Start from the top. A martial arts inspired game. Not just melee, but a strong system to make it feel fun and engaging.
The game would have "schools". These schools would essentially function as guilds, except they are built into the game. They can never be created, nor dissolved. There would be 8-12 of these schools. Each school would have a "signature". One school might focus on ranged "chi" casting and an unarmed style of martial arts. You might call this school something that would pertain to the power or knowledge, as it would be inhabited by "monks". These are loose terms.
Within the schools there would be "factions". Factions must all be part of the same school and can be any size. The factions are who and or what ultimately challenges for control of the school. If you have several factions all hoping for power, then you see a power struggle within the school. Though factions do not exist simply for that reason, they also exist so that you can "group" with you friends. You can represent for yourselves, while also flying the banner of one of the schools.
The factions are controlled just like a guild would be. There is a leader and this leader may assign officers. Officers may assign a higher caste and the lower caste simply acts as the foot soldiers. A school is controlled by the assigned leader of the controlling faction. While most times this will be the guild leader, it doesn't have to be. The other higher ranking members of the school are are made of up of people who are "voted in". Faction leaders and officers do the voting. Your faction is allowed to add more officers, based on the size of the faction. That way a small faction of 10 friends can't simply make everyone an officer and swing votes so easily.
The function of the school is the preserve a particular kind of martial art. While you may not play a "style" that coincides with that schools specialty, you may still be a members. The school filled with unarmed fighters and casters will be in need of "healers" and "tanks", as well. A "pure" school, with members only of it's style, does receive a "buff", but it also receives a "debuff". Schools can ally or sign treaties with the other schools, or they can go to war with them.
Feuding schools and an open world PvP environment would be a large part of this game. The schools would be mostly unique in how they balanced their styles and the leaders of a school can be overthrown or removed, ushering in a new era and even a new peace.
For those with their eyes on PvE there would be endgame material that focused on evil NPC warlords and their schools/armies or slaying a corrupt dragon. The reward would be loot and potentially abilities with PvE only uses. The "raiding" aspect would be fairly minimal, but available for those interested. It would be challenging, but not extremely hard. The focus would be on teamplay and cooperation, not outlasting a superior opponent.
The styles would be similar to classes in a regular MMO. For now I see a need for: An unarmed melee combatant, a ranged spellcaster, a healer, a heavily armored warrior with survival in mind, a medium armored warrior with killing in mind, an archer, a lightly armored warrior with limited casting abilities. 7 styles, each unique in it's own right.
The unarmed styled would focus on toughening their body and knowing precision strikes. They would use no weapons and instead have an arsenal of fist and foot attacks. They would resemble the old Monks from D&D or early RPG games, in that they would receive a bonus for wearing very little armor. They would make up for it by being agile and accurate.
The ranged spellcaster would also use no weapon. They would focus their time on harnessing their chi energy and then unleashing it on their foe. There would be little in the way of defenses or strength in them, but their powerful magic would stave off death. They would be almost a literal glass cannon. Very effective from range, but terribly fragile in melee range.
The healer style would resemble the ranged spellcaster, except they would focus on using the chi energy to heal, buff, and debuff others. They spend their time learning to mend, it only makes sense that they understand how to also cause the pain. Their debuffs are not stifling, but are effective. They also carry no weapon. Their buffs allow temporary relief from pain, a larger tolerance for pain and things similar.
The heavy warrior would act as the tank. The tank would man the front lines and claim the focus of those around him. He would protect those behind him casting and draw the attention away from the others who were coming up behind to flank his opponent. While not a large damage dealer, they would be adequate in the martial arts and with melee weapons. This style would be slowed by their heavy armor, moving just slightly slower than the other styles.
The medium warrior would be more similar to a DPS class. They would wear armor, but much lighter than that of the heavy warrior. They would spend their time in melee ranging tearing down their opponents and spilling blood all over the battlefield. They can take a small beating, but are nowhere near as durable as the heavy warrior. They are highly skilled with martial weapons.
The lightly armored warrior with limited casting would be kind of like a wildcard. Very limited selection of spells at range, but several spells that enhance their melee abilities while up close. Skilled in small martial weapons and very agile, this style would be similar to a jack of all trades. They would not do as much DPS in melee as a medium warrior, but would make up for it in spell damage. They would wear light armor, nearly akin to that of the healer and caster, but they have a finely tuned body, like the unarmed style.
The archer would be odd and hard to implement. A ranged class dealing physical damage, but perhaps with the ability to ignite or poison the tips of the arrows to inflict further pain. Lightly armored as well, but with very high survival instincts and escape mechanisms. Limited melee abilities, and arrows only effective from certain ranges.
The style breakdown would be pretty easy. The idea would be to limit a particular style to a particular role. While it may be useful to have more than one style present, some of them would work better in pairs together. Imagine how deadly two heavy DPS classes could be together. A spellcaster with the help of a melee DPS player could easily take single players. At the same time a healer and tank might be able to outlast that barrage long enough to survive and overcome. You don't want to make any single style too powerful, but you don't want one to feel incredibly weak.
There would be a common pool of skills that all characters could have an level up. Potion making, Orienteering, Leadership, and I am sure a few others would be part of that group. Leatherworker, Armorsmith, Weaponsmith, Enchanter, Hoarder would round out the specific tradeskills, of which a player could only ever learn one of.
A leatherworker was exactly what it sounded like... someone who works with leather. They would make the medium armor and some light armor. An armorsmith is much the same. They would produce the heavy armor, and some medium armor. A weaponsmith, again, is the same. The would make all of the weapons. Each of these three would also be able to imbue the particular armor or weapons with special attributes or bonuses. A leatherworker may be able to imbue a pair of leather boots to increase speed, or a a pair of gloves to increase damage output. A weaponsmith may be able to imbue a weapon to do a particular type of damage or give it barbs so that it applies a bleed on the target when it hits.
Enchanters and Hoards would be unique, at least sort of. An Enchanter would make robes/cloth armor, mostly for the caster classes and also imbue staves, wands and other magical items, in the same way the other tradeskills do it. An enchanter is also capable of applying bonuses to the robes and cloth armor that they make. Hoarders don't have a real skill, but they gather. They can find rare items left on a corpse after it has been looted, they can sometimes simply loot more than others. A Hoarder is given an inventory 3 times the size of the normal inventory and allowed to carry it with no penalty. They can fill this space quickly with the extra things that they loot. The hoarder, however, experiences a lower rate of exchange when selling items. This helps to even out the large amount of stuff that they carry.
Leadership would be an invaluable common skill to many. As you lead you gain more experience in leadership. As a group leader who kills monsters, leads a group with a dungeon/instance or succeeds on quests with others you will gain experience in that skill. As the skill gets higher you get a larger number of things that you can do. You can mark monsters, have powerful skills to subdue or harm monsters or bosses and you are able to generate large buffs during your runs or quests. At the highest levels of leadership you can activate abilities available only to you to change to tide of battle or target a position and get recon on the position of troops in that position and how to plan an attack.
Potion making allows you to make potions. Some potions are accidents, others are planned. Hoarders will find any ingredients for potions via their scrounging. You will find ingredients as you level, though. Some NPCs will sell the materials for lower level potions. Orienteering allows you to better use a map. At the highest levels of orienteering you can not only use a map, but you can mark spots, see locations based on longitude and latitude and even share parts of your map with others for a limited amount of time. Knowing your way around also makes some areas easier to navigate, via a more precise map.
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