Opening Salvo

I was disappointed to find that a number of issues from the last iteration of the playtest still remain in the current version. Here are some problems that stood out:

• Humans remain grossly overpowered. They still receive a +2 bonus to one ability score and +1 to all others.
• The armor system still needs some work. There is essientially only one viable choice in each category (light, medium, heavy) for first-level characters. Why does ringmail armor even exist? No one will ever choose it over chainmail as the heavy armor for a low-level character. And am I missing something, or are splint and banded exactly the same in every way?
• The herbalism feat still feels broken. I'll take it every time if I'm playing a cleric.
• The blank character sheet remains almost completely useless.

I'll have a lot more to say about the new playtest packet in the coming days, but in a nutshell, I think this version is a major step backwards. Why? There aren't any fundamental alterations to the system, but a lot of the little changes seem (from my perspective) to make the game more complicated and less fun. I'll follow up with a series of posts that tackle each issue (skills, feats, maneuvers, etc.) in turn.