A6 - Comprehensive Skill Effect List

[Enobarbus World]

Unless otherwise specified, bonuses listed in red are applied once per point of the skill you buy.

 

The exception is effects marked with (10-cap). These effects occur once for each point of the skill from 1-10, once every other point between 11-20, once every third point between 21-30, and so on.

 

For armor and resistances provided by skills, each skill acts kind of like one extra piece of equipment. For example, with 5 Hardiness, you get a 10% bonus to armor and resistances that is multiplied together with your other resistances, just as with equipment. Note that armor and all resistances are capped at 90%.

 

Each point of Attack Bonus grants +5% to hit; the number of dice you roll when calculating attack damage is increased by 0.75 for each point of Attack Bonus (rounded down).

 

 

OFFENSIVE SKILLS (HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT)

 

STRENGTH (Base: 2, Cost: 6 -- No Trainers)

+1 to Attack Bonus for melee/pole weapons

+5 lbs to Encumbrance Limit (Base of 30)

+3% Stun Resistance

+1 towards the fairly low requirements to turn a few wheels

Need to buy 2 points to unlock Gymnastics

Need to buy 4 points to unlock Blademaster (--> Riposte, Lethal Blow)

 

MELEE WEAPONS (Cost: 4 -- Train: 225, 248, 216 per sp @ Eastern Great Cave)

+1 to Attack Bonus for melee weapons

+1 towards Battle Discipline requirements

Need to buy 6 points of this or Poles to unlock Quick Strike

Need to buy 7 points of this or Poles to unlock Dual Wielding

Need to buy 7 points of this or Poles to unlock Anatomy (--> Lethal Blow)

Need to buy 9 points of this or Poles to unlock Blademaster (--> Riposte, Lethal Blow)

 

POLE WEAPONS (Cost: 4 -- Train: 383, 421, 367 per sp @ Fort Remote)

+1 to Attack Bonus for pole weapons

+1 towards Battle Discipline requirements

Need to buy 6 points of this or Melee to unlock Quick Strike

Need to buy 7 points of this or Melee to unlock Dual Wielding

Need to buy 7 points of this or Melee to unlock Anatomy (--> Lethal Blow)

Need to buy 9 points of this or Melee to unlock Blademaster (--> Riposte, Lethal Blow)

 

BLADEMASTER (Cost: 5 -- No Trainers)

+1 to Attack Bonus for pole/melee weapons

+5% chance each round of 1 pt Fatigue Reduction

Unlocks after buying 4 Strength, 9 Melee or Pole Weapons

Need to buy 5 points of this to unlock Lethal Blow

Need to buy 6 points of this to unlock Riposte

 

QUICK ACTION (Cost:1 -- No Trainers)

+4% chance of double strike on all melee/pole attacks (10-cap)

Improves Initiative

 

ANATOMY (Cost: 4 -- Train: 175, 193, 168 per sp @ Eastern Great Cave)

+3% to total damage for melee/pole weapons when attacking humanoids

Slightly increases Health and Energy restored after battles

Unlocks after buying 2 Intelligence, 7 Melee or Pole Weapons

Need to buy 5 points of this to unlock Lethal Blow

 

DUAL WIELDING (Cost:2 -- 850, 935, 680 per sp @ Fort Remote)

Reduces dual wielding damage penalty by about 2% (Base: 20% penalty)

Reduces dual wielding hit chance penalty semi-randomly by 5-30% (Base: -30 to -15% penalty)

Unlocks after buying 2 Dexterity, 7 Melee or Pole Weapons

 

LETHAL BLOW (Cost: 4 -- Train: 510, 561, 490 per sp @ Fort Remote)

+4% chance of +40% to total damage for melee/pole weapons, ranged weapons, and single target or spray type magic attacks (10-cap)

Unlocks after buying 5 Blademaster, 5 Anatomy

 

 

OFFENSIVE SKILLS (RANGED COMBAT)

 

DEXTERITY (Base: 2, Cost: 6 -- No Trainers)

+1 to Attack Bonus for bows/thrown weapons

+5% to Evasion (10-cap)

Improves Initiative

Need to buy 2 points to unlock Sharpshooter

Need to buy 2 points to unlock Dual Wielding

Need to buy 3 points to unlock Quick Strike

Need to buy 3 points to unlock Parry (--> Riposte)

