Giving different classes a similar skill

[jonthefox]

In a project that I'm working on, for the most part each class has unique skills that are distinct from any other class's skills.  However, for a few of the melee-heavy classes (knight, barbarian, rogue) I was thinking of giving them all a skill that is essentially the same in function, i.e. the ability to attack 2 random enemies on 1 turn.  The only difference would be aesthetic, i.e. the rogue's might be called "double attack" whereas the barbarian's might be called "frenzy."   All the other skills are going to be very different from each other, it just seems that the ability to attack multiple enemies at once is so fundamental and any class without access to magic is going to need this.   So I guess my question is, should I still look for some other way to differentiate the skills or is the duplication of function acceptable in this case considering all the other skills will be differentiated?   Would you feel annoyed if your DPS barb and your DPS Rogue had essentially the same kind of skill with a different name, or would it not matter as long as all the other skills made the classes feel different?

 

[Luxanna]

In my opinion it wouldn't matter if it's only one skill. Though maybe you could try to differentiate by having the Rogue's attack for example add Poison or something like that.

But to answer the core of your question: I don't think it's bad and I personally wouldn't mind.

 

[Esados]

I don't think that having a shared skill between three classes would be any problem, unless you have a really low amount of skills for each class, in that case, I wouldn't recommend that. As Luxanna said, maybe having some differences between skills would be a good idea, for example, the Barbarian's one is slow but have more damage and the Rogue's one uses a mix of attack and agility, but those are just ideas and it really depends on the game you're making.

 

[ArcaneEli]

Having the same principle isn't bad, just gotta make sure there is enough differences so it's good.

Double Attack

Rouge: Cross Poison; hits enemy twice poisoning them. Acts faster then other skills

Barbarian: Dual Chop; Hits an enemy twice with lower accuracy but deals more damage.

Knight: Double Slash; slashes a foe twice with a chance to stun

Warrior: Round n Round; spins and hits the enemy twice with a chance to confuse

Soldier: Stabby Stab; stabs a foe twice adding Debuff to Defense

Fencer: Le French Stabby Stab; stabs a foe twice piercing their armor

 

[jonthefox]

I've got considerable differentiation among the class skills, just trying to determine if some overlap is ok.

 

[Rinobi]

Your classes are already quite unique, correct? If the skill in question is both useful and sensible for the class to have, a little overlap or two doesn't seems like much of a dilemma. It's unlikely to hurt your design in any significant way, may even help.

 

[Cody Rauh]

I feel about this the same way I do when a game uses the same model 4 - 5 times calling it something different, when all they did was change stats and the color a bit.
If you have only 1 or 2 skills for each character this will impact heavily, however proportionally if you have 15 unique skills for each character, crossover is not bad in some cases

helpful to a player who enjoys that particular skill for their style strategy.

 

[Nebuerys]

Since the skills are fairly basic, I personally think it's fine. It's actually the same case with spell casters. Say, black mages tend to have a high-damage, single-target fireball spell while the sage counterpart might get a similar spirit blast spell. The difference is purely aesthetic but it still lends to the class' unique themes  in terms of names so it won't hurt to have overlaps here and there.

 

[Wavelength]

I'd be fine with this as long as >80% of the skills were unique between characters.  However, to avoid adding complexity without depth, I would suggest using the same name.

Alternatively, like ArcaneEli mentioned, you could give these "2 random enemies" attacks slightly different utility.  Maybe a barbarian's has a chance to stun each foe, whereas a paladin's increases his own defense for a turn and an assassin's has no extra utility but costs less to use.

 

[Drackomordain]

If they are gonna be the same, give them the same name.

If Barbarian has Frenzied Strike and Rogue has Flurry, just pick the name that fits the skill the best and use it on all classes that need it for balance.

Its OK to share skills between classes just don't try and pass it off as 2/3 skills with different names, its disrespectful to the players intelligence.

PS* I'll pay another 2 cents, to say that in single player games, the classes/characters do not need as much homogenization as would a multi player game.  

Focus on balancing the party over all before reusing skills.