Specific Skill/Spell improvment

[NotAgain]

I think it would be nice to add more diversity to the abilities, by including spell/skill specific bonuses in the items. For example:
An amulet could infuse more energy and make a fire bolt changing it into fireball or a simple lighnting into chain. A weapon could upgrade a poison damage into acid which not only damages an enemy, but gives a chance to cripple it. Perhaps for the which doctor a totem that increases the impact area or the range of his firebomb skill. For the barbarian could change the seismic slam in seismic slash which could cut off bits of the enemy or to split it self after impact on two neighboring monsters. There could be more than one variation for every skill. Also there could be bonuses to the passive skills, increasing not by skill level but a percentage or ading new abilities. The items need to be balanced ofcourse, perhaps adding mana cost to the skill/spell or they could be with certain chance to be invoked, or giving damage to the player.

P.S. Sorry for any mistakes, but english is not my native language.

[sicilian]

I'm all for anything that adds versatility and variance to the game. I'm not sure it would work with the specifics you put forward (there would just be too many mods that would need to be added, you'd rarely ever find the right one), but your idea is a good one.

Maybe instead of changing skills, certain items can give you skills you wouldn't be able to get any other way. Like a WD weapon that lets you summon a golem, or a Barbarian shield that grants you some kind of aura that isn't a learnable skill.

[phool]

I don't see this as adding variety, I see it as being likely to create clear 'best' equipment choices for builds and clotting up the item pool with items with an extremely tight range of use.

[AlexanderM]

I think they would have to create these 'skill' items with specific drawbacks, and make sure they can't be removed and simply carted around for when you want to cast the spell (i.e. you remove the item, your summoned golem or spell dissipates). I like the idea however, of item-only spells. In D2 we had the diablo-firestorm on the hellfire torch, though that was a bit of an extreme example. Could you imagine dueling a sorceress and seeing her cast Mephoisto's ice-skull spell?

[Vulcon]

Originally Posted by phool

I see it as being likely to create clear 'best' equipment choices for builds and clotting up the item pool with items with an extremely tight range of use.

A possible way around that would be to have it more like a book bonus that is attributed directly to the character and non-transferable.

I think it could be interesting to have it non rechargable as well. This way you could save using it until you REALLY had to

[JubalBane]

I don't think that allowing items to transfer spells or abilities is a good idea at all. It would completely eliminate any reason to chose a particular class.
The game would degenerate in a skin difference only. Basically you chose the character you like to look at, then the gender, then outfit them with the abilities you like and not necessarily the ones that come with the class.
I found it rather upsetting that most of the people playing D2 could teleport for example. The teleport skill on the Sorceress was cool. Giving it to everyone who could afford to buy an Enigma kind of sucked. Most of the players obviously liked it but for me in the final analysis it started to make all of the characters the same.

[Vulcon]

What I was thinking was more along the line of what (I believe - I never actually played it myself), existed in D1. These are not skills that exist on any characters three, but are unique to the "Skill Book" from which they are read.

The mechanism I would see for this to work would be that:-
1. On very rare occasions you discover a Skill book.
Which is identified by this title only. It is yours and yours alone, you can drop it but nobody else can pick it up, you cannot trade it.
2. You right click on it and vola you have 5 charges of a skill that complements your character build.
Some examples being..
For a bow user: a homing arrow that can turn corners (assuming this is not a skill on your skill tree)
For a cold wielding warrior - you can create a river of ice that freezes you enemies in position (again assuming this is not on your skill tree)
3. Once you use your 5 skills they are gone.

[Techboss]

Town Portal needs to be a learned skill, not a scroll.