My brain follows odd paths sometimes. What started as a topic about mounts that help you do things OTHER than go fast evolved as I began to write it. For one thing, I know most people are somewhat negative to the idea of mounts in general. For another, I realized that adding mounts into the equation is clunky and a more elegant solution existed. And yes I'm doing this instead of working on Chapter 4.
I'm going to focus on climbing partly because it's semi-unique to Pantheon, as far as MMOs go, but the ideas could also apply to swimming and obviously crafting.
So you've maxed out your climbing skill, you've acclimated to the cold and to low oxygen environments, and you've also acquired climbing and cold weather gear as well as glyphs to enhance you're ability in all of those areas. You're ready to climb the mountain. You know THAT mountain. It's so tall that the peak might actually be the only place you're not "allowed" to go to. In addition to the above preparation, you've also done a ton of work on your perception level and have even jumped through more than a few hoops for various NPCs and Crafters to get a "Third Eye" which can help you locate hidden areas.
It's a long trek up the mountain, in real time hours. You actually have to break during in-game night to rest by a fire or other heat source after you get past the timberline. You're surprised when you are able to actually reach the peak and look out over everything. Pretty good view. You look around and don't see anything but before you start to head out you remember to equip your Third Eye. Ah, you got a pereception ping there's something nearby!
After a quick search you're pretty sure there's a cave behind a wall of snow. Sure enough only a minute of digging and a large pile of snow collapses inward, startling an old man reading by a fire inside a cave the size of a large bedroom. Does he live up here? Let's ask him and find out.
Sorry, my fiction writing bones took over. The old man shows you something he's designed: "Helping Hands." A pair of magical hands that can come out and help you climb, griping to the wall to give you extra leverage to reach the next hold and allowing you to climb faster and with confidence. He'd be willing to part with the design... if you help make his stay on the mountain more comfortable. All he wants is two rugs... two master crafted rugs. One elven and one dwarven. Oh and a barrel of Ogre "Meat Beer" (try not to let it freeze on the way back up.)
TL;DR: Wouldn't it be cool if there not only were Epic Quests for some of your skills like Climbing, Swimming, and Perception, but they also gave lasting rewards not tied to your character level? And having those skills leveled up would be helpful, or even required, for the acquisition/completion of said Epic Quests? Just a thought.
I noticed you chose not to mention the Yeti's. Sure they may be horribly far-sighted, almost blind, but still not a minor thing to be "overlooked" (har har)
It sounds to me like you are talking about skill trophies, as opposed to crafting trophies. Using crafting trophies as an example, there have been cases where level 1 characters have been master craftspeople, especially on all-trade servers and they could make items they could not use as those items were level specific- or- could make items that made them highly overpowered if level restrictions were not in place. Some graduated crafting quests (coldain shawl/coldain ring) required harder and harder monsters to defeat and farm for items that a level 1 could not do culminating in a coordinated mini-event that needed others to help and would be hard pressed to keep that level 1 alive to see the end of the event through to be able to claim and finish the quest for the item. Not that it couldn't be done, it was, and then limitations were put in place to make it more appropriate for the level required.
If this is more like skill trophies/benefits, it may encourage/force a player to have to max out a skill to get those helping hands because they are necessary in end game (Meta-Gaming). Sure, it would be nice if one just happened upon the old man or others like the old man, but once one does then soon everyone knows about it and it becomes a must-have - for some groups of people- and judgments are made against those who are maxed in the skill and have not seen the old man and do not have the helping hands by now. I mean really, is there such a thing as a "leveling guild"? no, no there is not.
However, were the reward something like: billy goat monocle. Must be worn, (Face) Casting time: 2 min. Duration: 15min. Recast time: 6 hours. Effect: increase climbing skill by 100. Lore:you become as sure-footed as a billy goat, able to find purchase on the narrowest ledge. agi -15 dex -15, player can 1H slash and kick (climbing players can only climb)
*weighs imaginary weights in each hand*
Is it practical? sort of. It is necessary? not really. Does everyone need it? no. Did I enjoy getting it? heck yeah. How is our group going to get this rope across the freezing wind chasm with sheer walls on either side that we can't climb? oh wait, you can?! how?! - ohhhh- as she negotiates the wall with rope in hand, half her face looking like a goat. (repeat questions internally from each member in group, monocle owner answering the last outloud when asked)
I was in fact viewing them as equipable items, though I wasn't super clear about that, so your example is not far off from how I imagine them being. Something that you have to trade out your chest piece for or your boots for or something.
Unfortunately, if it's worth getting, then some subset of people will always view it as "required." I'm not worried about that because there's nothing you can do to stop that. And by making it not related to either combat or helping you get to places faster (other than the tops of mountains) you significantly reduce the size of that subset of people who see it as required.
I'm also not worried about player knowledge of such things becoming widely known, because, on top of that also being imposible to stop, the requirements to even start the quest should be steep, in my opinion. What does it matter to you that there's this awesome epic item to be had if your climbing skill and perception are both in the dumps? What you need like a stack of glyphs and a special "Lantern of Warmth" before you even think about getting up to him? Forget it. I'll just have the Rogue lower me a rope if my climbing skill doesn't cut it.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night had a secret second castle. Most people know about it now, but at the time it was totally a secret. The game even told you when you hit "100%" completion. There was nothing else to find! Except max completion was actually 200%. It took YEARS for people to realize that they had played only HALF the game. Recently, a friend was playing Symphony of the Night for either the first time, or the first time since he was a kid. When he beat the game I asked "But did you find the second castle?" His response was classic. "The what? Wait, the what?" I didn't spoil anything for him, other than the existence of the castle, I just told him he might want to go back and talk to a few NPCs and examine what they say a bit more closely. He found the secret castle on his own. I want moments like THAT in Pantheon. Where it takes a year or more for people to find some of this stuff because even if they take the time to go somewhere and talk to all the NPCs, they didn't actually meet the secret requirements for something and so don't even realize that they're missing something (or they do but they still haven't figured out what it is they need.) Sure that's a tough ask in today's time when there's huge groups of people dedicated to finding that stuff, but... if it takes a few weeks or a few months of grinding to get requirement 1 out of 20.... I think it's still possible to achieve. Especially when you consider that people like to go into games blind, they don't read up on the lore, they don't visit fact hunting websites, etc etc. So they can play for hours and months and years and never know about the old man on the mountain.