I'm not a math genius, but I'm also not an idiot having a degree in computer science and being a programmer and all that.
But I can't figure out how skill effects are actually calculated.
In some RPGs there is no transparency of effects of character abilities, skills etc.
But in Avadon the skills suggest that their effects are communicated to the user. But when you raise one skill during level up the observed effects don't seem to line up with what the skill is advertising. Or maybe the skill effects are described in a very unintuitive way.
For instance:
The shadowwalkers Earth Discipline: according to the description each point should raise your magic and "elemental" resistance ("elemental" probably refering to fire and cold, maybe poioson and acid). At level 7 you should get 10% per level of poison, acid and mental resistance.
At level up I have 4 points in Earth Discipline with 2 points specialization. When I raise Earth Discipline to 5 points I excpect the following things to happen:
- fire resistance +4%
- cold resistance +4%
I wonder if the following things happen:
- acid resistance +4% OR +70% OR +74%
- poison resistance +4% OR +70% OR +74%
- mental resistance +70%
I wonder about those because:
- I'm not sure if acid is considered "elemental"
- I'm not sure if poison is considered "elemental"
- I'm not sure of bonus skill levels by specialization count towards the thresholds
What does actually happen? None of the above!
- fire resistance +3%
- cold resistance +3%
- poison resistance +7%
- acid resistance +7%
- mental resistance +10%
From that I suspect the following things:
- that the threshold effects of skills don't count all the skill ranks but should read as "from now on, for every skill point above (threshold - 1) you get +x% to y"
- even though the descriptions claim a linear relationship between skill ranks and effects, the actual function produces some kind of diminishing returns.
Any insights on the actual skill effects?