Defense does nothing

[Death Knight]

I have been almost finished with the demo and am awaiting my order. The only thing that puzzles me is that i have been sinking points into skills like dex and defense for my rogue character and i have to report they do nothing. My rogue character gets hit just as much as my other characters which doesnt make sense as i have been sinking points into those skills. Is there something i am missing about defensive characters cause it is kind of annoying. I figured that i should have at least one character that doesnt get hit all the time. Makes no sense.

[Randomizer]

It depends upon difficulty level. The higher the difficulty level the more likely you will be hit. Combining dexterity, defense, gymnastics, and luck does reduce your chance of being hit.

 

In earlier games, defense also reduced the encumberance effect of bulky armor so you didn't lose action points in a fight. But that was removed in the second trilogy.

 

Slartyanalyis of defense.

[Death Knight]

Thanks for that. Im not brave enough to go on torment anyway. I probably should have chosen nimble fingers as a trait instead of strong willpower for my rogue, but aw well. I wanted to make him a fighter that wouldnt succumb to the mental influence of mages but as im reading the posts, besides the almost unfair divine touch, fast on feet and the others are better choices.

[Aoslare]

Divinely Touched is stupidly good. I still don't understand why Jeff kept it around for so long -- he always complained and the difficulty of keeping the game balanced both for hardcore Torment players and more casual gamers, and when you give the hardcore players a trait like Divinely Touched to exploit, that can't help matters.

[Randomizer]

Divine Touch in the first trilogy wasn't that good until Blades and only then for one special. Even in the second trilogy it didn't get overpowered until battle disciplines made the blademaster part useful for spellcasters. Luckily Jeff isn't likely to read about the exploits and it will continue through the remakes.

[Death Knight]

im not sure if i should restart my rogue as i picked strong willpower as my trait for my rogue. I have yet to have noticed anything great from this. I probably should have picked fast on feet or nimble fingers. Nimble fingers would probably be the one i picked to save skill points and not have to worry about it.

[Randomizer]

I don't know if strong will power really helps enough against charm and terror. I know mages with very high intelligence that gives high mental resistance are still susceptible.

[Aoslare]

Percent chance mechanics with low occurance and high stakes are always frustrating and never work out well. This includes most instant death attacks, as well as charm and terror.

 

Percent chance for dodging is fine since you receive tons of attacks and most are non-lethal, so statistics can play out over time. But low-occurance, all-or-nothing abilities are inevitably either useless, or abusable.

[Death Knight]

-So which would make more sense. Im thinking that good constitution would make the most sense as it gives 10% bonus to physical, fire, energy, and poison and magic attacks. Whereas tough hide just gives 10% to melee. Fast on feet might be good too though cause it gives 10% bonus to be hit and 1 extra ap point. To be honest though, the way i see fast on feet and quick strike is this-Fast on feet is almost useless compared to quick strike as you can actually improve the chances of getting an extra 1 or 2 ap on quick strike whereas fast on feet you cannot.

 

-An extra 1 or 2 ap (every once in a while) is useless in my opinion as it cannot be counted on. As soon as it is 50/50 and up, then it can somewhat be relied on. I might just go with the constitution one, is there a hard cap on physical resistances and resistance in general?

[Aoslare]

Good Constitution gives 4% resistance to everything, not 10%. And Fast on Feet gives a dodge bonus, not an accuracy bonus, I think.

[-Jeran Korak-]

Defense used to give %3 to your chance to evade enemy attacks, as far as I can remember. It was generally useless, as hardiness gave you a much better bonus per point in a game where being tough was massively more important then being nimble. I've honestly never come across an enemy that is equal level to me that misses more then once in a blue moon. Being a tank in the Avernum and Geneforge series is much more practical then being a gazelle.

[Brocktree]

Originally Posted By: Death Knight

I have been almost finished with the demo and am awaiting my order. The only thing that puzzles me is that i have been sinking points into skills like dex and defense for my rogue character and i have to report they do nothing. My rogue character gets hit just as much as my other characters which doesnt make sense as i have been sinking points into those skills. Is there something i am missing about defensive characters cause it is kind of annoying. I figured that i should have at least one character that doesnt get hit all the time. Makes no sense.

The dodge skills are like the goggles... they do nothing. Your dodge skill will never exceed your enemies bonus to hit.

[Aoslare]

That's not actually true, even on Torment. However, on Torment it will never exceed it enough to matter, and on any difficulty it will never do so throughout the game, and they *really* won't do anything unless you pour all your skill points into them. Highly not recommended.