Thanks for the feedback, I'm just surprised that it's positive. Yay late night brain storming! If I can get my DM to approve of the Path mechanic, I'll be in good shape!
As for your idea Claudius Gaius regarding reverting to old habits, I like it. They can either temporarily take the negative level and ignore all class abilities and penalties, or they can give up the Path altogether permanently (or at least until they atone).
I am really excited about Paths. I don't see the need to tweak it much for the Spellfletcher, but for other Paths, an extra layer of drawback potential could be used for balancing, with options. For instance:
Choose one, two, or three of the five penalties
a) reduced hit dice by one step if base class has a d6 or greater
b) reduced skill points by 2 if base class has 4 skill points for level or greater
c) a penalty to a single save equal to half class levels rounded up
d) a penalty to all attack rolls equal to one third class levels rounded up
e) a penalty to caster level equal to one third class levels rounded up
A flavorful penalty could also apply on top of that, such as the bow spell failure rate. It then becomes a balancing act to see how many penalties one needs to offset what is gained.
Another limiter could be that powerful Path abilities may require a feat slot. Only problem I foresee with that is that say someone takes the first level of a path and spends a feat on the ability... suddenly they have a really good power that is better than a feat. Of course, they lose the power if they don't finish the class, and thus they'd lose the feat until action is taken... (atonement, retraining, etc). At least there wouldn't be people just taking one level in a path for a great ability and moving on. I like a path requiring dedication, having it mean something instead of just a power grab.
As for your idea Claudius Gaius regarding reverting to old habits, I like it. They can either temporarily take the negative level and ignore all class abilities and penalties, or they can give up the Path altogether permanently (or at least until they atone).
I am really excited about Paths. I don't see the need to tweak it much for the Spellfletcher, but for other Paths, an extra layer of drawback potential could be used for balancing, with options. For instance:
Choose one, two, or three of the five penalties
a) reduced hit dice by one step if base class has a d6 or greater
b) reduced skill points by 2 if base class has 4 skill points for level or greater
c) a penalty to a single save equal to half class levels rounded up
d) a penalty to all attack rolls equal to one third class levels rounded up
e) a penalty to caster level equal to one third class levels rounded up
A flavorful penalty could also apply on top of that, such as the bow spell failure rate. It then becomes a balancing act to see how many penalties one needs to offset what is gained.
Another limiter could be that powerful Path abilities may require a feat slot. Only problem I foresee with that is that say someone takes the first level of a path and spends a feat on the ability... suddenly they have a really good power that is better than a feat. Of course, they lose the power if they don't finish the class, and thus they'd lose the feat until action is taken... (atonement, retraining, etc). At least there wouldn't be people just taking one level in a path for a great ability and moving on. I like a path requiring dedication, having it mean something instead of just a power grab.
