I agree with most others that the Controller role is the easiest to do without. The AoE damage effects and utility powers for skill challenges are nice, but strikers can easily fill the role.
Strikers are the second less essential, but combats REALLY drag on without them.
Leaders are the...
Well the sling bullet gets its energy from the sling spinning. Since the bullet is relatively light, the only thing you need to do to increase the bullet's velocity is to spin the sling faster, which would be dexterity related. So even the strongest goliath wouldn't be able to spin the same...
I would say a bull rush and similar movement effects work without a roll, as long as the other player agrees to the movement. Also, I would say that the pushing player attracts OAs but the pushed player doesn't.
It might be fun to have a BBEG with a sort of "disenchant" ability... But personally I wouldn't do it just to nerf one character's abuse, unless you put in some nice foreshadowing, making it clear that the BBEG does have some way of "eating" magic.
Maybe fun to do once. Not a whole lot...
I would be inclined to just make up a skill called "Piloting". It could work for both regular ships and astral ships.
Have Piloting stack with Arcana, with above-average DCs, and I think you have the perfect system for piloting a ship. I'd probably also put out there the option for hiring a...
I think that the OP had it largely correct for speeding up encounters. More skirmishers, with 1 soldier or 2 brutes in the encounter. I find that I rarely like to include monsters with regen or healing because they take so long to kill and that regen usually comes with a hit to damage. Hit...
Player Interested
Hey, this sounds like a game that I'd be interested in playing. I DM in the El Paso area, but I also love playing as a PC as well. If you still have space, drop me a line and we can talk about what sort of PCs and style of game you like to run. Looking forward to talking...
Not much I can say that hasn't been said before...
I can only agree that from a crunch standpoint it's got some interesting terrain features and templates for creating some monsters. Also the errata on skill challenges makes them much more viable in my opinion, if you aren't using it already...