It's worth noting that the Wizard's Conjuring tree already heavily gears her towards melee combat and casting, if you choose to take it in that direction. So I find the Zealot to be very redundant, personally.
I had a couple of ideas for what I wanted to see. I'm just going to list them all.
One was a Vizier, an Eastern mage/necro-type character (and as a note, I didn't get the idea from Psyxix, he just inspired me to cement my own musings that hadn't been fully formed). I got the idea when watching Aladdin that it'd be awesome to have a Vizier with a bunch of tricks like turning water into blood or a staff into a snake, or hypnotising people, etc etc. A basic magics branch, perhaps influenced by the Ten Plagues of Egypt (sorry, can't help it, WD's Plague tree reminded me of it, plus the staff-snake thing). A branch that focuses on the use of a genie, jinn, djin, whatever. According to Wikipedia the djin that Aladdin had in his Wonderful Lamp was an Efreet, but it mentions 3 other types, Ghuls, Silvas and Madrids, or soemthing similar. So I'd like to be able to summon the Djin to help out in some way. Finally, the Vizier would have a tree to do with manipulation, fitting in that hypnotisim with his natural political wiles or whatever. or, alternatively, a Shapeshifting tree granted by the djin they control. Again, the idea came from Aladdin, what with Giant Snake and All-Powerful Genie, and even an old beggar disguise that could be worked around to a shapeshifting skill or something.
The Ranger. You may all groan when you hear that, but to sum it up, the Ranger is descended from a triba who lived on temperate plains, who had to learn to shoot accurately with a bow or throw axes and knives well to bring down prey, as well as learning a sort of inner sight, learning to strike at the most vulnerable places. But they overhunted, and drove their own tribes to extenction in the famine and war that followed. A small band of them travelled across the seas, across the deserts of Aranoch and then through the mountains to Khanduras. Those that survived the trip had learned more expert hunting and survival skills. However, here was civilised society, and it sort of drew in some of the Ranger ancestors. Not enough to fully integrate, but enough to go and build a permanent residence somewhere, honing their inner sigh and archery. Thus the Rogues came to be (it's mentioned that the Rogues learned their inner sight from Eastern philosophies and ways). Others decided to try to rebuild their tribes, with a sense of environmental awareness, and took off to the Shaval Wilds to live in the woods there. There, they became the Rangers, people who basically look out for nature, and are seeking to stop Diablo before he does untold damage to the environment, pushing it to a point of no return, like what happened with the Dreadlands. Their skills would be Ranged (bows, as well as any thrown weapons except potions), Tracking/Survival (integrating of some of the Assassin's shadow disciplines, the Barb's Combat Masteries, and things like Critical Strike) and Totemism, as the Ranger's still practise the beliefs of their ancestors. Can get visions, or create totems to grant temporary buffs, or perhaps even shapeshift into their totemic animals.
Finally, the Slayer. The Slayer was one of a group of children who lived in Tristram, some 20 years ago. When the events of Diablo and D2 took place, their lives were torn apart. Most of the townsfolk were slaughtered, but some managed to hide their children, or shield them with their lives, or whatever. In any case, the defeat of Diablo happens, but then the Dark Wanderer destroys Tristram utterly, leaving these small and unnoticed children to fend for themselves. In such an environment, they banded together, with whichever adults that survived to lead their little scrappy group. Given that demons now roamed all over Tristram's land, survival became a matter of learning to fight. Those that didn't, died. So these Lost Children of Tristram train in sword-fighting, using shields, whatever, basically stiching together whatever knowledge scraps they had of their fathers' training as Knights of Khanduras, or maybe even some young knights survive somehow. Added to this, the Children come across some incredible things in the ruined Tristram. The Sorcerer who went insane and became the Summoner left behind a huge trove of the books that he'd collected from the Cathedral and below it, and Adria's hut was also available for ransacking, as she'd had to flee. Finally, the children had to learn to make their own weapons, what with Griswold an undead beast and the like.
These Lost Children of Tristram have a personal vendetta against the Prime Evils, Diablo most of all. This isn't a matter of saving the world for them, it's a matter of vengeance. Sure, preventing any other town from having to suffer as Tristram did is all well and good, but at their core these young warriors are people whose entire teenage and adult lives have been focused only around training in ways to more efficiently kill demons and survive on the badlands.
