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Augments are probably the most important aspect of the game that we still have little to no information about. We have been given a handful of examples about how 'impactful' they can be, but that is quite subjective based on your expectations and your understanding of a class vs archetype. Here I am just exploring a possible way to design the augment system which I believe will (1) allow for easier balance (2) more creative freedom in terms of design (3) support/promote class diversity and push against the formations of metas and (4) increase the variability of demanded items through crafting.
The idea is quite simple, what if alongside the lvl requirement, your augments required a stat threshold to be used? For example a highsword (fighter primary cleric secondary) will augment the fighter abilities with cleric themed augments. What if each augment required some int/will/wisdom (stats more aligned to the cleric) to be utilized? Some augments that heavily modify an ability may require more stats and thus require itemization choices that meet these requirements.
This would give developers the freedom to design minor and major augments by having some associated cost to the more impactful powerful ones in order to balance them. This way, augments would not need to be homogenous in their power nor precisely equally impactful. Currently, for any given skill, not only do all augments need to be similar in power for viability, but they can also only be as impactful as the least impactful one being implemented. But if you give them a cost, it can justify higher variability where a player can decide, through itemization, how heavily they lean into their secondary's role. So in the earlier example, the highsword could have low cost (require low int/will/wisdom stats) augments that do mostly self healing and other minor cleric things. But if the highsword decides to heavily lean into the cleric side, by wearing items with high int/will/wisdom which come at the cost of their primary's stats of strength/power, then they could gain access to augments that would allow them to heal others (not quite as good as a cleric of course, but you'd get closer to crossing trinity roles). Or this can be done in 'tiers' where multiple int/will/wisdom thresholds change the same augment to gain stronger cleric-like properties with the highest tier involving healing that can extend to others as an example. This would allow the augments to be more impactful and variable and to meet the needs & desires of the player and their fantasy for the class they play.
This would also create a demand for a lot more stat combinations on gear which opens up crafting. If crafters need to create items with strange stat combinations to satisfy different augments for all classes, it would require far more item variability to exist than if they only need to create items with classically synergistic stats like int+will+wisdom. This gives the crafting process a lot more cause for stat manipulation which, depending on the direction of the crafting system, can support a larger variety of resources or allow for more points during the crafting process (gathering to final item) that players can manipulate the final item's stats.
This is inspired by ARPG systems and I'd be curious what people think. Do you like the idea of all augments being ~equal in power? Or does it appeal to you more to have more vs less impactful augments balanced around some cost?
The idea is quite simple, what if alongside the lvl requirement, your augments required a stat threshold to be used? For example a highsword (fighter primary cleric secondary) will augment the fighter abilities with cleric themed augments. What if each augment required some int/will/wisdom (stats more aligned to the cleric) to be utilized? Some augments that heavily modify an ability may require more stats and thus require itemization choices that meet these requirements.
This would give developers the freedom to design minor and major augments by having some associated cost to the more impactful powerful ones in order to balance them. This way, augments would not need to be homogenous in their power nor precisely equally impactful. Currently, for any given skill, not only do all augments need to be similar in power for viability, but they can also only be as impactful as the least impactful one being implemented. But if you give them a cost, it can justify higher variability where a player can decide, through itemization, how heavily they lean into their secondary's role. So in the earlier example, the highsword could have low cost (require low int/will/wisdom stats) augments that do mostly self healing and other minor cleric things. But if the highsword decides to heavily lean into the cleric side, by wearing items with high int/will/wisdom which come at the cost of their primary's stats of strength/power, then they could gain access to augments that would allow them to heal others (not quite as good as a cleric of course, but you'd get closer to crossing trinity roles). Or this can be done in 'tiers' where multiple int/will/wisdom thresholds change the same augment to gain stronger cleric-like properties with the highest tier involving healing that can extend to others as an example. This would allow the augments to be more impactful and variable and to meet the needs & desires of the player and their fantasy for the class they play.
This would also create a demand for a lot more stat combinations on gear which opens up crafting. If crafters need to create items with strange stat combinations to satisfy different augments for all classes, it would require far more item variability to exist than if they only need to create items with classically synergistic stats like int+will+wisdom. This gives the crafting process a lot more cause for stat manipulation which, depending on the direction of the crafting system, can support a larger variety of resources or allow for more points during the crafting process (gathering to final item) that players can manipulate the final item's stats.
This is inspired by ARPG systems and I'd be curious what people think. Do you like the idea of all augments being ~equal in power? Or does it appeal to you more to have more vs less impactful augments balanced around some cost?