Ashcroft comtemplates his choices. Focusing on each skill tree in the window gives a little description.
Elemental
First skill: [Type] Bullet - condense a mass of your element and hurl it at your target for (15 + Intelligence) damage.
Cost: 30 mana 1 second cooldown
Fire
Burning. Power. Change. Burn to ash all that stands in your way.
Fire Mage Skills In My Element 9 Fire Bullet 0 / \ Heated Weapon 2 Fire Bolt 2 / | / \ Blazing Echo 3 Fire Lance 4 Heated Seekers 3 Fireball 4 | | / / \ Superheated 6 Fire Trail 5 Fire Bolas 4 Blazing Pillar 5 Lava Eruption 5 / \ / | Fire Wall 6 Fire Rune 6 Nova Pulse 7 Meteor 7 / \ / \ Immolation 7 Champion Conflagration 7 Burning Soul 8
# - skill point cost
Earth
Massive. Rigid. Imposing. Surround yourself and crush your foes with might.
Water
Lithe. Sustaining. Deep. Seep through cracks, burst with ice, sustain your friends.
Air
Formless. Shaping. Unbound. The wind cuts the rock and moves on untouched.
Shadow
Concealing. Connected. Terrorizing. Be the cause for others to fear the dark.
Shadow Mage Skills In My Element 9 Shadow Bullet 0 | | Shadow Cloak 2 Shadow Spike 2 | | Muffle 3 Shadow Perferation 4 | | | | Fear 4 Detect Concealment 4 Foreshadowing 5 Shadow Bind 3 | | | Shadow Deception 6 Enshroud 5 Shadow Grapple 5 | | | | Shadow Domain 7 Shadow Clone 6 Shadow Tribuli 6 Sticky Shadow Web 6 | \ / | Shadow Step 7 Transference 8 Night Child 7 # - skill point cost
Light
Revealing. Piercing. Uplifting. Shine through all around you.
Arcane
Summons
Bring beings from other planes as your servants in this one.
First Skill: Vampire Bat - summon a bat for 5 minutes to attack your foes or scout your surroundings. Bat minion is level (4 + Wisdom/10)
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Cost: 30 mana 30 second cooldown
Enchantment
Imbune your power into objects.
First Skill: Enhanced Defense - Add (Wisdom/3) armor to target for 1 hour. Or permemantly enchant target with (Wisdom/10) armor. Does not stack.
Cost: 30 mana 1 minute cooldown
Souls
Touch the common thread inside all living things.
First Skill: Withering Touch - Reach through a being and grasp their soul. 30 damage and ignores armor.
Cost: 30 mana 5 second cooldown
Soul Mage Skills Impregnable Soul 9 Withering Touch 0 Soul Bound Spell 9 / \ Life Leech 2 Detect Life 2 / \ \ Soul Siphon 3 Absorb Stat 4 Silence 3 / | | | \
Soul Harvest 5 Weakened Res. 4 Frenzy 4 Fear 4 Debilitate 4
\ / \ \ Frayed Soul 6 Fanaticism 5 Paralyzing Fear 6 Soul Sever 7
\ /
Soul Implant 7 Soul Puppet 8
\
Soul Stitching 8 # - skill point costA
Tangible
Alchemy
Take and blend the aspects of many to match your will.
First Skill: Mix Two - Make a consumable with the effect that two ingredients have in common. "Consumable" is not to be confused with ingestation, products may be thrown weapons also.
Cost: 30 mana
Mechanician
Humans are frail; improve your prowess.
First Skill: Graft - Attach metal plating to yourself for innate armor. Armor rating determined by dexterity and level of caster.
Cost: 30 mana
Mechanician Mage Skills
Armorer Hexaped 8
/
Autonomous Hexaped 6
/ \
Spring Loaded 3 Weaponized Hexaped 8
/ \ /
/ Spring Powered 4
Mechanician Cord 2
/ \ Polybolos 7 Extra Limb 9
/ \ / / / Biomechanical Winch 3 Shoulder Mount 8
Graft 0 \ /
\ Enhanced Senses 3 Strengthened Frame 5
\ / \
\ / Deconstructed Enemy 4
Claws and Talons 2
\ Enhanced Resistances 4
\ / \
Install Poison 3 Overclocked Organs 7
\ \
Pressurized Reservoir 5 Combat Metabolism 9
# - skill point cost
skill names were too long to list this one vertically
Botany
Make mighty what once was trodden on.
First Skill: Strengthen - Increase target's strength by (level / 2) for 1 hour.
Cost: 30 mana
Botany Mage Skills Poison Immunity 9
Corpse Flower 5 -- Devil's Claw Fruit 6 -- Mutate 8 / Snapping Thistle Star 3 Status Spores 3 / \ / / Sundew Enzyme 4 Time Lapse Garden 6 / / \ Strengthen 0 -- Layered Bark Armor 2 Garden Inventory 4 Mana Succulent 6 \ \ / \ / \ Floral Imitation 2 Symbiosis 4 Enlarge 4 \ Nature's Pharmacy 8 \ / Mycorrhizae 5 Nature's Will 7 \ / \ Nature's Domain 6 Nature's Equip 8
# - skill point cost
Considerations and limitations.
Because it is a tree, the later skills depend on the former. With the option of the "blood price" to have two trees at once, you essentially lose a level (2 stat points) in exchange for earlier skill choices. However, as skill point accumulation is fixed, with two or more skill trees at the same time you take longer to reach the later skills unless you specifically favor one tree.