I agree that warriors could use more 'offshoot skills' off the lethal line.

Agreed. The system as a whole is pretty awesome but especially warriors need some more interesting choices. 

On the assassin tree, the synergies seem pretty terrible- why should I have to go through the dodge tree to get arrow swarm- that makes no sense to me.  Also 3 levels of nothing but raising dodge is boring.

I think the common problem is that it takes too long to get to the fun stuff.

Agreed on the potential traits not being worth keeping.

To me, the real issue is that there's little reason to switch up strategy- some of this is due to the lack of being able to kill enemy heroes for awesome weapons/mounts, then basing a synergy off that weapon.   It was a cheese tactic though.   Also, there will be a best path- some randomness is needed to keep the game interesting.

 The mage tree should be determined by element- and perhaps things like summoning ignys should require Pyromancy + Summon, where Summon can branch off into different paths, as can Pyromancy (between spells or raw fire damage)

 The main reason I am disliking the new mechanic- I'm unsure if it's because the mechanic is fatally flawed, or just not properly implemented yet- I'm leaning towards a combo of these needs to be some randomness, but the mechanic can work.

I agree, the trees as they stand are sort of bland. They help with the ridiculously random nature of leveling that was present before, but the problem I think is that they use the same upgrades as the initial setup. This leads to what was before a problem of "ohhh, this is an option now, I'll grab that!" or "Meh, there's nothing very good here, I'll take +1 defense." is now a problem of ohhh, I want this, so I have to get hmmm, three or four completely unrelated skills... that seems odd.

I think it will take a rethink of the entire skill system, to make things seem a bit more coherent. The trees concept is fine, but the old skills don't exactly fit into the new system well.

I would like to see more but shorter paths (branch type paths within each class) and only have enough max levels to get some of the paths. That creates a lot fun variations for different games.

That said I really like the new system. Not only is it way more interesting than the old system but in the process of building it they came up with some cool new skills. I hope they continue to develop the system in future expansion packs but honestly alot of RPGs have shallower character development than this 4X game!

I will add my hate for XP bonus perks to the pile. I despise these because in practice they end up being always right or always wrong not creating a meaningful choice.

Some warrior skill ideas for SD:

Bludgeon: [Active, requires blunt weapons skill] This attack gets +100% bash chance on target enemy

Decimate: [Active, requires blunt mastery] This attack gets +25% (ie overpower) per unit and +100% bash chance to target enemy

Parry and Riposte: [Active, requires expert sword] Unit enters defensive stance, with attack value added to defense; +1 counter attack

Coup de Gras: [Active, requires sword mastery] If target unit is under 50% hp, a successful hit will instantly kill the unit

Hamstring: [Active, requires axe expert] Target unit (Men or beast or faction unit) is attacked for 50% and receives -3 initiative.

Also, I think Revenge should be changed to: Anytime unit is successfully struck in melee combat she receives an immediate counterattack.

Anywho, just some random thoughts.

Nope it's all about the Beast Masters they will slaughter your lil magic wizards now. :_)

I would like to see the weapon maneuver skills deal damage based on level additionally to their current, which would make them all useful.

Also, effects are more useful than damage. I would rather lose my next turn to "risk" knocking a target prone or confusing them for 3 turns than "risk" dealing 2x damage. This is because I might roll "low damage" to get critical, making the status effect better.

Impale is a case where this can be seen. The first target should take x2 damage and the second should take normal damage.

Another good effect would be "lose next turn, "risk" causing opponent unable to use skills or spells for 3 rounds.

I personally think the weapon skills are a step in the right direction but they need more meat, more strength. Spells deal more damage based on shards, have these skills do more damage based on something. level or strength/dex is perfect because they increase on using the unit.

I agree with what's been said about the trees needing some rearranging.  Here is my input on the trees.

Warrior - The tree is boring, and even though there are some flavorful or unique abilities on the tree, you just know that taking lethal 1,2,3,4,5 is just more efficient.  I would definitely break up the lethal line from being just a straight 1->5 and change it so you want/have to take some other skills.  The specific weapon skills chains need some love, partly because they are competing with the lethal line.  Add in a reduced cooldown on the bash and cleave to the mace and axe skills, and give swordsman something like an extra counter or a weapon ability for a master swordsman would be cool.

Mage - This is my favorite tree, but I think the evoker section suffers from the same thing as the lethal.  At least you don't feel compelled to take it because you can focus on summoning or utility spells.  I also wonder if the role of having a spellbook is diminished some by the trait tree.  Also I think the Warlock profession should be changed because the trait tree can already add enough damage at will and could use more flavor/balancing.

Defender - My 2nd least favorite tree that needs a lot of work.  Spell resistance chain is too long/linear.  I  suggest taking stun off the end, and making obsidian guard an offshoot chain.  I would also add in some traits that actually improve this unit's defense aside from defending.  Warrior gets traits to improve base damage so a defender should get traits to improve base defense.  The tree ending in shieldwall is long also.  One thing I do like about the tree is that there are some nifty abilities in there, like guard, withstand and rescue.  These are the kind of abilities that make combat fun.  Also revenge (+1 damage when hit) would fit well in this tree somewhere.

Assassin - I think this tree is better designed than most, by looking at the layout, but I also have not used this one in game much yet.  I would suggest more with using a ranged weapon.

Commander - My least favorite and I think you need to rework the whole tree and concept, but I think that is already being done.

General - I am not a fan of potential line.

Abilities that you can use in battle are the best kind of trait, chains that are too long are not good, and that you should never feel forced into taking something.  You could also add level requirements to some of the abilities in the chains, like you did for mages, if abilities are so strong that you want to delay a player taking them but you also don't want to make the tree too long, just to force a player into taking crap to get there.

I don't like the liner progression of skill trees, in every game the level up process will be the same. I'd rather the skills be random so that it's a different experience every time you play. Even though you are given 4 or 5 choices to pick your next skill it's same the 4 or 5 choice every game, it's boring.

There needs to be a middle ground between pure randomness and 100% predictability. Is it true that every "Warrior" has the exact same trait tree? If so does it matter which champion you get, except for the initial traits?

It's be great if each champion can only choose between 2 or 3 paths and not all... Seems odd that no matter which champion they can be a warrior, mage, assasin, governer etc. 

There also should be some small amount of randomness so not all the warrior traits trees are the same. That would makes thing a lot more interesting, so you level up to warrior, and then it would be interesting to see how your warrior trait tree looked for this champion which might be a little diff from another warrior.

Each champion also should have some special favour, some special trait or ability only that champion has. I hate to mention another game called MOM..... 

Perhaps the leveling formula should give quicker EXP and remove the second and third EXP perk, making the first one 20%. This way a mage with 20% and 45% will be "special".

The exp perk should either be the first perk in a tree or the last. It could be the last if the leveling were quicker. This would mean a mage can pick its special exp perk right away and the last later. That would force a mage off the normal path to choose both, and it would require a commitment to get. However this would only work if the leveling were faster.