According to the manual, many skills will improve automatically with use, but other skills can only be improved by guild training or putting points into them when the character levels up.

Is there a list anywhere of which skills go up by themeselves and which have to be manually increased? (Apologies if it's someplace obvious and I've overlooked it.)

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From posts here and experience with other games, it sounds like the different starting attributes for different clans don't make much difference once the characters have leveled up some.

So is there any consensus on the value of the different traits for the clans, and how helpful they are over the long term?

Looking at the manual, the Elves' 'Quick learner' certainly looks useful, and the Oomphaz's 'Mana Seed' also sounds helpful. But how valuable are traits like 'War Cry', does the Pixies' 'Dodge' make up for their equipment limitations (as long as they're in a role that doesn't need much equipment), etc.?

I'll probabaly do what I usually do: pick my character races (clans) based on what looks interesting, but some feedback on the value of the different traits would be helpful so I know what I might be getting myself into. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 03-31-2005, 06:09 AM: Message edited by: DinkumThinkum ]

All the fighting skills will improve by themselves. You can also improve every skill every time you level up, and in the guilds you can improve some of them by spending money. Generally you should find out which guilds offer what kind of training and spend all the points when levelling up on skills you cannot improve through purchase.

By exploiting a few bugs a character can become member of all the guilds, and by using a few hints, you will soon have enough money to do it. [img]smile.gif[/img]

After the first 7-8 or so level-ups the different races will tend to be very equal in strength. Only the elves have an advantage worth noticing in the form of "quick learner".

1. The skills. Nobody has made the list so far. Here is my personal experience:
(a) As Bsftcs has said, the weapon skills improve by practicizing them. But, usually, they improve only if you really use them. The Sword skill will improve only if you fight with a sword, and so on.
(b) Magic users improve all their "natural" magic shools (the ...craft skills) but they do not improve the rest of magic schools.
(c) Mages, Warlocks, and Zenmasters improve the Sorcery skill by casting spells.
(d) Thief-like characters (thiefs, barbarians, ninjas, assassins, and bards) improve the Lockpicking skill by picking locks and the Pickpocket skill by stealing.
(e) The rest of skills does not(?) improve by practicizing and you must train them by investing skill points or by training in guilds.

2. The inborn traits. IMO, the Quick Learner and the Mana Seed are the only valuable inborn traits. The rest of inborn traits represents either no advantage or only a temporary advantage. Beware of pixies! The Dodge trait looks very interestingly but it causes pixies to dodge their own spells! It's a very annoying bug, which can make you ready for a madhouse at higher character levels. Pixies are almost unable to cast defensive spells on themselves.
Summary: Select elves and omphaazes. Avoid pixies. If you decide for other races then it does not matter which races you select. If you will see some difference between races at all (except elves and omphaazes) then you will see it only in the beginning of the game.

Welcome to the boards, DinkumThinkum [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img] May your adventures in the Gael Serran be the stuff dragon parents tell their children at bedtime [img]smile.gif[/img]

The only trait I've found to have a real noticable impact is the elven quick learner. If there's an advantage to mana seed, I haven't noticed it (and I play Oomphaz almost all the time). The Gourkh bloodscent also works, but it seems to be equivalent to a level 1 or 2 Scouting skill.

As both Radek and bsftcs have said, any differences are only noticable for a short while at the beginning of the game. By the middle of the game, every character is quite formidable, and by the end, they are gods... [img]smile.gif[/img]

Have fun! And do come back to let us know how your game is progressing :D

Radek, thanks for the list of skills that advance with use; it should come in handy. [img]smile.gif[/img] That info might be worth adding to the 'Best Tips!' thread, in case others might find it helpful.

As far as the races, it sounds like the various clan traits don't have a major impact (other than the elves faster leveling and skill advancement). So I'll just pick clans based on what I like and what looks interesting.

It is nice to be forewarned about the Pixies' problem casting spells on themselves. [img]smile.gif[/img]

One of the really nice things about W&W is that you can choose what you like/find interesting and it will work! It's a very flexible system and there are no wrong choices to be made. :D

I have found that Fairy Barbarians/Fighters are not of much use. They can't effectively use most of the good weapons nor most of the really good armour. At least this has been my experience--which could have just been a fluke (or more likely, poor planning :( ). Needless to say, almost everything else works quite well, though some combinations require more effort than others.

Anyway, happy gaming! W&W is a great game that I always find myself coming back to throughout the years.

lol!!

You're probably very correct, Griefmaker, a fairy barbarian/fighter wouldn't be of great use but that makes sense really. YOu get plus points for trying that combination! I would never have thought to do that. ;)

Hmmm... they can probably still wear Dragon Plate... :D Other than that, it's part of the trade-offs. Boy, I love a game that's flexible enough to let you mess up ;)

Pixies can use any armor and any weapon allowed to their current class. A pixie warrior is perfectly possible and he can wear complete plate mail plus, for example, 2H sword. Such warrior looks funny, because the sword is bigger than the wielder [img]smile.gif[/img] but it is possible. Such warrior is as efficient as any other warrior with the same abilities and skills.
Another question is carrying capacity of a pixie. It is low so that the pixie gets overloaded by the mail and the sword unless he has high STR. Even then, the pixie won't be able to bear much other items along with the mail and the sword.