Janju - that second diagram is indeed much more clear about what the levels do. I'm just not sure that each Ability in the game will actually have enough Skills/Spells associated with it to make that useful for more than just the magic tree.

Originally Posted by Baudolino05

Now, broadly speaking I'm not against skill trees, but the system Larians has built so far can works properly with a couple of fixes(and I've read many interesting ideas in this thread).

1) Intelligence is definitely overpowered. I can see why it is (they removed mana from the game, so they need a reason for mages to pick this attribute), but nonetheless the ability point bonus has to be nerfed.


Yeah, I ran some numbers, and even if you increase the number of Ability points it takes to raise the level of an Ability, there's still a tremendous boost you get from starting with 10 Intelligence (and therefore 10 AB points per level), compared with 5 INT/AB points per level.

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2) Perception looks like your typical dump stat. Maybe if they change its name in "awareness" an make it relevant for the initiative order...


I can think of a few spots where it could come in handy. I haven't tested this yet, so I don't know if some of these are already implemented or planned in the game.

  • Spotting the cute dogs are actually zombies could be done from farther away with higher perception.
  • Spotting that the scarecrow is a trap.
  • Spotting ambushes, like the escort mission where enemies pop up. The easy way to do that (at least it sounds easy to me) is a higher perception could lead to a bonus to a character’s initiative on the first turn ONLY in ambush situations.
  • Possibly, spotting non-obvious elemental weaknesses/resistances, even if you don’t have the INT and Loremaster to normally spot it? Maybe if you hit a weakness or resistance, information on that monster type's weakness/resistance will show up on the Trophies page? Maybe that's treading too much on other things.
  • Maybe some conversation options where a person is lying or not telling you something, and your perception is high enough, you can get conversation options.
  • Some buttons could be hidden completely unless you have high enough perception.


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3)There are also dump skills in the game, or at least they look like dump skills because of the lack of information: treasure hunter, field medic and charisma, for instance; and "strange" skills too, like the rock-whatever weapon ability.


Yeah, some of these don't seem that useful.

  • Charisma increases initial reactions to your characters. I'll have to play with it and see if it's working and seems worthwhile.
  • I don't know what Treasure Hunter does, but if it increases the amount of gold you find in loot it could be useful. You're right, more information is needed.
  • Forktong said that Field Medic is probably going to be deleted. (I can think of a use for it, it could increases the power of healing items, potions and spells by 10% per level, but I wouldn't object to just deleting it.
  • Black Rock and Sourcery sound like skills that you can only use after certain plot points. I think those should be displayed as "???" and locked from putting points into them until you reach that point of the plot that they become available.
  • I guess Leadership might increase your saving throws against status effects, but more information is needed.
  • Man of Iron just seems to increase poison resistance - by a LOT, actually.



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4) A cap to the amount of points you can put in a skill at a given level is probably the most urgent fix.


Yes. I had an idea to cap it at equal to your character level, but that might be a little too strict and inflexible.

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5) Traits, in typical D&D fashion, are a chaotic mess where you can find a little bit of everything. They should delete the "must have" ones, the "skill bust" ones, and concentrate their efforts on traits that give you options, both in combat and outside of combat, and/or that change your play-style in a significant way.


You mean Talents, but I completely agree. Most of them are functional, but uninspiring. The ones that boost skills could be useful if they allow you to boost them past the normal cap - which I think that they already do.

Pet Pal is one of the more interesting ones, but so far it seems like animals don't usually have much more interesting stuff to say than humans do. It might be possible that I haven't found the right animals.

Originally Posted by Elwyn

Well, there is at least one cat and one dog talking to which gives you new quests / new solutions to the quests ^^...


Yes, I know. I've found them (or at least seen part of that quest on the stream. My thought still stands.

Last edited by Stabbey; 27/12/13 11:01 PM. Reason: reply