Sure, but even body/damage bloat is not really the problem.
Definitely agree -- Its a red-herring of how to resolve current-game design, from what has tended to be found thus far.
Damage became a problem because the other tools that fighters/rogues had in their arsenal (at the time slays/assassinates) were not as effective as just straight damage.
Part of it was because they had no other options, so they were given those other options, but they can't be purchased in a quantity that matters enough to be effective, unlike spells or alchemy, so more damage stayed the way to go.
So that causes body to escalate, because we don't want waves of monsters getting one-shotted by three guys and everyone else playing a support role because we don't have the endless supply of NPCs to field a swarm of 100 zombies all at once.
The other reason that damage has stayed on top for melee is because of the prevalence of defensive skills on monsters, but we need them because we don't want monsters getting one-shotted by packets or weapons so we pile on the defensives.
At its core, I'd say the cause of all of this is not only the amount of one-shot spells and alchemy out there, but the fact that even with all the defensive stuff that gets added on, it's still the best option for casters, except it's not because wands. Fighters are just avoiding the defensives by buying damage.
Make offensive skills matter and they become a better option than damage.
I ... mostly agree, to a point. I think that the climate of class-dynamics have polarized towards "Casters get everything, except physical damage and body." Defensives? Magic can solve it all. Be it ritual effects or column-spells
The climate is largely that the Celestial Scholar (or Templar, to a lesser degree) remains the unrivaled Master-Class in current 1.3. Wands, Golems, a Spell Tree, ability to produce magic items, with the only downside being body -- only if they aren't in a golem. Spell stores allow quickened casting of high-volume, low level spells (See the Disarm discussion). Meanwhile, other classes are too prone to everything that the Celestial Scholar can dish out.
The simplest solution, in my mind, is in the magic item revisions -- rituals locked to certain classes or abilities, separation of certain rituals to trade/craft skills, and (Don't get your pitchforks too quickly) per-day items *only* available to people who can use the ability themselves.
For this thread in specific, for the sake of system-universal-writing, moving Backstab and Weapon Proficiency to be byproducts of your class skills makes a ton of sense to me. Yes, that means introducing more skills --
and that's fine -- for the sake of class balance. Spells going to the wayside that replicate Class Skills of Fighters, Rogues, and the hybrids allows this, in addition to those new skills. And that does mean, specifically, spells like Disarm and Magic Armor -- both of these make the Fighter/Rogue builds worthwhile, and their skills worthwhile. If a Scholar is supposed to be a delicate flower, don't make them some bizarre stone flower with mile-thick walls.
If the desire is to keep
ritual effects like Spell Parry as either rituals or something specifically not a skill, then reduce take-out effects. Change 10 minute counters down, reduce or eliminate Line of Sight abilities -- these truly water down experiences as players sit around waiting for these timers to expire or NPCs just give up, knowing they have additional spawns later.
Anyways, yes, quite. I'm still in favor of static-damage scaling with class abilities purchased *in all fields*, not just Celestial.