They'd have a combat tree, dealing with sword and shield, and a tree that deals entirely with magical spells from D1 (and for some variety, Hellfire), like Stone Curse, Apocalypse, Phasing, Elemental, Flash, Flame Wave, Ring of Fire, Immolation, Blood Star, Golem or the Lightning Wall, or some such. The third tree is a bit hazy at the moment, but you could split combat into Sword and Shield, or perhaps divide the magics up somewhat, or implement some sort of Demon Slaying/Demonologist tree to do with de-buffing and converting and the like.
I had a similar concept long time back when I made some theoretical D3 classes, which had 9 characters in total. My Artisan had the skilltrees of Forging, Engineering and Automaton.
Forging: Passive improvements to weapons, buffs and the like. Had to be applied directly to particular objects (like how you used Identify in D1). Some of the higher level crafting skills gave things like Crushing Blow, Open Wounds, lessened stamina reduction and the like. There were even a few very costly spells that consumed items or stats (such as XP or energy or something) to permanently alter items.
Engineering: This was the most nebulous and undecided tree. I think it was composed of things such as thrown incendiary devices and traps. There was a Grapple Claw that could strike an opponent from a long distance, dealing some damage, and then drawing them in close. Could also be used to grab items from a distance, like telekinesis. There was also a Skychair, which was a skill that involved a chair with fireworks (like the old Chinese myth of the man who tried to reach the moon in such a manner) that propelled you upwards and then crashed back down, exploding as it did. Sort of like Leap Attack, in a way. It even involved a cannon, based on the oldest Chinese ones like the Fire Lance that turned up around 1060 or something. With the introduction of Asiatic wizards, this is a possibility
Automaton: Inspired by the Iron Golem of the Necromancer, this tree allowed the Artisan to create suits of armor and constructs and the like, and enchant them to serve him. These skills generally consumed items, and a tactic was to use his Forging to buff items then quickly use them to create independant automaton that would keep the item buffs permanently. This clearly crosses over with some of the Siege skills you mentioned, and you could probably throw those in as well. Magical catapults, battering rams and siege towers, manned by suits of armor. Weird stuff.
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But really, lava dragon guy? Sounds almost as bad an idea as playing an angel or demon.
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One was a Vizier, an Eastern mage/necro-type character (and as a note, I didn't get the idea from Psyxix, he just inspired me to cement my own musings that hadn't been fully formed). I got the idea when watching Aladdin that it'd be awesome to have a Vizier with a bunch of tricks like turning water into blood or a staff into a snake, or hypnotising people, etc etc. A basic magics branch, perhaps influenced by the Ten Plagues of Egypt (sorry, can't help it, WD's Plague tree reminded me of it, plus the staff-snake thing). A branch that focuses on the use of a genie, jinn, djin, whatever. According to Wikipedia the djin that Aladdin had in his Wonderful Lamp was an Efreet, but it mentions 3 other types, Ghuls, Silvas and Madrids, or soemthing similar. So I'd like to be able to summon the Djin to help out in some way. Finally, the Vizier would have a tree to do with manipulation, fitting in that hypnotisim with his natural political wiles or whatever. or, alternatively, a Shapeshifting tree granted by the djin they control. Again, the idea came from Aladdin, what with Giant Snake and All-Powerful Genie, and even an old beggar disguise that could be worked around to a shapeshifting skill or something.
