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A6 - Unlocking Hidden Skills (Spoilers)


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There are several useful hidden skills that can be obtained when you have reached enough levels in other skills. The precursor skill levels have changed from earlier game. You must get the precursor skills from a trainer or using skill points. It doesn't count if they are from traits, items, basins, or a certain priest's blessing.

 

Quick Strike - 5 Dexterity and 6 Melee or Pole Weapons

Parry - 5 Dexterity and 5 Defense

Blademaster -9 Melee or Pole and 6 Strength

Anatomy - 4 Intelligence and 7 Melee or Pole Weapons

Gymnastics - 6 Dexterity and 4 Strength

Pathfinder - 4 Intelligence and 6 Nature Lore

Dual Wielding - 4 Dexterity and 7 Melee or Pole Weapons

Resistance - 5 Dexterity, 6 Endurance and 7 Hardiness

Magical Efficiency - 5 Spellcraft and 6 Intelligence

Lethal Blow - 5 Anatomy and 5 Blademaster

Riposte - 6 Parry and 6 Blademaster

Sharpshooter - 4 Dexterity and 6 Bows or Thrown Weapons

 

 

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The problem with the above list is that only levels obtained by spending skill points count toward unlocking the special skills. So it's confusing if you're non-human or have a special trait or an item that boosts your abilities. You'll keep thinking the special skill should be unlocked, but it isn't yet.

 

The list below should be more clear: it lists the cost in skill points you have to reach, to unlock the special skill. So for instance, once your next point of Intelligence is costing 7 skill points, and your next point of Melee Weapons or Pole Weapons will cost 8 skill points, then Anatomy is unlocked. If you haven't had any artificial boosts to Intell or your weapons skills, then that will be at skill values Int 4 and Weapons 7. But it could be higher if you've boosted skills with items or training.

 

Skill point prices go up only every other step. You'll pay 7 skill points for intelligence twice, then your next two Int points will cost 8 skill each, and so on. So in the list that follows, 7b means that you have to have already bought one ability point at the cost of 7; after buying this one, your cost will go up to 8.

 

If this seems confusing, just save up some skill points, or activate the editor, and mess around.

 

I've been able to unlock Pathfinder, and all the other skills. It's possible this list has changed slightly in the released game — I determined it several betas ago.

 

Quick Strike - Dexterity 7b and Melee or Pole Weapons 7b

Parry - Dexterity 7b and Defense 4b

Blademaster - Melee or Pole 8b and Strength 8

Anatomy - Intelligence 7 and Melee or Pole Weapons 8

Gymnastics - Dexterity 8 and Strength 7

Pathfinder - Intelligence 8 and Nature Lore 4

Dual Wield - Dexterity 7 and Melee or Pole Weapons 7b

Resistance - Dexterity 7b, Endurance 7 and Hardiness 4b

Magical Eff. - Spellcraft 5b and Intelligence 8

Lethal Blow - Anatomy 6b and Blademaster 7b

Riposte - Parry 6 and Blademaster 8

Sharpshooter- Dexterity 7 and Bows or Thrown Weapons 5

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Overall it seems like most special skills are easier to get now. In particular, Magical Efficiency is now incredibly easy to get, and Blademaster no longer requires you to spend skill points on a skill that's useless to you except for battle disciplines. Lethal Blow is still probably not worth it, but there's now a very good argument for melee characters trying to build toward Riposte, especially if they're not going to dual-wield.

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Not having played the game yet -- the changes to Blademaster and Magical Efficiency are huge. Blademaster makes offensively focused melee characters more viable, assuming it still provides fatigue reduction. In combination with the minor spell damage reduction the removal of Spellcraft causes, I wonder if this may make them a good option for damage output.

 

On the other hand, being able to access Magical Efficiency essentially for free means that, assuming it is as strong as it was in A5, you can build a character centered around that skill that can cast essentially unlimited spells.

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Removal of Magery, you mean.

 

I think I may actually try an A6 party with two tanks: one melee and one pole. I'm pretty excited by the new options available to physical-oriented characters, and I don't really need three healers if Magical Efficiency is going to be so easy to get.

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Blademaster still seems to reduce fatigue.

 

Lethal blow applies to spell damage too. Still very expensive for a spellcaster to get since there isn't a trainer for it, but a few items give some nice chances for extra damage.

 

It's easily possible with the right items to get weapon damage (swords 11-33 damage) and 10-12 strength, 10 melee weapons, blademaster 20 for the last part of the game. For dual wielding I was seeing damage per strike in the 50 to 70 range with up to 8 strikes per round (6 was extremely common) at 10 quick action.

