| Hello Rel,
Definitely some good ideas and flavour there.
Skills & Backgrounds: good idea. It should not be too difficult to bounce off of these in a game. And as you say, the more a player wants to get into it, the more they can - while others will be happy to have just have it there in the background.
Powers: Daily + Action Point seems a good idea. Perhaps if the characters use more than one action point with the daily, the effect may be even better than planned? This makes it a little more meaningful to stock up on a couple of action points, just in case.
Milestones: What you speak of here sounds like a good idea. How do you plan to give XP? I can't remember (and I may be confusing you with a different poster/moderator) but do you level everyone up when appropriate, rather than hand out XP? Perhaps these "milestones" would be good opportunities to hand out story/milestone XP, rather than for killing monsters (sometimes needlessly). Either way, just a thought to as you say, make milestones a little more meaningful.
Healing: agree with you here despite all the "hp/healing surge interpretations" a lot of posters present here. Perhaps another thing to throw into the mix as longer lasting "damage" is the inability to use "Daily" or even "Encounter" powers if the thrashing was severe enough. Use a tracking system similar to disease, to recover these powers back. While this kind of sucks for the player (and character), perhaps you could also use this as a springboard to giving some sort of toughness bonus when next they level if the recovery was lengthy. This toughness bonus could be a bonus hit point a bonus to endurance or even an extra healing surge, representing their capacity to take a little more next time.
Rituals: Ritual components as treasure is a good variation and something that will encourage this aspect in your game. Good idea!
Magic Items: Again a really good idea for stragglers or when the story or heroics demand such a reward. I can't see this breaking your game.
Best Regards
Herremann the Wise
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He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder.
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