Stats (Str, Int, Wis, Dex, Con)

[Maerryji]

General.
The stats of different races and classes sometimes may change, without data at the official site being updated. If you want to be completely sure what stats you are going to have, don't ask here (you will most probably get the answers like "when I was playing Mino 3 years ago it was..."), just connect solace, enter a random name, make the necessary choices and you will see the board like this:

 .-----------------------------.
||                             ||
||  Strength          15 (18)  ||
||  Intelligence      25 (25)  ||
||  Wisdom            23 (23)  ||
||  Dexterity         15 (18)  ||
||  Constitution      20 (20)  ||
||                             ||
|>-----------------------------<|
||  Points remaining:      0   ||
 '-----------------------------'

The values you need are in brackets.
(If you want to know your racial resistances and vulnerabilities, just go ahead and type 'af' once the character is created. Don't remain in the game too much if your name is inappropriate, this is very annoying.)

Of course if you just needed a quick comparison this page
http://solace.i-read-you.ru/races.shtml
is preferable.

Stats in general are balanced so that losing 1 point of stat1 and gaining 1 point of stat2 is an equivalent change. However, each class has its own preferences. Make sure you have the most important stats for your class at maximum, unless you know how to modify them easily. You can further train stats (at rank 1 you have 2 additional points) or find the equipment improving them. Note that there is virtually no way to make your stats exceeding the racial maximum (values in brackets).

[Maerryji]

Strength is one of the definitive factors deciding the power of your blows (done with the weapons, bare hands, maybe kicks). It also defines the maximum weight of a weapon you can wield and luggage you can carry. Chances of success for many attacking skills are also defined by strength.

The strength is very important for: fighters, outcasts, rangers, knights, assassins;
moderately important for: thieves, clerics, druids;
not so important for: transmuters, necromancers, invokers.

The races having best maximum strength are: minotaurs, draconians, dwarves;
moderate: humans, half-elves, half-kenders;
low: gnomes, kenders, wild elves, dark elves, elves.
Note that humans and half-humans have additional points at a stat primary for their class. Human fighters, rangers, knights and outcasts are as strong as draconians.

The main ways to improve your strength are: 1) giant strength spell (up to +4, available from many potions that are easy to find or from clerics and transmuters) and some other spells and affects; 2) using the items that improve it. Note that items making you weaker also exist.

Many of the maledictions are used to weaken your enemy. All of them make some effect against mobs, but against players you usually need to diminish their strength by 4+ points by various affects before you notice any effect, since it is not uncommon to have some strength-adding equipment and affects. This is a good advice for you, too.
(Say, if you are a human fighter with strength 23, but also have a 'giant strength' spell modifying it by +4 and two items giving +1 each, you will not have strength 29, but the affects of a boneshatter (-5) and a poison (-2) would tweak your strength to 22 only.)

The strength is mostly decreased by: bleed, boneshatter, cripple ambush, weaken, (powerful) plague, fatigue, rot, (very powerful, usually from some wicked mobs) poisons and vitality-draining energy drains. Lower level plagues, poisons, and energy drains, as well as cross slice, nerve, and sometimes chill touches are also of some use.
Sometimes putting a few affects on your enemy simultaneously make his weapon too heavy for him, which is very important result because he loses not only attacking but also a part of defending abilities immediately.

[Maerryji]

Intelligence is a stat important for everyone. The higher is intelligence of your character, the faster his or her abilities (skills, spells, probably feats) improve.
In addition, it affects
- mana gains per rank (possibly along with the wisdom, but for mages and outcasts wisdom does not seem to have effect);
- (possibly) the amount of mana you regenerate each tick;
- the damages made by the spells (but not empowers).

Intelligence defines the number of skill or spell level percents you receive per practice session. Say we have a gnome transmuter:


sk 1

Level  1: dagger              40%      whip                 1%     
          staff                1%      scrolls              1%     
          staves             100%      wands              100%     
          recall              50%     

prac whip
You are now learned at whip.

sk 1

Level  1: dagger              40%      whip                75%     
          staff                1%      scrolls              1%     
          staves             100%      wands              100%     
          recall              50%     


"You are now learned" means that guildmaster cannot help you to practice that ability any further. Only gnomes are able to become learned after a single practice session spent. Human would have seen


pra scrolls
You practice scrolls.


sk 1

Level  1: dagger              40%      whip                 1%     
          staff                1%      scrolls             66%     
          staves               1%      wands                1%     
          recall              50%     


Now you can either practice it again or learn the remaining percents yourself, repeatedly using the ability. Remember that a practice session worths 1-1.5 HP.

The importance of intelligence for different classes consists of two parts.
First, some classes need to spend time improving their abilities above the values they reach after practicing in guild and using them to get experience.
It is very important for: invokers, necromancers;
moderately important for: druids, outcasts, fighters, assassins, rangers, thieves;
not so important for: transmuters, knights, clerics.
Second, invokers, necromancers, transmuters, and outcasts need much mana and powerful spells (most important for invokers, not so important for transmuters). For clerics, druids, and knights this is not so important since their mana gains seem to be decided mostly by wisdom and since they have empowers instead of spells. For others, mana is even less important.

