So in summary: characters aren't always min-maxed because of power-gaming. It may be because it's what the player wants to role-play and because they don't want to be useless in combat, since it's not -fun- to be unable to play your character.
I agree with this quote 100%
I am an experienced game master and player, with several years of experience in both. My suggestions aren't because I've been "babyfed" by RPG videogames. In all honesty, I tend to want to play weaker characters in roleplays where the rules are vague. When the rules are concrete numbers, I become much more concerned, as weak characters can die easily.
The way I keep seeing this spoken about and ruled is a specific kind of game feeling. It feels like AD&D, where warriors are strong early weak later, Mages are weak early but unstoppable later, and rogues hit the medium. It also feels like the older style roleplaying games in that it's low fantasy and that character death is very easy to occur.
But let's compare that to our setting. Elements has a very high fantasy feel (everything is composed of quanta, False Gods roam around, etc.) It's not unreasonable to expect our characters not to be demigods but at least show some measure of prowess. Additionally, we want to encourage people to play characters they like, not choose a build that can do something productive and then make a character.
I use the term classes whether there are classes or not. Classes is a term I use with any RPG, even casual forum roleplaying with no rules, because it helps explain an archetype and communicates what they can do/are meant to do. Whether I use general gaming terms (Tank) D&D classes (Fighter) or other fantasy terms (Warrior), I'm still trying to give people an idea of who I am without having to give my entire backstory.
The most important rule in every roleplaying book (even frequently written in some books) is to have fun. With most people I know, the fun of roleplaying is in three parts: Being able to escape to a character you'd like to be, being able to do cool things with your powers, and developing your character through interactions. Right now, the first two parts of that are very limited. You claim that I can be anything, any class, but then the rules are built so no, not really. You want to shy away from the typical class system, but the current system highly encourages min-maxing and falling into an archetype.
I'm glad your considering another skill tree, as this will loosen up some of the problems with the game. It's definitely a step in the right direction. However, right now I have to choose between scrapping my character or completely reworking her, or dropping out. I don't know which I feel like doing yet, I'd prefer we came to a better consensus.
Rant over
