Skill tree focused games

[NorwegianWolf]

What are your recommendations for skill tree focused games? RPG, JRPG, action RPG, roguelike, roguelite, whatnot - all are welcome.

Examples I'm somewhat familiar with are Dungeons of Dredmor and Grim Dawn. I haven't played Path of Exile, but it gets recommended for skill tree / character build enthusiasts. I'm looking for games that skill tree decisions matter.

 

[ferratilis]

Spoiler

 

[Losus4]

Outward, Stalker: Anomaly

 

[octavius]

Diablo 2.

 

[Vic]

Also check Last Epoch

 

[Damned Registrations]

There's some cool tower defense games with big skilltrees if you're into that. Dungeon Warfare 2 is my goto.

ToME 2.3 had my favourite implementation of a skill tree- it did synergy bonuses in a cool way where you could exceed your level cap in a skill by investing in a main skill and then a subskill, like getting combat to 20 then raising swords to 20 might boost combat to 26. This was useful because hitting 25 combat might unlock cleaving hits as a perk. Made for a lot of interesting decisions about how to build, whether you wanted more power right now or in the future, etc. ToME 3.0 did something even cooler where you could find teachers that would increase efficiency of skillpoints spent in the tree, sadly it was only really used for a goofy DBZ roguelike and was never finished. It's a shame, it had lots of cool ideas like going around crushing dojos, gathering the dragonballs for wishes, and a linked afterlife and karma system that was also tied to your spirit skills as opposed to martial arts.

I'm looking for games that skill tree decisions matter.

PoE is a good one on that front, but much like Diablo 2, there's not a lot of decisions to make. Most of the tree is either mandatory or filler. I'd say GD is better, at least the constellations part is cool and interesting in how it's interconnected and the differences between them are major.


Salt and Sanctuary's tree is garbage. Like 90% of the nodes are the same shit, +1 to a base stat. You just path to whatever weapon you want to use to unlock it and grab nearby flask charge nodes and relevant stats.

Last Epoch has good skill tree stuff- you've got a skill tree for your generic class, another for your specialization, and then a tree for each skill you use. The first two use different points than the skills. The result is a very customizable character and a ton of build variety. Sadly a lot of the skills are kind of boring, but it still has some pretty cool stuff. Druid and Necromancer both do some really weird shit, and Paladin has a time looping skill I really like, though it got nerfed (deservedly) pretty bad I think.

 

[man_at_arms]

Skyrim

More seriously, and without repeating any of the prior recommendations:

• I hear that Chronicon is a solid ARPG with good skill trees. It's currently sitting in my backlog so I don't have an opinion on it, but it might be worth looking into.
• If you're familiar with Grim Dawn then you should take a look at Titan Quest. Although Grim Dawn is generally considered to be a more refined version of the mechanics of Titan Quest.
• Cyberpunk 2077 has better skill trees than most AAA "goyslop" games, but that depends if it's something you're into.
• I was not impressed with the skill/perk "trees" of 9th Dawn Remake, which is an indie ARPG
• Jagged Alliance 3 is a good game but the perk trees are very basic
• Gedonia is an indie jank open world RPG, with decently versatile skill trees
• Low Magic Age, Knights of the Chalice 1/2 are OGL D&D 3.5 system games. Feat autism is a part of that system. Not "skill trees" but adjacent enough to mention.
  • Pathfinder Kingmaker & War of the Righteous due to their Pathfinder (aka D&D 3.75) system, although I do not like Owlcat games for being bloated & gay, with stat-inflated enemy encounters
• Noita has a magic system that has the versatility of skill trees
• Time Walker: Dark World: indie roguelike autobattler. Skills as slottable items. Getting synergies between various skills of the party members is what it's all about. RNG based due to the skills dropping as a loot, although there are stores to buy from occasionally

I'll keep an eye on my games library for anything I overlooked.

 

[Necrensha]

They are Billions
-The campaign has a very brutal difficulty and can become nearly unbeatable without the correct decisions on the tree.
Etrian Odyssey 3/4/5
-This franchise has a gorillion possible team comps and combos, 5 in particular lets you unlock two additional skill trees per class.
Titan Quest/Grim Dawn/Torchlight
Final Fantasy X
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Warframe

 

[deama]

Path of exile 2 came out, that's got a bunch.

Dungeons and dragons online has lots of skill trees and nicely complicated with builds.

Wrath of the righteous has lots of stuff.

Ghostlore is a newly released, indie, but has crazy skill options/combinations.

