While I can not give a definitive answer on exactly how it will be done, I am sure you will be able to be in full plate armor and cast a fire ball type spell.
What are the down sides???
There could be many. It could be casting time, extra mana use, lowered chance of spell success, lesser effect, no effect at all, or any number of other effects.
The main thing will be effectiveness of the character.
This is a skill based system, the more skills you focus in, the longer it will take you to progress, but at the same time the more versatile you are, the less likely you are to be ineffective.
The main issue to remember, is making a goal of advancing every skill in the game?will make you a bad character, and take years to advance, while a person who simply focuses on say 5 or 6 skills, will be very effective, but there will be situations he or she can simply not deal with.
I predict that most high end characters will have a few spells they can cast, but many characters will be much more focused in design, based mostly on their preferred style of play, the road to being a high end caster will probably be difficult and need to be disciplined, where as a melee expert will require less focus.
We are at this moment still figuring how to deal with spell casters, though I am sure there will be many paths, some will reach similar goals, others will be way out there.
My main fear, and something impossible to avoid is the fact that in this game the ability to make a character that gets to a point of uselessness is possible, mainly due to lack of focus on the players part. While many games suffer this fate, some classes and races being better then others, it will be more on the player shoulders to deal with then a question of balance, you can do almost anything with any race?but some races are better at things then others.
Lets take the Kran for example, I think few doubt they will be melee gods, they are naturally strong, and resistant to magic, are difficult to damage and lack many of the weaknesses that the flesh bag races have. Their downfall??? They are slow, in all senses of the word. The don?t run too fast, they don?t learn quickly. Also since they are so intimidating, many casters have special spells that affect Kran more then other races.
Now?being the freak that I am, lets imagine I want to be a Kran caster?I am looking at a very long road ahead of me, my melee focused dwarf friends will pass me in effectiveness even if we play the same amount of time and do attack the same number of mobs and do the same type of quests. However taking this long long road?there will be times and places I can go and almost nothing can do me harm.
It is really about personal choice. My hope is that every race really provides a different experience beyond just their stat differences, some races will be really susceptible to magic, but as they advance they can focus on gear that protects them from their weaknesses.
Others will simply be more susceptible to melee attacks, and though they excel at casting feel better armor will protect them from the arrows and sword points?so they dawn heavy armor?but because of this, they can?t dodge out of the way of a tree swinging Giant.
In the end there will be no wrong choices, just some will seem simple and easy, and others will seem like they take forever and impossible to play. Will they really be impossible??? No, just dam hard at certain points.
Based on the plan, balancing will be an issue of each race focusing on what they do best, but even then there will be times or tasks that seem impossible for you to do.
Why you may ask?well we hope to have a game that allows you to play solo and are truly self sufficient, but really rewards those that team up and play in groups and apply themselves to a focused task.
I can tell you that from the release of the next Alpha till the time that the official release is complete?we will go through a billion changes to try and balance things out. And I predict that even after release there will be things that are toned down or (nerfed) but combat will be pretty straight forward and understandable, it?s the crafters and merchants that will really have to think what they should be doing and when.
I know this didn?t really answer anything but added more questions?all I can say to that?we will see when we get to it.
