Synergies.

[Dagni]

Cross-tree synergies might work, except that once again you'd be forcing Sorceresses to use the more powerful level 24 and 30 skills all the time (dude, use orb).

The biggest problem with cross-tree synergies is that it would force Sorceresses to use whatever skills happened to be chosen to give synergies to each other. That wouldn't necessarily be the level 24 and 30 skills, though.

Example, have Charged Bolt, Hydra, and Blizzard all give synergy bonuses to each other, with Chain Lightning, Meteor, and Frozen Orb comprising another synergy group. If a character that has Hydra and Blizzard decides to add a lightning damage skill to his arsenal, he is basically forced to use CB because it is the one he has synergy bonuses for. Whereas a Meteor/FO sorc would choose CL.

There are two ways I can think to give cross-tree synergies while avoiding that particular problem, at least. For one, have the masteries give synergy bonuses to each other. That allows the player to still choose which attack skill he wants from each tree, and at least cuts down a little on the sheer number of skill points needed to invest in all three trees. The other way, if it is even possible in a mod, is have ALL the cross-tree attack spells give each other (small) synergies. Again, this preserves the ability of the player to choose for himself which skill he wants in each tree. Of course, this is all assuming well-balanced skills, if orb is just plain better than any of the other cold spells then player choice becomes meaningless.

Really, the idea of giving a synergy bonus between any pair of cross-tree skills is just a modified implementation of - and probably inferior to - giving a clvl "synergy" bonus to every skill in the game. A mod that did something like that would be interesting, though I don't know if it'd turn out to be any good :).

- Dagni