I NEED THE GENERAL OPINION HERE..

You could maybe set up 'phases' for some enemies, for example: for 5 turns, enemy is immune to magic, 5 turns enemy is immune to physical, tactics like that might encourage someone to diversify their orbs and gives the player greater freedom then just restricting the player to certain orbs.

Oh, duh. My bad. I actually think the idea is pretty good. It gives the game a unique flair that would be excellent if executed properly.

Since magic orbs have been done before, and class orbs haven't (though I guess the class system in general has) I would try to make class orbs work. I like the idea a lot and think it's much more interesting than the standard magic orbs.

One simple solution to the MDP (mage death party :P) would be to only allow one orb to be in use at a time. So 1 mage, 1 warrior, 1 priest, and 1 druid.

Another solution might be that since each character would have stats already a little skewed towards certain classes (the strong sword guy does better as a warrior than as a mage) a full party of mages might not work so well because the musclier guys would run out of MP quicker and not hit as hard with their spells.

Also, you could allow the orbs to dictate the type of equipment allowed to be used at any time. Warrior Orb grants the ability to equip swords, axes, spears, shields, and heavy armor, for example.

If you want charas to use a specific type of weapon, why not give them access to specialized weapons for different classes, or special tiers of weapons for the different classes? This way if someone wants the chara that uses swords to do magic he won't be completely useless.

Something else you could consider, though this is a little out there and a little odd I guess, but each class could have an 'aura' associated with it that would not stack. So the mage would provide an aura, and if you have 4 mages, well then you're missing out on 3 auras you could potentially have. Some examples might be:

Mage - Aura of Magic - grants everyone additional max MP or slight MP regen during battles.
Priest- Aura of Life- same as mage but HP.
Warrior - Aura of Courage - grants additional damage (so all classes can use) or maybe just 1 stat like STR
Druid - Aura of the Wild - grants slight elemental resistance bonuses.

This is pretty rough, but it's just an idea I came up with when trying to figure out a way to encourage a player to NOT use several of the same class without completely forbidding it.

Also this seems like it'd be complicated to do maybe >.< But I'll leave this post just as a brainstorm.

post=152203
You should make it where we wouldn't have to buy them, but got them at certain intervals. Just a quick tip that isn't so hard to do.

Quest rewards / hidden item chests sound like a better option in my opinion, rather than just getting them handed to you.

The decision you're pondering is a big one. Here's a similar discussion that was over a year ago (wow, already): http://rpgmaker.net/forums/topics/4075/

FF6 and FF7 most notably enact what you're talking about; customization while still having character-specific mechanics. It's a balance, FF6 is more unique character-wise, but the archetypes are more strongly cemented (Cyan, for example, would benefit most from magicite that increase attack attributes because of his sword skills). Furthermore, in FF6, "customization" really only applied to which characters you want to be nukers, which could be anyone and/or everyone. FF7, on the other hand, offered lots more customization, but far less unique attributes. You could make any character your healer, your nuker, or your powerhouse melee combatant, but the only things that made characters unique were their limit breaks (which very loosely suggest archetypes, most characters deal damage whereas Aerith heals the party), the weapons they could equip (which if I'm not mistaken came in a variety that could allow the character to have a physical or magic role), and their default stat tables (which I'm not even sure exist, for one, and don't mean as much when really getting into materia builds).

Think of it this way: whatever attribute you wish to grant to your characters, that has a plausible effect on combat mechanics, is one thing less you're able to accomplish in customizing that character. With a little imagination, though, you can come up with character perks that still leave them open to full or high-level customization. For example, making certain characters strong against certain enemy types, which could have an effect on physical damage, magical damage, damage taken from those enemies, or the success rate of status effects. It's a lot more work, though.

post=152174
I was simply asking for the general opinion of wether Orbs that give magic (They have been used in many RPGS, not just FF7) are a better alternative than Class Orbs.

Y nots both?

What if you made each orb affect each character a little differently?

For example, a Mage-Orb turns a Mage character into a super-mage, or a Warrior into a Warrior-Mage, or a Priest into a Priest-Mage.
You could even go so far as to name each class a little differently for each character. A Warrior w/ a Mage orb would become a Battlemage, but a Priest with the same orb would become a Diviner, or something.
So while it would be possible for people to min/max by only equipping orbs to the character that is already that class, they could also mix and match for a more varied party.
This would probably be more work depending on the system you're using and how many characters you have, but it could be done by determining base statistics and skills by both the class and the character itself.

And I just realized that my idea is getting very similar to Golden Sun, heh. Damn, I thought I was being creative.