"So" Sekiri says, "You think you are ready to use that rearrange wossit that we briefly discussed earlier?" You nod.
"Clever little process it is you know. It will let you change all your natural attributes at once, instantly, to some combination that you prefer. Very intense process though, you can only ever do it once, so it pays to think carefully. It allows you to select between 8 and 23 'points' of each of the stats of intelligence, wisdom, constitution, strength and dexterity. How these stats combine in each tree is set out on this paper here, and the other thing to note is that as you get more and more of a particular stat, the less it will impact a skill. That is, a point to intelligence will cause more impact from 13 to 14 than it will 22 to 23. That said, it can still be well worthwhile having the maximum in a stat."
"The first bit of advice I can give you is that if you need the advice, you're probably not ready yet. If you put half a dozen wizards in a room and ask them what the ideal wizardly attributes are, you'll get nine different answers, with three of them changing their minds mid-argument." Sekiri chuckles.
"With that in mind, you really need to select an arrangement that suits you personally. All I can do is tell you what exactly those attributes do, and what some of the implications are, you then need to think carefully about your personal needs in order to make a decision. Unfortunately, it isn't an easy one, every wizard has to make trade-offs between the different skills in terms of what they will be naturally good at."
"In addition to the impact on skills, your choice of stats has some other implications. For instance, your stats will determine how many guild points you regenerate per heart beat, which can be vital. There is also a direct impact on both your hit points and the regeneration for them. And finally, your strength will determine how much you can carry."
"There are a number of other excellent resources out there to help you better understand exactly the impact your choice will make, from how your bonuses will change, to how many hit points you will have, and exactly what your guild point regeneration will be. I strongly suggest that you utilise them as well before even thinking about thinking you might be ready to consider the possibility of rearranging."
"Now, with all that in mind, let me take you through the high points of each stat before I give you my personal opinion on the overall package."
OVERVIEW
Intelligence:
"Your intelligence reflects how bright you are and determines how able you are at figuring things out for yourself. A quick look at the magic tree should tell anyone with any that intelligence is used in every magic skill, making this the most important stat for any magic using wizard. It also has considerable influence in the covert, crafts and other skills, and also the fighting.special tree, even if it does not the remainder of the fighting tree. Almost all wizards therefore have more intelligence than they do in any other stat."
Wisdom:
"Your wisdom is a reflection of the power of your intuition and common sense. Not theoretically the most wizardly stat, as I'm sure you've noticed. If a group of Wizards were confronted by any form of danger, they would most likely immediately stop to argue amongst themselves about exactly what the danger is. Leaving aside that and the tendency to meddle with things that ought not to be meddled with, unfortunately wisdom is actually used in a great number of our magic skills, in fact everything except the physical, mental and elemental branches. Whether or not a wizard can afford to greatly increase this skill is a matter of balancing priorities."
Constitution:
"Your constitution is a measure of how healthy you are, and is frequently used to determine whether you succumb to disease or poison. Obviously, a key use of constitution is to determine other.health and how many hit points you have. Having enough hit points to survive the backfire of your spells can, well, be life saving. More directly, constitution also effects the appropriate use of our staves in combat through the polearm skill, if you choose to use them. In addition, it makes a very significant contribution
to our elemental branch and the magic.spells.defensive skill. Whether or not a wizard has much of this stat depends on their priorities in these skills."
Strength:
"Your strength is a measure of your physical power and build. Its most obvious role is in determining how much you are able to carry, but also plays a significant part in much of the fighting tree. In terms of magic however, strength is important only in offensive and magic.points. Of course, these are very important skills. Wizards will often find that at least reasonable strength is required to carry the many varied and sometimes hefty spell components."
Dexterity:
"Your dexterity determines how agile and graceful you are. Not something most would associate with wizards, but it does have a role to play. In particular, it is used in the misc and items branches of magic, and most importantly, the important physical methods branch. For those with a particular bent towards them, it is also heavily used in the covert and craft trees, and in many of the different fighting skills. Those wizards with a liking for physical combat often invest heavily, with other wizards having variable amounts depending on priorities."
SEKIRI'S VIEW
"As you can presumably already see, there are very few easy choices. Every one of the stats has a direct and measurably significant impact on skills most wizards will use every day of their lives."
"Now I am admittedly of the old school of thought that a wizard should be as intelligent as possible, and with very little wisdom. In fact, I have retained those for myself despite ample opportunity to change. Bearing that bias in mind however, intelligence is still the vital stat for any who wishes to have good all-round capabilities at magic, and have reasonable bonuses in a great many other skills. I still cannot go past 23 intelligence for anyone who wishes to be effective in broad areas of magic. Any deviations away from it are, for me, only reasonable when a wizard has a particular and narrow focus in mind."
"For example, those who wish to focus on elemental magic such as Nargl'frob's and Journey of the Heavenly Storm Dragon to the exclusion of much of the remainder of the magic tree, may choose to increase constitution at the cost of intelligence, likewise those concentrating on Doctor Kelleflump's may move the bias towards wisdom. Also, as is becoming more common these days, those with less focus on magic and more on fighting often significantly increase their dexterity and or strength."
"You should therefore certainly not rearrange until you already know which path you personally wish to go down. As mentioned earlier, your basic un-rearranged stats will get you by until you are really ready to make this decision."
