How Skills modify Talents (table)

[John Robinson]

How Skills modify Talents (table)

Players' Guides: Heroes and Monsters (Tables) provides additional information you may find useful on a variety of topics.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to use my Skill points, and cobbled this little table together.

I think the real  secret behind Skills is how they provide a way to use higher levels of some Talents that normally would have a very high SP cost.

Some skills increase duration of the talent.  For example Stone Skin 6, at 36 SP.
This can be a pretty steep price tag for Vraes to repeatedly use a Talent that wears off in 8 combat rounds.
Every skill point added to Lore will add another round of duration, so if he doesn't have to cast it as often, then it costs less to use.
This is great because whatever number of rounds you used in Stone Skin during a single combat will carry over to the next enemy encounter. 
Other Skills can increase weapon and spell accuracy, so if you are doing more damage more often you save SP in the long run.

Knowledge is not a Skill.  Knowledge is an Attribute with Skill like properties so I've included it in the table.
Knowledge increases the accuracy of any attack spell single target or AOE.

Note about Conjuring, and Sorcery backed AOE spells.
Your Sorcery and Conjuring number does not guarantee any additional targets will be hit with an AOE spell such as Immolation.
If you miss the first target of an AOE spell no further action is taken.
If you hit the first target then separate accuracy rolls will be made for the remaining targets in the area of effect to determine a hit for each one.
All Curses such as Choking Ash and Frigid Air are exempt from these rules, they always hit the targets governed by how many targets your
Conjuring Talent number allows. 
 
You can find additional tips on understanding skill effects in the Immolation question thread.

Skill	Talent	Skill Effect on Talent
Blades	Strike	Increases both melee accuracy and melee defense during combat edged weapons
Bows	Loose	Increases ranged accuracy when using Bows
Hammers	Strike	==> Special note +1 in melee weapons skill = +1 standard dice for melee accuracy
Polearms	Strike	and defense during combat.  Bows add +1 standard dice accuracy only <==
Conjuring	Burning Blades	Increases Duration
Conjuring	Choking Ash	(AOE) Each Conjuring point lets me hit an additional target in Areas of Effect
Conjuring	Ethereal Anguish	(Soon to become an AOE ?)
Conjuring	Flash Freeze	(AOE) Each Conjuring point lets me hit an additional target in Areas of Effect
Conjuring	Frigid Air	(AOE) Each Conjuring point lets me hit an additional target in Areas of Effect
Conjuring	Meteoric Shockwave	(AOE) Each Conjuring point lets me hit an additional target in Areas of Effect
Conjuring	Piety Ward	Increases Duration
Conjuring	Pureflame Shield	Increases Duration *Special see discussion below
Conjuring	Thundering Blades	Increases Duration
Conjuring	Warder's Shield	Increases Duration
Hammers	Strike	Increases both melee accuracy and melee defense when using Hammers
Invocation	Holy Retribution	Increases spell attack accuracy.
Invocation	Banishment	Increases spell attack accuracy.
Knowledge	Firebolt	Increases spell attack accuracy.
Knowledge	Firestorm	Increases spell attack accuracy (AOE).
Knowledge	Holy Retribution	Increases spell attack accuracy.
Knowledge	Immolation	Increases spell attack accuracy (AOE).
Knowledge	Banishment	Increases spell attack accuracy.
Leadership	Phalanx Shield	Increases Duration
Lore	Blacknight	Increases Duration
Lore	Burst of Speed	Increases Duration
Lore	Charged Speed	Increases Duration
Lore	Eye of the Storm	Increases Duration
Lore	Myshana's Tears	Multiplies Lore from 1 to 10 times added to Healed HP
Lore	Natural Mastery	Increases Duration
Lore	Purifying Breeze	Adds Lore to Healed HP (AOE)
Lore	Sacrifice	Adds Lore to Restored SP
Lore	Silent Stalker	Increases Duration
Lore	Stone Skin	Increases Duration
Polearms	Strike	Increases both melee accuracy and melee defense when using staff or spear.
Security	Disarming Touch	+1 Security save per point when disarming traps
Security	Precision Pick	+1 Security save per point when opening chests and doors
Sorcery	Elemental Sundering	(AOE) Each Sorcery point lets me hit and additional target in areas of effect
Sorcery	Energy Storm	(AOE) Each Sorcery point lets me hit and additional target in areas of effect
Sorcery	Fireboldt	Increases spell attack accuracy.
Sorcery	Firestorm	(AOE) Each Sorcery point lets me hit and additional target in areas of effect
Sorcery	Immolation	(AOE) Each Sorcery point lets me hit and additional target in areas of effect
Sorcery	Lightning Spear	(AOE) Each Sorcery point lets me hit and additional target in areas of effect
Stealth	Blacknight	+1 Stealth Increases chance of surprise Thief led Party gets first move
Stealth	In General	+1 Stealth Increases chance of surprise Thief or led Party gets first move

[Swami, not logged in.]

/fireboldt/firebolt/

[John Robinson]

Dec 27, 2013 14:31:19 GMT -5 Swami, not logged in. said:

/fireboldt/firebolt/

Fixed. Thank you for catching the error. +1 Exalt

Ok Bounty Hunters: Wanted dead or alive, catch an error, or provide accurate information bounty is +1 Exalt

Gunslingers (accurate reliable information)
fallen
Cory Trese
Karjus

Deadeyes   (typos and corrections)
Swami

[Karjus]

Possibly make an additional note that only the relevant weapon skill will provide a bonus. IE, if you have Blades/Polearms/Hammers at 5 skill they're not all added up to provide you with melee defense.

