Disclaimer:
This is not really a criticism so much as it is a description of feedback I probably would have given. I haven't done all the spreadsheet stuff, nor have I had beta testers.
When I read through the skills for the new classes, I'm kind of suffering through what I wouldn't describe as a dislike for many classes, but more of a 'I don't get it' or 'I'd never play that if I could play this other one' sort of feeling. To me, it is coming across as the beta testing was done blindly, and by that I mean without an overall view of the other classes, and thus where the class they were testing comes into play. SO. This is less of a direct 'Put this skill here and remove this one' that I was doing, and describing what I think might be a good way to move forward with any changes that are desired.
General notes and tl/dr notes:
-I don't know skill levels. I'm referring to things as (high master) or (middle master), just to provide a relationship between it and other skills for other classes at the same skill level.
-Subguilds should be revamped entirely to provide 2-4 skills at least journeyman in scope. Delete extended and crafting subguilds entirely.
-Scan should only be present in the infiltrator class, row 2 and down of wilderness, and the general/city theme.
-Theme can be shown more clearly than what I've seen so far. Mix up maxes of weapon types based on it, with general/city being free from theme but also limited by lack of theme.
-Theme should be strongest in rows 2 and 4, with 2 built around aggression and 4 built around self-sustenance or profit. Combat is strongest, but with variance for flavor/rolebuilding, in row 1. Mercantile is strongest, but with variance for flavor/rolebuilding, in row 5.
-Some rows naturally have more skills as they blend combat vs utility. But if you have more skills, less of them, even the important ones, should reach master. The shift from infiltrator to miscreant in current form is making infiltrator worse at everything that its skillset should be centered around if following theme.
Crafting:
I don't do much crafting, so largely, I am not doing direct critiques.
-Custom crafting should be main guild instead of the proposed subguild idea. 'Light mercantile' tier should be able to custom craft straightforward, functional things in their scope, not necessarily low quality or crude, but without bells and whistles and without exotics. 'Heavy mercantile' should be able to craft more exotic, 'flashy' types of things within their scope.
-Crafting above the 'mixed' tier (i.e. In light combat and heavy combat) should be subsistence based only. They can craft things that keep their themed class going (i.e. Scout with fletchery), but not new items entirely (i.e. Enforcer with daggers). We can add more subsistence crafting as desired in the future with weapons maintenance for each weapon type, etc.
THEMING:
Each of the themes needs to be highly differentiated from each other to define them as different, as well as preventing the 'This guy does everything' feel. Criminal is set on manipulating advantage/disadvantage, Wilderness is set on mobility, and General effectively has higher maxes on everything combat, but lacks the 'theme-based' support/utility skills. They are more subguild-friendly. This theming comes through in some way as described below.
However, also importantly, 'Heavy Combat' classes are basically themed around combat, effectively it's own theme in different environments. Their support/utility skills are selective and often limited, providing more for 'main approaches' to combat than making them able to serve super competently outside of a heavy combat role. 'Light combat' classes are essentially the epitome of using a theme to facilitate their combat. Likewise, Heavy Mercantile moves largely out of scope, based on limited tools of utility and survival versus serving competently as that theme.
Weapon skills:
*I still think spears should be separated from piercing.
