I've wondered for some time why Maplestory is configured to push characters to maximize their primary stat and leave the rest to atrophy. It seems that it would add a bit more role playing to the RPG (and perhaps hamstring character damage inflation) if there was a value to putting points in stats other than the main.
It would certainly make the coding for damage/skills more complicated, but I would like to see the effectiveness of skills tied to certain stats. It would make a character build more challenging if certain skills, for example, required a base value (or better yet a base value as a percentage of level) in a secondary stat in order to use them, or if the effectiveness of the skill increased the more of a stat was put into it. Since almost all of my experience is with archer based characters, I'd point at the various mastery skills and Concentrate and say those require intelligence as well as dexterity. Why not make have their effect magnified by the INT stat? Why not have things like Evasion Boost or Mortal Blow (which give an increased chance of a positive event) more dependent on a LUK multiplier? Doesn't it make sense that that Piercing Arrow (which gains damage as it goes through mobs) must have some dependence on strength?
If you wanted to go all out, the effectiveness of certain skills could even be based on things like DEF, Speed or Avoid.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for a game that's based on realism. But such a change might open the door to more specialized builds, or at least having to think more about what skills will be used since it won't merely be a question of allocating SP but also having the stats to support it. As a secondary thought, it would also increase the value of a number of items that are less than useful now. Right now, pretty much any item that doesn't give a main stat boost, boss% or PDR% is not really desirable. But adjusting the system to increase the value of non-main stats would increase the usefulness of any item that confers a boost to those stats.
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