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I'm thinking about upgrading Deadly Hand, Stoneskin, Deadly Pirouette, Lockpick, Alchemy and Air Magic to the max, with some points in Balance, Knockdown and Critical Hit. Is this a solid plan? Am I missing something?
How best to distribute stat points?

Thanks in advance!

"I'm thinking about upgrading Deadly Hand, Stoneskin, Deadly Pirouette, Lockpick, Alchemy and Air Magic to the max, with some points in Balance, Knockdown and Critical Hit. Is this a solid plan? Am I missing something?
How best to distribute stat points?"

I've played to mid 30s with about 5 characters, here is my experience.

Deadly Hand?? - I think that you mean death attack? Ok in my opinion and I didn't give too much effort the damage on deathly attack and the amount of skill points needed in sneak to backstab anyone is NOT worth it. Just kill them toe to toe imo. Takes a long time to sneak as well. This is NOT comparable to a baldurs gate backstab where you anhilate them and move fast.

If you mean the spell dead hands its one of the best single target spells because it damages and holds.

Stoneskin - I'm not a fan of this skill until you have too many skill points. But I use earth magic and thus have about huge elemental resists I can summon with a spell. I would recommend 10 pts in earth for adamantium shield before 10 pts in earth

Lockpicking - I would recommend taking up to 20% master lock. Then you need 5 picks to open on average. There aren't many times when opening in one success is needed. If you are in a house just throw a teleporter down and return later as needed. You can do 10% but then its less convenient. The root of my argument is that lockpicks are cheap as dirt.

Deadly Pirouette - The first point gives 100! It is an active skill. The subsequent points only 10. I recommend 1 pt and test it. Put points in strong hands, crit, and air magic (strength of god) before more than 1 in pirouette.

What I usually use for my damage setup: earth magic 10 for grapple ivy, air magic 15 for strength of god, strong hand 5-10, crit 10, defensive combat 10. With defensive combat and crit at 10 you have over 50% chance to do +500% damage! And you take something like 15% damage PLUS sky high defensive ability.

Berserk 10 is also not bad, for hunting trash mainly 1 hit kills xp

Alchemy is the best skill in the game. Always use 10 ingredients in a perma potion. Always make the stat increases divisible by 5. Always use 6+ organic ingredients including pots and 0-4 gems (but total 10 ingredients still). Save until you have 10 alchemy. Save the game before making a potion.

Another tip since I think of it: If you get stuck on a battle eat about 10 wolf tongues (heal as needed) to raise your HP very high. Don't use alchemy because it wrecks the duration

Air magic is great for melee with 15 to get strength of god. Otherwise the level 10 spells suck. The level 3 are ok regeneration is good for mages who don't use weapons. air shield is another damage shield (you can stack shields).. Destroy undead is good. Bless is good. Heal is quite good with 15.

Earth magic is my favorite magic. Grapple Ivy is the best spell for fighting mobs of melee. Earth Blessing is very good.



For stat points it depends on your tastes. I like enough life for just about any battle. For the toughest I use wolf tongues, but you need enough life for run of the mill. Dex is good for melee even for defensive attribute and attack, but you can use rings to boost these if you are melee. If your bow spec almost pure dex in my opinion. Strength is great if you are using strength of god in particular, but all melee. Other than melee I would take enough to use your target armor. Magic, obviously if you are a caster this is your prime stat; I haven't played a pure mage very high though you can do it according to the inside twowolrds sight. For other characters you will get a feel for how much mana you use.

You can use the soulpatcher to respec stats and skills. Skills I don't use I respec them to 0 and use the points for something else, which means I train in every skill.


If you want a spec for the first 10 levels let me know,,, not sure where you are

I haven't started yet.
I did mean Strong Hand instead of Deadly Hand.
I aim is to go melee, supported by spells. Only the lvl 3 Earth spells looked decent, so I decided on skipping Earth and Focussing on Air.
I'm a huge fan of Spears & Polearms, hence my tendency to go Two-handed with Deadly Pirouette. A shield would make you defensively very good, combined with Parry. Is the game so hard that Two-handed weapons aren't usable, or very hard?
Is that Soulpatcher something in-game? Or an add-on? I like respeccing...

