Limited Ability Slots vs All Known Abilities?

[velan235]

I'm still traumatized having to part with some of my good abilities in Persona 4 and Persona 5. Developers: Don't do that. I mean, you can put a limited number of abilities so that you can't use every possible ability, but (in the context of Persona) 8 is too small an amount.

I think they "kinda" fixed it in Persona 5 Strikers, so while you have 8 slots for skills, skills you don't use actually still remembered, it just can't be used if it's not equipped.

 

[MarxMayhem]

context I'm making a dungeon crawler with lots of characters to collect.

If this is the context, then limited skills all the way. For a good part of your game, you should allow your player to explore the many options they have in character selection. If wach character has a limited skill list, this will cause them to try out more characters and see possible synergies among them.

 

[cubeking1]

a way to make limited skills both more customizable but not broken is load-outs.

in my game one of the main characters will have access to 10 sets of 5 skills, each set is a different play-style.
to balance this out swapping would not only cost tp but have a multi turn cool-down.
a game with lots of characters to collect you can use the stats they have with 2-3 skill load-outs to define the roles they can play.
for example:
a thief character could have access to a thief, poisoner(with an antidote skill) and assassin load-outs

this allows more flexibility when you have fewer units and allow the creation of opposing variants of some units; i.e. a thief hero who is a glass cannon and another thief who is more about acting first rather than damage. the first is better for tougher fights while the second is more about speeding up the fight