"It must be said however, that such an extreme of intelligence is for some reason not entirely common these days. As much as that is a shame, excepting those who prefer physical combat to magic, the majority of wizards still have between 18 and 23 intelligence. How much they put into each of the other stats varies considerably."
RETROPHRENOLOGISTS
"Phrenology, as you may be aware, relates to the theory that personality traits of a person are determined by 'reading' bumps and fissures in the skull. Recently however, some enterprising sorts have managed to turn that into the business of retrophrenology, where they will aim to create new personality traits, or stats, in a person by the use of some new bumps and fissures in the skull."
"They will, at your request, be able to place enough changes by the use of a hammer, to move one point from one stat to another. After doing so, once you heal anyway, you will have your slightly changed stats. Due to the nature of the process, once can only do so once every six months, but it does mean you can slowly change your stats over time."
STAT MODIFIERS:
"Now, in addition to the above, there are items than can modify your natural stats in different ways. Many of these come with a cost, being either lowered stats along with increased ones, or a guild point drain. There are two in particular that may be of use to some wizards to temporarily change their stats."
"The first of these is the bronze helm. This gives the wearer a combination of +3 intelligence, +2 wisdom and -3 constitution while it is worn. Along similar lines is the flat cap, which provides +3 wisdom, +2 intelligence and -3 strength while worn. Both of these items however cannot be worn indefinitely, and will begin to hurt the wearer after a short period, leading to death eventually. Both these items can be purchased from the travelling shop."
"Two other items that some use are the black leather gloves and the iron gauntlets, which raise dexterity and strength respectively, at the cost of an ongoing drain in guild points."
SKILL TREES
"Here is a listing for your perusal of exactly what impact each stat has on all of the skills or branches that you can advance in. The numbers indicate how many parts out of five each stat contributes to the bonus in a skill. Most of the time, an entire branch uses the same stats, and where this is the case, this paper only shows the branch with its stats rather than the sub-skills. For completeness' sake, it contains all the branches, even those of little use to a wizard, such as faith."
=======SKILLS========Str==Dex==Int==Wis==Con==
covert..............
| stealth........... 1 3 1 - -
| hiding............ 1 2 2 - -
| lockpick.......... - 4 1 - -
| manipulation...... 2 2 1 - -
| casing............ - 1 2 2 -
| items............. - 1 4 - -
| points............ - 2 2 - 1
=====================Str==Dex==Int==Wis==Con==
crafts..............
| smithing.......... 1 2 2 - -
| mining............ 2 1 2 - -
| hunting........... - 2 3 - -
| carpentry......... 1 2 2 - -
| pottery........... - 3 2 - -
| materials......... 1 2 2 - -
| husbandry......... - - 3 2 -
| culinary.......... - 2 3 - -
| medicine.......... - 1 2 2 -
| arts.............. - 1 4 - -
| music............. - 1 4 - -
| points............ - 2 2 1 -
=====================Str==Dex==Int==Wis==Con==
faith...............
| rituals...........
| | offensive....... 2 - 1 2 -
| | defensive....... - 2 1 2 -
| | curing.......... - - 1 2 2
| | misc............ - - 2 3 -
| | special......... 1 - 1 3 -
| items............. - 1 2 2 -
| points............ - - 2 2 1
=====================Str==Dex==Int==Wis==Con==
fighting............
| melee.............
| | dagger.......... 1 4 - - -
| | sword........... 2 3 - - -
| | heavy-sword..... 3 1 - - 1
| | axe............. 3 1 - - 1
| | mace............ 2 1 - - 2
| | flail........... 2 2 - - 1
| | polearm......... 3 - - - 2
| | misc............ 2 2 - - 1
| range.............
| | thrown.......... 2 3 - - -
| | bow............. 3 2 - - -
| | fired........... 1 4 - - -
| unarmed...........
| | striking........ 1 2 - 2 -
| | grappling....... 2 2 - 1 -
| defence...........
| | parrying........ 1 3 - 1 -
| | blocking........ 2 2 - 1 -
| | dodging......... - 4 - 1 -
| special...........
| | weapon.......... 1 1 3 - -
| | unarmed......... - 2 3 - -
| | tactics......... - - 3 2 -
| | mounted......... - 2 - 1 2
| points............ 2 1 - - 2
=====================Str==Dex==Int==Wis==Con==
magic...............
| spells............
| | offensive....... 2 - 2 1 -
| | defensive....... - - 2 1 2
| | misc............ - 2 2 1 -
| | special......... - - 2 3 -
| methods...........
| | elemental....... - - 2 - 3
| | mental.......... - - 5 - -
| | physical........ - 3 2 - -
| | spiritual....... - - 2 3 -
| items............. - 1 2 2 -
| points............ 1 - 2 2 -
=====================Str==Dex==Int==Wis==Con==
other...............
| trading........... - - 4 1 -
| movement.......... 1 2 - - 2
| acrobatics........ 2 2 - - 1
| evaluating........ - - 4 1 -
| teaching..........
| | covert.......... - 2 2 - 1
| | crafts.......... - 2 2 1 -
| | faith........... - - 2 2 1
| | fighting........ 2 2 - - 1
| | magic........... 1 - 2 2 -
| culture........... - - 3 2 -
| perception........ - - 2 3 -
| direction......... - 2 2 1 -
| health............ 1 - - - 4
| points............ 1 1 1 1 1
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