Need to buy 3 points to unlock Resistance

Need to buy 4 points to unlock Gymnastics

 

BOWS (Cost: 2 -- No Trainers)

+1 to Attack Bonus for bows

+0.5 towards Battle Discipline requirements

Need to buy 6 points of this or Throws to unlock Sharpshooter

 

THROWN WEAPONS (Cost: 2 -- No Trainers)

+1 to Attack Bonus for thrown weapons

+0.5 towards Battle Discipline requirements

Need to buy 6 points of this or Bows to unlock Sharpshooter

 

SHARPSHOOTER (Cost: 2 -- Train: 175, 193, 168 per sp @ Eastern Great Cave)

+1 to Attack Bonus for bows/thrown weapons

Unlocks after buying 2 Dexterity, 6 Bows or Thrown Weapons

 

 

MAGIC SKILLS

 

MAGE SPELLS (Cost: 5 -- 180, 198, 180 per sp @ Fort Duvno)

+1 to Attack Bonus for mage spells

+1 towards Mage Spell requirements

 

PRIEST SPELLS (Cost: 4 -- No Trainers)

+1 to Attack Bonus for priest spells

+1 towards Priest Spell requirements

 

SPELLCRAFT (Cost: 3 -- 400, 440, 360 per sp @ Tower Colony)

+1 to Attack Bonus for mage/priest spells

Need to buy 5 points to unlock Magical Efficiency

 

INTELLIGENCE (Base: 2, Cost: 6 -- No Trainers)

Determines Base Spell Energy (main multiplier)

+3% Mental Resistance

Need to buy 2 points to unlock Pathfinder

Need to buy 2 points to unlock Anatomy (--> Lethal Blow)

Need to buy 4 points to unlock Magical Efficiency

 

MAGICAL EFFICIENCY (Cost: 3 -- Train: 480, 528, 432 per sp @ Tower Colony)

+5% average reduction to Spell Energy used (10-cap)

Unlocks after buying 4 Intelligence, 5 Spellcraft

 

 

DEFENSIVE SKILLS

 

HARDINESS (Cost: 1 -- No Trainers)

+2% to Armor, Fire, Cold, Energy, Poison, and Acid Resistances

Need to buy 7 points to unlock Resistance

 

RESISTANCE (Cost: 5 -- 120, 132, 120 per sp @ Fort Duvno)

+3% to Fire, Cold, Energy, Poison, and Acid Resistances

Unlocks after buying 3 Dexterity, 4 Endurance, 7 Hardiness

 

PATHFINDER (Cost: 1 -- No Trainers)

+5% to Poison and Acid Resistances

Unlocks after buying 2 Intelligence, 6 Nature Lore

 

LUCK (Cost: 2 -- No Trainers) (NB: before v1.01, was cost: 4)

+2% to Armor and All Resistances (10-cap) (NB: before v1.01, was +1%)

+2% to Evasion (10-cap)

+2% to Hit Rate for all attacks

 

DEFENSE (Cost: 2 -- No Trainers)

+3% to Evasion (10-cap)

Need to buy 5 points to unlock Parry (--> Riposte)

 

GYMNASTICS (Cost: 4 -- Train: 105, 116, 101 per sp @ Fort Duvno)

+5% to Evasion (10-cap)

Improves Initiative

Unlocks after buying 4 Dexterity, 2 Strength

 

PARRY (Cost: 3 -- Train: 453, 499, 408 per sp @ Fort Remote)

+3% chance to parry hand-to-hand attacks (Max: 50%)

+2% chance to parry ranged attacks

+1% chance to parry missile-based magic attacks

Unlocks after buying 3 Dexterity, 5 Defense

Need to buy 6 points of this to unlock Riposte

 

RIPOSTE (Cost: 5 -- No Trainers)

+3% chance to riposte hand-to-hand attacks (10-cap) (Max: 50%)

Unlocks after buying 6 Parry, 6 Blademaster

 

ENDURANCE (Base: 2, Cost: 5 -- No Trainers)

Determines Base Health (main multiplier)

