Uniform system for Advanced Combat Actions (i.e. Iron Might stunts, with Grapple / Trip / Sunder Skills)
This is actually the only one I agree with being elegant.
rycanada said:
Caster Level increasing like BAB
I just can't see how adding another multiclass-breaking issue such as rounded fractional bonuses can be more elegant. I think the BAB system as it is is horrible.
Sneak and Perception skills
This may be elegant on paper, but what about blind or deaf creatures? What about when you need to know what the character noticed? What about underwater where sound carries dramatically better than light? What about in a silenced area? By removing two lines from the character sheet, you have created a whole slew of "exception" rules to account for this missing information. Sneak and Perception are the very antithesis of elegance.
Spells only have one level, not different ones depending on who's learning it
I'd go further and say that they should have a difficulty entirely unrelated to level.
No duplicate systems (saves+Spell Resistance, miss chance + AC)
Again (similar to the Sneak/Perception) you've removed a simple rule that everyone seems to understand pretty well (in my experience) and cluttered it with monsters who have to have "exception" rules added to them to maintain flavor and balance.
Classes balanced without the feat system
The classes aren't balanced WITH the feat system. The feat system isn't even balanced with itself. I'm not exactly sure what you are getting at here.
Fewer, more generalized feats.
I'm not sure what you mean by generalized, but I agree fewer feats is a good thing. I think they should remove all feats that add a bonus to something. Feats should represent new abilities, not improved old abilities. That's what class levels and skills represent well; feats do not.
Swift, Interrupt, and "Opportunity" actions cleaned up.
This is another area I think they should go further. There shouldn't even be different action types. There's absolutely no reason for them except that the game was designed to accomodate them so now they can't be taken out. This is an easy fix in a new system. You should be allowed 1 or 2 actions per round (doesn't really matter which) and there should be a unified way to exceed that number of actions. The attack option and BAB shouldn't be cluttered with multiple attacks at differing bonuses. A system that said you get 2 actions per round, and each additional action gives a -5 penalty to all actions would handle an even wider variety of actions (attacking multiple times, etc) in an easier and more intuitive fashion. Movement may or may not be an action, depending on how you want to run with it. Free actions simply would not be actions. Swift actions wouldn't be actions either, but would simply be something you can do once per round on your turn. Opportunities aren't actions. Interrupts are a bit tricker, but with careful wording I think you can fit this in without actually creating a new type of action.
Spell "levels" called "orders" or "degrees" to distinguish from levels of the other sorts.
I agree on principle, but there is the problem of adding even more English words to the list of things being said that can be confusing because they are game terms. I would suggest Difficulty as it is a term already used by the system, but in such a different context as it would never be confused. I would also go a step further and try to rethink the terms class level, character level, effective character level, and caster level. These, in my experience, cause WAY more confusion than spell level, though it is true that spell level comes up more often.
I think the way Psionics is presented is much more intuitive than the way spells are presented, even though the psionics system itself is arguably far more complicated than the spell system. The terminology chosen (powers, manifest, power points, psionic focus, etc.) is superb at making things very clear. If they could come up with something like that, I think things would be much easier for people to understand.
