Its a rule used on several games (I've used in some of mine) and it works, it makes the player take care of the drawback while playing, there some game where you can use meta-points (like Drive) to "invoke" an opponent's Drawbacks/Weaknesses.

Over the weekend, BOTH of my sites went down, this one and my personal site, Wizard's Lair.

Sorry to read that. Specially the loss of your other page.

They already appear in the full version of the rules that were released a month or two ago. I either need to add a note to that effect, or to remove that image.

Or make a new image with the Lite schools 

Balance is an illusion 

In D&D you rarely get the opportunity to "pick skills" unless you have an overlap. In the case of this game, the DPs for Skill Ranks has a strong variance. Overlap doesn't really penalize a character, it literally makes them better with each choice. It's not as "on and off" as D&D.

D&D 3.x uses skill points and a 2:1 when purchasing ranks in non-class skills.

I suggest dropping the 2 for 1 thing in character creation and instead note that taking skills outside the normal choices is not allowed in character creation.

The "Change Vocation" Milestone may work for those not wanting to use the 2:1 on DP

I can't see any reason someone would NEED to trade out Skill Ranks to customize. :-)

It's an option for others that would like to do it, I can see people wanting to buy skills outside of their vocation without doing a full vocational change.

Maybe the game could present different Development Styles as options:
A: Includes the 2:1 and the Milestone.
B: Only Milestone
C: Only 2:1
D: Close: None.

A series of thematic monsters could be cool, either by theme, location, type, etc...

Option 2 will take more work, but it will result in a more defined game, I like it, you can tweak things you don't like or things to work they way you like to play, also, expanding the game is never a bad thing.

Don't know it this has been reported:
Zen Archery, pg 68, says "The character must learn a separate Lore skill for each combination of weapons."
But the style does not combine weapons, should it say "for each bow" or just that part be removed?

Spears and maybe polearms having a "reach" quality that gives a defense bonus is not unheard, it works.
Should it be a permanent weapon bonus of being a combat modifier?
If its a combat modifier a spear vs spear combat won't receive the bonus, the opponent is far, but your weapon can reach it thus nullifying the bonus.

I know I always give weird ideas, but, how about using something similar to range penalties of melee?
Maybe melee is also divide in close, mid, and far ranges and you get an attack penalty based on the longer weapon used between you and your opponent (this would require that each weapon have a range category, unarmed and daggers would be Close, polearms and spears would be far, the rest is mid, unless you want extra distances)