Sokar Rostau
01-07-2008, 22:11
I was thinking about the Mage class, and by extension all the others, today while playing Neverwinter Nights.
The skills in D2 were a LOT more complicated than in D1, allowing for literally thousands of builds. It is reasonable to assume that the skill system in D3 will be just as much more complicated in relation to D2.
What if some of the Necromancer's skills have been merged into the new Mage class and others, as we have seen, into the Witch Doctor? In NWN Wizards have the option to either be a Generalist or to specialise in a particular school of magic and gain specific bonuses and penalties from it. We have no idea at this stage of how the skill trees are set up in D3, let alone how many skills there are. The Barbarian in D2 could specialise in a particular Weapon (something that is also found in NWN) and gain bonuses from doing so. What if this is the jumping off point for all the classes in D3?
Think of the six Weapon proficiencies a Barbarian in D2 gets and then apply that to magic - Fire, Cold, Electricity, Poison, Bone and Summoning. One class could thus take the place of several - including the Necromancer - by the way the skill tree is arranged. Specialising in Poison Magic, for example, could be a level 1 skill that gives you access to all the poison spells and by spending more points in that school it increases the power of all your spells (in the same way as the Sorc Mastery Skills, except at level 1 rather than level 30). Specialising in Summoning would allow you to summon a horde of monsters (not necessarily Skeletons) in the same way the Necro did with every point in the "Spell School" allowing you to summon another minion.
Barbarians may well have a skill tree that works by specialising in a weapon - the Axe Tree would give very different combat skills than the Sword Tree. Whirlwind may be the result of a General Combat Tree while one of the other skills we saw could very well be a Hammer-only skill (where he strikes the ground with his weapon... nice skill when using a Hammer but a bit silly when using a Dagger)
Instead of there being three different Trees per class, we may find ourselves with 10 different Trees (and only enough Skill Points to train in 3 of the 10, hence the respec feature). Some people have expressed concern over there being only 5 classes in the initial release, which is pretty justified when you consider how many base classes (and skills/spells) are available in NWN. With a lot of extra Skill Trees to each of the 5 base classes, however, we may find ourselves with, in practice, 50 base "subclasses" (a Fire Mage, a Poison Mage, a Hammer Barb, an Axe barb) coming out of the 5 base classes, with hundreds of build options on top of those.
It may be that the Necromancer exists in D3, but is a sub-class, based upon a Skill Tree specialisation, of the Mage or Witch Doctor.
The skills in D2 were a LOT more complicated than in D1, allowing for literally thousands of builds. It is reasonable to assume that the skill system in D3 will be just as much more complicated in relation to D2.
What if some of the Necromancer's skills have been merged into the new Mage class and others, as we have seen, into the Witch Doctor? In NWN Wizards have the option to either be a Generalist or to specialise in a particular school of magic and gain specific bonuses and penalties from it. We have no idea at this stage of how the skill trees are set up in D3, let alone how many skills there are. The Barbarian in D2 could specialise in a particular Weapon (something that is also found in NWN) and gain bonuses from doing so. What if this is the jumping off point for all the classes in D3?
Think of the six Weapon proficiencies a Barbarian in D2 gets and then apply that to magic - Fire, Cold, Electricity, Poison, Bone and Summoning. One class could thus take the place of several - including the Necromancer - by the way the skill tree is arranged. Specialising in Poison Magic, for example, could be a level 1 skill that gives you access to all the poison spells and by spending more points in that school it increases the power of all your spells (in the same way as the Sorc Mastery Skills, except at level 1 rather than level 30). Specialising in Summoning would allow you to summon a horde of monsters (not necessarily Skeletons) in the same way the Necro did with every point in the "Spell School" allowing you to summon another minion.
Barbarians may well have a skill tree that works by specialising in a weapon - the Axe Tree would give very different combat skills than the Sword Tree. Whirlwind may be the result of a General Combat Tree while one of the other skills we saw could very well be a Hammer-only skill (where he strikes the ground with his weapon... nice skill when using a Hammer but a bit silly when using a Dagger)
Instead of there being three different Trees per class, we may find ourselves with 10 different Trees (and only enough Skill Points to train in 3 of the 10, hence the respec feature). Some people have expressed concern over there being only 5 classes in the initial release, which is pretty justified when you consider how many base classes (and skills/spells) are available in NWN. With a lot of extra Skill Trees to each of the 5 base classes, however, we may find ourselves with, in practice, 50 base "subclasses" (a Fire Mage, a Poison Mage, a Hammer Barb, an Axe barb) coming out of the 5 base classes, with hundreds of build options on top of those.
It may be that the Necromancer exists in D3, but is a sub-class, based upon a Skill Tree specialisation, of the Mage or Witch Doctor.