Thanks for giving it a go! I do still appreciate comments and feedback so you can always say how you feel about it even if I don't end up changing much. That being said though...I'm still tweaking things as I go along and each time I play through it I change a little here and there to tighten things up. so there will still be minor changes here and there throughout but nothing major will be changed (with MAYBE the exception of the battle system.)
Keep in mind this is just the first floor so some of the classes that seem weak now will "blossom" and be useful later on, especially when enemies get to use more area control attacks, debuffs, and ailments. There will also be more 'checks' for Decryption in further Levels. The way it's "weighted" is that the beginning skills will be weaker overall and it builds to stronger and better skills over time. That does remind me that I need to make a Skill Tree text file so people can plan their classes out. I wanted to include one in game and I might still do that and put it in the 'Lore' Book.
It's kind of subtle but in general the first 3 classes are considered 'Warrior' types, the next 3 are considered 'Rogue' types, the next 3 are considered 'Mystic' types, and the last 3 are considered 'Scholar' types. I do agree with your assessment that there can be better explanations for the way things work for the classes. I'll likely add some more information in the 'Lore' Book about these things along with maybe a full Skill Tree for each class. Not sure when that part will be done but maybe with the next update or the update after.
I still do need to finish making hybrid skills as I'm not done with those yet but will make sure they are by the time Level 3 is done so people can go the paths to get the hybrid skills they want.
Elementalist was a little tricky to work with because he uses the 6 'natural' elements, so in order to make sure it's understood that they are on equal footing I had to have the option where they can learn all 6 in one 'chunk.' If I spaced them out, but they have the same power, then it wouldn't make sense to have one take longer to learn than another. I just left it open to where the player can choose which elements they want to learn first and last. I could make it where some are stronger than others but with enemies having elemental weaknesses it would mess with that balance quite a bit.
The way it's balanced now, although one can't tell from just playing Level 1 and not having access to the database, is that if a character focuses on one tree they will learn all the skills for that tree by the time they get to about Experience Level 28-32. If they want to 'multiclass' then IF they get all the possible ways to get bonus LP throughout the game then they can learn all skills for 2 skill trees by the time they are about experience Level 48-50. Level 50 is the max Experience Level in this game so it's theoretically possible to master 2 classes by the end of the game. This does not take into account 'hybrid skills' yet so that will vary a bit as well and will likely need retweaked some later on.
Yeah, I like the wandering merchants and knight/clerics too! There will definitely be more types of those, and a neat one in store for Level 2 if you encounter it. There will also be, like you stated, bandits (Syndicate heavies), that go through a process like what you envisioned. They will be more saturated in the mid levels and there will be some story that explains why in a cutscene after Level 2.
As of now Level 2 is about 75% (re)done so I'm hoping that Level 2 and the next update will be released within a week. It SHOULDN'T break old saves but I'll know for sure when I play through it when it's complete.
Thanks for playing and the feedback. Take care. and have a good day