8.9.0: Rebalanced movement, range, and ability scaling

Problem: Backing away from enemies while using long-ranged attacks was a reliable and powerful strategy in many situations. It reduces any open area combat to a series of awkwardly precise distance calculations between each enemy and each party member. Even when monsters are faster than a party, it would still take them many rounds to catch up to a retreating party.
Solution: Increase distance covered during a full-round movement, and reduce the maximum range of long-range abilities.
Specific changes:

• The Sprint ability now only increases fatigue when used during the movement phase. Sprinting during the action phase does not increase fatigue.
  • Monsters can now sprint during the action phase, since that does not increase their fatigue
• Distant range has been reduced to 180 feet instead of 240 feet, and Extreme range has been reduced to 240 feet instead of 480 feet
• Huge areas have been reduced to 90 feet instead of 120 feet, and Gargantuan areas have been reduced to 120 feet instead of 240 feet
• Projectile weapons now have a long range limit of triple their short range limit, rather than quadruple their short range limit
  • For example, longbows now have range limits of 120/360 instead of 120/480
• Classes
  • Wizard: Conjuration school specialization now grants a flat range modifier instead of multiplying spell range
• Feats
  • Sphere Focus: Astromancy now grants a flat range modifier instead of multiplying spell range
• Mystic spheres
  • Aeromancy: Propulsion has reduced scaling
  • Astromancy: Dimension Door has reduced scaling
  • Chronomancy: Expeditious Retreat now grants a temporary speed bonus instead of allowing sprinting without spending fatigue

Problem: Even once long distance gaps have been covered, superior speed makes close quarters combat surprisingly difficult. If a ranged character backs away during the movement phase, even a 5-foot speed differential can prevent melee attackers from using maneuvers that require using a standard action. The melee attacker would be forced to charge or sprint to avoid being stranded, and both options are punishing. This is especially ripe for abuse for creatures with a large natural reach. In theory, the optimal strategy for many large boss monsters would involve "kiting" melee characters to take advantage of their superior reach, which is narratively inappropriate and difficult to counter.
Solution: Remove all 5-foot speed modifiers. Speed bonuses are generally more rare, and are always granted in 10-foot increments. The whole concept of "reach" as a character statistic has been removed, and most abilities now simply refer to adjacent targets.
Specific changes:

• All abilities that said "within your reach" or "within your reach with your weapon" now simply say "adjacent to you"
  • This is a small nerf to Long weapons
• All abilities which granted a magic bonus to reach now grant the Long weapon tag with melee strikes
• Species
  • Dwarves now have a -10 foot natural speed penalty instead of -5, but gain +1 fatigue tolerance, reduce knockback and push effects by 20 feet, and cannot have their speed reduced below 10 feet
  • Gnomes and halflings no longer have a -5 foot speed penalty
  • Dryaidi no longer have an innate -5 foot speed penalty and a +5 foot speed bonus while in sunlight
• Classes
  • Barbarian: Outland Savage and Totemist have different scaling, and no longer grant a speed bonus
  • Cleric: Travel domain now ignores difficult terrain instead of granting a speed bonus
  • Druid: Elementalist grants slower climb, glide, fly, and swim speeds. Shifter has different scaling for the forms of the bull, fish, hound, monkey, and viper, as well as for photosynthesis, to reduce or replace speed bonuses.
  • Fighter: Armor Expertise does not reduce speed penalties until Armor Expertise+
  • Ranger: Boundary Warden has different scaling, and no longer grants a speed bonus. Scout has different scaling, with a lower cap on speed granted.
• Equipment
  • The Long weapon tag has been simplified so "short hafting" and "long hafting" is no longer required
  • The encumbrance from light body armor has been reduced by 1
  • Medium body armor no longer imposes a -5 foot speed penalty, and breastplate now provides 6 DR instead of 5 DR
  • All heavy body armor now grants +2 more DR
• Feats
  • Climb Specialization grants a slower climb speed, but allows climbing one-handed
  • Sphere Focus: Aquamancy now grants a magic bonus to swim speed instead of an untyped bonus
  • Sphere Focus: Chronomancy has different scaling, with a lower cap on speed granted
  • Sphere Focus: Electromancy has different scaling, and no longer grants a speed bonus
  • Swiftrunner has different scaling, with a lower cap on its sprint speed multiplier
  • Swim Specialization grants a slower swim speed
  • Whirlwind Warrior has different scaling, and no longer grants a speed bonus
• Magic items
  • Boots of Speed no longer come in Lesser or Greater versions
  • Boots of the Fearful and Onslaught items now only have two scaling levels, rather than three
  • Greater Enlarging Belt has been removed
  • Stonebody Armor now grants larger bonuses, but a -10 foot speed penalty instead of -5
  • Swiftstep no longer has a Greater version
• Mystic spheres
  • Aquamancy: Aquatic Freedom and Aqueous Form grant slower swim speeds
  • Chronomancy: Haste is higher rank and no longer scales
  • Electromancy: Energize is higher rank and no longer scales
  • Polymorph: Climber and Swimmer grant slower speeds. Runner is higher rank and no longer scales.
  • Umbramancy: Shadowform grants a slower climb speed