 

Spell damage levels easily get into the 50+ range with divine touch trait and the best items.

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DT gives steady boosts to Spellcraft now instead of Magery.

 

With high enough Blademaster and some fatigue-recovering items, you can be on continuous Battle Fury (or whatever the last Battle Discipline is called), and get two attacks each round; each dual-wielded weapon can get a second swing from quick action.

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Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity
DT gives steady boosts to Spellcraft now instead of Magery.

Thanks to the skill system, this makes absolutely no difference.

—Alorael, who assumes the skills mostly act as they did before. The exception is Dual Wielding, of course. It's a newcomer.
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The only one I'm really sure about at this point is Lethal Blow: the damage boosts it gives are really dramatic. At low levels they don't occur very often, but often enough to be worthwhile. You can get LB up to around 7 or something just with training and items, and I would say it's worth paying for the training and equipping the gear.

 

Unlocking LB is probably only worthwhile at very high levels, or for singletons. High Blademaster is something you probably want anyway for fatigue reduction and damage, and it's not unreasonably expensive. But the other thing you need to unlock LB is Anatomy, and unlocking it takes a fair bit more Intelligence than you would otherwise give a fighter type. I can't really tell how useful Anatomy itself is. Most of your tough opponents in this game are one kind of humanoid or other, so it ought to at least apply, but I haven't experimented to see what difference Anatomy makes in my attacks. A singleton is almost certain to unlock Anatomy anyway, though, by raising Intelligence for spellcasting, and so going for Lethal Blow is probably a clear win in this case. High Lethal Blow, Quick Action, and Dual Wielding will probably make quite the buzzsaw for a late game singleton. That's what I'm hoping, anyway.

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Jeff did fix it after I mentioned that all the old Magery bonus items were giving Dual Wielding bonuses. The Runed Plate, Runed Helmet, and Crystalline Aegis just had the descriptions reflecting that Dual Wielding was now in the Magery slot for skills. These should have been all changed to Spellcraft.

 

There is one item that does give a Dual Wielding bonus.

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EXPLOITABLE BUG

 

Like Nethergate but unlike A4 and A5, it is possible to raise a prerequisite, unlock a hidden skill, raise that skill, then remove the points in the prerequisite. The hidden skill will relock, but the points you bought in it will remain.

 

In other words, with varying amounts of stockpiled skill points, you can buy hidden skills while ignoring the prerequisites!!!

 

Probably the most practical application of this is that you can access Dual Wielding without having to waste skill points on Dexterity.

 

This is not practical for the most laborious hidden skills, like Blademaster. However, if you are unlocking Blademaster anyway, this lets you skip Int to get to Anatomy, and if you use an Anatomy trainer it even makes it practical to skip straight to Lethal Blow... making Lethal Blow a lot more usable!

 

You can also access Pathfinder without wasting points, but Pathfinder is a waste in itself.

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I noticed that too. Another good use for the bug is to get 8-10 Parry at the start of the game, which is all you'll ever need to buy, and then de-invest in Defense, which is a useless skill at higher difficulties.

 

I decided not to take advantage of it, though, because exploiting bugs to make the party more powerful sort of defeats the purpose of playing on Torment.

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Pathfinder takes 4 Intelligence and 6 Nature Lore. I just verified it.

 

-S-

 

P.S. I fought very aggressively during testing to have Jeff finally alter and lower requirements for Lethal Blow, Riposte, and Blademaster to make them viable investments after several games where they were practically inaccessible. Did anyone else?

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Their skill requirements didn't make good sense. Having to train in both Pole and Melee to unlock Blademaster meant some significant wasted skill points just to unlock these for fighters who use either a sword or pole, but not both. That was a significant part of my complaint.

 

-S-

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Pathfinder needs to have the next level of Intelligence cost you 8 skill points, and the next level of Nature Lore cost you 4. This is not the same as needing 8 Intelligence and 4 NL to unlock Pathfinder; in fact, what it means in terms of Int and NL levels depends on what bonuses you have. Putting on an Int-boosting belt does not get you closer to unlocking Pathfinder.

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Specifically, Pure Spirit, Natural Mage, and Elite Warrior each end up granting you about 45-60 skill points worth of skills, over the course of a game (for a character that is already investing moderately in those skills). EW potentially saves more since both Blademaster and Parry have to be unlocked, which can be a bit of a waste. Divinely Touched is worth even more than that, without even accounting for the 20% armor bonus.

 

Dual Wielding saves about 30 skill points for a dual wielder. Nimble Fingers is similar, though has the disadvantage that you usually want Tool Use early and not late. Deadeye is similar as well.

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