JESS24'S PROFILE

Name: Caracal Oasis.

Type: Oasis in the middle of a desert, home of some friendly monsters/desert dwellers.

Biome: Desert

Character tie-ins: None, although people are more than welcome to use it if it strikes their fancy.

Relevance: The Wyrm Wizard has not affected it much, but the monsters around it have become terribly, overly aggressive, forcing a group of desert dwellers/friendly monsters to stay there for a time. Caracal Oasis is the only place where the Caracal fruit can be found, which is a highly gourmet delight as well as valued for it's healing properties, so Cherusta City often sends caravans here. However, since the uprise of the Wyrm Wizard, it has become a rarity and it's price has skyrocketed (this is the basis for a sidequest, if not then it can only be a nifty item that regenerates a person to full health). It may or may not house the secret entrance to the Sacred Temple of Siracusa, where the Siracusa Warmace rests. (Possible entrance to a dungeon, if not then another sidequest, if still not then a rumor.)

Description/other details: It is a gorgeous patch of green in an otherwise very drab dessert. The oasis is surrounded by palm trees, grass, and of course the Caracal fruit shrubs. The majority of the flowers that grow here are red, so it is also called the Crimsom Oasis, since when it is season, Fire Lotus bloom on it's surface and can cover more than 3/4 of it's area. Many animals, mostly lizards and other reptiles, make this their home, and it is protected from monsters by a natural outcropping of rocks from North to Southwest, while the entrance is slightly dipped into an otherwise forgettable rock formation.

If you need help with anything, like sprites for the Caracal fruit, the flowers or references for the layout, let me know and I'd be more than happy to help.

The fact that video game characters often see their "intelligence" spike through the roof over the course of their games, without a corresponding change in how they act, is also one of my least favorite invocations of Statistically Speaking, which is why I favor replacing it with a Magic stat.

Making options depend both on reputation and on stats is, I think, also liable to overcomplicate matters. At least in Eastern style RPGs, where the protagonists tend to grow comprehensively rather than in a few specific parameters you choose to focus on, once a character reaches a significant level, compared to an ordinary person, all their stats can probably be lumped together under the heading of "high." If the locals know you're badass enough to slay the Marauding Gorilla-Dragon, then the technicality of your Strength stat probably isn't going to matter to them.

I always considered INT to be more along the lines of "numbers of spells I know/weaknesses of the monsters/everything else that could be useful in a fight" than with the actual intelligence of the person in question, so it never bothered me too much. And, you also have to take into account not only how intelligent a person is , but also how they are socialized, similar to how Klingon Scientists Get No Respect; and what their emotional intelligence is, since there are plenty of Insuferable Geniuses as well as Gentlemen and Scholar kind of characters. As such, the important thing is about how consistent characterization is and less about the actual number of the stat.

However, I do agree with you that a having sidequest based on reputation and stats could get confusing. Maybe change the requirements to needing a certain reputation AND level before accepting a sidequest, instead of a specific stat.

The history buff could be able to use many different kind of weapons, and each of those are different in their own way: A spear can attack from a 2-or-3 block range, a morning star could be used against armored enemies, etc...

The Home-ec could be both offensive (using knives and needles to attack short-range) and support (cooking stuff to heal allies).

Biology could be used as a hit-and-run class: very effective when it connects (because it knows where to hit), but very fragile. Alternatively, his support would be constructed around figuring the weaknesses of the monsters (think Rise from Persona 4 or the Libra spell from Final Fantasy).

Math and cheerleading would be support classes, with math increasing the accuracy/potency of attacks and the cheerleader being able to give a second turn to other units.

Band member could be used as a buffer/debuffer, like playing really hard music to confuse/scare enemies, etc.

Question: Jocks are going to be once Class or are there going to be classes for Baseball, basketball, rugby, etc?

I love stats that let you not only get better at battles, but also affect the world outside battles; like they did in Planetscape Torment, where if you have high Wisdom and Intelligence you can get through the whole game without having to fight, and gives you extra dialogue options. Also, one Visual Novel whose name escapes me at the moment had a timer to pick options, and if your intelligence was high, extra options would appear sooner, giving you different outcomes.

I'm working in something like what Desertopa said, in certain parts of my game there will be checks for a certain level of strength, luck and agility; which will affect the game outside battles.

I personally like achievements that lead me to hidden content in the game; or which give me something USEFUL inside the game. What I don't like is the kind of achievement that are "Kill Y enemy X times", if that specific type of enemy is ridiculously hard to find AND out of the way of the main quest, because that is just disguised grinding and a way to cheaply increase the length of the game.