The following is an idea I had a while back about what to do for RPG's (mmo or not) where the player wanted to have choices available to them, but not still have the freedom of tailoring thier characters exactly how they wanted them. I'm going to use generic fantasy terms here since most people relate well to them, but in reality it could be tailored to any setting wanted. The main Idea is that everyone starts off with a base character, and they choose what skills they want at a standardized point cost. Races who have a racial advantage at a certain skill (say dwarves and axes)have a discount while Races who have a racial disadvantage have a mark up (say halflings and heavy crossbows). Humans being the middle characters have NO adjustment and use only the base cost for the skills at this point. Right now the standard point cost is 10 points (this being an easy number to use). Base Cost 10 Race adv 08 Rase D-adv 12 A character could stay at this point and continue to buy skills at this cost forever, or they can make a decision to join one of the "guilds" and decide to become an archetype. For simplicity sake I'll use Fighter, Mage, Thief, and Cleric. Each Archtype changes the skills available to those that are "in" or "out" of the chosen archtype. Skills that are "in" the archtype (say swords for fighters) are reduced by 1/2. Skills that are "out" of the archtype (magic for the fighter) are doubled making the character more defined at the sacrifice of flexibility. New Costs are as follows: In Base Cost 05 In Race adv 04 In Race D-adv 06 Out Base Cost 20 Out Race Adv 16 Out Race D-adv 24 Depending on exactly WHEN a character chooses to specialize in an arche type they could end up with drastically different characters, especially if each archtype has enough variety in skills to develop individuality.

Yeah, that's a good way to do it. Also, make certain uber skills only available from specialization.

Not necisarrily from Specialization, but definately from higher skill levels. Probably so high, that it will be extreamly difficult to get the skill without spending a prohibitive amount of points to get it without specialization.