Larian Studios Forums Beyond Divinity (English) Help/Tips/Tricks Help needed understanding skill system

OK. My Hero is a wizard and the DK a warrior. Early in Act 1, just after the beginnning I killed a ghost and there is an small area to enter behind his cell. There is a dead person there who will teach me 2 level 5 wizard skills.
I do not understand just what the level 5 means here. I've trained the wiz once in elemental/missile/fire attack spell. This guy claims to be able to train level 5 for only 10 gold.
Could someone help me out here?
I don't understand the level system.....for skills.
Howie

Agreed, it needs to be clearer. The teacher gives you the ability to add skill points to that skill; the "level 5" means you can put up to five skill points in it. If you want to add more, you'll add to find another teacher who, for example, trains you up to level 10.

Thanks for the help Fable.
Strange, the manual has nothing about what those numbers mean.
So, if you get trained in a skill, say 6, that means it allows you to add UP TO 6 skill points in that particular skill?
Howie

Correct - the number indicates the level cap this teacher has and how many skill pts you can add, after you purchased the skill - assuming you have pts of your own.

Sure thing. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Right: 6 points, in that instance. The manual also has nothing on charms or alchemy; otherwise, it's pretty decent.

Speaking of alchemy... how does that work. I keep forgetting to ask, but I haven't figured it out yet. I've got level 1 alchemy extract. I'm guessing it has to do something with all those alchemy plants I've been finding. Also, I've read somewhere you don't need empty flasks anymore.

I've tried right clicking on them in my inventory, and selecting "small potion", but I couldn't select any of the potions afterwards...

Anyone?

Each kind of potion requires a combination of differently colored herbs. Here's the list of basic potions:

hit points: red, blue
mana: green, pink
stamina: white, orange

This next batch temporarily increases stats:

strength: red, blue, yellow
intelligence: white, green, pink
agility: white, orange, green
survival: red, blue, green
constitution: orange, yellow, pink
speed: orange, white, yellow

Right-click on any herb. The highlighted selection (small, medium, etc) is the level of potion you can make, given your current skill level in alchemy. When you select one, you move to a dialog box that highlights the potion types you can make, given the current collection of herbs in your party. It's all handled automatically. No matter which herb you right-click on, it will still look at all the herbs that your entire party possesses.

Once you click on the potion type you want, that potion is made.

Hope that helps. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

You just gather all the different plants in the inventory of the character with alchemy skill, make sure that character is "leading", then right click on any of the alchemy herbs and a menu will come up. The menu will have the options you can use in gold, the ones you cannot use in gray.

Which brings me to a rant about permanent potions. I blew 4 precious skillpoints points on alchemy just so I could create permanent potions whenever I was able to find the correct herbs for it. All you need is the Holy Water. Perfect. I was able to create lots of permanent potions... and yes, I saw that instead of giving only 1-5 permanent points, there was a bug that allowed each potion to give up to 20 permanent points. I figured that would be fixed in 1.42 since the ReadMe said it was fixing permanent potion bug.

To my horror, the patch fixed it, all right. There is only one Holy Water in the game. Now that Holy Water will allow you to make only one permanent potion, which in turn gives you one permanent point, then it disappears. WTF? For that I'm supposed to use up 4 skillpoints? I don't think so.

Alchemy has just hit my list of useless skills, right next to lockpicking. Bah.

Sounds like something to mention in the Tech area. I suspect Larian didn't mean to actually turn alchemy from a very over-powered skill into a ridiculously under-powered one.

At this point I doubt Larian cares, frankly. I'll just cut and paste the relevant portions of my post over at Technical then let everyone yell and call me a powergamer. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

In my current game I'm going to spend the money to unlearn Alchemy so I can put those precious skillpoints into something worthwhile. Geez, everything in this game either started out botched a week ago, or ended up botched with one or another of the patches over the past few days. Frustrating to the point of comical, actually!

Oh, noooooooo - no unlimited potions anymore? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" /> - it was perfect until version 1.2 <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" />
Kiya <sniffing into her pillow>

it was NOT an overpowered skill that time - only reasonably +1 stats and +60 to HP/mana and +25 for stamina. It took a long time for a non-BF-user as me to gather enough. And the skill was only available in Act 4, in a book.

At that time the BF traders did not have this skill - in fact, they were not overpowered as now. Well, frankly, it was BEFORE the game came out in the EV and into the claws of some here in the English gamer community. I think, I will go back to the German version, this was more my taste. I'm no English/American, my taste is different.

Kiya.....do you think we should be playing an earlier version of the game then? It's so bizarre. It seems like they fix one thing but break another for no reason at all.
I'd have no problem going back to an earlier game version..........
Best
Howie

I don't know - really, I wish I knew <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/puppyeyes.gif" alt="" />
You see, I have the choice, but you English never had 1.2 (and there were other bugs <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> )
And some changes here were due to gamer wishes from the English Forum - so, I guess your taste is different to mine.
I'm no programmer - the game is sooooooo complex. How to make sure, a change/fix will not show up somewhere else? How to know if this BF stuff did not butt in somewhere else? You see, I can only register the differences since version 1.0 (German first release) and was glad how some stuff could be fixed. I can't judge what to do in your case - very sorry. I only know this on my behalf => I can't keep track of all changes and inform you gamers correctly anymore. And I really would have liked to give profound help.
Kiya

But I really disagree with "Larians don't care" - IMO, they cared too much <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/puppyeyes.gif" alt="" /> - and the pressure in some parts here in the English community was high. I felt the impatience, the demands => this stressed me personally very badly. I wonder how this inflicted the small Larian team, who had always, from Div times on, tried their best to suit wishes. If some of you had read the peeks of the week - specially the phase shortly before they went gold - it must have been hell for them. They're human! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/puppyeyes.gif" alt="" />

[color:"yellow"]I think, we should give them time to sort out what has happened and wait for an official statement => what is a bug - or what is Larian game play decision - or what will be tackled on a long term - what is going to remain as it is.[/color]

In case I hurt some feelings on the Engl./American side with my former post => I apologise. But I had played this game since beginning of April now and was used to it a lot. I know, the majority here in the English part have played it since end of April/beginning May. So, you can't know, how many patches we already had, until your versions joined (4+4, the last 4 in English, too. We missed 1.32) - and the first 3 versions concentrated on bugs: plot stoppers, crashes, engine bugs. One quest was taken out. The last 3 English versions brought in a new element: changing features. And this is something I have to get used to <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> ( I react like a 3-yr-old when I have to part with beloved approach).

"But I really disagree with "Larians don't care" - IMO, they cared too much - and the pressure in some parts here in the English community was high. I felt the impatience, the demands => this stressed me personally very badly. I wonder how this inflicted the small Larian team, who had always, from Div times on, tried their best to suit wishes. If some of you had read the peeks of the week - specially the phase shortly before they went gold - it must have been hell for them. They're human!"

Dear Kiya,

I agree with your assessment. They obviously care very much. And, clearly, they ARE human! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Thanks for your ever-refreshing comments, observations and advice.

Howard

While I share your frustration at new bugs replacing old ones, and skills that are not balanced, I don't think anybody can say Larian lacks concern for its product and players. I just don't think <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> should have been released in an unfinished state, frankly. They've really worked hard to adjust it. But now that it's available to us, they're doing a committed job of working through all the tangles of programming.