Which attributes do I increase for which characters?

Hi all. This is an excellent game but the manual appears to go out of its way to give you no information whatsoever on the most simple of questions. Example: I am assuming cleverness is similar to intelligence and will increase my magic user's damage.

Answer, straight from the manual:

"Cleverness (CL)
This includes intelligence and the capacity for logical thought, the ability to
analyze a situation and draw relevant conclusions and to quickly recognize and
understand worldly and magical situations. A high cleverness score requires a
high level of book learning and a good memory."

What in hell's name is THAT supposed to tell me?

All I want to know is what the attributes actually do for characters in combat. The attributo spells for example: dex for thief, cleverness for mage, str for warrior, yes? You may have gathered I know nothing at all about the TDE ruleset.

Things like dodge and constitution are self explanatory but most of the other things couldn't possibly be more confusing. I would like any help in determining how to enchance skills and performance in combat particularly with magic.

I really don't understand for example what raising a magic talent actually does. Should I raise them all? Obviously cure poison and the light spell are just one offs but if I raise the thunderbolt skill does it do more damage or does it just give me a better chance of casting it successfully?

Also, unrelated but I may as well throw it in here… the camera system isn't the worst I've seen (that would be NWN 1 and 2) but no matter how many times I zoom out to get an overhead view as soon as I move the camera zooms right back in again to the most unhelpful angle imaginable. Is there any way to get a fixed overhead camera view?

Sorry this is so long and many thanks in advance for any help with these problems.

just right click on any spell/ability and it will tell you exactly what it does. Also, you'll notice on the left some of the abilities are highlighted (usually 2 or 3) that means that it checks against those to see if you succeed. This system is not as straightforward as D&D for example, where STR is for warriors, INT for wizards, WIS for clerics and DEX for rogues. Each character, depending on the weapon or spell they use, will benefit more from some stat or another. Some spells you may want maxed, others not, just read their description and you'll see.

Use ASDQWE & the RMB for movement and camera. Forget about point & click outside of combat. Using both hands is more comfortable.

Keeping press RMB put you in mouse lock mode. If you can program your mouse so it does a toggle RMB pressed, that's much more comfortable.

As explain Gorath only use the key to move not by clicking on the ground. When you use key the camera is centered and you can use RMB pressed for adjusting cam.

A nice key configuration is to use keys move forward, look left&right. Combined with RMB pressed or not for adjusting cam or move cursor it's very handy but will require two hands.

Click on ground to move is still handy for long walk in terrain already explored. You click very far and during walk you can use RMB pressed to look anywhere.

That took me some time to get used to it and few things could be improved but overall it's well designed.

It's weird that I alone seems to enjoy NWN2 controls and cam controls, I wonder if they could work in Drakensang.

Thanks a lot for all the help guys I'm getting a bit more of a handle on it now. It still doesn't tell me which attributes I should cast on which characters as a general rule. I just want to know if for example I cast agility attribu on a char what will it actually do for them in combat if anything at all?

Maybe this ruleset just doesn't work that way I don't know. Anyway thanks again for the replies.

In combat, the best attribute spell is generally constitution. Your constitution determines whether or not a hit becomes a wound. I almost always cast the armor spell on my mage and then cast constitution as the buff spell. Those two spells together almost guarantee that my mage won't get wounded against normal opponents. When I'm playing my ranger character, I hardly ever use constitution buffs. I focus on speed buffs so that she can run and shoot. I also try to keep endurance pills because she's not real sturdy. A few powered shots and she's wiped without endurance pills.

Strength is also good to raise since it effects damage.

Keep experimenting. You'll get get far more options than you can ever use later on.

Originally Posted by Sacrosanct
Thanks a lot for all the help guys I'm getting a bit more of a handle on it now. It still doesn't tell me which attributes I should cast on which characters as a general rule. I just want to know if for example I cast agility attribu on a char what will it actually do for them in combat if anything at all?

Maybe this ruleset just doesn't work that way I don't know. Anyway thanks again for the replies.

right click where it says 'base attack: 6' (or something) and it'll tell you how it's calculated, same with base parry and base ranged. Also, each spell depends on different stats, and skills too.

Another thing that confused me at first was the 'hitpoints' thing. Apparently in this game it is more something to with how hard you can hit, (am I right? Can someone please elaborate on this?) than with hitpoints in the traditional sense, meaning health, which this game calls "vitality".

The description they give of "hitpoints" seems rather vague to me - how exactly is it calculated?

Hit Points are the damage in TDE aka weapon damage.

