Abilities, Races, and Bonuses

Characters' basic abilities are (for the most part) a means to an end: Bonus scores. The bonus is the modifier derived from the ability, plus a racial modifier. (Racial modifiers affect the bonus, not the ability. A dwarf with a strength of 35 is really as strong as a hobbit with a strength of 100, as you'll see by adding the results of the two charts below.) Various bonuses are applied to skills, hits, speed, defense and spell points. Here's what you need to know:

Basic ability modifiers:

Score	Modifier
35-70	0
71-85	5
86-90	10
91-94	15
95-97	20
98-99	25
100	30

Racial modifiers:

Ability	Human	Elf	Half Elf	Dwarf	Hobbit
Strength	+5	0	+5	+15	-15
Agility	0	+10	+10	-5	+20
Constitution	+10	0	+5	+20	+20
Intelligence	0	+10	+5	-5	-5
Wisdom	+10	-10	-5	0	-5
Presence	0	+10	+5	-10	-15
Memory	0	+10	+10	0	+5
Reason	0	0	0	+5	+10

The abilities affect some stats, and the bonuses are added directly to certain skills. Where more than one bonus applies, the average of the applicable bonuses is added.

Bonus effects:

Stats	Strength	Agility	Const.	Intel.	Wisdom	Presence	Memory	Reason
Hits			*1
Spell Points				*2	*2
Defense		Yes
Movement		*3
Skill Picks								*4
Skills	Strength	Agility	Const.	Intel.	Wisdom	Presence	Memory	Reason
Pick Locks		Yes		Yes
Disarm Traps		Yes		Yes
Deadly Strike
Trading						Yes
Unarmed Combat	Yes	Yes
Handheld Arms	Yes
Bows		Yes
Item Ident.				Yes	Yes
Read Runes				Yes			Yes
Detect Traps		Yes		Yes				Yes
Perception				Yes
Mythic Lore				Yes			Yes
Spell List
Woods Lore					Yes			Yes
Mountaineering		Yes						Yes

*1: Every "Fortification" pick you take increases your hits by a random amount. Your constitution bonus increases this amount.
*2: Spell points depend upon your actual wisdom or intelligence score, not on your bonus. Therefore, race is irrelevant to spell points. The cleric, paladin and ranger use wisdom. The mage, ashikari, and bard use intelligence. See the tables below.
*3: Movement is based on Agility, plus a factor (possibly random) that I have not yet identified. (Ballpark, but not the real Movement formula: Agility/10 + Agility bonus.)
*4: Lobosolitario presents anecdotal evidence that the Reason score, rather than bonus, affects the total number of skill picks a character receives. Neither of us has investigated this further. (Training at a class-specific guild also tends to yield more skill picks than training at a multi-purpose guild does.)

Spell points per pick, by class and ability

Int/Wis	Mage/Cleric Sps		Int/Wis	Ashikari/Paladin Sps		Int/Wis	Bard/Ranger Sps
0-50	0		0-50	0		0-50	0
51-85	1		51-85	1		51-95	1
86-99	2		86-100	2		96-100	2
100	3

Racial skill bonuses:

• Human: None
• Elf: +10 Woods Lore
• Half Elf: +20 Woods Lore
• Dwarf: +20 Mountaineering
• Hobbit: +10 Pick Locks, +10 Disarm Traps, +15 Bows

(Despite what the manual says, there are no racial bonuses to any of the five types of magic resistance. (It is possible, but doubtful, that the game adds a racial bonus to the recorded resistances on the fly: This would not be in keeping with the way it handles all other stats.))

Total racial skill modifiers:
If you apply the racial ability bonuses (from the "Racial Modifiers" table) to the relevant skills (using the "Bonus effects" table), and add the racial skill bonuses (just above), you get the following results, showing which races really are better at which skills.

Skill	Human	Elf	Half Elf	Dwarf	Hobbit
Pick Locks	0	+10	+7.5	-5	+17.5
Disarm Traps	0	+10	+7.5	-5	+17.5
Deadly Strike	0	0	0	0	0
Trading	0	+10	+5	-10	-15
Unarmed Combat	+2.5	+5	+7.5	+5	+2.5
Handheld Arms	+5	0	+5	+15	-15
Bows	0	+10	+10	-5	+35
Item Ident.	+5	0	0	-2.5	-5
Read Runes	0	+10	+7.5	-2.5	0
Detect Traps	0	+5	+5	-1.7	+8.3
Perception	0	+10	+5	-5	-5
Mythic Lore	0	+10	+7.5	-2.5	0
Spell List	0	0	0	0	0
Woods Lore	+5	+5	+17.5	+2.5	+2.5
Mountaineering	0	+5	+5	+50	+15

Picks per level, by class:
This shows which classes can become best at which skills (presuming that you put picks into those skills). Each pick grants three points to a skill, unless otherwise noted. (Skills that have had no picks assigned to them suffer a -20 penalty. So your first pick will appear to improve the skill by 23.) If a class gets no picks for a skill, then it cannot use that skill, even if it has a decent score (by virtue of high abilities or an editor).

Skills	Fighter	Rogue	Thief	Ranger	Bard	Cleric	Mage	Paladin	Ashikari
Pick Locks	1	2	3	2	2	1	1	1	2
Disarm Traps	1	2	3	3	2	1	1	1	2
Deadly Strike	0	2	3	0	2	0	0	0	0
Trading	1	2	2	2	3	2	1	2	1
Unarmed Combat	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	2
Handheld Arms	3	2	2	2	2	2	1	3	3
Bows	3	2	2	3	2	0	0	2	0
Item Ident.	1	1	2	2	2	3	2	2	2
Read Runes	1	1	2	2	2	2	3	2	2
Detect Traps	1	2	3	2	2	1	1	1	2
Fortification1	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Spell Points2	0	0	0	2	2	2	2	2	2
Perception	2	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	2
Mythic Lore	1	1	1	1	3	2	2	1	1
Attack Evasion3	2	1	1	2	2	1	1	2	3
Spell List4	0	0	0	0	0	3	3	0	0
Woods Lore	2	2	1	3	2	1	1	2	2
Mountaineering	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1

1. Each Fortification pick increases your hits by a random amount, plus a small amount dependent upon your Constitution bonus.
2. See the "Spell points per pick" table above for how many spell points each pick grants.
3. Each Attack Evasion pick increases your Defense by 1.
4. Each Spell List pick increases your chance to learn a new spell list by 5%.

Number of attacks per round, by class and level:
A beginning character starts out capable of one weapon swing per round, and one bow shot per round. Every X levels (see the chart below), they gain another attack per round. For example, a fighter gains an extra weapon swing at levels 3, 6, 9 and so on, and another bow shot at levels 4, 8, 12 and so on. (Unarmed attacks use the weapon swing amount.)

	Levels to gain extra attacks
Class	Weapon	Bow
Fighter	3	4
Rogue	3	4
Thief	4	3
Ranger	4	3
Bard	3	4
Cleric	4	6
Elementalist	6	5
Sorcerer	6	5
Mentalist	3	5
Conjuror	3	5
Paladin	3	4
Ashikari	3	4

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