Confused about stats

[OneLeggedDruid]

Hi all. I read about this party in this forum

Front Row:
Minotaur - Fighter - 50 Unarmed Combat
(Uses full heavy armor, makes a decent tank. Unarmed combat does massive damage)

Lizardman - Rogue - 50 Dodge
(Uses full Lurker set & scaled cloak, he’s an evasion god, dodges about 95% of the time on the harder monsters. I soloed the Fighter's Challenge with him )

Back Row:
Lizardman - Rogue - 50 Assassination, rest in Dagger
(Uses Assassin’s Dagger and any gear that gives strength. I used the EXP pendant and all skill books on him. If he gets a backstab off it almost always single shots any monster, even Ogres and Goromorgs)

Insectoid - Mage - 50 Ice Magic, rest in Spell Craft
(Uses Frostbolt often, so my assassin can backstab the monster which usually single shots them)

Now, how should I allocate the stats for these characters?

[Dr.Disaster]

Just allocated stats as you would for any other fighter/rogue/mage. This skill allocation does require at least lvl 12+ characters so it will require some time to get there anyway; usually at least one go thru the original Grimrock dungeon or a longer mod.

[OneLeggedDruid]

so I should just go with str/vit for the fighter (or should I put dex too?), and dex and will for rogue and mage?
Also, is there the option to reset the stat points at any point in the game?

[OneLeggedDruid]

usually at least one go thru the original Grimrock dungeon or a longer mod.

Ok, actually I just read this now. So, if I wanted a simple but functional setup to help me finish without problems a first playthrough, what would I want to go for?

[Dr.Disaster]

basic information about stats can be found here:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2833&hilit=strength+effect#p28879

regarding the base stats str/dex/vit/wil:
- there is no respec after character creation so choose carefully
- the basic stats do not change directly after character creation (some mods can have exceptions to this)
- the basic stats can be build up indirectly by developing skills and collecting rare items with stat bonuses

Strength builds Damage for all melee and ranged weapons.
Dexterity builds Accuracy for melee weapons. Ranged weapons do not require Accuracy.
Now the named weapon skills build both Accuray and Damage for the named weapon class so placing points into Str and Dex to build Damage and Accuracy will only help in the beginning but become obsolete later on.

Magic user see no real need for str or dex so they go straight for willpower to build up their energy pool. Melee/ranged weapon users also need energy for their attacks but that only becomes an issue in rather long battles so they can skip on building wil.

Vitality is generally important for all classes. The more vit you got the higher max life is possible so if you are unsure where to put your points place them here.

[OneLeggedDruid]

Thank you very much, one last question: Should I still prefer Unarmed for my front row fighter? Considering that I've now changed my mind, and I'm probably going to go with a simple two fighters front and 1 rogue/1 mage back

[Dr.Disaster]

Basically it's a choice of taste. Unarmed is a good choice if you want a fast attack and don't really want to find a weapon to put it to use. Naturally you'll then miss out on magical weapons that can add extra effects or damages on top of anything skill granted.

[OneLeggedDruid]

Okay, got it... So I'll go with "armed", I guess... My main worry is to somehow screw up building them up, should I just consider one skill per char and max that?

[Dr.Disaster]

As you may have noticed each class has 4 attack skills, 1 defence skill and 1 utitily skill. While the front row will pick 1 main attack maybe 1 secondary attack and the defence skill the back row will likely pick 1-2 attack and the utility skill.

As you've seen it takes 50 points to max a skill. After creation characters get 4 points per level up so it would take 12.5 level up's to go from zero to max. Now it is possible to simply pump all those points into one skill. Yet that would be a bad idea because you don't know beforehand how many level ups your party will see by playing a dungeon.

For example the original Grimrock dungeon can be finished with lvl 12 chars, depending on how much you miss or skip but you can also finish it at lvl 14+. Custom mods are even more variable here so it's better to have a plan when to build which skill instead of dumping points into a lone skill.

Also most spells don't need to be maxed to be efficient. Attack skills do pretty well once 32-35 points are in and Defence/Utility skills do quite well at 18-25.

[OneLeggedDruid]

Ok, I've been looking at the editor for 40 mins now, I suck at this XD To put it simply: can I screw up so badly that I find my party incapable of finishing the game at Normal difficulty? I mean, while keeping a certain logic in how I allocate the points. Deranged as I may be I'm not going to put all the points in vit for my mage, or all the points in will for the fighter...