1d+5 = 1d6+5 = 5-11

Note! There is bug in weapon description damage translation, where it says 1W+4, but it should be 1d+4 (w=würfel=die).

Your AT is your attack value. You roll 1D20 (20-sided die) and rolling 1 = critical hit and 20 = critical miss. If you roll is even or less than your AT, you will score hit. Then your opponent may try to dodge or parry the hit the same way, but 1D20 vs. Parry Value (PA) or Dodge Value (DV).

Thanks. Ok, apologies if I sound dumb - but which one applies to the weapon by itself, and which one is calculated taking into account what you can do with that specific weapon in your hand- that is to say taking into account your skill with that weapon, plus your strength etc.

In other words, would "hit points" apply only to the weapon itself, and AT be the damage you can do with that specific weapon in your hand?
And would parry value (PA) be calculated taking into account you agility plus appropriate skills plus armour you are wearing and weapon you are holding?

Hit Points is a function of the weapon and your strength (and determines damage done), while the ability to hit is determined on your AT value, which is a function of weapon skill and base attribute values (right click to check), as well as the weapon (the 0/-1 or 1/-1 etc bit - the first number is the AT modifier).

Parry is again a base value (calculated based on your attributes) plus your weapon skill and any weapon modifers, and allows you to defend against one attack per round if you roll a d20 lower than your parry value. You can get a second parry if you carry a shield, which is again base + shield skill +- actual shield and weapon. Attacks form behind can't be parried. Armor reduces damage taken by the listed amount. Dodge works the same way as parry, though it's base + skill - encumberance (right click on it for exact numbers) - only the higher of parry and dodge is used for defence.

I hope that was clear enough. If not, there's always the FAQ: http://forum.dtp-entertainment.com/v…p?f=63&t=12047

Thanks, yes, I can see I was getting a bit mixed up at first, but after your explanation, looking at the character sheet, everything makes a lot more sense to me.

Thanks for the link.

I've found the best way to advance my character's stats is from a bottom-up point of view, as opposed to top-down.

In other words, instead of trying to interpret the stats like strength, agility, etc, and increase them because I feel they fit in with that character's archetype, it works alot better to simply ask, what specific skill or ability do I want this character to do or do better? And then follow backwards from there.

Here's a real example from my game (this is minor spoiler territory if you haven't gotten any new NPCs after first entering Ferdok):
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I really like Gladys' ability to use some magic to buff her AC and social talents. But I missed Dranor's Master Parry ability, and wished she could also do that. When I found somebody that taught Master Parry, I couldn't have Gladys train in it because her Base Barry was too low. OK, so I go to her combat talents and see her base parry displayed in the upper right, and it's 1 less than what I need. I right click on it, and see that this is based off 3 attributes. I notice that if I increase any 3 of these, then my base parry increases by 1. So I then increase one of these attributes, then train in Master Parry, and I now have a thief that could do everything Dranor could, and more.

There's the obvious secondary question of which of these 3 attributes to increase, and the answer is to consider which skills you use most often, and which of these 3 play a role most often in those skills. I will also tend to favor attributes that are lower value, since you get more bang for the buck in terms of skill checks (going from 1 to 2 doubles your chances, while going from 19 to 20 increases the odds by only 1/19).

Once you start coming up with a wish list of what things you'd like your characters to do or do better and start building towards that, the sense of accomplishment and advancement in the game is very well done, IMO.

Originally Posted by Fantasm
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There's the obvious secondary question of which of these 3 attributes to increase, and the answer is to consider which skills you use most often, and which of these 3 play a role most often in those skills. I will also tend to favor attributes that are lower value, since you get more bang for the buck in terms of skill checks (going from 1 to 2 doubles your chances, while going from 19 to 20 increases the odds by only 1/19).

Not to mention that it's much cheaper to increase a stat from 12 to 13 than from 19 to 20

About Master Parry, there is translation error in description. It will only parry one attack succesfully during the time.

Oh, that sounds more logical, I was wondering…

Yeah, I noticed that when I was micro-managing my battle with the Mother Rat. I figured I'd let Gladys try gaining aggro and tanking the beast, and noticed that 1 round after enabling Master Parry, the MP effect icon was gone. Definitely makes this particular ability much less appealling given the high endurance cost. Oh well, live and learn…

Fortunately, Gladys also had Defensive Combat, and I found that a much better use of her endurance. Combined with Shield Fighting, her Parry values were 17/15, and she actually held her own pretty well while everybody else dispatched the other summoned rats…