Races having the best maximum intelligence are: gnomes, elves, dark elves, wild elves;
moderate: draconians, half-elves, humans, dwarves, half-kenders, kenders;
worst are minotaurs.
Note that humans and half-humans have additional points at a stat primary for their class. Human and half-elven mages are as smart as wild elves.

There are no common ways to improve your intelligence with spells or other affects. If you do not want to train it up to the maximum (which is recommended for the most of classes), you should find equipment that affects it.

There are also no common ways to decrease of your enemies' intelligence except for 'energy drain' spell (when it affects mind). However, during the battles intelligence is always important only for invokers, others have the ways of fighting without relying on spell damages. Note that the chances of penetrating enemy's saves do not depend on intelligence.

[Maerryji]

Wisdom defines the number of practice sessions you gain per rank. It also affects
- your will saves;
- mana you gain per per rank (for knights, clerics, druids, but not mages and outcasts);
- (possibly) the amount of mana you regenerate each tick;
- damages made by your empowers (but not spells).

You should have the maximum possible wisdom before getting each new rank (in fact, it is enough to have 15, 18, 23, or 25 wisdom to get 2, 3, 4, or 5 practice sessions respectively, so if you don't care about mana just make sure you will get as many practices as you can).

Wisdom is important for clerics, knights, druids, and members of some clans, and moderately important for others.

Races having the best maximum wisdom are: elves, wild elves, gnomes;
moderate: dark elves, half-elves, humans, dwarves, half-kenders, kenders, draconians;
worst are minotaurs.
Note that humans and half-humans have additional points at a stat primary for their class. Human and half-elven clerics and druids are as wise as wild elves and gnomes.

There are no common ways to increase your intelligence with spells and other affects, so if you want to improve it temporarily you should look for the items improving it.

The only common way to decrease your opponent's wisdom is mind-draining energy drain.

Note that wisdom affects only damages made by empowers but not the chances of penetrating enemy's saves.

[Maerryji]

Dexterity is primarily applied to the most of your defensive skills. Many offensive skills are affected as well. In addition, dexterity affects:
- reflex saves;
- armor class (with higher dexterity more enemies' blows miss you even if you fail to block them, and you have minor additional resistance);
- number of the items you can carry.

Dexterity is most important for thieves, assassins, fighters, and rangers, and is moderately important for others. However, fighters and rangers can make good warriors with moderate or low dexterity if it is compensated by high strength.

Races having the best maximum dexterity are: kenders, wild elves, half-kenders, elves, dark elves;
moderate: half-elves, humans;
low: gnomes, dwarves, draconians, minotaurs.
Note that humans and half-humans have additional points at a stat primary for their class. Human and half-elven thieves and assassins are as agile as elves or dark elves, and half-kender thieves and assassins are as quick as wild elves.

There are a few common spells and other affects improving your dexterity, for example haste spell and haste-like affects from skills, shrink spell, or viper style. In addition, it can be temporarily improved with equipment (note that many other items can make your dexterity lower).
Note that if you are affected by haste or haste-like skill, your moves regenerate swiftly, but your health regeneration (the one applied each tick) almost stops.

Your opponent's dexterity can be decreased with slow spell, bleed, boneshatter, caltraps, cripple ambush, and other battle skills, as well as stamina-draining energy drain. The most important is probably slow because it has many additional effects that worsen your opponent's fighting abilities and shorten the distance he or she can run from you without rest. However, slow also improves victim's health regeneration rate, which is extensively used by transmuters and some other classes.

[Maerryji]

Constitution defines the amount HP you gain each rank, and affects the amount of HP you regenerate each tick. It also affects your fortitude saves and chances of success for some skills used against you. Possibly (but not likely) it also affects the amount of health you gain when you train HP.
And one of the most important things, constitution (its true value without affects or additions from equipment applied) affects the duration of life. Your character will grow old later than one of the same race with lesser constitution. If the constitution decreases too much the character dies immediately.

Constitution is more or less equally important for all classes.

Races having the best constitution are: dwarves, minotaurs, draconians;
moderate: humans, gnomes, half-kenders, half-elves;
low: dark elves, kenders, wild elves, elves.

Make sure you have the maximum constitution possible for your race before you gain each rank. To improve your constitution temporarily you should find appropriate equipment. Note that some equipment can make it lower.

Death is a way to decrease constitution permanently, each death costs you 1/3 point. This is the only possible reason for so-called con death (losing of character due to low constitution) and a way to hasten age death. Con death is not common, but life becomes very inconvenient if you do not train your constitution back after many deaths.

There are a few ways to decrease your opponent's constitution temporarily, for example bleed skill or vitality-draining energy drain. Other ways to impede or reverse his or her health regeneration (sometimes much more efficient) are poisons and diseases.