Is Divinely Touched really worth it?

[Daniel]

Hi people. I'm a noob who's been intensely reading party building advice in the A6 forum for the last few days. Many people here recommend DT in all characters for the perfect build. However, the 30% experience penalty will make you lose some level-ups.

 

Case in point, let's take a nephil priest or mage character. Suppose that, without DT, he will finish the game with 10 more levels than if he had DT. A character with 10 more levels and with 9 Int and 9 End will finish the game with:

 

- +50 Skill points

- +50 Hit Points

- +90 Spell Points

- + 1 level at another trait (supposing the character chose Pure Spirit or Natural mage traits, that would mean +1 skill point in either priest or mague spells, plus +1 in magical efficiency)

 

From not having DT, he would lose the following relevant skills (from Trait Effects article):

- +9 Spellcraft (assuming he reaches level 32 but not 40)

- 20% Armor

- +9 Sharpshooting (not the be all and end all for a spellcaster, but very handy)

 

My questions are:

 

- Is the assumed 10 level difference accurate (ballpark)?

- I chose 9 Int and 9 End because these values give nice round numbers for HP and SP. Are they realistic for an endgame spellcaster?

- how would you invest your extra 50 skill points?

 

The same questions can be asked of a nephil warrior, substituting the +9 Spellcraft with a +9 Blademaster, and not taking into account the extra spell points.

 

Your thoughts on this would be much appreciated.

 

(edited to correct typos)

[Randomizer]

The difference in levels is actually closer to 6 since experience decreases with current level.

 

The extra blademaster levels are actually very useful since they increase damage for melee or pole weapon attacks and give you a chance to reduce battle fatigue if you use a battle discipline.

 

While you go up slower at the start, the extra skills do offset the loss of skill points due to fewer levels. It helps for most players to get divine touch trait. But it's really up to you.

 

Welcome to Spiderweb Software. Please leave your sanity at the door.

[ex post slarto]

Objectively, Divinely Touched provides bonuses that far, far outstrip the levels you give up for it.

 

Subjectively, you may or may not experience it as better.

[Daniel]

Thanks for the reply, Randomizer. And for the nice welcome!

 

Updating the values taking into account a 6 level difference and making explicit the loss in fatigue reduction.

 

So, 9 Int, 9 End, 6 level difference:

 

- +30 Skill points

- +30 Hit Points

- +54 Spell Points

- + 1 level at another trait (supposing the character chose Pure Spirit or Natural mage traits, that would mean +1 skill point in either priest or mague spells, plus +1 in magical efficiency). This is no longer guaranteed with a 6 level difference -- it won't happen if you reach level 32 AND don't reach level 40 for the same character with and without DT respectively.

 

From not having DT, he would lose the following relevant skills (from Trait Effects article):

- +9 Spellcraft (assuming he reaches level 32 but not 40)

- 20% Armor

- +9 Sharpshooting (not the be all and end all for a spellcaster, but very handy)

- +45% chance in fatigue reduction from Blademaster in battle skills

 

 

I must say I didn't finish my first run in A6 (I'm pretty close), but I'm already obsessively thinking about the next party.

 

So, developing this a little bit more:

 

One character without DT loses an extra 8*(average damage from weapon/spell) + whatever is the average damage you get from the extra 45% of fatigue reduction (i.e., less frequent Adrenaline Rushes). I use 8 instead of 9 because you probably get +1 to Mage Spells (or Priest Spells, or Blademaster) from your other traits.

 

If you're a Elite Warrior without DT, you'll also get a +1 Parry. If you're a nephil, you'll get +1 to Thrown Weapons, Bows and Gymnastics.

 

One possible build for a character without DT is just to invest the extra skill points in luck/hardiness/resistance (and parry/riposte if you're a fighter). That way you'll have a character with a little more staying power against magic users. If you're a magic user, the +54 spell points can also be handy, especially since magic efficiency doesn't work with the more powerful area spells.

 

So, in this case:

 

- you'll kill your enemies more slowly, but they will also do less magical damage per turn against you. Importantly, because of the extra health and resistances, the likelihood of being one-shot killed is a bit reduced (this can happen if you decide to kill Melanchion, right?).

 

- since you lose the 20% armor bonus, you'll still suffer more from the physical damage that hits you.

 

[Daniel]

By the way, here are the rough formulas used to calculate HP and SP:

 

Hit Points=37+(5/9)*E*(CL+8)

Spell Points=11+I*(CL+1)

 

Multiply HP by 1.1 for Sliths.

 

E-Endurance

CL-Character Level

I-Intelligence

[Earth]

There are few enemies who can kill you with 1 hit.

[Daniel]

Originally Posted By: Earth Empires

There are few enemies who can kill you with 1 hit.

I've only heard about Melanchion from the Forum, really. I've been playing on Normal, and very few groups of enemies could take more than 50% of HP in one round. So yeah, it's not a problem.

I don't know if this is still true in Torment, though. I think I'll want to kill Melanchion when the time comes, so I'd like that to be as "easy" as possible.

[La paix]

What exactly are the bonuses Divinely Touched gives?

[Daniel]

See this Strategy Central thread

 

http://www.spiderwebforums.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=188860#Post188860

[Øther]

The two enemies that I remember off the top of my head that could one shot at least one character were the lich living in Erika's tower (or the fight right after that. I can't really remember) and the dragon. The lich could, if enough power is built up, one shot a character. The dragon can immediately kill your entire party in one attack. This is why I had to pull out my invulnerable pots and elixirs out and use them. When the dragon does his super attack, it's funny seeing that you block around 2000 damage.

[Randomizer]

You forgot the Fang Clan leader when he uses his special attack.

[So Much Killing]

It's really a no-brainer. For an MU, at level 32 you'll get 9 levels of spellcraft, which would cost you 43 SP. The nine levels of blademaster reduce your fatigue so you can use mighty blow more often, which has a huge effect on attacks like lightning and smite. Add the armor bonus (which works throughout the game starting with your very first encounter), and there is no reason not to do it. And, every now and then, you want to smack something with a sword, and the blademaster plus the melee skills you can buy from a trainer, mean you can do a bit of damage.

 

For a fighter, the 9 levels of blademaster would cost you 61 SP, and the fatigue reduction and armor work for you there, too.

 

The sharpshooter is nice, too. If you're Nephil (and the optimal party is all-Nephil, IMHO), the "free" bows skill plus the "free" sharpshooter, plus the sharpshooter you can buy from a trainer, give you a bit of ranged attack, especially once you get a few of the better bows. Personally, I tend to use bows a fair amount, especially my MUs (often just to save manna when finishing off a nearly-dead foe, but given the number of energy elixirs I have at the end of the game, I'm probably too conservative.)

[So Much Killing]

By the way, Magical Efficiency does work with AoE spells. That was a bug in earlier versions, but it's been fixed.

[Earth]

Originally Posted By: Randomizer

You forgot the Fang Clan leader when he uses his special attack.

Mighty Blow (must have Superman-strength to be able to do that much damage).

Gladwell also can kill character with 1 hit.

Liches and other undead monsters are capable to do alot damage.

Not sure if Mel's "allies" that Demon/Haakai and Eyebeast can be put on that group which do alot damage since D/H has lava to do his job and Eyebeast has those pylons (I always lost 1 char on those fights and battle ended on next round).