Levelling up questions

[CrackedButter]

I read it in a thread here but I can't find it now. If I could I'd ask in that thread. Any who.

I was reading how a forum member would level up but not assign the skill points to anything, instead saving them up because supposedly you get more later on.

How does this work exactly?

I know why that person did it, because you just have to get your character to Port Kuudad to purchase the trainers, instead of using the skill points right away.

Anyway I'm very confused to this method. If I'm a mage, do I just keep with the assigned skill of Elemental and that's it until a later level?

[xolotl]

I was reading how a forum member would level up but not assign the skill points to anything, instead saving them up because supposedly you get more later on.

How does this work exactly?

Personally I wouldn't bother really. I think what you're probably thinking of re: getting "more" is in regards to HP and MP... I could be wrong (since I've never personally bothered doing this) but I think how it works is that when you level up, your added HP and MP are added after you assign your new points in skills and attributes, and it gives you points based on how many levels you level up. So if you have enough XP to gain two levels, you'd get 2x the HP/MP that you'd ordinarily get.

Let's take Perception as an example, which is what determines how much extra MP you get with every level. If you level up each time you've got enough XP to do so, your first levelup might give you five MP, and then maybe the next will give you six MP, and so on (assuming you put your Attribute points into Perception). If you have enough XP to be level 10 but your character is still level 1, though, you'll have 27 total points to dump into Perception all at once. If you did that, then you'd end up with maybe 15 MP per-level (or whatever, I'm just guessing at the actual numbers here), for all the retroactive levels that you had previously skipped. So instead of getting 5+6+7+8+9... MP for getting to level ten, you'd get 15*9 MP.

I could be wrong about that, as I said, since I've never bothered to do that. Personally I don't think it's really worth the hassle unless you're just trying to "break" the system by creating godlike characters via "officially-sanctioned" methods. Note that when you're at the level-up screen, it will only let you put a total of FIVE points into any one Skill (Attributes aren't affected by this), so if you're trying to max out Elemental or something, doing this could actually be detrimental.

I know why that person did it, because you just have to get your character to Port Kuudad to purchase the trainers, instead of using the skill points right away.

Note that it's actually quite easy to get to Port Kuudad as a level-1 character (at least, if you know how), without even having enough XP to level up, so if you're just waiting on Trainers, there's no real reason to do this.

[CrackedButter]

Okay that is a good explanation, thanks. I still can't find that thread, if you can, can you source the link please?

[xolotl]

I still can't find that thread, if you can, can you source the link please?

I'm not sure which thread it is that you're talking about, actually. That's just how I think things work. :)

[Kreador Freeaxe]

The other thing in terms of saving skill points that people sometimes do for combat characters is to save at least two skill points at character creation so that at Level 2 you will have 5 points which you can add to your primary weapon skill, thus getting you the weapon feat as early as possible. This is a really good trick for Rangers, as that feat will save you a lot of arrows early in the game when you can least afford to waste them.

[CrackedButter]

I'm sorry I don't understand. First is there a multiplier when it comes to saving skill points in the same way as character attributes. Second, I don't understand the difference in acquiring the weapons feat whether you save your skill points or not.

Thanks

[Viktoras]

What Kreador Freeaxe is saying is that: the most u can get at character creation in any one weapon is 5 ranks (actually u can get 6 but it's a bug and i won't talk about it ) so....if u have 5 ranks in say swords...at lvl 1 (creation) and save 2 of your points so when u leave character creation you have 2 unspent skill points...when u make lvl 2 you will have 5 skill points to spend...allowing you to put them all into your weapon skill giving you a lvl 2 character with 10 points in a weapon skill...which then means you now have the special weapons feat available when in combat at lvl 2. pretty cool!

[Rhygadon]

The idea behind saving stat points (the first trick, not the one about weapons) is this:

Every 5 full points of Perception gives you +1 to the number of MP you gain when you level up. BUT it isn't retroactive; Perception that you gain later doesn't give you extra MP for the levels you've already earned. So, for example, if you start with 10 Perception and put the 15 points from your first 5 level-ups (levels 2 through 6) into Per, you will gain +2 at lvl 2 (13 Per), +3 at lvl 3 (16 Per), +3 (19 Per), +4 (22 Per), +5 (25 Per) = total of +17.

But if you wait and DON'T LEVEL UP AT ALL (not just save the points; this means never clicking the plus sign) until level 6 and then do it all at once, all 5 level-ups will be counted as having your new Per of 25, so you'll gain +5 x 5 = 25.

(This is just counting the bonus from Perception; you also get a base per level, and other stats contribute too, but the principle is the same. Ditto for Endurance and HP.)

I don't do this, and it seems a bit perverse to make your early levels even harder so that your later levels can be a cakewalk. But in my opinion, this does reveal a real flaw in the design. Besides not making any sense - why does a sudden epiphany late in life yield retroactive improvement, when gradual learning doesn't? - it means there's a hidden asymmetry between the stats. Strength is Strength, no matter when you gain it; it always does the same thing. But End and Per are far far less useful if you take them late. If you don't know about this (and you couldn't without reading the forums), it can easily cripple your character in the mid/late game. And if you do know about it, it really narrows the range of ways to build your character. (e.g. a mage can bloom into a warrior-mage, but a warrior who tries to do the same will be much weaker.)

[SpottedShroom]

For ultimate combat badass-ness, I sometimes go nuts on saving skill points at creation - pump your primary combat skill to 6, and save all the rest. Then you can add 5 per level for much of the game, certainly enough to get you to the trainers and books to learn other skills without having to spend character points.

This works best for an archer, though, since neglecting armor skills at first level hurts a melee fighter. It's really not useful for spellcasters since access to good spells is the primary bottleneck on combat effectiveness.