Giving durability to everything is one way to deal with this.

Interestingly enough, SaGa 1 and 2 are rather interesting in terms of the economy balance for different races.

Specifically:
* Humans solely rely on items that you need to buy or find. If you want to keep doing good damage, it's going to be expensive (though less so with spells in SaGa 2 once you reach the point where 6800 kero for 30 casts isn't a big deal). In SaGa 1, you also have to pay for stat boost potions (though money ceases to be an issue later). (Worth noting that, in SaGa 2, Humans do have the highest potential of any race, but with this plus slow stat growth, the game isn't as fun if you put too many into your party.)
* Espers (mutants in FFL) will randomly learn abilities, and in SaGa 2 start with an offensive ability that hits all enemies. This gives them a free offensive option right from the start, and they still have the option of spending more to use more powerful attacks (spellbooks are more powerful than the corresponding skills).
* Robots (SaGa 2 only; they exist as enemies in SaGa 1 but aren't playable) regain weapon durability when they go to the inn. So there's an upfront cost (though less so later when you find items you can't buy that of course go to your robot), but you don't have to pay more to maintain them.
* Monsters don't cost anything. In fact, in an all monster party, the only thing to spend money on is inn trips (though they're free if you heal first, and the inn will restore the skill's uses) and on potions to use outside of combat.

I'm quite fine with that.
Oh, please no. AI companions *shudder* If you must have a party, make it be fully player controlled.
Seeing as I never replay games, not having it all in one playthrough means completely missing out on stuff. Definitely don't want that.

But this topic sure went waaaaaay past the original question. And I'm butting in, considering the in depth discussion you two are having. So I'll leave you to it.

Bare hands would naturally be weaker than with a weapon, and should be, both from realism and gameplay: why would we use weapons if our hands are cheaper and suffice? And i never understood why monks did more damage empty handed than a fighter with a sword. Given their huge HP boosts making them almost tanks themselves, rather than physical DPS, it seems really unbalanced. I quit using these tanky characters for that reason in final fantasy. IMO, having some heavy gauntlets should make you do more damage than bare handed, which is a great tool for the empty handed people, as well as a knife which would employ largely the same movements. Those would all take the durability costs, though. There should always be a tradeoff. Absoltuely. I think a weapon should always be repairable, though. I always hated those, because you never know when to finally use them. Perhaps depends on the breed (maybe not all dragons breath fire). Might not be wise, though, as said baby dragon might have family nearby. But how likely are you to see a baby dragon? Why would a baby dragon leave the nest? If you're near dragon nesting grounds, you must be prepared for a battle with dragons, otherwise you're on a suicide march. I actually implied as much. Games with "polymorphing" usually allow such. But i had, indeed, stated that polymorphing was an option for the player character. If you want an idea what i'm imagining, look at nethack. Now imagine there is alot more skills, alot more freedom, and an open world instead of a singular dungeon. I want to expand on nethack and make a living, breathing world like minecraft, complete with building mechanics. Nethack has alot of nice ideas in it, but it's natural roguelike push to force you towards the goal via things like making it hard to keep fed early on just creates this huge barrier to entry and also greatly restricts freedom. However, it still offers more freedom than really any other game i've played. I think a nice open-world nethack, with the constant danger toned down a bit, would provide a good solid foundation for quite complex interactions and adventure.

But that's a whole other type of jack of all trades. His jack of all trades is a God character that simply isn't limited. A red mage is a nice way to bolster a role that's weakened or disabled for one reason or another. But the suggestion is to allow characters that are jack of all trades to have the skill to the degree that they can replace the specialized roles.

In SaGa 1 and 2, martial arts (Punch in particular) can be useful early in the game, as it will run low on uses faster than your stats will improve, and they do more damage when low on uses. In the long run, however, you're better off switching to stronger weapons later in the game when your stats improve. (Incidentally, in original SaGa 2, robots can't effectively use martial arts, making them only good for the AGI boost they grant robots when equipped; this was fixed in the DS remake.)

In Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song, attacks that would have cost DP if they were weapon skills will cost LP as martial arts, and spending LP is more dangerous (at 0 LP, the character is removed from your party; if the protagonist reaches 0 LP, it's game over).

In SaGa Frontier 2, martial arts work better when you're low on WP, and there are no hybrid martial arts. You might want to use an actual weapon to get your WP down, since you can do more damage with it. Also, SaGa Frontier 2 has some weapons that don't break (quells and steel weapons), and there's also the fact that non-steel weapons provide anima, which is needed to cast spells. (Each spell requires that certain types of anima be present; for example, Life Water requires tree and water anima, which can come from weapons or accessories (and that one piece of armor that provides water anima).)

Even if the weapon is a nuclear bomb? How are you supposed to repair one of those after it's already exploded?

(Yes, both SaGa 1 and 2 have nukes.)

You didn't actually address my two questions, though. You said you plan on limiting flare, and you declared how you plan on limiting it. I asked why you wanted to limit it in the first place, and why you didn't consider MP an option. I mean sure, do as you like with your game, but I don't see the rational behind it. So what you're telling me is, odds are, you're going to be sitting there with 2 blue mages and 2 white mages. Yeah, that's why i prefer the mana system. Mana is basically "magical/mental stamina." In lore in many games, characters who use up all the mana typically have to sit down and rest, just like you would imagine a character with no stamina would.

