Sub-Jobs/Disciplines

[Gatz]

So...I've been keeping this one under wraps for awhile, but I have plans for a number of 'sub-jobs' or disciplines. These would encompass things like Medic, Samurai, etc. However, my core issue I have is I have a couple different setups in mind. Ultimately, I don't want anyone to 'damage' their character to the point of no-return. I'd like to not bog this thread down with talk about specific sub-jobs or design of them, but the core system itself. So, here are my competing visions:

At level 100, you can pick 1 discipline. You are locked into that discipline until level 200, where you can get a second. Then at level 300, you can pick a third. However, after that point, you have your three disciplines. Any that you have chosen can't be undone. So, if you became a poop-smith and really wanted to be a fiddlestick, you are stuck as a poop-smith.

Second way, at level 100 you pick 1 discipline. If you hate that, you can 'unlearn' the whole discipline and skills connected with it and then get a new one. My point of sadness on this is if you spent a ton of time leveling up a discipline, you probably won't want to give it up even if you hate it. I could always do a more FFT-esque approach of just making all non-primary disciplines let you only use skills half the level of those disciplines. For example, my primary job is matchsticker maker, but my poop-smithing level is 70, so I can only use poop-smithing skills of level 35. So, if I have a level 50 poop-smithing skill called "poop armor", I won't be able to use it unless it is my primary roll.

For the latter description, changing disciplines would have cost some penalty, most likely Ryo. You'd still be able to get up to 3 disciplines by level 300, but it'd let you dabble in everything.

[Kotani]

Wow, total thread necro - the joys of being AWOL. I love this idea... Kotani was originally meant to be a medic-nin and it'd be nice to have this option. Curious if you're still contemplating this idea and what you have in mind for how it would function.

[Gatz]

Actually, I keep going back and forth on the design of this. I think I'd almost like to integrate 'disciplines' into the normal skill trees, but make them more village specific. For example, Leaf gets animal handler type skills built into Taijutsu and Sand gets puppet skills built into their Ningu. That way, we don't have a ton side skill trees, just a ton of skills of varying types.

I like the idea of not having a lot of packaging around the skills, so players can really mold their character into whatever they want. Hopefully that works well without having specific skill trees for each thing.