Quote:I was wanting to go with something simple like 12 skill points to divvy amongst the 9 stats. You could specialize and put all 12 into one skill, or balance for more hybrid builds.
I think using this system here will automatically bias your system towards specialization because reaching the pinnacle i.e going from 11 to 12 in one skill is just as easy as going from 0 to 1 in another. It just costs one point.
Two counter this you will need to make it harder to become the 'best' in any given area. There are two ways to do this.
a) space out the abilities each skill provides so that there are lots of good abilities at the lower levels but they come farther apart near the top! For example you start out providing special abilities at each level i.e. 1, 2, 3 but at the high levels provide abilities only at level 8 and 12. Thus to get the best ability at level 12 you must spend more points.
b) use a different point system (as doomhascome suggested). For example, you have 78 (=1+2+3+...+12) points to spend. To raise a skill you must spend the same number of points as the level. Thus you spend 1 point to go from 0 to 1. However you must spend 12 points to go from 11 to 12. With 78 points you can max out one skill at 12 or you can spread out your points to mid-range in many different skills.
