I play a bard and wear a chain mail. My int is 18 but it seems that i have extreme difficulty to learn new spell from scroll (especially level 5 and 6 spells). So the question is: does the chainmail decrease the chances of learning new spells?

Second question. I made a 2nd character as an assassin and give him proficiencies in dagger and short sword to be able to backstab with both weapons. But i wanted to have him proficient in long sword but wasnt sure wether a thief can backstab with long sword (i think yes but confirmation would be fine).

No the armor shouldn't have any effect at all. Though it's worth mentioning that the randomization system that the Inifinity engine uses is far from random, even with 99% chance to learn a spell you'll fail quite often [img]smile.gif[/img]

Your Assassin should be able to backstab with any kind of weapon that he can use, so yes.

unless you have tob and the hla use any item, then you can only backstab with items you could backstab with before

Free advice.

18 Int on a bard is a total waste of skill points, as they can only learn up to level 6 spells. Potions of Genius are plentiful to increase your chances to learn spells. 13 to 15 Int is just fine, you will never run into a problem.

I didnt take care of this. Its my first time with bard and i just thought like with mage: max int. But that isnt a problem anyway: I had a good roll and know with the belt that give str 18 (dont know the name in english) i have 18 in all stats.

Bards and Mages alike can have problems scribing high-end scrolls: If you attempt to scribe a scroll of a higher level than you can presently cast, you will incur penalties to your roll.

just do what everyone else does. whenever you're scribing spells... set difficulty down to normal or easy = 100% spell scribing success