Diablo 2 Mod Ideas

[Kevin]

For the sorc, couldn't you simply classify all her trees as other and she doesn't have a unique skill set, she just gets 3 tabs from the "other" category that aren't also classes as unique.

Your list as I see it is like this, any character can select from these groups, unless that class has a unique tab in that category. The sorc would be the one exception with all three of her tabs coming from the 'Other' category:

Other
Elemental (Dru)
Traps (Asn)
Poison/Bone (Nec)
Masteries (Barb)
Fire (Sorc)
Cold (Sorc)
Lightning (Sorc)

Offensive
Offensive Auras (Pal)
Curses (Nec)
Martial Arts (Asn)

Defensive
Warcries (Barb)
Defensive Auras (Pal)
Passive and Magic (Zon)
Druid Summons (Dru)

Class Unique
Paladin - Combat Skills (off)
Amazon - Bow and Crossbow OR Javelin Spear (off)
Necro - Summons (def)
Barb - Combat Skills (off)
Sorc - None
Druid - Shapechanging (off)
Assasin - Shadow (def)

That still makes that class mean something, and it still allows a lot of flexibility. The sorcs uniqueness is that she gets the 3 other skills, it still makes her a pure spell caster, which is the class intent, but you have opened up other fire/cold with the druid and poison/bone and the traps to her now. I suppose you could change the constraint to she has to simply take two other skills and can take three if she so desires. That means she could have an offensive or a defensive.

I think that this would work pretty well for balance as well. Though I see the defensive aura not getting picked much. Most of the classes are still limited in the offense with this too, and it looks like it kills the hybrid zon. Unless you were forcing 2 unique skills on her.