I agree - in systems which allow it (annoyingly few) I like playing agile mages with a few dirty close combat tricks up their sleeves. That\'s mainly because I like lone adventuring as well as trailing after big guys in chainmail, and also because it\'s nice to be able to back up my magic with a bit of eye-poking.

Flipside, the \'full support\' archer or mage usually has a place. Purists or specialists and so forth, the less combat focused or the group-combat-centric... specialist healers, for instance, rarely seem to want for lack of a group willing to adventure with them.

Besides, there\'s always the wizards battlecry: \"Expiditious Retreeeeeat!\"

@ Syzerian

Wouldn\'t the number of combos you could squeeze into a round be really heavily dependant on the intertia of the weapon? I like the idea of combos though, if done well they make combat look really nicely choreographed and funky. Prince of Persia made me feel really good about my frantic and scared button mashing, I\'d love to see a less platformy game do that...

@ Adeli

This is easily resolved.
You character will not have access to the stats like you could.
This game is heavily roleplayed.
If you look at a sword, do you see numbers telling you how much damage it deals? No, so why would your character?

I agree. I don\'t want numbers. The problem is that in order for me to roleplay, I often need access to information my character has, but which I do not. I point out I\'m not very good at roleplaying, but I do try . For most adventuring characters, the quality of a weapon or a piece of armour (as I guess this applies just as strongly to armour as weapons) is likely to be an important deciding factor in whether they trade in their old one for new. Not all claymores are created equal, but neither do they come with handy numbers attached

Not having a GM handy to describe your character\'s impression of the weapon in a nice manner, the game needs to supply at least some of that information. Numbers are the traditional method. Brilliantly detailed modelling and texturing of individual swords that I can peer at for faults might be another, but a lot harder to do well.

Numbers just don\'t cut it in all, they foul up the suspension of disbelief something chronic for me at least. I know there\'s another thread on adopting a numberless system throughout PS here , but if that isn\'t possible I\'d still love to see weapon stats  hidden - whilst still giving you enough information to make decisions for your character.

Alchemy is always a lovely idea in games. Unfortunately most \'alchemy\' skills do boil down to potion making, which is not perhaps as rich an opportunity as the name deserves (although I\'m not questioning how useful it is)

My thoughts on alchemy: science. Yes, that simple. Mediaeval scientists were not as primitive as we like to think, and some of the most important research of the time (in england at least) was done within the monastic religions that most people seem to think were holding it back.

Inquiring monk or freelance alchemist though, the basics of scientific enquiry were well-founded and although there were certainly some strange ideas and pursuing of goals now accepted as impossible even with modern technology, it was still science. Highly emperical science, but science.

In a setting where the underlying laws of reality might be probed and fiddled with magic, I think scientific advancement would be accelerated, not retarded, and alchemy would represent bleeding-edge research (within the timeframe decided by the setting i.e. mediaeval, so no \'alchmical\' internal combustion engines) combining chemistry, physics, theology, philosphy and not a little magic. Science isn\'t yet deep enough to be split into the various areas we lable it now, so alchemy really is a catchall. It seems strange there\'s even science/magic division, but that\'s getting seriously off-topic.

*thanks XpYtZ for pointing out the depth of alchemy too*

Might be a bit much to try to make alchemy all it should be, but there\'s no reason to restrict it to potions I think.

In game terms, I\'d expect \'alchemists\' to be concocting a huge variety of substances (most as a side effect of their research) - corrosive materials, flammable oils, foul-smelling tinctures, luminescent pigments, poisons, nigh-unbreakable composite metals, and so on. The important thing would be an air of research - not knowing exactly what will happen when you try to mix two ingedients, \'though you may guess based on what you know about them. Keeping this kind of feeling might be really difficult in an MMO game though - perhaps the introduction of new materials every so often, as well as making such knowledge valuable (player-published \'books\' of alchemical formulae?\') and ensuring there\'re a staggering number of combinations might work though. An alchemist\'s income would perhaps be equal parts selling the weird and wonderful things s/he has made, and selling the formulae for the most important to interested parties.

Healing potions and stuff would be more the realm of the herbalists/pharmacists, although there\'s no reason why an alchemist might stumble upon a new recipe for a healing salve. Alchemists would find new research I think, leaving others to perfect and manufacture the things they produce.

With a nod to the other alchemical thread (explosives and stuff) it seems sensible that an adventuring alchemist would take a few ceramic bottles of the more offensive creations with him. Glass might be expensive, and I think explosives definately a bit of a no-go, but a few ceramic baubles filled with sticky goo that makes the enemy\'s armour glue itself together, or stinking liquid that renders them helpless with nausea, would be just fun. Small ones could be a fine form of slingshot ammunition too, as well as larger grenades for throwing. You could even make clumsy arrows with ceramic heads filled with the stuff.

Hmm. Long post. Sorry - but alchemy rocks, and it\'d be nice if it were richer than Morrowind et al have made it.