The rules about armour wearing for magic users is not clear.
As far as I'm concerned, everyone can wear whatever armor they want. But the intention is that certain abilities (MU spellcasting, a lot of the Specialist stuff) only work when someone is unencumbered overall.
Without any prerequisite, why would anyone prefer a magic user over an elf? Comparing them:
The same type of comparison can be made for fighters and dwarves.
I don't want to use level limits (I've never run a game from Level 1 and had anyone get to level 8, let alone level 12, so what does it matter?), but this problem you describe is present in the source games as well.
I think the problem is more for the dwarf-fighter comparison. Elves need over 50% more XP to gain a level than MUs. 20,000 to Fireball is a hell of a lot shorter time than 32,000, for example, and that extra 1500 needed to gain second level could seem like forever.
So if I drop the hit progression from dwarves, what would they get instead? d10 hit dice to make them (potentially) tougher than all?
And the same question for elves, but with their incredible XP requirements I'm not so eager to take anything away from them.
Halflings are indeed ridiculous, totally useless. What's the use of the +2 armor class if you can't hit a thing and even if you do, you inflict nothing more than a scratch?
Again, this is a traditional problem, not one I'm introducing. I don't feel a need to do anything to make the halfling more impressive (balancing a character type that was only ever an afterthought isn't something I care about), but I will take another look at it... but any added benefits will definitely be non-combat. I'm more and more thinking, "You want to be good at fighting? Fighter."
I would put the Web spell as having an area effect, not as being a paralyzing effect.
The idea is to read the save tables left to right and pick the first applicable category.
The lance seems to be a very very good weapon (same for the polearm). You should include in the description that they need two hands and I would personnaly somehow limit their use if fighting in close combat (from the first rank).
They are impressive in early editions as well. I don't like having an "automatically lose initiative" weapon (although I will revisit it, I'm studying Mentzer as the how-to here), but these weapons would count automatically in encumbrance calculations.
If you include the "(not counting DEX modifier)" in the weapon description, you should also later detail what part of the AC is due to high dexterity for monsters.
Monster AC will be as-is, none of it from DEX for these purposes.
The rules to get XP from treasure seem unclear and strange. If a big monster swallows a chest full of gold (why not?), why would the PC get XP if they wait for the monster to shit those coins out before killing it and not if they kill it to retrieve the chest? I would also include rewards as giving XP.
I'll need to clarify. Proper hoards will be worth XP and a chest guarded by a monster would indeed be considered a hoard. As for the other example, one thing I want to stress is "money gained in civilization isn't XP, money gained out in the dangerous weird lands is XP."
Is it wanted that there is no recovery in case of diseases? The INT in the example doesn't come back naturally with time?
After the end of the disease, INT will recover at the rate of 1/week (as per the rules given in the healing section), but I will clarify this in the disease example.
What's the thought process behind punishing characters with less than half their hit point by preventing natural regeneration?
Hit points aren't just a measure of injury, but of luck and fate and blah blah etc. But if you're down to half your hit points, you're REALLY hurt in some way, and take longer to heal without magical help.
A character with two daggers in his hands, ready to throw them, and three more hanging from his belt would be more encumbered than the same character with a backpack full of gold, two medium-size weapons at his belt and a full large sack in one hand?
Yes, perhaps this needs a tweak. But I want a quick "official" eyeball rule for encumbrance that doesn't involve counting coins and torches and oil bottles.
But thanks for commenting, it's this sort of thing that helps me look at the nuts and bolts when writing and organizing before I sit down and see how this will all work in play.
However, if the plans I'm making actually come to fruition (still haven't heard from the feature model for the photo shoot...), it would look pretty.