That's why i'm doing it (even though you seem to be railing against durability), but i also think that durability should have a noticeable impact instead of weapons simply breaking instantly. No reason why a character won't be able to learn how to repair their equipment. I learned how to sharpen and maintain my knives, so it seems reasonable that someone relying on a tool for survival might try to do the same. Yeah, you always have to keep that in mind that spell acquisition, weapon acquisition, and armor acquisition are going to cost something, usually. And it always seems opposite of what you would expect: spells and tomes you expect to read and learn form at almost no cost, because it's knowledge provided, not equipment (the idea of a book with X uses, as a separate topic, bothers me: if i simply opened and read from about 10 times and the binding suddenly crumbles, there's certainly an interesting market to be had in that world). I could see people naturally guarding a copy of a book, but letting the "warriors of light whom are meant to save the world" read it, one would expect, to be free if they're in good standing. I mean, yes, definitely charge for weapons and armor: you need to replace what they take, but why so expensive to read a book once?

Your individual responses there show where your problem is coming from. You're certainly way, way more casual in this genre. I imagine it's not your first choice.

Sounds consistent with logic. I'm not sure why that would be. Why would punching something cost you life? I mean i see this mechanic alot, but i've never seen someone pass out from punching a rock. I imagine you could break your hand, but it shouldn't kill you. That's an interesting way of limiting magic. Not my style, but I do find it interesting. I've always found, though, that tying elements to weapons results in having to choose between the raw damage a wepaon provides and the elemental bonus that's provided by it. For example, your water sword might be the first you've found in the game, but fire enemies you're dealing with are mid-game and you just got a fire sword in the dungeon. Sometimes you question why the devs even bothered. Well, combustables being a reasonable exception. However, i wouldn't exactly consider them a weapon, either. I'd consider them a consumable item.

That's because you're asking about aspects of the game that have not been decided. (In particular, MP is considered, along with a similar stat for weapon techniques; monster skills will use the same resource that weapon techniques use, which works well since characters typically won't have both.)

RPGs? They're definitely my first choice. But at the same time I dread those limitations that don't let me get the perfect character and outcomes, and they tend to be why I have such a hard time finishing them.
Probably the only case I know where this was done right was Betrayal at Krondor. Can read a book an unlimited number of times and will keep getting benefits. Diminishing with each read, but there will still be some, even if you may get to the point where they'll be fractions of 1%, so need multiple reads for a further improvement, and reading takes time, and need food each day.

No, because:
* Abilities can be equipped as secondary.
* There are many other possible strategies that are viable.
* Each boss is different, so different strategies work against each one. For example, if I can put the boss to sleep, I don't need to worry about staying alive from then on. If the boss is level 20, I can just cast Level 5 Death and be done with it. If the boss is heavy, once successful Death Claw and one weak attack and it's dead. Or, perhaps the boss can be killed by using Spellblade Break and then attacking with that character, petrifying it. (Note that bosses are typically immune to this sort of thing, but there are a lot of exceptions; in the second world, most bosses can be killed just by mixing a Death Potion; the problem is getting the Dark Matter needed for that mix.)
* Summoners get Phoenix. Mix is learned from Chemist.

Or, use attacks that use a different resource. (SaGa Frontier 2 is interesting here, because both WP (used for martial/weapon arts) and SP (used for spell/hybrid arts) regenerate a little each round.

(WIth that said, that warrior that's clad in a full set of steel armor and who's using a powerful steel sword isn't going to have much use for SP, or much SP in the first place, and probably won't be regenerating it, either.)

That's why i'm specifically trying to discuss it, though: because it's not decided. You seem hellbent on trying to find some really strict way of limiting flare, for example, before you decide how to limit magic itself.

You seem very, very conflicted. Do you have similar problems with games such as starfox? That's not unreasonable. I might actually take that into consideration. I was already planning something like "taking a rest after battle awards bonus XP as you reflect on what you did," like you naturally would in real life. Including a book in that, for skills you learned from a book, would make sense. Seldom does anyone learn anything the right way the first time.

One could interpret the LP cost of martial arts and spells as a measure of the character over-exerting themself, using abilities that might be beyond their skills. In RS:MS, you can choose a class for each character and level up skills by spending gems, and the higher your level in the class, the lower the DP/LP costs get for the class's skills. Hence, a skilled character can eliminate the cost, but a less skilled character, or one who is using the skill out of class, needs to worry about the cost.

I note that spells whose LP costs can't be eliminated tend to be really powerful; if you've played Baldur's Gate 2, think along the lines of Time Stop and Project Image.

Also, note that this game also has BP, which starts each battle partially filled and recovers a bit each round (the exact values vary by character; Claudia starts with little but regens it faster than anyone else, while Theodore (who you unfortunately can't keep) is the reverse), and which is needed for anything other than a basic physical attack.

SaGa Frontier 2's magic is interesting in a few other ways.
* There's no elemental symmetry; you don't get comparable attack spells of different elements. Fire has some good attack spells, but those of Tree aren't as good, for example (even if Bushfire is great before you get Firestorm). It isn't like Final Fantasy games (or even early SaGa) where you might get attack spells whose only difference is whether they do fire, ice, or lightning damage.
* You get anima from accessories as well as weapons. Armor doesn't provide an anima type (with one exception), but it provides better defense than others.
* Most spells take multiple types of anima; for example, both Bushfire and Firestorm require Tree and Flame. Incinerate requires both but also requires Stone. Stone Memory requires Stone and Tone, I believe. Life Water requires Tree and Water.
* Unlike with other types of arts, there are a lot of spell arts that do things other than damage. Life Water heals. Stone Memory petrifies (though there's also Delta Petra, which does damage plus can petrify, and is easier to learn). Reviva revives a character if that character reaches 0 HP. Guardian Beast gives the target a chance of blocking attacks. Soul Hymn, perhaps the most powerful spell in the game (and rather difficult to learn), grants regeneration and Morale Up (increases damage with weapon and martial arts) to the entire party.

I'd love to see someone throw hooks and crosses against a moving target and not tire out. So is LP separate from HP entirely, or can you loose LP from getting hit? It would seem entirely strange to me for them to be the same thing.