A Warrior doesn't need magic to win. The only magic skills I have were bought in books or were rewards for quests. And I've only used Meteor Strike (for taking on monsters too powerful for me). I have used Healing, but find it too slow. I do think that Identify is near essential (in my opinion). Aside fom that, almost every skill point has gone into The Way Of The Warrior. The only other skill I got sucked into was Suvivor's Instinct.
There are only (I think) two quests that require non-Warrior skills: The Thieves Guild and Kill The Vampire in the Dark Cave.
Well, you kind of proved my point. Don't mean to be picky, but I shouldn't have to invest ANY points in anything but warrior skills. In fact sometimes, I like games that force you to stick to one set of skills. Makes the classes mean something.
To survive as a warrior, I've absolutly had to invest in aura of protection (or whatever the damage shield spell is called) and alchemy. Why? In order to get my stats high enough to equip better equipment, my vitality has had to suffer. Its just now at lvl 23 that I'm starting to increase my vitality a lot.
I'm sure other players have tried different things, but most I'd guess did it by investing in un-warrior skills (Meteor, lightning, alchemy, etc.) I'm a warrior! I'm a walking tank/lawnmower! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> I shouldn't have to mix potions or create magical force fields around myself unless I want to.
D&D 3rd edition is a good example of a balance between total openess and forcing the player to stick to one set. Want a mage to wield a sword? Ok, just invest in the martial weapons feat. Want him to be better with a bow? Invest in the close range shot feat. Of course, you're a MAGE, so as to why you'd want to invest in these feats is a mystery (unless you're multiclassing).
Point being that you're much better off spending you're valuable chances to gain feats in skills that fit you're class, although branching out is possible.
I truly believe that game developers must look at games this way. There own vision of how they want a game to be should sometimes take a back seat as to what the player needs.
