I love the list. And for the most part agree with it.
But I have an observation about the list that I want to couch in the most positive (+) way - every point on the list that focuses primarily on a single pillar of play focuses on combat.
Instead of Utility powers that could apply to combat or could apply elsewhere as a sort-of nod to "everything non-combat", I'd love to see progressions of powers for other pillars of play as well. Roles for other pillars of play. Which means have the same sort of tactical robustness to require mechanics and multiple approaches.
Heck, pick a power source and then pick a combat class, a social class, and a discovery class to match. That would be 4e, but more-so.
Ah that's a good observation! Hmm... I didn't have any sort of reflection on it but now that I think about it I guess I do? How about these:
Separation of combat magic and utility magic : Combat magic was all the instantaneous and short duration effect. Anything longer fell into rituals and used a different resource. Doing cool things in combat did not diminish your ability to over come obstacle, and rituals were also an avenue any character could explore if they wanted to. If you really wanted to spend on them, you could be more magical than normal, or you could decide to just rely on mundane means to solve out of combat problems (options for a martial/mundane equivalent to ritual would arrive alter in the edition).
Magic doesn't always do it better but is convenient: A Knock ritual was pretty expensive at low level, and it was loud, but it was a good replacement if you didn't have someone with the right proficiency, and if you DID have someone with the tools and skill to use them? Well then you just saved components for another ritual later down the line. Magic could be used to replace a missing skill or team member, but it wasn't cheap enough to do so every time all the time to the point of making mundane skills obsolete, but in a pinch it would be good enough.
I did float the idea of replacing Utility powers with Skill Powers, but having them more geared toward the non-combat pillars, but that felt too 'mechanical' for the point of my thread.
I don't think people would appreciate TOO much mechanics for social and exploration, but I think more is a good idea. I also had this character creation concept that I think could fill the 'social class/discovery class' space : First you pick your Ancestry (what you are, i.e. your race) and get your racial powers that way, then you picked your 'Hometown' (the place you grew up in, which could be built out of a mix of environment and cultural templates by the DM or by picking already created ones in the PHB), then you pick your 'Background' (what you did before being an adventurer) and only then do you pick your class. Each of those would basically add layers to your character and probably to their attributes and abilities outside of combat. I think it would be cool in that you could create vastly different characters that could still share one of those three elements across the party (like, everybody from the same hometown but one's a Dwarven Noble and the other a Human Artisan, etc).
