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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 4908479" data-attributes="member: 2209">I'll take a shot at that.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />First you bring up two good points.It is true that now there is an armor check penalty, so this will definitely hurt armored horsemen. Mollified a little bit by fighter reduction in armor check penalties this still starts at -6 for full plate.Also true the no skill synergies is a drawback for those fighters who spent 5 skill points out of their too few skill points in handle animal. I consider this minor however.For those who truly sought to max out their ride skill with every possible point they would take Animal affinity which gave +2 bonus and skill focus which gave +3. Those do the same in PF but then double their bonuses at 10th level.However while they have max ranks = HD vs. max ranks = HD +3 for a class skill, they get a +3 bonus if this is a class skill, so the end number is the same.If you don't max out from the beginning PF generally puts you three farther ahead than 3.5.If ride is not a class skill then you still have a PF max rank of HD instead of 3.5's (HD +3)/2 with double skill point cost. At 1st level maxing out a cross class skill you do better in 3.5 but then become even at 2nd and fall behind at 3rd and are paying twice as many of your skill points to do so.So armor check is a definite downgrade for fighter and paladin knights.No synergies is a minor drawback (loss of a +2 bonus) only applicable to those who were built around maxing out ride skill numbers. However this is countered somewhat at tenth level by the extra +2 bonus for those with the animal affinity feat and +3 from skill focus.Maxing out skill ranks leaves you the same bonus for class skills in 3.5 and PF. Trying to get maximum ride skill number total, a little advantage for 3.5 knight concept fighters and paladins as they don't have the full plate mail -6, at higher level PF fighters do very well though.Maxing out cross class skills gives PF the accelerating advantage.Starting later and not maxing out gives the advantage to PF in both class and nonclass skill classes.</blockquote>

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