**Piercing is largely variable due to daggers being the main form of self defense
***Heavy Mercantile only ever receives Low Jman Piercing, with the exception of general/city.
This was one of my major head-scratchers. I'd design this differently, providing 'tiers' for each of the x-axis theme, i.e.:
Criminal: Tier 1: bludgeoning , Tier 2: slashing, Tier 3: chopping (piercing varies for each y-axis tier)
-Heavy Combat: Bludgeoning (Master), Piercing (High Advanced) [Close in, brutal fighting suited for the poorer city folks]
Slashing (Low-Middle Advanced) [Less ideal for tighter combat], Chopping (High Jman-Low Advanced)[Least ideal]
-Light Combat: Bludgeoning (Master)[Tier 1], Piercing (Master) [Bumped for themed combat]
Slashing (Low-Middle Jman) [Tier 2], Chopping (NONE), [Tier 3]
-Mixed: Bludgeoning (Advanced)[Tier 1], Piercing (Advanced)[Bumped for themed combat]
Slashing (None) [Tier 2], Chopping (None) [Tier 3]
-Light Mercantile: Bludgeoning (High Jman), Piercing (High Jman)
Wilderness: Tier 1: Piercing, Tier 2: Bludgeoning, Tier 3: Chopping, Tier 4: Slashing
-Heavy Combat: Piercing (High Master), Bludgeoning (High Advanced-Low Master), Chopping (High Advanced), Slashing (Low
Advanced)
- Light Combat: Piercing (Low-Middle Master), Bludgeoning (Middle Advanced-High Advanced), Chopping (Low Advanced), Slashing
(High Jman)[Themed, swords are ideal mounted weapons and can be combined with mounted combat bonuses]
- Mixed: Piercing (Advanced), Bludgeoning (High Jman), Chopping (Low Jman)
- Light Mercantile: Piercing (High Jman), Chopping (Low Jman)[Themed for woodworking]
General: No tiers due to general theme, all weapon skills available will be of equal max
-Heavy Combat: All (High Master)
-Light Combat: All (Low Master)
-Mixed: Slashing (Low Master), All else (Middle Advanced)
-Light Mercantile: Slashing (Low Advanced), All else (High Jman)
-Heavy Mercantile: Slashing (Low Jman), Piercing (Middle Jman)
So, you can see what I mean by tiering. With minor swaps, there is a steady decline in both the number of weapon skills, and their skill level, but it's kept in the tiering priority based on theme. Wilderness/hunting is more biased to spears and piercing weapons than swords, due to what's available and what you encounter.
So you do the same with other skills. However, the 'other' combat skills and utility skills need to be weighed out against each other. I won't do an exhaustive list as much as I will a demonstration.
Combat Skills:
*Guard AND Rescue are proportionate to each other; Guard allows stopping someone in an alley, which is harder in the wilderness by and large, but the General/City Theme allows them to be equal to each other.
**Only the General/City Theme should have Hack and Riposte.
Criminal: Tier 1: Disarm [Advantage/Disadvantage manipulation, CQC], Sap OR Backstab, Guard
Tier 2: Kick, The other OR, Rescue, Parry
Tier 3: Bash, etc
Heavy: Disarm (Master), Sap (Master), Guard (Master), Backstab (Advanced/Jman), Kick (Advanced/Jman), Rescue (Advanced/Jman)
Light: [This theme makes the Light combat more akin to current assassin] Disarm(Advanced), Backstab (Master), Sap (Master),
Guard/Rescue Nixxed or minimized
ETC, with Theme first considered.
Wilderness: Tier 1: Charge, Rescue, Bash, Ride, Parry
Tier 2: Disarm, Kick, Guard
ETC
General: Tier 1: Kick, Bash, Disarm, Guard, Rescue, Parry
Tier 2: Ride
ETC
Again, the general theme. As you move from heavy to light to mercantile, you end up losing combat abilities as you move down, with minor variances made for role (for example, Scout might have better shield use than you'd imagine due to their prevalence performing -as- scouts in military units, which often use shields. Otherwise, you largely see higher skill caps for dual-wield and two-handed in wilderness theme)
Utility Skills:
Now, I won't follow the same format for this. I think you get the gist as far as tiering. The big deal, is that the more combat capable the class is, the -stronger the theme for that combat should be-, while simultaneously getting -less of the themed skills-. For example:
Enforcer gains hide. They get it to Low Master or High Advanced. But they do not get sneak. They are the brutes, but often lie in wait for mugging or for their assigned quarry to arrive. They are limited in utility outside of combat.
Infiltrator gains Hide and Sneak at Master.
Pilferer gets pick at master, steal at master, peek at master, and hide and sneak at advanced. But as seen above, they sacrificed a lot of combat.
Only the Miscreant gets Hide, Sneak, Steal, Peek, Pick, and all else at advanced or lower master than the others without sacrificing their combat viability over the long term.
In this way, the 'theme' part of grows stronger on rows 2 and 4 of the 'grid', weaker on the heavy combat and mercantile tiers, and weaker on the mixed but with the true 'balance' of theme vs combat. Likewise, the General classes all become more appealing to anyone wanting higher 'pure, unthemed' skills/combat skills and perception, with their theming coming in more minor degrees from a subguild.
I'm not sure if this is just a ramble. But I do know that I see some things moving down from combat heavy to mixed in each 'theme' column that really...-really- surprised me, and made the Mixed row far too appealing in comparison with light combat and light mercantile.
Maybe I should write out full skill lists with explanations and see if that makes it make more sense.
