The following is essentially my pruned down version of lilmarcat's suggested class changes with some additions and alteration. The spirit of the suggestions is the same as lilmarcat's; I would like to see balance changes made with the intention of making new class combinations viable, adding consistency where NWN is inconsistent, and generally making problematic mechanics feel better. These suggestions are not, in my opinion, meant to increase the overall power of any class; "powercreep" within the Amian meta carries with it the risk of making dungeons too easy and PvP encounters one-sided.

In addition to balance considerations, I have also done my best to ensure that these changes will not necessitate widespread rebuilds of existing characters. Of course, changes may manifest player interest to rebuild to take advantage of some of the newly viable combinations, but this is a very different thing than mandatory rebuilds for all affected characters. The primary impediment to the scope of some of lilmarcat's suggestions is the number of subsequent rebuilds the DM team would have to review and so I have (to my knowledge) not included any suggestion from lilmarcat's original post that would necessitate a mandatory rebuild.

I would love to see these changes discussed on their merit and I would love to see any other suggestions from players that also follow the criteria of 1. minimally changing the power of a class or mechanic, and 2. will not require any character rebuilds to be implemented (this means no changes to class bonus feat progression, races, or the availability of discipline, tumble, or UMD).

Barbarian

• Remove all caps on barbarian rage, unyielding rage, and ferocity attack.

Reasoning: Most powerful barbarian builds call for 24 class levels which coincides with the current caps, thus making them redundant. The caps serve only to penalize barbarians that take more than 24 levels to play already suboptimal builds. By removing these caps much needed power is given back to barbarians that go the extra mile to pick epic barbarian damage reduction II (26) and II (29) or the additional epic feat at level 28.

Blackguard

• Epic fiendish servant added as an available general feat.
• Bonus feat list: Crippling strike added.

Reasoning: Epic fiendish servant's description notes a level 15 prerequisite, but it is unavailable until level 16 as it can only be taken as a bonus feat. Rectifying this anomaly allows for players to obtain the capstone feat of the class with fewer (and an odd number) of levels invested, thus opening up new build opportunities to inventive players. Crippling strike is added to the bonus feat list for the class, consistent with other classes that have access to sneak attack dice (rogue, assassin).

Divine Champion

• Divine wrath changed to a cooldown modified by charisma (as per DD breath weapon) that begins upon conclusion of divine wrath. Damage soak changed to X/+6.
• Purge Infidel changed to a cooldown modified by charisma (as per DD breath weapon) that begins upon conclusion of purge infidel.

Reasoning: Divine champions currently have a very brief window of offensive power in divine wrath/purge infidel. This window should be kept brief, but it can be improved by changing both buffs to a cooldown based use that will not force martial characters to rest more often than they otherwise would.

The damage reduction on divine wrath should also be improved so that it is relevant on Amia (this means either changing it to a +6 or +7 enhancement to penetrate the damage reduction). Given that the duration of divine wrath is rarely longer than 1 turn and the modest scaling of the amount soaked (5-10: 5/-, 15: 10/-, 20: 15/-) it should not be too much power added to the class.

Pale Master

• Effective Caster Level 1 per 2 pale master levels for non-necromancy school spells (following the additional spells per day on odd levels) in their highest level arcane caster class

Reasoning: By giving pale masters back some of their caster levels they can utilize their expansive wizard spellbook, while still giving up power in the spell schools besides necromancy in exchange for their deathless mastery.

Shifter

• Uncanny dodge added to the obtained feats for the following forms:

Wildshape I:

Black Wyrmling
Epic Black Wyrmling
Green Wyrmling
Epic Green Wyrmling

Wildshape II:

Harpy
Epic Harpy

Wildshape III:

Drider
Epic Drider
Manticore
Epic Manticore

Humanoid Shape:

Drow Warrior
Epic Drow Warrior
Kobold Commando
Epic Kobold Cammando

Wildshape IV:

Dire Tiger
Epic Dire Tiger
Medusa
Epic Medusa

Undead Shape:

Spectre

Outsider Shape:

Death Slaad

Reasoning: Many shifter forms are given a high dexterity scores meant to boost their AC. Because the dexterity bonus to AC is lost along with the dodge bonus to AC when caught flat footed, uncanny dodge is a must for dexterity based characters. In the absence of a third class that gains uncanny dodge, shifters that choose to use these forms can sometimes be left far more vulnerable than they should be. Adding uncanny dodge to the dexterity heavy shifter forms allows players to use these forms safely with class combinations that would otherwise not obtain uncanny dodge.

• Add 10 Discipline & Spot & Listen to Drow Warrior
• Add 15-20 Discipline & Spot & Listen to Epic Drow Warrior
• Add evasion to Drow Warrior & Epic Drow Warrior

Reasoning: Drow warrior is the only non-epic shifter form that does not receive skill bonuses on its skin. The bonuses suggested above are consistent magnitude with other shifter forms and are typed appropriately given the form's martial nature and its keen elven sight. Evasion should also be added to the drow warrior, given its impressive dexterity score and niche as a generalist melee form.

Dwarven Defender

• Defensive stance changed to a combat mode
• Elemental immunity added to defensive stance

Reasoning: Defensive stance already offers very modest benefit for the drawback of being unable to move. The least we can do for Dwarven Defenders is keep them from feeling bad about using defensive stance when they might have to break out of it immediately. Additionally, a reasonable amount of % elemental immunity should be granted when in defensive stance, to give Dwarven Defenders some ability to withstand persistent AoE spells such as acid fog while they're stuck in place.

Shadowdancer

• Open lock added to class skills

Reasoning: Nimble tricksters and infiltrators of all kinds should have access to the open lock skill.

Feats

• Enable "StickyCombatModes=1"

Reasoning: Long awaited fix to an irritating impediment to using combat modes such as power attack or flurry of blows that comes included in NWN:EE

Weapons

• Change trident to 1d6 20/x3 in addition to the previous change making it a simple proficiency weapon.

Reasoning: The trident already has spear models in the Amia hak allowing it to be used to emulate a shortspear. The only change left to make it truly the one-handed spear we have all been waiting for is upping its critical multiplier to the x3 of the large spear. If possible/desired, trident should also be a druid proficiency weapon just as the large spear is.