This is why the melee fighter is over powered during the alpha in comparison to any other type of character you can make.
I disagree. Mainly because a melee fighter doesn't have range. You spend more points moving around, take more environment damage, and get targeted more easily by enemies. This means you need to spend more effort focusing on your defenses. Sure, they have competitive DPS potential, but in my experience marksmen and mages do too, and they have an easier time doing it safely.
With all of this in consideration - what is the viability of electing to go hybrid?
Also, what is the point of the weapon type - Spear - in this format? Should there be changes to facility spears, and should there be more weapon types like Spear (strength-based crossbows for example)?
A few things here, the Warfare skills (and all skills using weapons) scale off of the damage of the weapon being used far more than from the main stat value. This means a Finesse spear user will still have strong Warfare skills because their weapon is strong.
There are a few advantages to spear. Mainly, it has a 2.5m range, the longest of any melee weapon. Compare this with 2m for a Str 2h or 1.5m for other 1h melee weapons.
Also, should you need to temporarily swap weapons to a bow/crossbow (can't reach a target, etc.), you will be more proficient with them than a Str based melee user would be.
I did a playthrough as a Finesse Spear user and didn't have trouble keeping up with the rest of the group.
As far as going hybrid is concerned, it's best if hybridizing abilities that provide utility, while getting your damage from a single stat type. This is to prevent spreading your damage bonuses over many different things when you can only use one. For example, I had teleport, first aid, and adrenaline as supporting abilities from other skill schools.
Also, many enemies have only 1 armor type. If you have CC that target physical and magical you can lock those enemies down right away, potentially very useful.
All this being said, I do agree that the current system could use some reworks. I don't very much like how main stat starts at 15% bonus per point, and degrades to only 2% by the end of the game. I don't like the Wits stat, as everyone is already getting 100% crit from Rage (maybe rage is the problem).
Also, the bonuses associated with
skills aren't in-line. Pyrokinetics is far more powerful than the others, IMO.
Then there's Source points, which are such a pain in the buns I've yet to ever use a Source ability. O, this source ability costs tons of action points, a source point, and costs 3x the memory cost of anything else? No thanks.