Thanks Shmem, I think that might be what I'm looking for, and will look at that approach tomorrow, although it might not fit my needs.

I'm also quite surprised that Class::Data::Inheritable and Class::Accessor seemed to break in the 2nd level of sub-classing, maybe i'm wrong, but without further digging that's what it seems. I don't believe it myself either. :-/

Anyone out there with more experience of those modules and in this situation?