Changing the way wisdom increase skills

[nyub]

Right now I am playing a character who rushed for wisdom for the 20 first levels, making it unplayable for this period. But now that I'm level 30 or so, the boost in skill points give him quite an advantage.

The problem is that the way wisdom works now rewards such behavior in the long end by giving a lot more of skill points. Also, any late game increase in wisdom is next to useless.

My suggestion to solve this would be to change the way WIS increases your skills. Instead of giving 1 skill/level for every 20 WIS, it would increase by 2% each of your skills for every WIS point. Since the old bonus is approximatively giving a 50% bonus every 20 points, the balance wouldn't be too much affected (except for those races who get only 1 skill point/level).

This solution would allow late game WIS to be useful and discourage start game rushes...

[Variaz]

Hmmm... interesting idea! I actually like that! It would indeed prevent start game rush, and make life easier, especially for melee characters.

But then again, that would make wisdom perhaps TOO strong. Think about it... let's say you gain only 1 skill/level. You spread between 5 skills, 20 points in each. But you raise wisdom like crazy, get wisdom-boosting items, and place some points in the "Wisdom" ability... oh, and maybe a wisdom-raising spell... Then, suddently, you have like 100+ in *FIVE* skills, which is a lot! And if we keep is at 2 skill points/level...this is simply insane. In the current version, getting such skills IS possible, but you have to be pretty d**n dedicated, and you would probably lack more important stuff in the end, like hp. If I do what you suggest, early game will become easier, and late game won't be any harder. So in the end, it will make the game easier, and I don't want to make the game easier!

Right now, true, you might be tempted by start-game rush, but... you don't need THAT many skill points you know... Most skills were made with the principle that a skill at 100 is excellent, and you don't really need more than that. In fact, for a melee character at 2 sp/level, 100 points in a weapon skill, and the other 100 spreaded in Agility and Combat Feats makes a pretty strong character. You may be tempted by raising wisdom like crazy... and it is quite unwise actually! You're better off raising dexterity at first level, possibly second as well. You only lose 2 skill points in the end, which is no big deal at all, and makes early game A LOT easier!

So, while I think your idea is pretty good, I am not sure I will implement it. Of course, we still have much time to discuss that, and I'd like to hear more opinions on that. But thanks for making the suggestion!

[nyub]

The 2% could be modified to a lower amount though (this is a play testing problem anyway). It should be balanced against other stats. What is better, +10 spell points or +2% in all skills?

As for the build, it is a "I don't remember the name of the chaos race with huge boost to all stats" warrior-mage, in the zelar class (both for the awesome bonuses and for the Energize power). I was going for 100 in swords and in spellcrafts and 50 in stealth, agility, combat feats with some leftovers...

[On a side note, I don't see much reason to not be in Zelar class for any late game characters due to the bonuses.]

[Variaz]

I'll think about what I will do with wisdom... It will take a while for 1.8.0 to be released, so I have time to think about that, and consider the various options!

As for Zelars, true, they are powerful, but they do have big requirements. High stats, yes, but then, it is to be expected from a high level class... but they were made with martial arts in mind, so even with their high stats, not everyone will want their defender or elemental lord to kill 500 monsters as a Monk just to get the Zelar, especially since they don't need the abilities(though some of their abilities are good for any builds).

Also, why not be Zelar? Answer: wizards. Wizards depends on intelligence and mana before anything else, and that +50% intelligence from the High Mage is GREAT for intelligence boosting, and much more useful to a mage than any of the zelar's boosts(except maybe constitution, but wizards shouldn't fight in melee, and they get magic resistance spells for magic attacks...and the "Lock" spell... and the Retrograde for magic-immune bosses... all of which are expensive spells that require intelligence to cast.).

Elemental Lords also raises intelligence in addition to Strength and Constitution, so warrior/mage might consider it instead of zelar. Not much else in term of class features, but remember that later in the game, it will be easy to get items that will give you the zelar's features(other than stats/skills boost).

Justice Warriors: Strength, Constitution and Wisdom +25%, almost as much as zelars for half the requirements, and +33% to charisma will help you a lot if you like summoning monsters.

Shadow Stalkers will probably want to stay as Shadow Stalkers, because it's the best class for Stealth skill, and many of the Stalker's abilities depends on Stealth.

Monster Mages might also decide to stay as their class, because the Intelligence/Constitution mix is great for a wizard characters, with Constitution helping boosting their generally lower hp. So Monster Mages can use their +25% Constitution for breathing at stuff, while their +25% to Intelligence will help them cast those expensive alteration spells, such as reduce speed, reduce level, lock and retrograde(or a combination of those spells at once).

So as you can see, most of the advanced classes have something to offer for high level characters. In the end, it all depends on how you build your character. There are many ways to play the game, and some classes are better than other for certain builds!