Things the devs didn't think through

[Drax]

For every X points spent in weapon skills/offensive skills, you receive Y in defensive. Not a huge ratio so that a challenge remains but enough that people don't feel they're gimping themselves if they ignore wep skills.

[CV77]

Solutions seems simple enough: dont just lower the exp requirements, dont just make more monsters - make new stronger ones and new challenges so I can both get the additional perks AND use them. The suggestion about additional content is probably the best solution, but it's the most time consuming and so, for the time being the skills seem like bottomless pit.

I don't think it's very practical solution. As you already pointed out, you need 40 000 exp just to get from lvl 13 to lvl 14. How many new monsters would you need to kill in order to go up by another 13 levels? With a steep scaling like in LoG probably close to a million. And by that you would max only ONE additional skill.

The 50 level cap is a really, really generous one Because you would have to live like a million years to reach it

I think the best solution would be the New Game+, as someone already mentioned here. You would start on level 1, without your gear but you would get to keep your skill points. And the game would be somewhat harder. And it'd be possible to do it repeatedly, with the game getting progressively harder. Then the 50 level cap would serve a useful purpose.

Btw my highest level character was my mage - level 14 and half - and that's only because I gave him the thing that gives you 20 % more exp.

[Archfiend]

Two frontlines could specialize in armor/evasion and backline could focus on one magic school or one dps school (ranged/throwing/daggers)

At the moment my rogue in the back line is level 46 in ranged weapons but nothing in anything else. He does a whole lot of damage.

I'm on level 11 so might be close to finishing the game though.

[syllogism]

There are 3 +5 skill point books though, so one of your characters can hit 50 in an auxiliary skill and still afford something else

[Halk]

Farming/grinding breaks dungeon crawlers/RPGs. The games are designed to be difficult. The skill for the player is to overcome that difficulty, as efficiently as possible while creating the most resilient and effective characters. It defeats that mechanic if you just stop and gain a few levels before continuing.

[mystrdat]

I do agree here, killing everything you come around puts you just around that single level 50 skill at character level 13/14 by the end of the game - if you could reach 20 by then, you could very well go and max out these "support"skills while not crippling your attack or spells. A simple 1.3x exp ratio gain tweak on all monsters could achieve this while not imbalancing the game much as the difficulty lies elsewhere than just right-click spam.

[SecretSantana]

I haven't put any points into the weapon skills. I've been maxing Dodge and Armors and Athletics, and having no problems.
The only thing close to a problem I had was not spending any points in the elemental magic skills, so my mage had no spells at level 1. And that almost made it more fun (had to chuck rocks!)

[SecretSantana]

I don't know if you ever played Skyrim... but when you combined smithing/enchanting and alchemy the game broke dead, and I found my enjoyment of the game vanished.

Couldn't agree more. I discovered that through experimentation after 160 hours of play. I made some ridiculous armors, and promptly never played the game again. It totally killed all fun even if reloading and not using the armors. Just knowing that was possible was the fun killer.

[Brail]

If you can play as the same characters through multiple dungeons when more levels come out, then wouldnt that negate any issue of late game skills being hard to get?

[Halk]

If you can play as the same characters through multiple dungeons when more levels come out, then wouldnt that negate any issue of late game skills being hard to get?

Yes, that's correct and I think it's been said a number of times in the thread. The game engine has been designed for more than just this dungeon.

The problems though seem to centre around having to stick to the one skill tree in order to develop your character in any way efficiently.