Synergies.

[Arutha]

I think it would be great if all skills in the game were under diminishing returns.

I don't.
Skills with sharp dimishing returns are akin to one point wonders, and those are broken to me.
What's the point of having 20 skill ranks if no one in their right mind is going to use them ?

Now, what could be tried is having skills get one full effect at slvl 5-10 for instance.
Zeal is such a skill.
At slvl 4 you get the full number of attacks.
Beyond that, you just improve those attacks.

Some skills could easily be made to follow that pattern. For instance, Taunt could be made to have a chance to affect the monster, peaking around slvl 5. Concentrate could be made to be 100% uninterruptible at slvl 5 instead of slvl 1. Decoy could reach max range at slvl 5. Etc...

But for a lot of other skills, it would be a lot harder.

Now, there's one place I'd favour sharp dimishing returns: past slvl 20.
I would actually prefer a hard cap at slvl 20 for all skills (no +skill items in the game, at all), but I could live with dimishing returns.


About paladins auras having both a passive and an active effect, yes, 100% agreement there.