I think from my perspective (I too prefer to figure out my own penalty/bonus) is that in play, I saw way too many cases where people aren't as fast/good as I/others are at doing the calculating, especially when the onus was on them because it was their turn. Thus, they'd take the feat because it was expected of them but they'd almost never use it. And the few times they did, things came to a stop while they weighed options, calculated the numbers, etc.
On the other hand, I've seen just about everyone who takes it use it in just about every combat because the numbers are easy and there's only one decision (to use or not use it) rather than two (that plus how much) - thus, I'd say it's better than before, because the best feat in the world that is never used is worse than a mediocre one that's used most of the time.
At least in my experience...as a player, I used it a lot in 3.5, but as a DM, whatever makes my players happy makes me happy. As long as one of he PCs is sacrificed.
I'd rather it just let you choose, and anyone who forgets to say what amount is being used before making the attack roll uses the minimum. Or the maximum. I really don't care. Just give the option for those who want it. It's at most adding to 6 and multiplying by 3 now, it really shouldn't be that daunting.
I've been waiting for something like 11 years to see a "fixed" version of polymorph.
I suspect I'll be waiting another 11.
I alway thought 3E Polymorph wasn't so bad (Alter Self, PAO, and Shapechange are too much, though), but I realize 99% of the world is against me on that one.
Yeah, I wish spot+listen had been notice and search remained separate and I agree about bards/rogues - especially with UC, ninjas are better rogues than rogues.
The playtest Ninja was better than Rogue. Not because it was overpowered. It was actually the most MAD class I've ever seen and even with high point buy still just a sneaky guy who sneak attacks for alright damage. The problem was how much the rogue, and especially his terribad "rogue talents" sucked. And they didn't learn their lesson. The new UC rogue talents are abysmal, to the point where the one that lets you hold your breath for +2 rounds actually made me roll around on the floor laughing. No, instead of trying to make rogue suck less, they nerfed the bejesus out of Ninja. Its tricks now no longer come with a free use, and several abilities went up in ki point cost. Which means you need even more charisma just to function. Which manages to make the class even MORE MAD. IMO, the final version of the Ninja is unplayable without a hilariously large point buy or godly rolls.
Search I think should be paired with something. I paired it with Sleight of Hand, re-flavoring it as a mostly tactile-based approach (like the 3E feat that made search dex-based). This is my current ideas for houseruling skills, if you want. It's unfinished.
[sblock]Acrobatics: Only contains Balance and Tumble. No longer a Barbarian class skill. Can be used to roll on a landing (DC 15) to reduce falling damage by 10 ft (you can still also jump down with the Athletics skill, also). Without 3 Acrobatics ranks, if you stand in an area that requires balance checks, you lose your dexterity and dodge bonuses to AC. Tumble DCs follow 3.5's rules (ie, base DC 15 and so forth, no relation to CMD).
Athletics: New strength-based skill, combines Climb and Jump. Class skill for Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue (and Ninja), Antipaladin, Cavalier (and Samurai), Inquisitor, and Magus. Any character that would gain Climb as a class skill (such as through domain or mystery, etc...) gains Athletics as a class skill.
Diplomacy: DCs need to be addressed...
Escape Artist: You can use your Escape Artist modifier +10 instead of CMD to avoid a grapple.
Fly: Anyone can take ranks in the skill, whether you have magical or natural flight, or no means of flight at all.
Knowledges: For creatures that have advanced forms or are advanced HD versions of the base creature, you learn basic information relevant to all creatures of that type if you make the DC for the weakest possible specimen, just nothing specific to the threat before you. For example, if you made the DC for a wyrmling Red Dragon when encountering an Adult, you may learn about the fire immunity, breath weapon, etc...
Perception: Now is "only" a combination of Spot and Listen and any other type of sensory reaction. Remains the best skill in the game, stop crying.
Sleight of Hand: Adding Search to its functions. Remains Dex-based. Elves (and Half-Elves) retain the racial
perception bonus on search checks with this skill, since they had it in 3E. Renaming the skill, probably "Thievery" or similar.[/sblock]
And in my games, I've had to institute some niche protections which frankly should be in the books.
Definitely. My current ideas for Rogue houserules (among other things) are to just plain hand out free Skill Focuses like candy just so they can maintain an edge at their chosen best skills, or at least not fall behind so much. I'm still toying with the idea of a high level X/day type class feature to get the benefit of epic-level skill check results (as in the stuff from the Epic level Handbook, like Tumbling so well you can fall 10000 ft and be unharmed or escape artist your way through a wall of force, etc...).
What's funny to me, speaking of that review, is that I think at lot of the tone is misplaced with how the core rulebook playtest went down (because of the announced playtest goals).
Given how the public playtests for firearms (there was none), the gunslinger (blah blah blah not listening), ninja & samurai (our way or the highway) turned out, now that tone is more appropriate than ever, IMO.
True. They were very stubborn in the original playtesting, too though. I heard it took designers literally walking out of the room and threatening to quit the project to get Jason B to give up his assertion that Paladins should be an absolutely weak, horrific class because there's some sort of role-play value in that. I suppose listening in the end is better than never at all, but the situation still wasn't great way back when.
) but thanks to archetypes, prestige classes are one of the last things I'd bother looking at in Pathfinder.
