How about just give huge amount of penalties for those people who want to wear "strange" pieces of armors/weapons. This way people will still be able to wear any gear but they will prefer to wear the "correct" type of armor/weapon.

Ex (lets assume your gear has 5 parts - helm, chest, leg, gloves and boots):

Wizard wearing:
cloths = 0 penalties
leather = 5% fail chance to cast for each gear (wearing full leather =25% fail chance to casts)
mail = 10% fail chance to cast for each gear (wearing full mail =50% fail chance to casts)
plate = 15% fail chance to cast for each gear (wearing full plate =75% fail chance to casts)
shiel = + 25% fail chance to casts (If you want to make a wizard specific shield, that one won't give any penalty)

Monks:

cloth = 0 penalties
leather = 0 penalies
mail = 5% dex reduction for each gear (wearing full mail =25% dex reduction)
plate = 10% dex reduction for each gear (wearing full plate =50% dex reduction)
shield = + 25% dex reduction + 50% damage reduction (since you will only have 1 hand to hit)

(I am assuming that in D3 dex will actually do something, not only restricting gear)


How about Barb wearing Wands?

Just don't implement CHARMS in this game.... IMO they are so stupid. No barb would prefer to get a wand with spell damage bonus instead of a huge axe with melee damage bonus.

This logic goes to all weapons. Just make the EPIC Weapons with bonus to class specific skills. This way people will be able to wear any of them, but will prefer to wear the "correct" type.

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Q u o t e:
Because without the ability to customize your stats

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We never said you couldn't customize your stats. Only that the system of gaining points and pumping them directly into the stats is not the best way to do it. Obviously there will be systems to augment a characters stats (items being the obvious one). What a boring game it would be without it...