Originally Posted by fadedc
Realms of Arkania was not an attribute based game. It did have attributes, but the primary method of customizing your character was through skills.

While customisation can really only be done with skills a character with high relevant attributes and a lower skill value normally has a far better chance than someone with high skill and low attribute as every time you use a skill it rolls against 3 attributes and modifies each roll that fails using the available skill value.

In the end game it actually becomes just as easy by attributes/spells/magic items due to the difficulty of making the success skill increase rolls. I found that one of the most frustrating parts of the game once a skill gets to around 10 and it becomes less than 50% chance of making the increase. It is certainly no fun when your main fighter fails his main combat skill increase roll 3 levels in a row. Meanwhile attribute rolls always succeed.