Knott

If there are plenty of potions in the shops and a lot of them in the world at large, then it would make sense that enemies who expect to be in combat carry them and should also drop them. But it also means that opponents should be able to use the potions they have have should the opportunity present itself.

Yeah, casualties should drop plausible things and mostly everything they had. Medium and smaller animals could plausably contain one or two coins by coinsidence larger monsters could contain undigested equipment from people they ate or even have old weapons lodged stuck between their scales. (or simply be collectors that stash "shinies" in their lairs.)

Certainly, aything is possible. But when you start using labels such as "level" and "class", then a majority of people will have expectations related to what they asociate with those words. And thus some devs become afraid of straying from the "norm". A smooth-talking fighter is a rather simple example. Try a sneaky character with low, but very specialized magic who utilises a sword&shield-style. That is still very possible in Table-Top d20 and even better with a kind GM who is not afraid of house rules that doesn't punish the unique and creative. But in a computer game, getting such a character in a restricted class-system usually requires modding or a more flexible free-form kind of character system. Because the more customizable/flexible things get, the less usefull it becomes to call something a "class".

The problem with item-sets is that in most games (except MMOs) where I've encountered them, they will be relatively weak when you finally get all the pieces because it takes too long to complete and now you're such high level that using other items will be better. Collecting pieces for just one item though usually works better, since devs have more control over when you get it and can scale it accordingly. Also as some have mentioned earlier, they become more memorable.

I agree that this subject can be quite overt in some games, but we must also consider that there are socioeconomic factors to consider. As a city/society grows so does the number of problems scale. And if for instance corruption grows above its initial scale target then the balance in the society will begin to falter. When this happens, the city guard for instance will begin to be stretched thin. Now depending on the quality of managers and leaders, some areas in the society will work very well and a few will show signs of negligent decay. Or it may be improperly managed, with leaders trying to be good at everything, but ending up failing in most aspects. We can only hope that societies in the game will properly reflect this, but it will mean we will be witness to incompetence, but it shouldn't be that everyone is incompetent.

What we know so far is that PE is going to be a Class-based system with levels. I'm not too much a fan of either, but it does have some benefits if used right. I must say, that I do like your thoughts on HP, maybe not the way you present it, but definitly the intention behind it. And would support a system that managed to balance and scale it well. (Because normal HP/Damage-systems doesn't really scale well when you reach higher levels) But then again, the the mainstream opinion is that the bigger the numbers that pops up on the screen, the bigger your epeen will be. Personally I would love a system that was much more free-form than using classes. A comprehensive list of background options during character creation would be much better for the narrative than a class. Then perhaps the use of a flexible ability tree would be easier to make and handle than classes. And also provide a lot more freedom for your character customization.

When it comes to personal character development from a mechanics perspective. The Freedom of customization will be my numer one priority. The more freedom to create the character I want to play the better. An answer to a pervious example; the mage character who was always using a hammer, but only advanced his magic abilities. I'd say Fine! If he wants to play a mage that beleives he is an expert with a hammer, but in reality really sucks at it, then fine. Its his choice. Its a weakness consciously chosen by the player. Though, in most class-based leveling systems, you advance in a preset set of skills/abilities and your choices for customization will be very limited and if you dare advance outside the preset (if it is at all possible), you are usually punished for it (costing double or some other disproportional disadvantage).

I'm going for Viking of the Obsidian Order.