About the world. (Spoilers, duh! Will add to...)
I am unsure of where to start, but how about the system. It is fairly simple with some minor changes.
Spoilers...
Vitality is the method of HP gain and influences the person's ability to avoid damage. Vitality is sort of like a depleting defense stat. I chose this to represent the health and resilience of the characters. D&D would say it is the Constitution and AC. The more of it you have, the less you get injured. BUT, when someone is really hurt, it is hard to fix it without casting a large spell. Minor heals that cost 5-20 mana at the lower levels are vital to prevent massive amounts of ACTUAL damage being done if the tank is low on HP.
Let's say a tank has 500/500 HP, what happens if an executioner tries to chop his head off? Well, in a tradition RPG world, it would deal like 30 damage and he would be there sawing away, or the author would have to have a system of skills that are broken, but only in certain circumstances to get around it. WELL, I chose to make the characters fragile, a level 100 could get executed if it is a vital strike from behind as the Vitality is not taken into account.
I think vitality makes a lot of sense, but I have bias as well. Let ya' boi know.
Strength is the physical variation of this. Imagine you are playing a game and a hearty dwarf tank gets hit by a dragon swipe, he should go FLYING, right? Well, he will. Strength represents the ability to lift things, but also to move into heavy opponents and not instantly die. The resistance to an attack is a little different than the ability to lift boulders and I draw the line at basically, mana. Bodies have mana and that mana can push through a "mana-field" that is in living beings to deal the damage. People with strength can use crushing and gouging attacks to strike a vital point and cause massive physical damage (because their bodies and gear will often have mana by the nature of their existence). That might be a little clear as mud but think of it as having a physical bonus with a damage modifier. Vit=absorbing Str=attacking
Intelligence, something I lack…but it represents the mana level within the body. This will not have an impact on the spells within the story, other than the number of spells castable. I decided that the spells will be scaling with skill levels and the physical attacks will NOT, only with strength or agility to prevent OP'ness and to make sense as to why physical classes are the majority.
Spirit. Very simple, it is just how fast mana regenerates, basically only important to casters…sorry. (might change later).
Agility, this is the movement bonus and the damage source for piercing fighters. Both physical fighters use vital points, but the method of application is vastly different and relies on two schools of thought…
Ah…dexterity. I questioned adding this, but I need some method for managing stamina. Characters are supernaturally strong and will gain conditioning if they train, but dexterity refers mostly to craftsman. Dwarves are craftsman and I HAD to add it, but it will reduce the stamina consumption by streamlining movement for those "on the go" a lot.
Skills.
There are TONS of skills. Basically, everything.
Okay…I'll explain…
The characters are able to gain an infinite amount of skills but leveling them is a BITCH. Most skills can be leveled with standard repetition up until level 10. Then bonuses are gained, and you are considered skilled in that area. The reason this takes dedication is to prevent really old races from getting EVERY skill and going crazy. Some will have tons of skill, but you might not know it…
Skills can be learned from guides that you buy, or they can be taught directly.
This part isn't really unique, it is just standard mmo stuff…
Experience gain.
This is something that I wrestled with, but I have a plan. The Mana cores that monsters drop can be used up until level 5, and then the person will gain Experience from killing beings as they gain their first class…then we get dark souls level stuff (for everyone else…hehehehe).