i have a mook bard at level 14 and his music has been stuck at 83 for the last 2 level up's. im wearing the blarney stone amulet, but thats the only cursed item. i have lots of items that require at least 85 music, any ideas?

(a) how much practice is he getting? Try charming npcs with the viola d'amour for awhile and see if you get any better

(b) check the controlling attributes for music (I think it's INT and something else, maybe DEX?) If you're having trouble improving past 83 your controlling stats may be so low that you have very little chance of improvement.

(c) Curses have nothing to do with it, unless they lower the controlling stats giving you less of a chance of improvement.

(d) In general, that level (low to mid 80s) is where a lot of skills begin to improve much more slowly. It can take forever to gain just a few points once you hit the 90s!

yeah...my INT is pretty low now that I think of it....I'll try boosting that up. thanks alot...

If you haven't already, try hitting the riddle fountain in trynton and picking up the brilliant helm in Marten's Bluff near his old bedroom. Those are the easy ways to boost INT early in the game...

Are you saying that you can no longer put points into music when leveling up? :confused:

yes, when ever i level up my music says 83, and there is no plus sign next to it to push....wonder if i still have that helm???

Once your skill points hit 75, you can't put any more in when you level up. The only way they go up after they hit 75 is "automatically" when you use those skills.
After a battle, watch the screen, there is usually a few skills that go up for your characters.
I don't think I explained that very well...LOL But I hope you understand what I mean. [img]smile.gif[/img]

PPG

Whoops -- sorry kryptobeats I misinterpreted your question. I thought that what you meant was that for the past few levels, your music skill hadn't been rising on its own during normal use.

As has been explained to you now, no skill can be raised at level up beyond 75. That 75 limit is exclusive of any items or class bonuses (eg the bards 25% communications bonus). So a valkyrie might have an 85 polearm skill when counting her bonus, and yet still be able to raise the polearm skill at levelup since without the bonus her skill might be something like 68...

There is a cap (IIRC Pucks Cap) that improves music by 10, but has other penalties (IIRC minus to piety). I usually get it as a random drop from bandids at Arnika road. You could clear this area again and try to get one.