I kind of like being a badass by the end of the game, and the skills are intrinsically limited already by the skill level and caster level, so I must admit I don't really see the point.
One detail that I should stress is that skills are no longer limited by your abilities, e.g. you don't need points in Pyrokinetic to learn Fireball. Instead, you can use any skillbook you manage to find, and experiment with your active skillset on the fly. We are introducing more elemental interactions and we want you to explore potential skill combos without having to respec or unlearn skills.
Our current aim is that with small investment in Memory you will get same number of skills as you had in DOS:EE on a "specialist" character, but those skills won't have to come from a single school. On the other hand, if you heavily prioritize Memory, you can get a larger skillset than you could ever have before, albeit with a hit to efficiency.
I had two questions, if you're kind enough to answer them:
1- What is the new role of the abilities, if they don't serve anymore as gates in the skill learning process? Honestly I liked the way they worked in the EE edtion.
2- Are you 100% sure that in a game like DOS - where immunities and resistances play a huge role, and where cooldowns last for several turns - it's wise to limit the number of skills available at any given moment?
I mean: I understand it adds strategic depth, but it could also become a chore tactically speaking. You meet this mob which is immune to everything you have in your current skillset, and you are either forced to flee or to die. You don't wanna spend points in Memory, and as a result you don't get enough skills to finish a boss fight without being forced to use the standard attack any x turns (I know these are extreme scenarios, but nonetheless...).
Bonus question: have you considered the option to allow players to switch skillsets while in combat at the cost of a certain number of inactive turns? In my opinion it would help to make things less binary (you're either are prepared or not prepared for an encounter), while adding an interesting trade-off to the game (is it worth to lose 1 or 2 turns in order to change skillset?).
