Only branching major decision right now is the direction you can take plantwolf. beyond that, there are only a few 'hidden' scenes i can think of off the top of my head, and they're in the prologue before you get your first companion. the first is that you can submit to tendrils enough without going back to camp and you'll get to see a series of plantwolf shenanigans. the second is that you beat Knave in a fight and meet up with him again to discuss the Thief's disappearance. This should also lead to an optional scene when exploring in the Ancient Woods, where you can run into the Thief again. Going back to explain this all to the Knave will result in a final few scene - nothing major!
Ah okay. As for another question, more related to combat, is it better to focus on the bonus effects of a pathway or to go all into a single pathway? Also, will certain pathways have max values or not for balancing purposes? If they do it should be based on the story act I think.
In my experience so far, the buff to ether arrow is very noticable. The passive skill for the protagonist is very very busted, even with a fixed chance. Especially when you have multiple enemies attacking the protagonist. Speed is a very very sacred stat more so than mana.
Until enemies start having damage type resistances, fights are likely to be one-sided. Not that it's a bad thing since you can get easily outclassed.
I aim for much higher overall HP stats for higher level enemies, and also to add a penalization to repeated healing from skills. Mana refilling every round is something I'm considering removing to also make it more of a valued stat. Potions and a way to 'shield' attacks with spacebar are two active forms of mitigation and resource management I'm working on, to make active and engaged play feel like it can take on 'tougher' foes. Additionally, Damage Resistance vs Physical or Magical is indeed coming to enemy design to add some complexity - it just doesn't feel that fun until you have more options later down the game's lifespan. Trigger skills are also valuable, but not readily stackable (only one On Hit trigger should be randomly chosen if you have more than one on). I'm excited to get to the point where people can put one move on auto and have the other three trigger skills be unique conditionals (on skill use, on mana use, when struck, etc). Ultimately, I want the feeling of a growth game to lean into feeling like you're 'breaking the game' with synergies. Things should feel strong with enough fixation/investment - it's okay to outscale, as long as there is a bigger HP bar on the horizon to eventually tackle.
Pathways will have unique skills unlock at certain level thresholds to guarantee some form of scaling. Incentives to mix and match come down to build ingenuity - especially to those that want to min/max substats. I'm not against overleveling, but I plan on having unique scenes occur upon reaching certain thresholds of pathway ranks - things that will ultimately change how your character develops/grows/looks. These developments (such as scenes and unique forms) will also be locked behind story act structure.