This would be fine as long as Int/Wis properly boost magic; so a low int/wis character can't spend all their points on physical stats but still spend all their mana points on Summon and Enchantment spells that are just as effective as dedicated casters.

I like the idea of CHA giving better prices in stores on the face of it, but the problem is that this encourages you to have a single character that buffs up their Cha, and then trades off all the equipment to others.

Exploitative, and (boring) micro-management intensive.

These are mutually exclusive.  By definition, if hp PER LEVEL is tied to Con, then when you go up a level you get free hp.

Yes, this seems fine.

Ok, as long as start essence for champions is zero and they still don't get any essence until they are gifted some from the Sov.

Dungeons and Dragons (with arcane vs Divine spell differentiation) is not the only traditional RPG.  Plenty of fantasy RPGs only have a single magic type, and power vs recovery rate is a pretty common differentiation.

Actually ... Max HP = Contitution + (Con/5)*level 

is a possibility.

Alternatively Max HP could = starting Constitution + (Con/5)*level ...

and further alternatives can be derived by changing the denominator.

Whats the difference?

Why should effects that increase your Con only boost your con per level, and not your base con?

It shouldn't matter if I have con 13 when I start or if I have con 10 when I start and then get +3 from a levelup.

There should be no distinction between "constitution" and "starting constitution", that would get really confusing.

Do you hear what your saying? Anyways, the whole point was that Contitution /= HP ... but that each Champion gets "free HP" based on Constitution (not directly tied to it).

I don't know if this has been mention but one could probably make Adventure techs grant small skill bonuses to champions (boost certain stats by 10%). Also, I should NEVER see a quest location that I cannot activate, I hate that "You don't have a high enough Adventuring level to see this location" pop-up. They shouldn't display if I cannot use them.

Some better champion equipment would also be a great way to add more the Adventuring tech (idea #3).

So long as there CAN be a sort of Mage character who starts with his own essence, that's fine. This is how it should be anyways because I believe that each NPC has no essence to start with (could be wrong here).

Also the Charisma ability REALLY needs some advantages somewhere (recruitment, diplomacy, shoppings, quests...).

i vote for you being able to take on all quests, regardless of level.  they should plainly show you that this is of a higher level, and ask you if you want to proceed.  you get killed, its your fault, you succeed because of your tactical ability then all the better.

actually, i propose this.  screw getting quests through the adventure tree, ALL QUESTS should be available at the start.  you get your champ and sov power 90% from the adventure tree, rename it ADVENTURER tree.  the quests will be ranked based on champion or combat level.  if you try to do it, and your champ or combat stack isn't strong enough then the game asks if you are sure you want to do this.  it has to plainly show how strong the encounter is.

this is much better in my opinion than how it currently is.  as a matter of fact you could have quests that ramp up in difficulty over the length of it.  so you might be strong enough to deal will phase one, but phase 2 is way harder and you will have to recruit, by equipment, build up more units to complete it.

I disagree.  Seeing quests you can't reach get gives you a good incentive to pursue adventuring techs.  I think what's lame is the opposite; if you have no idea if getting a new adventure tech will actually reveal any useable adventure options.

I disagree.  Not all quests should be about combat.  But there is clearly a need to stop higher rewards from being given too early.  Adventure levels fit this need.

Part of the idea is being able to encourage investing in Adventure techs early as an alternative income source to Civilization tree.

ok then, have quests that require certain abilities.  maybe you need a 18 INT to start the quest because its some kind of puzzle or something.  only 18 INT person can do it.  i will be very disappointed if i get a level 5 "escort my daughter from point a to b" quest, then get 1000 gildar or something. i am just saying that having a quest tech to get access to higher level quests are ridiculous and unnecessary.  i understand that the game is to close to gold to make such a change, but i hope after release in a patch or expansion they take another look at the quest system.

Right now all the heroes are human. I'd like to see Fallen heroes and a technology that would allow you to recruit heroes not of your own race.

I favor as many choices as possible when a character levels up. 

I admit I do not fully understand all roles that the current stats have, but I would seperate Essense and HP increases from a basic stat level up increase.  HP is too critical to ALL characteers to have it be solely a function of con.  Similarly from what I understand of essense it is too useful to nearly all characters to ignore in favor of some of the other ablities.

  I would hope also hope that a hero can choose a new specical ability or improve a special ability every level or so as they level up.  That would be analagous to feats in D&D, specialzation points in WoW, etc. 

I fully support the idea that the adventure tree unlocks cooler or rare special abilities for heros.  Heros should still need to attain the required level or prerequisites to attain these abiliites.

Rather than having the adventure tree increase the stats or bonus that a hero gains per level, I would recommend it increases the rate that they gain experience.

Prefaced with I have little Idea what this tree currently does; I would also include it unlocking more quests and dungeons, more information gathering abilities (including spies, maps and rumors), access to rare goods and special equipment via the marketplace, increases to strategic map movement, increases to visibility range for scouts, increases the number of heros available including rare or monster race heros, allows heros to have henchmen/pets/body guards and an increase in number of bodyguards, lower costs for recruiting heros, lower essense costs to imbue a hero as a channeler (may be hard to balance this? I don't really know how that works!), the ability to capture and train certain monsters as mounts, troops or pets, the ability to equip artifacts and items of incredible power, and an increase in the number of equipment slots for characters. 

This thread as also spawned alot of discussion of stats and their uses, thought i would add my thoughts

Strength - affects mellee and some types of ranged damage, minimun strength levels may be needed to equip some special armors, weapons, and mounts

Dexterity - affects physical defense, accuracy of weapon attacks, chance of critical strike

Con - affects hitpoints, resistance to poison, disease, and some types of magic resistance

Int- affects spell power and maximum mana

Wisdom- affects non con based magic resisitance, mana regeneration per turn, and maximum mana spent per turn/casting speed

Charisma - affects diplomacy, morale of troops in command, rate that troops gain experience, number and level of henchmen, prices to buy/sell equipment, and ability to gather rumors, higher levels make available some quests.

Hitpoints-I would add a base number of hitpoints per level + a modifier for con.  A high level character with no points invested in con should still have high hitpoints.

Essense- I dont fully understand essense. The only thing I know you do with it is imbue champions with magical power so they case spells.  I have heard it has at times during the Beta it has been linked to your mana.  I dont like it tied to your mana pool directly.  I like the idea of it as resource that has various things to spend it on throughout the game.  Examples of things to spend Essense on:

• Imbue a champion
• create a magical artifact (stronger than a basic magical item)
• create a magical construct such as a gollem, a living fort, etc
• cast some world changing spells such as Fertilty, Acid Rain, Raging Seas, Darkness, Plagues that cant be cast at all without spending essence.
• Resurrect a Dead Champion
• Use as emergency reserves of hitpoints or mana (you cant kill an enemy soveign that has essence still, either have the soveign regenrate in that battle if this is their last city or respawn at home with less essence

I would give your soverign an essence every level.  you could also possible gain essence through some quests.

How off am I?

I would say that MINIMUM each Sovereign should gain 1 essence and 2 HP at EACH level.

that would be my baseline for any and all thoughts and suggestions.