How to stat increase?

[jwoodward48ss]

I'm not sure which stats to increase for non-wizards. "Pure" spellcasters should probably train Dex a bit, in order to dodge better, but Int should be their main stat. But how about heavy/light fighters?

I've heard that as long as you have enough strength for your wanted armour, you should always increase Dex. But how do I know how much Str is needed for a given armour? (Wikisearch turned up naught but formulas. No actual numbers.)

[BabyRage]

Str also gives you slaying doesn't it?

[Shard1697]

You want to have at least as much Str as your current armor's encumbrance(ex: plate armor has 18 encumbrance, so you want at least 18 Str to wear it), ideally a couple points more. If you're spellcasting, at least a few points more. You still get some returns out of increased Str but that's a good baseline-you might wanna get a bit more, but you don't wanna shoot for a whole ton more Str than you need.

Str also gives you slaying doesn't it?

Only a little bit. Usually not very noticable.

[duvessa]

str acts as a multiplier for melee and missile base damage, it does not act as slaying in any way

[dowan]

While it doesn't act as slaying, the damage boost can be roughly compared, although it is dependent on the specific weapon and other stuff.
The last time it was discussed, I think the figure was something like 2-3 str gives roughly the same damage as 1 point of slaying.

Also, there's no actual breakpoint at getting your str the same as your armor's encumbrance value, although it's a decent place to aim. It's interesting to see the effects of equipping a +6 str ring and then a +6 dex ring in various armors, it's surprising how often the str ring ends up giving more EV than the dex ring, sometimes even when your str is well over your armor's encumbrance value.

As a lazy rule of thumb, on a character who will mainly cast spells I would generally increase mostly int, and prop up the lower of my str or dex usually.
As a strong fighter, I typically already have plenty of str, and so I put all or most of my points in dex.
As a hybrid like a skald or something, I probably increase my str a bit so I can more easily wear heavy armors and continue casting.

If in doubt, I put it in dex.

This isn't a guide for the best way to distribute stats, just the way I generally do it, and it seems to make sense to me.

[all before]

The fact that most players don't know what stats do is a good indication that they're poorly designed.

[dowan]

The fact that most players didn't notice they were doing double damage with all attacks suggests it's not the underlying stats that are the problem, it's that the results of changing some of those stats is not presented to the player in a meaningful way.

If I increase dex, I get to see my EV go up. I don't see attack rolls, so I don't get to see that my accuracy increased, thus I cannot judge that effect in any meaningful way during normal gameplay.
If I increase int, I get to see my spell success go up. I might just happen to see spell power go up a pip, but that's unlikely. I don't get to see spell damage, so I can't judge that effect either.
If I increase str, I might see one of the two things above happen, but what I'll never see is a change in my damage, because I can't even see that in the first place.

[infinitevox]

Dex hits diminishing returns after 24 iirc, whereas Str and Int do not.
So for a melee duder, if you've already got 24 dex, pump everything into Str for more damage.
Same for magic user, only Int and Spell power.

[dowan]

Are you saying always pump dex to 24 first? It's not a horrible way to do things, of course, but I'd probably not bring it that high if my other two stats were fairly low.

[Airwolf]

...
As a lazy rule of thumb, on a character who will mainly cast spells I would generally increase mostly int, and prop up the lower of my str or dex usually.
As a strong fighter, I typically already have plenty of str, and so I put all or most of my points in dex.
As a hybrid like a skald or something, I probably increase my str a bit so I can more easily wear heavy armors and continue casting.
If in doubt, I put it in dex.
...

My rules of thumb are the same as dowan's.

[infinitevox]

Are you saying always pump dex to 24 first? It's not a horrible way to do things, of course, but I'd probably not bring it that high if my other two stats were fairly low.

No, although the way I worded that was somewhat ambiguous.
I'm saying there is no point in putting points in Dex once it hits 24. BUT, melee duders should focus Str and casters should focus Int.
So on a melee dude, points into Str until you're Str matches the encumbrance rating on your armour, only after that should you consider points in Dex.
As for casters, I don't have quite a solid plan, as I very rarely play book backgrounds.

[tabstorm]

If I'm using heavy armor, as in, ER > 8, I take str, because I'm using heavy armor.
If I'm using light armor, as in, ER <= 8, I take str or dex depending on what spells I want to cast.
If I'm using robes, I take int unless I'm an ogre or troll because this means I'm casting a lot of spells.

[Sar]

but what do you raise if you're an ogre or a troll

[tabstorm]

Ogre: Dex
Troll: Random one of str/dex, it dosen't really matter, you are a troll

[and into]

Another general tip is put stats where they seem to help the most short-term.

Don't put stat ups into dex until you are training dodging (or just about to start). Don't put stat ups into intelligence if you already have good spell power and success on all your currently memorized spells, unless you know you know for sure that you'll be memorizing a higher level spell very soon. The major exception is for characters with very high strength already (MiFi, GrBe); for them I will increase dexterity even for my early stat-ups, before I start training dodging.

Even if you don't end up with optimal distribution at level 27, you can't really regret the decisions you made too much, as they helped you survive until you got to level 27.

[Rast]

My rule is to split increases between STR and DEX so as to make INT the lowest stat as quickly as possible, so I can Focus card it down to 5 or 6.

[Sar]

Except not anymore, I guess.

[Sprucery]

My rule: int if I want to raise the spellpower of my spells, otherwise str if my str is less than about 1.2 times the encumbrance rating of my body armour, otherwise dex.

[nago]

Dex hits diminishing returns after 24 iirc, whereas Str and Int do not.

The breakpoint has been smoothed so this ins't totally true anymore. The fact practically nothing has really changed in actually gameplay means you can safely keep 24 has rule-of-thumb-point where dex isn't worth to be raise more. Or use 22, 26, 20 depending on the combo or so.

[goodcoolguy]

Between .17 and .19a, dex has gotten a bit worse and str has gotten a bit better. These days, I pretty much always take dex until 18 and str whenever my dex > 18. I don't like to take int except on conjuration heavy characters, which I only play for the lulz, not if I actually want to win the game or if it's a DE/Te/maybe HE direct damage heavy book start. In that case, might as well take all int!