I'll agree that the current system isn't terrible. It's serviceable, but I believe it can be improved.
Honestly, a 20% damage difference IS very trivial in many situations, especially given the scope of other damage modifiers, especially if the trade off provides sufficient variety of skills to deal with multiple situations on a single load out. For example, if your extra memory slots give you +1 or +2 AP per turn, or Haste, or Rage, or Stealth etc, this can result in far more damage than just a straight 20% damage bonus from a stat.
It's passive. So that 20% applies without AP expenditure. So, technically, it's already better than an ability. 20% may mean the difference between one-shotting something or having to end your turn in a bad position - it's not exactly trivial.
20% means for the next 6AP worth of actions, my spells hit that much more than someone who doesn't have the same skill allocation; essentially it's specialization. Go figure.
20% means that I can survive a meteor from the opponent and not get CCed thereafter from other effects. Yeah, it's non-trivial.
You're not even beyond the first chapter when this happens.
Similarly, if you have a "support mage" who primarily just buffs the heck out of a specialized damage dealer, you get results that can sometimes surpass the damage potential of simply going a damage mage + damage character, depending on the situation.
Very rarely - a support, in this case runs, less damage spells and some recovery spells. You're better off self-buffing and enforcing your will than passing. There are less chains of vulnerability in your game plan. Furthermore, you're hampered by movement, memory, consumables, and cool downs.
Alternatively, a support mage is actually a damage dealer depending on how you build it.
Currently, you're really only saving 1AP at most with a buff mage - aka you're going to run Rage.
My suggestions are to further enhance the system already in the game to further promote a variety of build options and to make Memory a much more viable stat that a single point increase in can make an impact.
You're not enhancing, you're introducing foreign elements that may actually break the system. Also, memory is not necessarily even useful with 2 points put into it. It all depends on context and game plan.
So again, there is no reason to introduce further complexity when the current system has not been stressed.
