Spell and Talent Points

[Gregorovitch]

1. Balm of healing Spell

The definition of this spell is

3D20 Success roll against CL/IN/CH
Result is 2D6VP + Modifier*5VP healed
Modifier is optional set from quick bar
Max modifier is character level/2

My character is level 5 and has 15/14/14 applicable atributes. Has 8 Spell Points allocated to this spell. So I can apply a +1 modifier now and +2 when I reach level 6.

I find the spell is almost always successful. This is because I would need to throw say 16/18/18 or worse on my spell check for it to fail (becasue I have 8 SP to allocate) therefore failure is very unlikely since out of 8000 possible results only a handfull are equal or worse than this.

However the Spell Points do not affect the amount of healing that results at all.

Q: Therefore I have no motivation in increasing the SP allocated to this spell beyond squeezing out the last remaining chances of casting failure, and really I have probably already allocated too many?

2. Ranged Combat and the Hawkeye Marksman Spell

My characters bow TP allocation is 13 and this shows a bow AT value of 21. So apart from throwing a 20 which is an automatic miss, if I am shooting a single enemy not involved in a melee and that enemy is average sized or bigger and does not have a shield equipped I cannot miss?

But if the enemy is small, and/or if it is involved in a melee with many other participants next to it, and/or if it has equipped a shield, a series of maluses apply that will make it possible to miss. However I have not noticed that I miss much on the whole even when shooting packs of rats surrounding the rest of my party.

Q: So really I have very little reason to increase my bow talent value any further since doing so will not increase the amount of damage I do with each hit and only marginally increase my already high hit rate (except perhaps if I come across a high end bow that has a minimum TP requirement to equip)?

Now if I cast Hawkeye Marksman, for which I have allocated 9 points, I usually get +2/3 to my bow TP. However I now notice this does not raise the bow AT value at all. Hawkeye spell definition says I get +2 HP bonus with this spell, but looking at the chahcter sheet it does not actually increase my chance of hitting the target via bow AT even though it increases bow TP. Is this right, in which case I have already put far more points into Hawkeye Marksman than I needed to since you get the +2HP bonus whatever the SP value?

OK, a more general question I am trying to answer which I have used these examples to try to understand better is the naive approach that for example I want to heal better so I put more points into Balm of Healing, or I want to do more damage with my bow so I add bow TP and Hawkeye SP is not the way to play this game because with both these skills the TP/SP you allocate does not actually increase the impact of the talent/spell, it merely increases the likelyhood of the shot/cast actually working.

There is,if you like, an optimum point level for a given skill for a given character at a given point in the game beyond which further allocation achieves very little and is basically wastefull and you have to read the definitions of everything very carefully and watch the log like a hawk in order to avoid this trap of over-allocation?

[virumor]

Most crafting and nature skills don't need to be raised above 10, since there are items that will give a bonus to the skill (though some of these items are bugged, IIRC).

IIRC, a survival TP of 13 is enough to show all possible plants on the map.

Ice Cold Warrior is a spell that doesn't need points in it, since IIRC you always ignore all wounds regardless of SP*.

In River of Time a lot of spells are tweaked, though.

[Gregorovitch]

OK, so is it correct to say:

Unless a spell definition specifically states that it's duration/potency is increased by the character SP value for the spell, the only reason to increase spell points allocated to that spell is to reduce the chances of casting failure?

And second question:

What does increase the durartion/potency of spells?

[virumor]

First question: yes

Second question: spells unaffected by SP* have a fixed duration and/or damage.

[Gregorovitch]

Thank you for your replay, I think I'm getting it now. Seems to me that niether weapons or spells in this system do that much damage per hit, but neither do characters or enemies have that many VI points (apart from some bosses). When you get hit it hurts, so the big thing is to avoid getting hit as much as possible, and to make sure you hit enemies as much as possible rather than worry over much exactly how much damage you inflict (or take) per hit. More "realistic" than D&D systems with wounding element adding further reaslism.

I wonder if I could test your patience with yet another question:

There is one english language thread on this with one authorative sounding post in it, but I would like confirmation:

One of my characters weilds a mace with values:

1D+4(1W+5 with Strength 15)
Modifer 12/3

The explanation given is that "W" here (as in 1W+5) refers to "Wuffel" (dice in german) *not* wound, that the function producing the 1W+5 bracketed string does not change the german "W" to English "D" (bug), and that bracketed string is a player aid indicating the actual damage done by the character currently wielding this weapon after the strength modifier (12/3) is applied (in this case +1 since 15=12+3 hence +5, not +4).

This looks plausible, but I would just like confirmation. Thanks.

[virumor]

Spells like Ignifaxus and Fulminictus can do a lot of damage, but also take a lot of mana.

Overall, Lightning is the best spell, since it takes only 5 AP if you're well trained in it, and it has a decent damage out put, namely 1D20 + 5.

And yes, W = Würfel = dice.