects, magic weapon properties such as flaming or ghost touch, charm, sleep, fear, confusion, glitterdust, summoned creatures, etc.
^Building upon this, I'd like to see most of the Bard archetypes condensed into Minstrel Paths or something like that, similar to what I proposed earlier for Fighter Unchained. Other than that, Bard doesn't seem to need too much change, except that the lack of a class feature at 4th level sticks out like a sore thumb (put in a bonus Bardic Masterpiece or something and we'll call it good). The Bard table also looks like it has dead levels at 13 and 16, but that's actually just the table not reflecting major upgrades to Bardic Performance (action economy; table also leaves out the 7th level upgrade) and Jack of All Trades.
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I agree that currently clerics seem to be a little bland.
I think the 2e spheres/granted powers approach to the cleric was a good step in the right direction, but in actual play there were a lot of problems with it. One of the major ones is that the spheres really weren't balanced well with each other - they basically took the 1e cleric and druid lists, and put each spell in the sphere it belonged to. This resulted in some very lopsided spheres, and it was entirely possible to pick out a set of wholly appropriate spheres for a particular deity which would result in a nearly unusable spell list. I think, for example, that the god of blacksmithing on my old 2e homebrew world granted the choice of an entire one sixth level spell. Heck you could put together spell lists that omitted entire levels. Some spheres only had like 4 spells spread across 7 spell levels.
(Conversely once Skills&Powers hit, you could take the default cleric, drop a few of it's cruddier spheres and get yourself a whole bunch of points to spend on actual class abilities.)
So yeah, it would be neat to see the cleric domain and spell system redesigned to increase flavor, but there would be a need to be very careful with it.
If you want an unarmored caster that gets a lot of cleric-type spells, might I suggest witch? Decide that your deity is your patron, and boom, you've got a character with buffs and healing who doesn't wear armor. Your GM may even let your reflavor witch to a divine caster. If you don't plan to wear armor anyway the difference is nearly nil.
I'm not in favor of increasing a bunch of classes to 4+Int skill points. I don't think it's needed. An unchained rule of granting 2 extra skill points at level 1 to allow for more diversity at character creation would be ok, but I like skill points being valuable and spending them to be a tough decision. (Obviously I wouldn't object if an unchained book bumped skill points, I just wouldn't use that rule).
With the cleric there have been a multitude of homebrew "Priest" classes that give ample proof of concept as well as some good 3PP versions.
Its patently clear there is a demand for it.
Back in 3.5 there were options too.... I still maintain a Paizo take on the Archivist would be a really good bet.
Alternatively, a return to spheres could be good fun and a way to add proper flavour.
People go on about the huge spell list but pretty much everytime I've ever seen someone play a cleric they all go for 90% the same spells!
Bland with a capital B!
I agree that currently clerics seem to be a little bland.
I think the 2e spheres/granted powers approach to the cleric was a good step in the right direction, but in actual play there were a lot of problems with it. {. . .}
So yeah, it would be neat to see the cleric domain and spell system redesigned to increase flavor, but there would be a need to be very careful with it.
Yes -- for playability, Domains at least ensure that you have a spell every level, although it isn't as good as it sounds, because some of them are terrible and/or late entry with no compensating factor (if a Domain gives you a spell that is already on the Cleric/Oracle or Druid list late entry relative to those lists, it should at least give you something extra for it -- 1 or 2 levels of Heighten Spell usually don't help you enough to be worthwhile). But the Domains (and Inquisitions) ust don't have thee flavor of the Spheres and Specialty Priests of 2nd Edition. And Witch are just lists of bonus spells with no flavor attached at all.
If you want an unarmored caster that gets a lot of cleric-type spells, might I suggest witch? Decide that your deity is your patron, and boom, you've got a character with buffs and healing who doesn't wear armor. Your GM may even let your reflavor witch to a divine caster. If you don't plan to wear armor anyway the difference is nearly nil.
I have thought of that, although see above about the complete lack of flavor of Patrons. Probably would want a Witch archetype that has a divine connection -- maybe backcross Shaman to Witch? Needs further study.
I'm not in favor of increasing a bunch of classes to 4+Int skill points. I don't think it's needed. An unchained rule of granting 2 extra skill points at level 1 to allow for more diversity at character creation would be ok, but I like skill points being valuable and spending them to be a tough decision. (Obviously I wouldn't object if an unchained book bumped skill points, I just wouldn't use that rule).
The point wasn't to give everybody 2 more skill points, just low skill classes that are not Int-based casters. Yes, skill points should be valuable, but when they are so scarce that you can't build your character concept without sinking an inordinate amount of points into Int (not bad taken by itself, but if it causes you to come up short somewhere else, it becomes bad), then the skill points are too tight. Agreed on granting extra skill points at 1st level, though, since this is where the skill points seem to be tightest (because of all those things that you need 1 or 2 points in to fill out your character concept). The classes that need 2 more skill points per level are Cleric, Fighter, Paladin/Antipaladin (actually, really want to replace these with Holy Warrior prestige classes), Sorcerer (except Sage Bloodline, which should really be an archetype instead of a Bloodline), Magus Eldritch Scion archetype (not Magus in general), Warpriest, Summoner, These are all classes that have 2 + IntMod skill points per level and are not Int-based casters, or are archetypes thereof that change the primary casting stat to something other than Int they cannot afford to raise Int very high, and thus end up very skill-starved, although the Pathfinder Unchained Background Skills or the Consolidated Skills could help (but these help everybody, thus leaving classes like the Fighter sorely behind).