How about 'Fletching'? If the Alchemists can either buy or make potions, how come the Archers can't buy or make Arrows. Higher skill gives more or better varieties.

Weeell...

Alchemy is a support skill that anyone can take advantage of. If BW were to add Fletching, the Warriors would need to get Blacksmithing and the Mages would need scrollmaking, etc.

Except that swords and spells are not consumable items, and in Eschalon, arrows are.

You'd have to be careful to avoid making it into another cash cow, but I don't see anything wrong with giving rangers a way to augment the arrow supply, if that's how they want to spend their skill points.

Besides, archery is potentially useful to fighters and rogues, too.

As Rangers have little different practical skills from the basic fighter/warrior some more skills for the different classes would be welcome, Rangers as they are seem more like Archers so I think bow making and arrow making would add to the game as skills because a Blacksmith would not make them anyway.

Equally a healer has little difference to a Magic user and only having two spell types is a bit narrow for a RPG.. how about a Druid and Illusion class of magic user.. so Rangers can do the Druid bit at a certain level and perhaps a Thief/ Bard type for Illusion.

For a feature of a stat heavy game there is a lot of scope to widen things even more. The game is good but could easily be a great game with a bit more scope than hack & slash.

I am thinking of adding a Crafting Skill for the next game. This would be like Alchemy, but would focus on taking raw material and making weapons, armor, and supplies. Obviously, the more complex the item is, the more Crafting Skill you need to be successful. This would supersede the need for "Fletching", "Blacksmithing" or "Armoring" because it encompasses all forms of item creation.

Alchemy would remain since it focuses more on "chemistry" whereas Crafting is more about "engineering".

Great stuff a brill idea.

Candles..
Picks for prospecting ore, gems , gold etc
Glass making for flasks ?
Sewing for clothes, boot making, and leather work.

Anything giving more stats and choices that widen the game is a good thing and if it makes sense for a class in keeping with the general theme of the class the better.

I'd still like to see the ability to recovery 30 to 50 plus bow skill of arrows which have hit their target. The price of high end arrows would probably need to be increased to provide balance, but it just seems a lot more realistic than having every arrow fired dissapear into nothingness.

That sounds cool, but I'd be a bit worried about balance. If you can craft a full suit of 10 point armor at a high enough level, money would be a lot less important. It might also make sense to fold the Repair skill into Crafting - otherwise, you could end up with a character who knows how to make a sword from scratch but can't fix up an existing one.

If Crafting worked like Alchemy, then you would still need ingredients and find the more valuable ones like divine ore or adamantium would limit how much you could make.

Finding wood for arrows could be tied into foraging, possibly along with basic arrowheads?

One possibility would be to have smiths sell arrowheads, instead of or in addition to fully made arrows. One problem that does NOT get around is the issue of weight, which is one of the biggest liabilities of the Ranger or any bow-using characters. Any time I have someone using a bow I have to be sure they have a very high strength, just so I don't end up overburdened by my quiver!

If there were some way to assign a weight of less than .1 lb to arrowheads, possibly 10/.1 or 5/.1, rounding up to .1 for less than the full count, it would be a lot easier to run a balanced Ranger.

I was thinking it would be cool to re-tool the Foraging skill... into Scavenging... (for Book III)

Scavenging

You have learned to survive by not wasting anything. You can live off the land by finding food and water in the most unlikely places, as well as come across discarded items that might be useful in your adventures. When combined with the Bow skill, you even stand a chance at recovering arrows from your targets that were otherwise thought wasted.

Features:
Slowed Hunger/Thirst Bars.
Find alchemical and other miscellaneous items.
Chance to recover arrows from downed targets.

This one skill would address a variety of "complaints," while still keeping within the essence of Eschalon. The Hunger/Thirst remains the same, but increasing the foraging to include items other than just straight alchemical ones adds some balance to those who would otherwise use it as a straight money farming skill. Things like food/water, silverware, broken weapon shards, and others could be added (maybe even crafting ingredients), and randomized so that you aren't just getting the more expensive items as you rank up. The addition of a chance to recover arrows would also address the ammo "issue" (I still don't believe there's an ammo issue) without directly making it a part of the Bow skill or needing to craft arrows.

i think bw should just add the crafting skill and perhaps it should be compined with Repair cause i've never seen a blacksmith that creates weopens but can't repair them

Reinvigorating the thread.

I like the idea of crafting and there will always be cash cows.
The best way to deal with this is something similar to what gothic did and that is have a full on trade system and lacking the generic gold buys everything.

I am really looking forward to what is added in book 3.