A6 - Attributes or Skills?

[crpgnut]

Is it better to raise attributes early or late or does it even matter? I've played through the first several areas and I've not bothered to level up since character creation. I'm on normal difficulty and haven't really needed to boost anything yet. Does raising endurance/intelligence in the early game equal more hitpoints/spell energy later on?

 

I built 3 cats and a slith mage for my party and took DT for all and EW for the two kitty fighters, PS for the cleric and the Pure Mage for the lizard. Bought enough melee so that the fighters could get 3 points in dual-wield. Bows are really weak, but they're good for nibbling away a few hit points before the enemy closes to melee range. I'm sure this isn't the optimal build, but it seems to be working fine so far. I gave tool use to the priest because he seems to have the least need for points. At some point he'll have to take some mage skills. I gave everyone one rank of priest for the heal spell.

 

Any tips?

[Randomizer]

Avernum 6 is the only game in the series where you see a substantial increase in hit points in the early part of the game.

 

All spellcasters should increase intelligence since it gives them a larger amount of spell energy so they don't need to return to town to recharge or waste energy potions.

 

The game gets harder as you go through the demo area so leveling up helps. Weapon skills for the fighters and mage and/or priest spells should be increased so you can learn higher level spells.

 

Bows are weak, but there are plenty of places where range attacks are the only ones.

[Erebus the Black]

I think s/he's also asking if cons. and int affect hp and mp retroactively

(i.e. if you increase int/const at an earlier lvl (e.g. 1) it will give you higher h/sp at a later lvl (e.g. 10) than if you increase it at that higher lvl).

For example in Morrowind mp are retroactive(its a constant factor of lvl*int or something similar) but hp are not so its better to improve cons. at an earliest lvl as possible, while its ok to postpone on int.

[Randomizer]

Hit points and spell energy will be the same whenever you increase it. However the formula changed so you get more hit points as you increase endurance than in previous games where you could cast augmentation and essence armor to get extra hit points.

[crpgnut]

Thanks folks and this particular nut is male for those keeping score at home Let me ask you this then: Should I worry about getting dual-wield from the beginning? It seems like it's a good strategy, but you have to put a LOT of points into melee and a few into dex to get there. Would I be better off going blade and board until level 6 or so?

 

I was going with even my warriors being glass cannons at the beginning but maybe this is a bad strategy. I've played up to the Great Portal area with nobody having a endurance above 4. I'm restarting though, and thought I'd get some input from those who've played through 6 a few times.

[Randomizer]

You can get training in dual wielding, but not for a long time and it will be expensive. The extra damage is worth having dual wielding for fighters. Also the higher the level you have the lower to hit penalty and damage reductions are for using two swords.

A long discussion with testing to show it's effects.

[Lilith]

You don't actually need the dual-wielding skill in order to dual-wield, by the way, and the benefits of it beyond the first few points are pretty marginal.

[waterplant]

Since you mentioned the crappy bows in this game, your Nephilim get free Throwing Weapons skill. Javelins do way more damage early game and you find them pretty much everywhere as pick-ups. They become kind of redundant later in the game.

[crpgnut]

Yep, I'm loving my javelins. I went ahead and bought some skill from the priestess lady in Dharmon. I had about 8,000 gold so I bought a level of melee and a level of thrown. I think I had bought a level of spellcraft earlier, not sure. 3000 seems a lot to pay for 4 points of spellcraft.

[Triumph]

Oh, but it's SO worth it!

[Randomizer]

It's much cheaper to buy and best of all it doesn't raise the skill point cost if you buy individually from a trainer or use skill points in regular training.