+2% Poison Resistance

+1% Acid Resistance

Need to buy 4 points to unlock Resistance

 

 

OTHER SKILLS

 

TOOL USE (Cost: 1 -- No Trainers)

+1 towards requirements to open/unlock/activate stuff

 

NATURE LORE (Cost: 1 -- 500, 550, 300 per sp @ Gnass)

+1 towards requirements to uncover items from caches

+1 towards requirements to pacify weak wild animals

Need to buy 6 points to unlock Pathfinder

 

ARCANE LORE (Cost: 1 -- 700, 770, 420 per sp @ Gnass)

+1 towards requirements to learn spells from spellbooks

+2% Mental Resistance

 

FIRST AID (Cost: 1 -- No Trainers)

Slightly increases Health and Energy restored after battles

 

QUICK STRIKE (Cost: 3 -- No Trainers)

Each round, a PC with Quick Strike gets two separate chances to get a bonus AP. Each chance has a success rate equal to 5% per point of Quick Strike. You can receive 0, 1, or 2 bonus APs each round.

Unlocks after buying 3 Dexterity, 6 Melee or Pole Weapons

[Enobarbus World]

By popular demand. Please let me know if you notice anything I've overlooked (or misstated).

[Rionep Ecnirp Etlevs]

For newbies, what does the 10-cap mean?

Also, what does %armor/elemental resistance really mean? I never understood.

 

For much older Avernum games, I certainly never understood what the difference was between the % values and the Useful Skills value called Elemental Resistance.

[Alorael at Large]

The 10 cap means you get diminishing returns. Every point counts as a point up to ten, but then the effectiveness is reduced. I believe from 10-20 points every two points count as one, and from 20-30 every three points count, and so on.

 

Every source of armor you have reduces damage by a certain percentage. For example, if you take 50 damage and you have 50%, 20%, and 5% armor, your 50 damage is reduced to 25, then to 20, then to 19. I believe elemental resistance works similarly, but I'm not sure.

 

—Alorael, who hope someone who pays more attention to crunch can correct this. He also believes that Elemental Resistance was just an unhelpful way of saying how your skills contributed to your percent resistance.

[Triumph]

Does Nature Lore still help you calm some wild animals like in A5?

[Randomizer]

Originally Posted By: Triumph

Does Nature Lore still help you calm some wild animals like in A5?

Yes, but there are very few animals that it works on, mostly rats, bats, and wolves.

[Enobarbus World]

Alorael -- you are basically right about armor, but there is a random factor involved. The best guess I have seen is Thuryl's from Nethergate: Resurrection, that each individual point of damage has a chance of being blocked equal to your armor/resistance score.

[VCH]

I find first aid extremely useful. After a medium fight it will heal 100+ hp on each of characters. But what specifically does each point invested in first aid give in terms of hp healed and spell energy gained per kill? Does it remain constant or is there some cap were further investment gives you little additional healing?

[Lilith]

There is a cap, and it depends on what monsters you're fighting. I normally just put 2 points in First Aid on each character and forget about it; you're eventually going to train your fighters in Anatomy, which also gives a bonus to first aid, so that's probably enough.

[Erebus the Black]

are you going to make something this comprehensive for A4 or A5 as well?

also, doesn't tool-use also determine whether some buttons are usable?

also, strength is used to determine whether you can turn a wheel to open portcullis'.

[Enobarbus World]

No. There haven't been a ton of changes from A4 and A5. Some of the skill unlock requirements are different, but there are topics for that about each game. A4 handled encumbrance differently, and obviously it didn't have battle disciplines or fatigue reduction, and neither A4 nor A5 had dual-wielding. A4 and A5 had Magery, which was completely identical to Spellcraft. Magical Efficiency sucked in A4. Tool Use contributed to the Unlock Doors spell in A4. Quick Action was slightly better in A4 (I think). Parry was better in A4, it parried a greater percent of attacks and it also provided very high general purpose damage reduction. Resistance used to be slightly better, @4% IIRC. That's all off the top of my head.

 

Thanks for the additions.

[Randomizer]

Switches that require tool use are marked in Synergy's Item List and there aren't that many.

 

Porticullis that require strength to open seem to need the strongest individual person in the party.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Lovebound Geas

Tool Use contributed to the Unlock Doors spell in A4.

