Skill distribution - especially Rouge & Mage

[mattdp]

Hi,

Pick up Grimrock in the Steam Sale. Loving it so far after 3 levels - I'd go so far as to say it's the best video game I've played in several years.

Anyway, three levels down I find that the skill system is starting to rub up against my anally retentive tendencies and I have big pools of unspent points on my Rogue and Mage, for fear of putting them in "bad" categories I won't use later.

I started with the pregen party and can't now be bothered to restart (it feel strangely more thematic this way) so I'm stuck with their initial skill selections for better or worse. For the fighters the choice looked obvious: build up their starting weapon skills (one sword, one mace) and add points to armour at least until you get to heavy armour. Plus the odd one in athletics. Those points are committed so no going back - but it'd be nice to be reassured I made the right choice

For the Rogue, I'm in a dilemma. I have no idea if Assassination is really of much use for what's primarily going to be a missile character. I imagine not. So Dagger isn't much help either and Dodge is minimal. She starts with 3 points in thrown weapons but I have a suspicion this isn't much help long term and I haven't found a bow of any kind yet to test out. So should I just take the plunge and assign a ton of points to missile weapons on the assumption it's the way to go? Or are there other worthwhile skills.

The Mage is a bit easier. I read that Ice, Fire & Air are the best schools with some points in Spellcraft. Since the pregen mage starts with Fire I can build that up a bit for the resistance/defensive spells. However I'm not sure how the split should go. Should I wait until I find scrolls for Fire/Ice/Air spells and assign points so I can use the spells? Or just go the whole hog and dump anything not required for basic Fire spells into Ice?

Cheers,
Matt

[Jirodyne]

For the Rogue, I'm in a dilemma. I have no idea if Assassination is really of much use for what's primarily going to be a missile character. I imagine not. So Dagger isn't much help either and Dodge is minimal. She starts with 3 points in thrown weapons but I have a suspicion this isn't much help long term and I haven't found a bow of any kind yet to test out. So should I just take the plunge and assign a ton of points to missile weapons on the assumption it's the way to go? Or are there other worthwhile skills.

The Mage is a bit easier. I read that Ice, Fire & Air are the best schools with some points in Spellcraft. Since the pregen mage starts with Fire I can build that up a bit for the resistance/defensive spells. However I'm not sure how the split should go. Should I wait until I find scrolls for Fire/Ice/Air spells and assign points so I can use the spells? Or just go the whole hog and dump anything not required for basic Fire spells into Ice?

I can help a bit. Fighters are doing alright. Mostly Armor and their weapon of choice. You can put some in Athletic too, or put more points in Armor to get the Double Evasion from shields. up to you, and you can always change it up next playthrough.

Rogues are a bit... Iffy... Really mainly your choice. For Missile weapons there is a bow for arrows, and Crossbow for Bolts. Those would be your 2 choices for weapons to switch between, but you get a lot of them. Throwing weapons, you have alot more choices. Kunai, Throwing star, Rocks, sling shot, bombs I think count too, throwing axes. Alot more choices to pick from, but less of each one. Also with Assassination, lvl 12 gives your rogue reach, which lets you attack from back row with daggers if you wanted another melee character back there.It also lets you backstab enemies if your moving behind them alot, letting him do 2-3 times more damage. It's really all on how you want to play.

Mages are indeed the easiest except on 1 thing. That's to not go just pure Fire. Earth is the weakest as said, does little damage, the enemies can move out of the square that is damaging over time, and the beginning to mid level undead/plant enemies are immune to poison damage as well. Don't go pure Fire tho, cause from mid game to end, the main enemy is the Fire Guardians, which are (of course) immune to fire. Tho having some Fire helps aswell, cause of the Fire shield spell.

Another thing about Mages is that the scrolls aren't needed for the spells. You don't need them to cast the spells, they just tell you the skill level, and what runes are needed to be used, for first time players that don't know all the spells already. If you already know that info (from looking it up online...) You can use the spell as long as you have the skill level for it.

[Jinxed]

I'd say go pure missile and str with your backrow rogue.
Going with ice mainly for your wizard is good imho. I went with that as a main stat, and a bit of light and eh.. can't remember the name but the non elemental one.

[mattdp]

I'd say go pure missile and str with your backrow rogue.
Going with ice mainly for your wizard is good imho. I went with that as a main stat, and a bit of light and eh.. can't remember the name but the non elemental one.

Str? You mean taking skills to boost strength? Is that much help with missile weapons?

Anyway, thanks to you both for the help so far. Sounds like I'm on the right path.

[Jirodyne]

I'd say go pure missile and str with your backrow rogue.
Going with ice mainly for your wizard is good imho. I went with that as a main stat, and a bit of light and eh.. can't remember the name but the non elemental one.

Str? You mean taking skills to boost strength? Is that much help with missile weapons?

Anyway, thanks to you both for the help so far. Sounds like I'm on the right path.

I think it does help, cause I think Dex only increases Evasion, while Str increases damage and Weight carried. I don't think it's like most other RPGs where Dex increases Range dmg.

[Ixnatifual]

Strength does increase missile damage.
Dexterity increases accuracy, but missile weapons always hit in this game, so accuracy is only useful for melee.

[Jinxed]

Sorry I didn't elaborate, but yeah Ixnatifual explained it for me

[LiamKerrington]

Hi.

About bombs: They inflict damage based on their "bomb-character"; but do they also inflict damage as for examples stones do?

@Strength and Dexterity: Dexterity is also important in terms of hitting in melee-combat; but it does not seem to have anything to do with ranged-attacks - neither range nor chance to hit. And the game proves this: Any ranged attack hits at 0-whatever damage inflicted. Therefore - as odd as it seems - strength is the way to go. Minotaur-rogue ftw, I would like to say ...

All the best!
Liam

[Sheogorath]

I went and maxed out Spellcraft (50 points) for double casting speed and (much) less energy drain for cast spells. 13 points in Ice magic for Ice bolts. The mage's main task is to blast enemies with Ice bolts (he cast them fast and throw alot of them with his Spellcraft 50). The point of the Ice bolts beeing to freeze the enemies thus nullifying their attacks. The main damage dealers are then the three other characters (swordsman, unarmed and minoutaur throwing rogue). A keeper setup.

[Jinxed]

I had that, only the minotaur rogue at the back was missiles.
Worked well for me.