 

[NorwegianWolf]

I hear that Chronicon is a solid ARPG with good skill trees. It's currently sitting in my backlog so I don't have an opinion on it, but it might be worth looking into.

I played it for about 6 hours. It's interesting, but somewhat lacking storywise, maybe? I lost interest, but maybe I'll relaunch it.

Gedonia is an indie jank open world RPG, with decently versatile skill trees

Have it in backlog, must try.

If you're familiar with Grim Dawn then you should take a look at Titan Quest. Although Grim Dawn is generally considered to be a more refined version of the mechanics of Titan Quest.

Also in backlog, must try!

They are Billions
-The campaign has a very brutal difficulty and can become nearly unbeatable without the correct decisions on the tree.

I'm not sure whether this is good. I have it in my wishlist and it's probably a good game, but what I expect from the "skill tree itch" is the vast possibilities of character build. The possibility to build some weird class like Wind Mage Animal Whisperer or whatever, and have some chance given by game mechanics to make this class work.

Final Fantasy X

Seen this recommended in a few places and I'll definitely check it out. I played only FF7 and FF9 so far. They were good games, but they did not have any skill tree whatsoever.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I'm not sure whether this is good. I have it in my wishlist and it's probably a good game, but what I expect from the "skill tree itch" is the vast possibilities of character build. The possibility to build some weird class like Wind Mage Animal Whisperer or whatever, and have some chance given by game mechanics to make this class work.

If it's less about trees in particular and more just potential build pr0n, you absolutely need to check out Troubleshooter. I was in heaven fiddling with builds for like 70 hours. You gain passives as loot, but the passives combine to form new passives, which in turn combine to form even greater passives, and they all need to be slotted into 5 different pools that each have limited slots and different passives require different numbers of slots- it's a glorious clusterfuck and every couple of missions you unlock enough more slots or get new passives and are incentivized to go back and shuffle everything around again. As an example, just with a single character, I've created builds for him where he had incredibly counter attacking (and pre-emptive counters!) abilities and ran him in to kill squads on their own turn, builds where he focused on movement and could cross the map 3 times faster than anyone else, builds where he leeched life so well he was nigh unkillable in melee, and so forth. 'Vast possibilities of character build' should be Troubleshooter's subtitle.

 

[Hag]

Amazing Cultivation Simulator.
Although its skill trees are so numerous and you can do so much with them it starts to look more like some eldritch skill forest sprawling and reproducing and running amok.

 

[Kabas]

I played it for about 6 hours. It's interesting, but somewhat lacking storywise, maybe? I lost interest, but maybe I'll relaunch it.

Chronicon didn't grab me at first too until i gave it another chance way later.
I remember a couple of fun builds like Mechanist Mecha-Priest robot build that relies on an item set that makes your ultimate robot summon permament and also makes it so that your medic bots buff it's damage each time they heal it. Watching this terminator oneshotting everything was great.
Or there is an item for Warlock that adds "piercing" to your icicle abilities. There is also an item that shoots an extra icicle from an ice orb each time you cast an icicle spell. Suffice to say the end result of inversting into icicle spells with these items was great.
Starts very slow but ramps up nicely after a certain point.

Have it in backlog, must try.

Gedonia has some fun skill trees, can confirm. Sequel is coming up soon.

Other suggestions:
Path of Achra - build porn: the game. Lotsa skll combinations to try.
Dark Bestiary is another relatively obscure game focused on character building. Plenty of different skill trees.
Tales of Maj'Eyal(ToME 4.0) is a pretty great game too with cool classes and skill trees.
The Nameless: Slay Dragon has a pretty interesting class/skill system. Only played the demo, full version is in my backlog.
The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians i am currently playing also has skill trees. Nothing really interesting in terms of skills themselves but you get to choose some tradeoffs and the combat system is fun.

what I expect from the "skill tree itch" is the vast possibilities of character build. The possibility to build some weird class like Wind Mage Animal Whisperer or whatever, and have some chance given by game mechanics to make this class work.

Erannorth Chronicles

 

[NorwegianWolf]

Erannorth Chronicles

I have a thing for deckbuilders too, so it's an interesting suggestion. Never heard about this game, wishlisted it immediately.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Realms of Arkania HD

 

[The people of Duckburg]

Etrian Odyssey 3/4/5
-This franchise has a gorillion possible team comps and combos, 5 in particular lets you unlock two additional skill trees per class.

It's more that somewhere between half to two thirds of each class is locked until you unlock masteries. The base classes are much simpler than the classes in the other games.