New Idea (Re: Abilities)

What if each class, or better yet, each attribute had a special set of abilities (calling them intate abilities from here on) that were always "on" if they were on your bar? These abilites would give small bonuses that could not be removed, and would not count as "conditions" or affect any other spells/skills used on the player. Also, these should probably be limited to primary classes only.

A few examples of this would be:

Strength: 5% armor penetration
Fire Magic: 5% chance to critical hit with fire spells
Death Magic: Minons lose health 20% slower


This idea could even be extended to a quest type skill that becomes stronger after completing certain quests. For instance, a warrior might gain innate strength which gives a 2% bonus to armor penetration. Then he/she would have to do a series of quests to increase the bonus. Each quest would increase the ability by 3%.

Any feedback?

I suspect the fine balancing act between the classes (regarding PvP) would be upset by this modification. Why? Because not everyone would have access to it, and its enough of a difference to win a fight.

The rock-paper-scissors model doesn't work if your scissors cut through rock...

yes it would be imbalanced easily... but perhaps there's a way to balance it as well.

The thing is these "passive" skills you're asking for are already there. They simply don't need a skill slot to be used. They're there in the form of your attributes. Take for example a sword wielding Warrior. More swordsmanship means that sword skills are better. But it also means that swords do more damage in general. I don't know if strength already boosts your damage... but it would make sense if it did.

Yes, balancing would be an issue. Of course, its an issue any time things are added to templates. This is just a random idea because I was thinking "hrm, wonder what the first expansion will hold?"

****tier female elementarist dances?

Not a bad idea but I rather that gear does that, not skills