Chike

I'm not as far into the game as you are, txmimi, but I'll keep an eye out and report back any findings.

Just wanted to drop a quick note and say thanks for everyone's posts! Your replies really helped clear up a few aspects of the game I didn't understand. So now that the penny has dropped, I upped the difficulty from normal to hard, and I'm having even more fun playing this terrific game. Thanks again!

Check your Journal under "Special Items," too. When you find certain quest-related items, the game will tell you in a dialogue but those items won't appear in your inventory. There's a coupla "Find these scrolls and deliver them to that person" quests in the early game that work this way.

Hi. Love the game. Just getting into it and finding my way. I've scoured FAQs and strategy guides after a couple of restarts but still have questions and I'd like to confirm some details. 1. Is there any way to see a character's total to-hit percentage in-game? I mean instead of doing the math manually. This would include increases from stats, traits, and items against penalties from dual wielding and certain gear. I'm assuming the answer is no, because afaik to-hit changes per encounter and depends on the enemy's level and evasion score. 2. Why pump primary stats exclusively? Each point in a primary stat lends +5% to-hit. So then wouldn't toons hit the cap at either 19-20 points (or 23-24 for dual wielders)? I know there's a hard 5% chance to miss and I understand that these stats also increase damage (but I don't know by how much so I can't tell where the acceptable tradeoffs are). From a to-hit perspective, it seems like past 19-24, you could spread out points and create a hybrid, ie give fighters a boost in intelligence to cast more spells or give magic users more ranged physical damage and evasion, etc. 3. Is the Dual Wielding skill useless? It offers +2% damage and +2% hit, but you gotta spend 2 skill points to get that: 1 in Quick Action, 1 in Dual Wielding. From the guides, Quick Action is a mediocre bonus. Wouldn't I be better served by putting those 2 skill points into the Melee Skill and Blademaster, for a total of +4% damage and +2% hit? 4. How much of a to-hit penalty should a melee character take on from gear? Most of the early stuff is -5% to-hit. Some armor is greater than that (-10% to -15%). 1 piece? 2? More? I want to max my defense without noticeable missing more often. Do these penalties stack with the penalty from dual wielding? Is there a cap to it? 5. Is the Sure Hand trait better than the Ambidextrous and Dual Wielding traits? Sure Hand boosts melee hit by 5%. Ambidextrous is only 3%. Dual Wielding is another 2%. I'm confused on this because the guides I've read didn't mention Sure Hand at all. I'm not sure if you can get additional levels of Sure Hand like you can with the other two but at first glance it seems the better choice, especially because it's not limited to a specific playstyle. (ie, I still get the boost if I swap in a shield.) 6. Why do most guides stop pumping Melee skills at around 10-12 points when Adrenaline Rush requires 15? I know you can get bonuses from items and pay to train skills later in the game. But I'm not sure when that is, or where to go to do it. I'm confused on this because there's a sorta skill point deadzone around character level 10-12, when it might be too early to pay for training and I don't have all the gear bonuses yet. It seems like a more straightforward approach would be to simply pump Melee skills to 15, which would allow Adrenaline Rush earlier. 7. When should magic users begin putting points into Melee and Ranged skills to get Adrenaline Rush? Even with gear bonuses and paid training, this looks like a minimum 10 point sink for a single Battle Discipline. I take it on good faith that Adrenaline Rush is just that good for magic users, but I don't want to gimp my spellcasting by putting points into Melee skills too early or wait too long and only have access to Adrenaline Rush at the very end of the game. Thanks for any responses in advance! (And I admit I may be over thinking some or all of this.)