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traits for reached levels are a little bit boring - what about mechanics enabling traits for "holistic" attribute increases? As soon as 3 attributes are at least 25 one skill point can be used for gaining a trait, for 4 attributes with 25+ a second trait is possible [etc]

I'm taking a new and definite stance on the banishment of attribute requirements. I hate to play the "everyone else does it" card but I can't remember playing any other game where you have to perform burning backflips to skill into any passive at all. This game is limited by screen space, we should really nurture the concept of passives, not put weird requirements on them while we can choose any active we want already at level 1.

Rhetorical question: If traits had never had attribute requirements to begin with, would any of us be here arguing they should have them?

in creativly abusing my literacy I'll answer your question anyway :P Without requirements the passive skills would have been most likely nerfed a long time ago, but seeing semipermanent buffs in the form of Jariel's caterwauling I think you have a point.

A skill point is still a requirement though. It's not like we don't have to give anything up for the traits. With 10 skill points, that's still up to 7 active skills to be using.

If someone voices the opinion that they wish they could take all 9 traits and just derp around with ability x, then we need to look at ability x or the rest of that character's tree

renke_ wrote:traits for reached levels are a little bit boring - what about mechanics enabling traits for "holistic" attribute increases? As soon as 3 attributes are at least 25 one skill point can be used for gaining a trait, for 4 attributes with 25+ a second trait is possible [etc]

What do you think about the "end of each act gain a trait" idea?

Ah yes end of each act would be a good idea I think. Of course, the 4th act wouldn't count since after that there's just the epilogue

the chars recruted in act 2 should either get a trait when joining the party or you have to explain in-game why they don't get presents :)

Forgot about that ! Well I'll think about it, they could all get a trait when they join indeed.

Update: Lowered some values - they made sense when compared to each other but not when compared to the other traits

If we wanna go with x/level I was thinking the following numbers...

Defense: 2
Attack: 1
Magic: 1
Speed: 1 (if you add that trait)
Crit: Static 10% (it scales already) - this still probably sucks because crits are so small, but 10% at least sounds sexy. Point out that spells cannot crit in the description though.
Elemental/physical resistances: Static 15% (ditto)
Health/mana: 3

Now some comments. I think I will start with health because that's probably the most eyecatching. Most people seem to think +15% is OP, yet I imagine some might think zomg 3/level sucks. Anyway if we look at level 15, where it'll grant +45 HP. If you have 300 HP at that point - which incidentally is what you'll have with 30 con, a reasonable score for nightmare at that level - it's a 15% bonus. Just one that doesn't stay 15% if you should happen to have 40-50 con on all your characters at this point. Not looking at any player in particular.

As for mana I'm really leaving that to you guys, I'm not gonna spend a trait point on that anyway. Feel free to make it +75/level to change my mind though.

Now attack vs. magic. I find it easier to raise magic than attack (not counting buffs though), so in that sense the attack trait is more powerful. But magic is also defense against spells, so it has more than one use.

Speed... at the expense of the dual wield trait. I think 1 might be too little and 2 might be too much, but I haven't seen this game handle fractions well. Seems to me decimals are ignored, not rounded. For example 25 fame = 12% discount, even though 12.5 should be rounded to 13. I believe I have seen some cases of x.9999999999 (exaggerated ) being rounded to x and not x+1 too. Speed is a tricky one because warriors probably have less speed at level 15 than at level 1, whereas mages keep ramping theirs up.

If you wanna keep the dual wield trait, best design combat so that dual wield is a little worse without the trait and a little better with it. I still think it's a Chalassa trap though (or drunken mage player trap). It's risky keeping it since mistakes can only be fixed by reloading/restarting, and especially if you take it just as you pick Chalassa up you won't even notice "hey, her numbers didn't increase".

And lastly defense, I chose 2 because defense numbers are typically higher than attack/magic.

I hope I don't have to explain why the % traits are static

I'm thinking to keep the dual wield, since messing with the speed might screw up balance too much (+25 speed, in addition with normal speed, and mages/thieves could become really too fast!). Will make it more powerful, actually I noticed that while the description said "inflicts 75% normal damage", the code was still 0.5 (so 50%). Will now put 0.75 so does what is supposed to do!
Others seems fine instead