Problem: Maneuver scaling with higher ranks is conceptually simple, but requires a large volume of repetitive text. Many different maneuvers replicate the basic format of "+1 accuracy per 2 ranks", and exceptions to that rule have to be memorized. This takes up a lot of unnecessary space in the book and makes maneuvers more complicated than they should be.
Problem: There really aren't enough maneuvers to fill a full 1-7 rank system. Since maneuvers scale more strongly with rank than spells, they don't have repetitive "deal more damage" maneuvers to fill up space. In addition, the narrative space claimed by maneuvers is smaller than spells, so they can't have as many creative utility maneuvers. This makes each individual maneuver rank feel awkwardly small.
Problem: Non-damaging maneuvers are intentionally behind the power of spells. This is necessary from a power level perspective, since maneuvers do not require verbal or somatic components and gain the benefit of weapon accuracy and damage modifiers. However, it also leaves little room for maneuvers to feel interesting and distinct from each other.
Solution: Maneuvers now are now defined as being rank 1, 3, 5, or 7. They generally do not have any internal scaling, with the exception of flat damage bonuses, which still scale to keep pace with overall HP scaling.
At ranks 4 and 6, maneuver-granting archetypes provide universal scaling benefits that increase the power of all of that character's maneuvers in customizable ways. This allows maneuvers to scale in power at high levels without requiring repetitive text for each maneuver. Each class has unique customization options. This replaces the unique minor statistical benefits that the maneuver archetypes previously granted.
As part of this change, hybrid damage + debuff maneuvers that add full or half power have been rebalanced to be at a lower rank. Non-power maneuvers are still weaker than spells. This keeps martial characters more focused on dealing damage, while preserving casters as the most premier way to inflict devastating debuffs (among many other differences, like giving casters larger AOE effects).
Specific changes:

• All martial archetypes now follow the following pattern:
  • Rank 1: Rank 1 maneuver access
  • Rank 2: +1d damage
  • Rank 3: Rank 3 maneuver access, +1 maneuver known
  • Rank 4: Custom maneuver scaling (up to rank 1)
  • Rank 5: +1d damage, rank 5 maneuver access
  • Rank 6: Custom maneuver scaling (up to rank 5)
  • Rank 7: Rank 7 maneuver access, +1 maneuver known
• All classes have access to generic +accuracy and +power maneuver customization options. In addition, each class has unique customization options:
  • Barbarian: +2 accuracy vs below max HP, +2 accuracy and -2 defenses, double area
  • Fighter: +2 accuracy vs attackers, +2 accuracy but no power, +1 Armor defense
  • Monk: +2 accuracy but no power, +1 Armor defense, move up to 5 feet
  • Ranger: Double range, move up to 5 feet, double area
  • Rogue: +2 accuracy but no power, +2 accuracy vs below max HP, move up to 5 feet
• Almost every maneuver had its rank, scaling, or effect changed, so it's not meaningful to list all of the changes here

Problem: Spells have historically have a hard requirement that they must have some form of listed scaling with rank. However, not every spell has a well-defined or obvious path for scaling. This forced some spells to have convoluted and unguessable scaling. Other spells were unnecessarily weakened on their base effect simply so they would have opportunities for scaling.
Solution: Spells are not required to have specific scaling effects. As a result, many spells no longer scale, and the base power of some spells was raised. Some Greater versions of spells were added where complex scaling was appropriate.
Specific changes:

• Mystic spheres
  • Aeromancy: Wind Screen, Gentle Descent, Windblade, Control Weather, and Misty Step no longer scale
  • Aquamancy: Aquatic Freedom, Rainstorm, Octopus Tentacles, Aqueous Tentacle, Aqueous Form, and Fluid Motion no longer scale
  • Astromancy: Dimensional Jitter, Dimension Walk, Astral Instability, and Phasestep no longer scale. Greater Phasestep has been added.
  • Bless: Blessing of Freedom, Blessing of Proficiency, and Blessing of Wakefulness no longer scale
  • Channel Divinity: Divine Might and Unwavering Faith no longer scale. Greater Divine Might has been added.
  • Chronomancy: Temporal Duplicate, Evasion, and Instant Analysis no longer scale.
  • Cryomancy: Skate and Skyskate are higher rank and no longer scale. Icecraft is better, but longer scales.
  • Electromancy: Magnetic Blade no longer scales.
  • Fabrication: Forge and Instant Arrow are better, but no longer scale.
  • Photomancy: Blurred Motion and Blur are better, but no longer scale. Invisibility no longer scales.
  • Polymorph: Reforge Armor is better, but no longer scales. Distant Claw has different scaling. Enlarge and Shrink no longer scale. Greater Enlarge and Greater Shrink have been added.
  • Revelation: Foresight and Clairvoyance no longer scale
  • Telekinesis: Force Extension, Rapid Reload, and Reactive Deflection no longer scale.
  • Terramancy: Earthcraft is better, but no longer scales. Meld Into Stone, Earthen Anchor, and Stonefist no longer scale.
  • Thaumaturgy: Second Mind, Delay Teleportation, and Cryptic Spells no longer scale
  • Umbramancy: Shadow Mantle is better, but no longer scales
  • Verdamancy: Vine Tentacle and Thornblade no longer scale

General changes

• Tools and magic weapons have been reformatted to use the more concise "+" scaling idiom
  • If this playtests as readable, the rest of the items will change to match this format
• Feats
  • Sphere Focus: Cryomancy and Pyromancy have different 18th/21st scaling
• Mystic Spheres
  • Chronomancy: Minor Acceleration is now a Deep attunement
  • Enchantment: Collapse and Friend to Foe are higher rank. Friend to Foe no longer has an intrinsic accuracy bonus.
  • Fabrication: Grease is higher rank
  • Terramancy: Tremor is higher rank