LE shallow class system and mastery perk trees

[urgumflux]

part 1: shallow class system

i love skyrim. its great. however, it feels a little more like an action game than an rpg. i think that this is mostly due to the abolishment of the class system.

now, i really like the idea of just playing how you want to play, and there's your class, right there. it gives a lot of freedom. but its really not an rpg.

so, i thought of a class system that follows you. it should prevent you from being good at everything. here is an example of what i am talking about. lets say you play your character like a thief. you mostly use archery, one handed, and sneak skills. once one of these skills, for example, archery; gains a difference from your, lets say, 5th highest skill, that skill would become one of your 4 available "majors." this means that that particular skill will have: 1: its tier 4+ perks unlocked, 2: its mastery tree (more on this later.) unlocked, 3: skill advancements will advance your leveling progress, and 4: that skill will level faster. meanwhile, other skills (excluding the crafting perks; enchanting, smithing, and alchemy, as they are special cases. you shouldn't have to "major" in alchemy in order to utilize it) will 1: not progress your character through levels, 2: be unable to place points in the perk tree beyond tier 3, and 3: the skill will level slower.

 

the idea behind it is to give incentive to specialize in certain skills, similar to a traditional class system, yet still allow you to use whatever and as many other skills as you want. your class skills being determined by difference in levels is so that you can overtake your other skills. lets say that you discovered that destruction magic had a rune trap spell, and, because that is awesome, you decided that you also want to use destruction. you can then level your destruction skill to overtake one of your "majors."

 

some other notes

-maybe you should be allowed 5 "majors," instead of 4? i am not sure.

-because leveling is now a bigger deal, as you only have a few skills which will allow you to level, it would make sense to have a system of gaining more perks. perhaps a 1-2-1-2-1-2.... system would work well. maybe you could instantly gain an extra perk if you achieved a milestone in a skill.

-people shouldn't be locked into their classes, yet they also shouldn't be able to be a master at everything.

 

part 2: master perk trees.

i think a better system than simply adding more perks or skill trees to the game would be to expand on a favorite skill with more detailed perks. once finishing the standard perk tree (getting one point in the last perk), you should gain access to more specific versions of that tree. for example, once completing the destruction tree, you could chose one of the master trees above it, such as specializing in fire, ice, or shock damage. one handed could be axes, swords, maces. sneak could be either focusing on assassination, or on bypassing enemies. that kind of thing.

 

notes

-some trees already have a light version of this (for example, the one handed tree has a perk each for improving swords, maces, or axes). these would have to be replaced with different perks.

Edited November 18, 2011 by urgumflux