It still does. It's just that the only way you can cast Unlock Doors now is with a Tinker's Crystal.

[jlsgaladriel]

Thanks slarty, this is wonderful.

[kamfer]

Nice list! Are you sure the riposte stats are accurate though? I've got 7 blademaster and 9 parry (unmodified) and I still can't buy any!

[Randomizer]

Did you get any blademaster and/or parry from traits because they don't count towards unlocking skills? Elite Warrior and Divine Touch triaits give those.

[BenS]

I think there are 2 mistakes in this list.

 

Anatomy: under Anatomy you need to buy 4 Intelligence, but under Intelligence, you need to buy only 2.

 

Resistance: under Resistance you need to buy 4 Endurance, but under Endurance, you need to buy 6 pts.

 

If no one updates, I'll try to figure these out in-game. Thanks for the great list. I always miss out on these secret skills b/c I'm pumping pts into main attributes and ignoring others (e.g., I never get Anatomy b/c I'd never think to spend precious sp on Int for my fighter-types).

[Enobarbus World]

Thanks for pointing those out. In each case the lower value is the correct one.

[Dahak]

Was luck updated to match v1.0.1?

[Enobarbus World]

Dahak -- what do you mean?

[Dahak]

Avernum 6 Macintosh Version History

 

v1.0 Initial Release

 

* Go get 'em!

 

v1.0.1 - Problem-Fixing Release

 

* Slain monsters now give more experience.

* Some encounters (such as the Aranea Queen, Corma-Eye, and some sliths in northern Avernum) are now easier.

* The Luck skill is cheaper and more useful.

* It is no longer possible to be locked out of the Western Excavation.

* Minor typo and other fixes.

[Lilith]

My suspicion is that he probably made it affect random drop rates, since his response to someone asking about it was "it probably should, but it doesn't".

[Enobarbus World]

Huh. I wonder if it really does? I'll have to test that... I'm somewhat skeptical only because that would presumably require a bit more recoding than Jeff prefers to do, as opposed to giving Luck more of an impact on resistances or dodging or somesuch. Let's see...

[Enobarbus World]

Well, I haven't tested items yet, but Luck now costs 2 instead of 4 and raises Armor AND all resistances by 2% per point instead of 1% per point. If it also increases item drops on top of that, it would seem to be overpowered, but I'll still try to test for it.

[Randomizer]

Just the increase in armor and resistances makes it better than hardiness since it also helps with to hit and dodging except for not unlocking a skill.

[Lilith]

... unlocking a skill which is also probably worse than Luck.

[Enobarbus World]

Mostly, except that Hardiness starts out costing 1 instead of 2. This helps a bit in hardcore damage reduction: 70 skill points split between them will reduce all your damage by 36%. Achieving that with just Hardiness would cost 90 skill points. 240 skill points split between them will reduce all your damage by 75%.

[Lilith]

Of course at that point you're probably hitting the 90% cap when you factor in items and wards.

[Enobarbus World]

Wards apply to PC sheet resistances? That's disappointing, I had assumed they were a separate calculation like Prismatic Shield used to be, and like Protection (I assume) still is.

[Lilith]

That's right. Protection is still separate, but if you cast a ward you'll see the effect on your displayed resistances. On the bright side, you're not particularly likely to hit the 90% cap in normal play, except maybe on armour.

[Enobarbus World]

That's a good point. For a 20% ward, you'd have to already be at what, 88 or 89% to hit the 90% cap? Fair enough.

[Enobarbus World]

Okay, I tried to test Luck's impact on item drops, and my results are... inconclusive! Hooray.

 

I made a new party full of 15 Luck PCs (at creation) and ran around killing goblins. I made sure to only count vanilla goblins and goblin warriors, who have a variety of item drops. They are identical, except that the warriors drop a sword instead of a dagger, at the same rate though. Also, I didn't count any goblins that had custom item drops, like the one that drops an energy potion.

 

I killed 40, and got the following results.

