Synergies.

[CelticHound]

What is the point of pumping a skill you'll never use?

Well, I've never used Skeleton Mastery, Warmth, Natural Resistance, or Critical Strike, but I've pumped all those skills at various times and gotten benefits. B)

One of my biggest goals with synergies is to give them some viability, so that pumping them is worthwhile NOT just for the skills they boost, but also for themselves. And, by boosting the "main" skills, they in turn boost the lower pre-req / synergy skills, thus giving even more viability to the lower-end, or less-used, skills.

If I understand you, you're saying that by making synergies that go up (and perhaps across) the skill trees, people may want to pump (and use) lower level skills a bit, as opposed to just putting in single pre-req points. But then it's likely that once you get the higher level skill you'll abandon the lower for it. For example, putting 5 points in Spirit Wolf, then 3 in Dire Wolf, then getting Grizzly.

Or are you talking about making synergies bi-directional so the lower level skill gets something that makes it preferable, at least occasionally, to the higher level skills? That sounds like a difficult task to me.

Dumping 20 points into a Paladin skill is to nominate that skill for frequent use. Paladin characters simply won't have the points to throw away on purely passive synergies.

This opens up a couple new lines of discussion.

First, why should Paladins have fewer points to spare for synergies than other classes?

Second, let's look Oak Sage. I think it's not that unusual for a Druid to max this skill. Yet, how much of the time are they acutally using it? I don't mean the time the spirit is running around handing out a life bonus, but the time spent when it's one of the two active skills. With the exceptions of it getting killed, it being used as a stopgap Decoy, or used as fireworks in town, it's nearly a passive skill. The equivalent for the Paladin might be a skill that gave something similar in life bonus or damage reduction whenever he was running any defensive aura.

-- CH