Can not open anatomy skill

[bret]

According to this thread on special skills , you can open the Anatomy skill once the character has Int 6 and PoleArms 8 or Melee 8.

 

I've been trying to build a Slith Priest who uses Pole Arms and thought this would be a good match. I've now got Int 6 and Pole Arm 10. Since Slith get +2 to Pole Arms, I believe this is the minimum requirements.

 

So far the skill hasn't openned for improvement. Since I had gotten impatient and used a couple of Knowledge crystals/potions to get there, I thought perhaps it would happen once the character leveled next time. No joy.

 

Is anyone else able to open Anatomy skill via the Pole Arm route? Any suggestions on what I might be missing?

 

Thanks,

 

-Bret

[Randomizer]

Sliths (and Nephils) increase their combat skills every 8 levels, so you probably have some that you didn't get using skill points. I didn't try to get it since it only adds a little extra damage.

[Drayk Armitage]

You may need 6 points of bought Int, not just 6 Int. You start with 2 free, so that would be 8 Int.

[bret]

Quote:

Originally written by Randomizer:
Sliths (and Nephils) increase their combat skills every 8 levels, so you probably have some that you didn't get using skill points. I didn't try to get it since it only adds a little extra damage.

In the case of Magery, it lists 8 Int. I was able to open that successfully with my human sorcerer that has an 8 Int and no advantages.

Are you sure that Slith get increasing bonuses with Pole Arms? I thought it was a straight +2. My Nephil was able to open Sharpshooter at Bows 10, but she also has the Deadeye Advantage while the Slith priest doesn't have any advantages past those given by race.

[Alorael at Large]

All the races and many of the traits give you both a starting bonus and increases to that bonus as you gain levels. Since I think the bonus is +2 with an additional +1 per 8 levels, a level 8 slith will need 11 poles, and a level 16 slith will need 12. Fortunately, those bonuses to your skills don't increase the skill point cost any, so you break even on getting the special skills.

 

—Alorael, who really thinks this, at least, doesn't need to go in the secretive category of combat mechanics. Couldn't Jeff just put the simple formulas in the manual?

[bret]

In order to avoid other questions about prerequisites, here is the vital information for the character in question:

 

Level 18 Slith, 0 skill points available

 

Started with the Priest package, no advantages or disadvantages.

 

Strength 5 (Cost: 7)

Dexterity 2 (Cost: 6)

Intelligence 6 (Cost: 8)

Endurance 5 (Cost: 6)

 

Melee 3 (Cost: 5)

Polearms 10 (Cost: 7)

Missle 0 (Cost: 2)

Thrown 2 (Cost: 2)

Quick Action 1 (Cost: 1)

 

Mage 0 (Cost: 5)

Priest 10 (Cost: 8)

Arcane Lore 3 (Cost: 2)

Spellcraft 5 (Cost: 5)

 

Hardiness 0 (Cost: 1)

 

Defense 4 (Cost: 4)

Tool Use 0 (Cost: 1)

Nature Lore 2 (Cost: 2)

First Aid 2 (Cost: 2)

Luck 1 (Cost: 4)

 

Anatomy 1 (Cost not listed, from an item)

Magical Efficiency 1 (Cost not listed, from a quest)

 

In case you are reading this Jeff V, as a first time buyer of both the game and hint book my main complaint about the game is not being able to tell what you are missing in order to qualify for a special skill. I'm not interested in getting a PhD in your game, I just want to play it without having to go into a character editor or doing time-consuming experiments.

 

At the very least, the trainers should give a hint. For example, the trainer in magical skills could say 'If you would train more with Spellcraft, you could improve Magery' or vice versa once you've got one of the prerequisites.

 

Maybe do it as a dialogue option. "Do you have any recommendations on my training?" You could then have the resulting answer be based on that character's abilities. Since you want things hidden, you could use generic phrases like 'a little more / need to improve / must study a lot of' to indicate how close a character is.

 

What sort of teacher doesn't tell the student what is needed in order to get to the advanced study?

[Drayk Armitage]

It's the Slith Pole Weapons bonus that's clouding your numbers. You need to buy 2 more points of Pole Weapons before you have 10 bought levels.

[Student of Trinity]

It's been said often before, and it's off topic, but you should really pump hardiness more. It's a lot better than Anatomy. So also is Quick Action, since it gives decent chances for double damage in melee.

[bret]

Thanks Restoration Action Figure. Guess I'll have to try that.

 

Another 14 skill points to open a skill people aren't impressed by, I must admit to having second thoughts. I'm already having problems with my group surviving in the Pillars and now the workshop.

[bret]

Quote:

Originally written by Student of Trinity:
It's been said often before, and it's off topic, but you should really pump hardiness more. It's a lot better than Anatomy. So also is Quick Action, since it gives decent chances for double damage in melee.

I've been thinking about pumping the Hardiness, but it didn't seem like that big a difference between the damage this character took and my warrior that does have some Hardiness. Maybe it is just that I haven't bought enough of it even for my primary melee character.

[Student of Trinity]

Parry is also worth going for. Its Dexterity cost is painful, but Defense is actually quite good, and between the two of them, a fair number of enemies miss you a fair amount of the time, right through the game. So the investment to unlock Parry is probably worthwhile in itself. Then with several points in Parry and a bunch of Hardiness, monster damage is really dialed down to a dull roar, making the whole game a lot more survivable.

 

To really see the effect you need to get up to at least 5 or so in both Hardiness and Parry. That's not so bad, since once they're unlocked they're fairly cheap.

 

My normal difficulty singleton has pursued this strategy, with only 2 Endurance at level 42. He stopped worrying about swarming some time ago: he has the high magic to blast swarms away, but he can save the spell energy by just chopping the monsters down around him, with a minor heal every now and then when their pinprick hits accumulate.

[Randomizer]

That's the differnece between normal and torment where monsters always hit. Torment requires parry to avoid hits and hardiness to reduce damage, so it also pays to buy resistance in Exodus. I found that I really need to have more endurance than on a normal game to survive since I'm at 9 with the bonding knife and finishing up Drake Pillars. Lousy slith chief in Khora-Vysss keeps terrorizing me.