 

Code:

Item	Actual	Dec	Exp	Exp * 1.3----	------	----	---	---------Coins	12	0.30 	0.25	0.33 Daggers	10	0.25 	0.15	0.20 Sticks	10	0.25 	0.15	0.20 Crystal	4	0.10 	0.08	0.10 Belts	3	0.08 	0.08	0.10

Actual is the number of drops I got, Dec is the corresponding decimal probability, Exp is the expected propability from the v1.01 scripts, and Exp * 1.3 shows one possible "better fit" result for the potential impact of Luck. The fact that the actual drop rates were all mildly higher than the expected rates suggests that Luck *might* affect item drops. However, the rates aren't that far off either, so it's still possible it doesn't affect them.

 

Bleh.

 

Randomizer, do you wanna email Jeff again and ask what exactly he did to Luck?

 

Edit: Oh yeah. I did confirm that item drops are determined at load-up and not on-the-fly, which means that individual Luck scores aren't used -- either it's the party total, the party average, or potentially the highest score among the party.

[VCH]

Another advantage of training luck rather than hardiness is the increase to mental resistance.

[Randomizer]

Originally Posted By: Jeff Vogel

On the record, Luck does not and will never affect item drops. Too hard to balance and all significant item drops are fixed anyway.

And there will be no Luck skill at all in the new game series. Whew.

[*i]

Good. Luck is always a skill that seems a little off in terms of realism anyway. I mean, how do you train in such a thing? Granted, things like resistance and such could be similar, but at least that has a well-defined meaning.

[Enobarbus World]

Originally Posted By: Jeff Vogel

all significant item drops are fixed anyway.

Also note this part. Unlike in A5, no more random Eyestalks to worry about! You can confirm this by looking in the defs file -- no enemy is set to drop item 438 randomly.

[waterplant]

Hope you don't mind me pointing out the trainer for lethal blow is in Fort Remote not Eastern Great Cave.

This list is invaluable btw.

[Enobarbus World]

If I'm not mistaken, two trainers train Lethal Blow, and the one in Eastern Great Cave trains it for significantly less money. I could be misremembering though.

[Randomizer]

There is only one trainer for Lethal Blow and it's in Fort Remote.

[Enobarbus World]

Guess that's my bad. Fixed -- thanks Waterplant and Randomizer.

[vstef96]

Found a error in the list with Anatomy.

You need 4 INT and 8 MELEE WEAPONS or 7 POLE WEAPONS.

 

EDIT: Error with Blademaster too, though I can't find the right combination to unlock it.

EDIT2: I want to unlock Lethal Blow and I have 7 Blademaster and 5 Anatomy and it won't unlock.

[Enobarbus World]

Nope, the wording here is deliberate: "Unlocks after buying 2 Intelligence, 7 Melee or Pole Weapons" -- emphasis on "buying". Skill points you have because of race or trait bonuses, or equipment bonuses, or that you start out with (2 Int, for example) don't count towards unlocking anything.

[Sade]

You can land Lethal Blows also using scrolls and wands.

 

Not sure whether this was already covered within the "ranged weapons" or not.

[Enobarbus World]

Whoa, really? No, scrolls and wands don't count as ranged weapons in Avernum. Huh. They do in Geneforge -- I wonder if that's a carry-over.

 

Can anyone else confirm this?

[Sade]

Well, I'm not anyone else, but...

 

Blasting Lethal Blow with a Fiery Wand

 

Is that enough of a proof?

 

[waterplant]

Battle Disciplines can be used with wands and scrolls (Well Aimed and Mighty Blow) but I've never noticed a Lethal Blow hit with one.

[Enobarbus World]

Thanks for the picture, Sade. I assume you are using Windows (just in case this is a platform difference, which I would doubt)?

 

The funny thing is that it won't activate for spells, but it will for scrolls and wands. Really weird.

 

I am tempted to double check that other stats don't increase wand damage. Has anybody checked this?

[Sade]

I did a little test with the Wand of the Inferno:

 

20 hits against a group of Mutant Lizards;

40 Lethal Blow skill;

0 Lethal Blows.

 

It seems that (unsurprisingly) only single-targeted wands and scrolls are included.

 

Yeah, I am using Windows.

[Øther]

I fairly certain that I had seen my mages get lethal blows with their spells, but maybe it was just with their bows.

[Randomizer]

I've gotten lethal blow with a spell, but it's a rare occurance, under 5%.