The Ranger. You may all groan when you hear that, but to sum it up, the Ranger is descended from a triba who lived on temperate plains, who had to learn to shoot accurately with a bow or throw axes and knives well to bring down prey, as well as learning a sort of inner sight, learning to strike at the most vulnerable places. But they overhunted, and drove their own tribes to extenction in the famine and war that followed. A small band of them travelled across the seas, across the deserts of Aranoch and then through the mountains to Khanduras. Those that survived the trip had learned more expert hunting and survival skills. However, here was civilised society, and it sort of drew in some of the Ranger ancestors. Not enough to fully integrate, but enough to go and build a permanent residence somewhere, honing their inner sigh and archery. Thus the Rogues came to be (it's mentioned that the Rogues learned their inner sight from Eastern philosophies and ways). Others decided to try to rebuild their tribes, with a sense of environmental awareness, and took off to the Shaval Wilds to live in the woods there. There, they became the Rangers, people who basically look out for nature, and are seeking to stop Diablo before he does untold damage to the environment, pushing it to a point of no return, like what happened with the Dreadlands. Their skills would be Ranged (bows, as well as any thrown weapons except potions), Tracking/Survival (integrating of some of the Assassin's shadow disciplines, the Barb's Combat Masteries, and things like Critical Strike) and Totemism, as the Ranger's still practise the beliefs of their ancestors. Can get visions, or create totems to grant temporary buffs, or perhaps even shapeshift into their totemic animals.
Finally, the Slayer. The Slayer was one of a group of children who lived in Tristram, some 20 years ago. When the events of Diablo and D2 took place, their lives were torn apart. Most of the townsfolk were slaughtered, but some managed to hide their children, or shield them with their lives, or whatever. In any case, the defeat of Diablo happens, but then the Dark Wanderer destroys Tristram utterly, leaving these small and unnoticed children to fend for themselves. In such an environment, they banded together, with whichever adults that survived to lead their little scrappy group. Given that demons now roamed all over Tristram's land, survival became a matter of learning to fight. Those that didn't, died. So these Lost Children of Tristram train in sword-fighting, using shields, whatever, basically stiching together whatever knowledge scraps they had of their fathers' training as Knights of Khanduras, or maybe even some young knights survive somehow. Added to this, the Children come across some incredible things in the ruined Tristram. The Sorcerer who went insane and became the Summoner left behind a huge trove of the books that he'd collected from the Cathedral and below it, and Adria's hut was also available for ransacking, as she'd had to flee. Finally, the children had to learn to make their own weapons, what with Griswold an undead beast and the like.
These Lost Children of Tristram have a personal vendetta against the Prime Evils, Diablo most of all. This isn't a matter of saving the world for them, it's a matter of vengeance. Sure, preventing any other town from having to suffer as Tristram did is all well and good, but at their core these young warriors are people whose entire teenage and adult lives have been focused only around training in ways to more efficiently kill demons and survive on the badlands.
They'd have a combat tree, dealing with sword and shield, and a tree that deals entirely with magical spells from D1 (and for some variety, Hellfire), like Stone Curse, Apocalypse, Phasing, Elemental, Flash, Flame Wave, Ring of Fire, Immolation, Blood Star, Golem or the Lightning Wall, or some such. The third tree is a bit hazy at the moment, but you could split combat into Sword and Shield, or perhaps divide the magics up somewhat, or implement some sort of Demon Slaying/Demonologist tree to do with de-buffing and converting and the like.
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Forging: Passive improvements to weapons, buffs and the like. Had to be applied directly to particular objects (like how you used Identify in D1). Some of the higher level crafting skills gave things like Crushing Blow, Open Wounds, lessened stamina reduction and the like. There were even a few very costly spells that consumed items or stats (such as XP or energy or something) to permanently alter items.
Engineering: This was the most nebulous and undecided tree. I think it was composed of things such as thrown incendiary devices and traps. There was a Grapple Claw that could strike an opponent from a long distance, dealing some damage, and then drawing them in close. Could also be used to grab items from a distance, like telekinesis. There was also a Skychair, which was a skill that involved a chair with fireworks (like the old Chinese myth of the man who tried to reach the moon in such a manner) that propelled you upwards and then crashed back down, exploding as it did. Sort of like Leap Attack, in a way. It even involved a cannon, based on the oldest Chinese ones like the Fire Lance that turned up around 1060 or something. With the introduction of Asiatic wizards, this is a possibility
Automaton: Inspired by the Iron Golem of the Necromancer, this tree allowed the Artisan to create suits of armor and constructs and the like, and enchant them to serve him. These skills generally consumed items, and a tactic was to use his Forging to buff items then quickly use them to create independant automaton that would keep the item buffs permanently. This clearly crosses over with some of the Siege skills you mentioned, and you could probably throw those in as well. Magical catapults, battering rams and siege towers, manned by suits of armor. Weird stuff.