[John Robinson]

Dec 27, 2013 16:02:17 GMT -5 Karjus said:

Possibly make an additional note that only the relevant weapon skill will provide a bonus. IE, if you have Blades/Polearms/Hammers at 5 skill they're not all added up to provide you with melee defense.

Thank you great idea. Done! +1 exalt and your name added to the ranks. (see above)  

[algesan]

When I use Vraes' buffs in a fight, they poof by the next fight, even if it is just a couple of turns in the first one, then move to trigger the next encounter immediately. I might have 1-2 turns left occasionally, but it is far less than the spell duration. If it is more than just triggering an adjacent encounter, then they are gone. If I cast Vraes' buffs and then let him lead the party around, his buffs fade off...at least if there is no close encounter. OTOH, if I cast Vraes' buffs and let someone else lead the party around, then they do stay fresh for a fight then.

[fallen]

algesan - I think there is some confusion. Buffs never fade outside of combat. You can cast them and they last as long as you want, regardless of who is leading the party.

When you are in a combat, they tick down turns. When a combat ends, they loose a number of "recovery turns" based on your game's difficulty.

Increasing the Talent's skill (see the Leveling screens) increases their duration.

[John Robinson]

algesan

The Don't forget to Pre-Buff thread is definitely worth a second look.

In this thread I found some good information from Cory Trese and fallen on this topic. I did not know there were "recovery rounds" after combat
that reduce the number of rounds remaining in the buffs. From reading some of your other posts, it looks like you
play on Nightmare (I'm pretty impressed that's a long way down the road for me).

Apparently difficulty is tied to how many buff rounds get burnt off after combat.

The only time I encountered pre-buf round reduction during free move is when the party moves from one area to the next, like
from Oskahold to the Northern Ratkin Camp, even then it is only one turn. I play on Normal difficulty so suspect I'm getting
off much easier than on Nightmare. Other than that I've never noticed loss of buff rounds related to who is leading the
party, or just walking around when not in combat. In fact I rely on that not happening in order to afford the SP cost  
of using higher ranks in the buffs.

I'm probably restating what you already know, and what is in the Table, but. Every point you put in lore adds a round to
the Stone Skin and Natural Mastery buffs. Vraes starts the game with Lore 2, so casting one of these and immediately
taping on his portrait, then the effects button I always see 10 rounds. I really want to know what you see playing Nightmare.
That could shed new light on the table. The same mechanism works with increasing Phalanx Shield +1 turns per point in Leadership.

Other than LOL and AOE I'm not very good with abbreviations, what is "OTOH" stand for?

[Alex Fury]

John Robinson - OTOH - On The Other Hand

[John Robinson]

Dec 31, 2013 13:22:45 GMT -5 Alex Fury said:

John Robinson - OTOH - On The Other Hand

Thanks I got a million abbreviations for Mainframe computers, but Forum Speak is a new language for me, adding this one to my
dictionary.

[algesan]

Yep, I get to eat crow on this one. After I posted I found the response by Cory at startradersrpg.proboards.com/post/67380

Which led me to watching the buffs closer for a bit and they consistently performed like he states. I know what happened now, playing through too fast the first couple of times, with buffs lasting better on Normal, then in NM hitting some of the little 1-2 round combats (which by Cory's post will trigger the post combat buff stripping) with its greater effects. As well as not double checking everything.

[Swami]

Per my understanding the table should be modified as below:

Conjuring	Pureflame Shield	(AOE) Each Conjuring point lets me hit an additional target in Areas of Effect
Conjuring	Pureflame Shield	Increases Duration

[John Robinson]

Jan 2, 2014 16:38:24 GMT -5 Swami said:

Per my understanding the table should be modified as below:

Conjuring	Pureflame Shield	(AOE) Each Conjuring point lets me hit an additional target in Areas of Effect
Conjuring	Pureflame Shield	Increases Duration

Hi Swami.  Yes my first impression was the same as yours.  However on the Leveling screen if you select Purifying Shield you will see
it never gets any bigger than the "Cross Shaped Aoe", and stays the same all the way to level 10.  You only need Conjuring 4 to hit the maximum
targets you can hit.

Purflame only lasts 3 rounds.  Cast it, pick a character you cast it on, go to the effects screen and you should see the duration is higher
than 3 rounds.  Right now my Karjtan is a level 6 Character with Conjuring 5.  He just cast Purflame Shield on himself 
and the effects screen displays 8 rounds of Purflame remaining.

Conjuration 5 + Purflame 3 rounds = 8 round duration.  The AOE max 4 should be added to the table for clarity.

Keep shooting the cans off the log out back Deadeye  +1 Exalt

Note:  I document the size and shape of all AOE in the individual tables of the characters who cast them.
All the charater talent tables are cross linked in the Players Guides: Heroes and Monsters (Tables) thread.

[Swami]

Agreed, but Karjtan starts with conjuring of 32(corrected due to fallen's note) @ level 1, which does not allow him to hit ALL his spots in Red Hill.

I was suggesting the add so people know that once he gets his Conjuring to 4, it will correct that issue for the current party. We also don't know if in EP 2+ there are allies added to the party of 4 we now have come to love. Not an issue because Cory Trese doesn't love us enough to give us friends!

[fallen]

Kjartan starts with Conjuring 2 ...