The game isn't hard you can do polearms but there is a learning curve.. I got frustrated near the orclands, and restarted, but I shouldn't have. I just needed to level up and collect some ingredients to make vitality potions. Its not easy but is much easier than oblivion on medium slider.

Stronghands is really good. Air magic is a good choice. You would still have air shield. Eventually I would take earth to tier 3 instead of spending the points for stoneskin.

Don't feel worried about making a mistake. You can get to the soulpatcher even at level 1 if you know where to go. Then just 500 gold to respec 5 levels I think.


I recommend experimenting with berserk for a two hander. Be careful with berserk against hard hitting monsters. The idea is to kill them very fast so you need to be able to switch it on and off. Shield will block berserk is another reason. For example you can run away from melee and chase an archer... stun the archer with a bolt spell (firebolt/ball, lighting bolt etc) and then throw on berserk and 1 shot. 10 pts in berserk is worth +400% damage and you are taking either +50% or else double I forget.

Berserk sounds too risky for my taste...

So, is a Two Hander a viable option then? Or do you recommend Shield (and Parry skill) and a One Hander?

Hmm I haven't playtested a 2 hander. In the opening a spear is the bomb against wolves. Its good basicly against fast things. You poke and jump back over and over.

But a SWORD and shield is the best because you can take defensive combat. That gives you almost 85% ?IIRC damage reduction if the tooltip is right. Not even counting of parrying.

With defensive combat you do 50% of your damage. However with crit and DC maxed you crit almost 2/3 of the time. Which deals +500% damage. The only downside is that the animation locks you into attacking which it is fortunate you have all that damage reduction.

Against a lot of melee I throw everyone in grapple ivy and then fight one at a time.

A shield is also important against enemies that use dirty fighting against you.

With defensive combat you do 50% of your damage. However with crit and DC maxed you crit almost 2/3 of the time. Which deals +500% damage. The only downside is that the animation locks you into attacking which it is fortunate you have all that damage reduction.

Could you explain that a bit further, please? About the locking in attacking...? Good arguments for the rest, though.

Is Alchemy best maxed later in the game, or do you find the "permanent" ingredients quite soon?

Hmm it doesn't actually lock you. I should have mentioned the information I will now share it is top notch.

Combos are when you get 'clicky' you can continue to smack people and interupt them. But eventually they get a hit on you.

I usually hit once and then dodge back. Repeat. This avoids damage. And more importantly combos only have a chance to crit on the first blow.

A normal hit lets say take .3 seconds. A crit is a longer animation and takes lets say .6 seconds. You can 'feel' it when you are going to crit it starts looking a certain way and sounding a certain way. If you abort the crit (like when someone can 1 or 2 shot you :laugh you don't deal any damage.

That gives you some hints now you just need to experiment. For the longest time I couldn't understand why my crit chance was 16% and I hardly ever crit. Then I tested 1 hit at a time against a bear and found it WAS 16%. The difference is against a bear you don't use combos because they hit HARD.

Thanks! I was going click-happy.

Where can I find that respec dude?

Did you go to the brotherhood quest that is south from Komorin. There is a guy with horses and a guy who trains in archery there? Ok the road further south (is it) leads to Tharbakin.

There are wolves called silverwolves that are stronger than grey wolves. I can kill them but I have played a lot. The tactic I use is to get a spear and poke then jump back over and over. Another tactic is the level 1 wall of fire spell just keep spamming it and they get burned but don't swarm you because every time they hit the fire they get scared and run away. Blue potions.

I suspect that you might be able to just keep running up to tharbakin and let the guards kill them.

Then in Tharbakin if you take the left or straight path you eventually hit a little courtyard which in the day has a group of wizards which have quests. In another nook off of that courtyard is the soul patcher. He has a black robe with colored trim (I think).

Thanks. I'm just in front of the first town. Guess I'll have to be patient then.